SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION COMMON MISTAKES

The truth is, they are easily avoided when you pay close attention to the basics. My goal is to share with you four basic errors made when trying to optimize for a front page ranking. They are, of course, easy to correct.

Keyword Research Errors

When a person goes to Google, Yahoo or Bing and enters a word or phrase to search for what they are doing is searching on a keyword.

In good SEO you want to match the search words with the keywords on your page so that when someone searches for a particular word or phrase your page is likely to show up on top.

There is a method to choosing keywords that is proven time and time again to work. The best keywords or phrases are those that are relevant to your website, to your product or service, that have a high search volume, anything over 7,000 monthly searches is okay, and shows little competition for that keyword or phrase.

Relevancy is obvious. If you sell purple widgets then a keyword like silver earrings is not relevant while violet widgets may be one that works well for you

To understand the relationship between popularity (p) or global monthly search volume and competition (c), I use the Keyword Effectiveness Index or KEI. It is computed as follows:

KEI=p2/c

The KEI will return a number, a ratio (n:1) that gives you an indication of how easy it will be to rank for any given keyword or phrase. The higher the number the easier it should be to rank for that keyword or phrase.

Many people, however, make the mistake of choosing keywords that look cute or appeal to them without doing the hard work of ranking those keywords against a particular standard. That is an error.

Keyword Stuffing

Another significant keyword error is keyword stuffing. This error manifests itself in two forms.

Too Many Keywords in The Keyword Meta-Tag

Many people put every possible keyword in their meta-tag for keywords. That is a mistake. By stuffing the meta-tag with too many choices, the search engine spider has no clue which keyword you want to rank for so it discounts them all.

The solution is simple. Include two, and only two, keywords or phrases in your keyword meta-tag. First list the keyword you want to rank for on that page and then list the site core keyword. Say, for example, I sell purple widgets and I have a page on widget uses. Widget use has a KEI of 345.32, pretty good. My page keywords for my page on widget uses will be "widget use, purple widgets" and that's it. No more.

Now when the search engine robot sees the page it will know that I want to emphasize widget use and the site is all about purple widgets. No need to try to fool the robot, it doesn't work anyway.

Too Many Keywords in the Content

The second instance of keyword stuffing is to place the keyword you wish to rank for in the body of your content more than 3% of the total content.

My basic rule of thumb is to include the keyword I want to rank for three-times in the content of any page. I place it in the first 50 words in as natural a position as possible, in the last 50 words again worked in naturally and one time in the body of the page. Any more than that and Google especially will penalize you big time.

Quality Content

In real estate the three most important things are location, location and location. In SEO the three most important things are content, content, and content. Yes, content is king. Presenting poorly written, irrelevant content is useless to your reader and the current level of sophistication of the search engine spiders is such that they can sniff out poor and irrelevant content better than any human can.

So the key here is to write quality content and present it in a straightforward manner. Anything else is a grave mistake.

Graphics

Search engine robots detect text and skip over graphics. The only exception to this general statement is that when they see a code for an image, the spider looks for the "alt" tag, a textual description of the graphic. If it is missing then your site is penalized.

So graphics have a negative effect on your site if they are overused, there are more graphics than text on a page or if they are missing an "alt" tag or the tag is empty.

Follow these few search engine optimization tips and you'll increase your chances to rank high, perhaps even on the

front page of Google

GOLD HITS NEW RECORD 1800 $

The price of gold surpassed $1,800 an ounce Wednesday for the first time as investors pulled their money out of stocks and snapped up precious metals contracts.

Gold is fast becoming a favorite port in a storm of uncertainty. Investors are clinging to what they see as a hedge against volatile stock and currency markets.

December gold contracts backed off their highs, and traded around $1,785 an ounce during midday trading after reaching a record $1,801 an ounce earlier in the day on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold prices have shot past a series of milestones over the past two years on an uninterrupted climb. Gold was trading at about $900 in the summer of 2008, before the financial crisis unfolded that year.

Resulting turmoil in currency and stock markets has burnished gold's luster.

SEO

Search engine optimization, abbreviated as SEO, has been a buzzword in the Internet marketing world for several years now. Basically it means making a website better searchable by the search engines. Marketers who are looking at optimizing their websites work with regards to one of three major search engines – Google, Yahoo! Or MSN – because all these three have different parameters for organizing their links.

Out of this Google is the most popular and most marketers wish that their rank – called as PageRank in Google parlance – improves. Since Google is a context based search engine (which means it ranks content-rich websites higher than others), marketers use the following methods for improving their PageRank on Google:-
 They research on keywords and use them in their content. Google ranks websites based on the number of currently popular keywords that it contains

 Apart from keyword optimization, the overall content matters too. There must at least a 250 word content on a webpage for it to be considered by Google.
 The content needs to be regularly updated too. Google is looking for content that provides value to the reader. Content that keeps changing is looked upon as dynamic content that the visitor would like.
Speaking in a broader sense, all methods of traffic generation are SEO methods. There‟s a reason behind this. Search engines like Google keep a watch on the popularity of websites. According to them, if a website is visited more, it contains good value. Hence, websites that generate traffic automatically end up with better stakes on the search engines.
We shall be learning many more SEO methods in the course of this eBook.

U.S. Stocks Post Biggest Gain Since March 2009 on Fed Statement

U.S. stocks rose, capping the biggest rally in more than two years for benchmark indexes, as the Federal Reserve said it was prepared to use a range of tools to bolster the economy following yesterday’s rout in equities.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index swung between gains and losses following the Fed’s statement and closed near the highest level of the trading day. Financial stocks in the S&P 500, which paced a slide that erased $1 trillion in market value yesterday, rallied 8.2 percent. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. jumped at least 13 percent. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. gained 7.5 percent as gold advanced to a record.

The S&P 500 jumped 4.7 percent to 1,172.53 at 4 p.m. in New York, after falling as much as 1.6 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 429.92 points, or 4 percent, to 11,239.77 today. Both gauges had the biggest gain since March 23, 2009. About 16.8 billion shares changed hands at 4:56 p.m., more than twice the three-month average, Bloomberg data show.

“The Fed is on top of the game,” Michael Holland, chairman and founder of New York-based Holland & Co., said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees more than $4 billion. “For people who are serious about the business and about the economy, I believe that the Fed fulfilled what they wanted to hear. It’s premature to say that they are prepared for an imminent stimulus, but it’s not early to say that they are becoming more likely to do something of significance.”

Biggest Slump

Benchmark indexes had their biggest slump since December 2008 yesterday amid concern that a reduction of the U.S. credit rating by S&P could worsen an economic slowdown. The S&P 500 was down 14 percent from this year’s high on April 29 through today.

Treasuries rose, pushing 10 and two-year note yields to all-time lows, after Federal Reserve officials promised to keep benchmark interest rates at record lows at least through mid-2013 in a bid to revive economic growth. The Federal Open Market Committee also discussed a range of policy tools to bolster the economy and said it is “prepared to employ these tools as appropriate,” it said in a statement. Three members of the FOMC dissented, preferring to maintain the pledge to keep rates low for an “extended period” without a specific timeframe.

“What the market is trying to digest here is that low interest rates are typically good, but the reason interest rates are low is that the economy is bad,” Brad Sorensen, director of market and sector analysis at San Francisco-based Charles Schwab Corp., which has $1.66 trillion in client assets, said in a telephone interview. “Stock valuations are better than they were a week ago and we find them relatively attractive in a low interest-rate environment. The economy is still growing, albeit slowly.”

Valuation Level

The S&P 500 has wiped out almost $3 trillion in market value since July 22, as a political battle over the U.S. debt ceiling prompted S&P to cut the country’s debt rating. The benchmark gauge for American equities dropped 6.7 percent yesterday and traded at 12.3 times reported earnings, the lowest valuation since March 2009.

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross said he’s buying assets as the losses in global markets are being driven by fear rather than economic reality.

“Has the world really gotten 10, 12, 15 percent worse in the last 48 hours? I don’t think so,” Ross, who leads WL Ross & Co., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Buying stocks at today’s prices over a couple of years’ time period will prove to be a uniquely rewarding experience.”

Volatility Tumbles

The benchmark index for U.S. stock options tumbled, following yesterday’s biggest surge since February 2007. The VIX, as the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index is known, slumped 27 percent to 35.06. The index measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500.

Financial and raw-material companies, which paced the declines in the S&P 500 yesterday, were the best performers today, rising at least 5.9 percent. Companies which are least- tied to the economy, including consumer staples providers and utilities, rose less than the S&P 500 today.

The KBW Bank Index rallied 7 percent as all of its 24 stocks rose. Bank of America, the largest U.S. lender by assets, gained 17 percent to $7.60, after erasing 20 percent yesterday. Citigroup added 14 percent to $31.82.

The two banks led yesterday’s 11 percent decline in the KBW index after S&P’s downgrade cast doubt on federal backing for U.S. lenders. Bank of America’s $33 billion plunge in market value over the past week has stoked concern that Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan needs to raise capital even as his options for finding it narrow by the day.

Freeport, Alcoa

Raw-material producers in the S&P 500 jumped as gold advanced to a record and copper rebounded from an eight-month low. Freeport-McMoRan, the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, climbed 7.5 percent to $45.05. Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, added 8 percent to $12.24.

Ford Motor Co. gained 9.9 percent to $10.91 after Bank of America added the automaker to its “U.S. 1” list, which represents a collection of the firm’s “best investment ideas.”

Pfizer Inc. advanced 5.6 percent to $17.60. The world’s biggest drugmaker was also added to Bank of America’s “U.S. 1” list. Separately, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. added Pfizer to its “Conviction Buy” list.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. was raised to “overweight” from “equal weight,” by Barclays Plc after the company’s stock fell yesterday to its lowest since January 2010. Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares added 9.4 percent to $72.93.

AOL Drops

AOL Inc., the Internet company that purchased the Huffington Post in March, tumbled 26 percent to $11.19, its lowest level since its spinoff from Time Warner Inc. in 2009. AOL reported a second-quarter loss as rising global advertising sales failed to overcome the continuing decline in subscriptions to Web access.

Laszlo Birinyi, one of the first investors to recommend buying when the bull market began in 2009, said the S&P 500 will continue its ascent, though possibly not to the level he had predicted. Birinyi said there’s no fundamental reason for the slide, and equities will continue the rally that took the S&P 500 Index 73 percent higher since March 2009.

“The bull market is intact, and while our ‘target’ of 1,450 in mid-2012 is admittedly a bit shaky, our more important conclusion that a rational, disciplined portfolio can attain a 10 percent plus return in 2011 is not,” Birinyi, of Westport, Connecticut-based research firm Birinyi Associates Inc., wrote in a note today.
Source:Bloomberg

BUSINESS STARTUP TRENDS

People start businesses for different reasons. Many simply want to be their own bosses and a lot of these people start businesses in sectors that they've previously worked in. Others have an idea or spot a gap in the market and try to exploit it. A small number look to join growing sectors in a bid to get rich quick. Whatever your reason for starting a business and whatever sector it's in, you'll need to do some market research before taking the plunge.

Even if you've 100 per cent confidence in your business idea and capabilities, a downturn in the market could mean there's simply not enough demand for you to succeed. Alternatively, a struggling market might help you realise you'd be better off targeting a niche rather than mainstream audience.

Anyone investing in your business will also expect you to have considered the market you're about to enter and your business plan will look stronger for having considered these aspects.

The last official startup statistics, published by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, offer the best insight into the types of businesses that are on the increase or decline (see Table 1 below).

Source: Small Business Service Statistics Team, BIS.

When looking at the sector you intend to enter, consider not only how many businesses were started in 2007 but how it compares with 2006. Is it a growing market? If so, has that now been fully exploited and will it drop in 2008/09? If it's less than in 2006 why is that?

Also consider the changes to the total number of businesses that occurred during 2007.

For instance, business services is an area which shows the largest net gain and percentage change, with the stock of VAT-registered businesses rising by 38,800 -- a 6% increase since the start of 2007. In fact, this industry sector has grown by nearly 240,000 businesses in the last ten years to 644,600. That’s 32% of all VAT-registered businesses in the UK at the start of 2008. However, in 2007, the largest increase in de-registrations was also in the Business Services sector, where de-registrations rose by 3,400.

If you're looking to enter a market that's losing a lot of businesses, you'll need to consider why this is and research which particular firms are suffering and why.

Additionally, you should try and consider the outside influences that are likely to have affected startup and stock business figures. For instance, how much have the hotel and restaurant trades been affected by the smoking ban?

Local businesses for local people

National startup statistics are important to consider, but are by no means relevant to every situation. For instance, trends may vary in different parts of the country and at different times. The local economy will also affect your chances of success.

Unless you're about to launch on a national scale, probably the most valuable research you can do is to research what need exists for your business locally. Look how many other similar businesses are in the area and target places with little competition or where there's room for competition, either in terms of better quality service or on price.

Making trends not following them

There's also the argument that trends should be made and not followed, and there's some truth to this. The telecommunications industry is full of very young bold, and now wealthy, individuals who proved a lot of sceptics wrong, and it can pay to be at the forefront of the latest movement.

However, over-confidence can also be perceived as arrogance or naivety, and it's always worth checking the state of the markets even if you then choose to ignore them. Anyone walking into a bank confident about launching in business services but oblivious to the current difficult market in the sector won't be taken seriously - bear this in mind.

Buffett's Berkshire bids $3.25B for Transatlantic

A unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has bid $3.25 billion for insurer Transatlantic Holdings.

Berkshire's National Indemnity Co. is offering $52 per share in cash for Transatlantic. That tops the price the company would get in its agreement to be bought by Allied World Assurance Co.

In a letter released by Transatlantic on Sunday, National Indemnity said its offer isn't subject to due diligence or financing conditions. The company said it wants a formal response from Transatlantic no later than the close of business Monday.

If the offer is accepted, National Indemnity would want a $75 million break-up fee if the transaction did not close by the end of the year.

Transatlantic's board said it would carefully weigh the offer by National Indemnity and asked its shareholders to wait until it has a chance to judge it before taking action. But the company also reaffirmed its recommendation of the deal with Allied World Assurance, which is based in Switzerland.

Allied also backed its commitment to the deal in a statement issued Sunday and said it hopes to close the deal in the fourth quarter.

Under that agreement, Transatlantic and Allied World would combine in what the companies are calling a merger of equals. Shareholders of Transatlantic would receive 0.88 of an Allied World share for each share they hold of Transatlantic.

The companies say the deal, which calls for Transatlantic shareholders to receive a 58 percent stake in the combined company and for Transatlantic to name 6 of the 11 board members, will put them on better competitive footing because of the combined company's larger size.

Allied World CEO Scott Carmliani would head the combined company and Transatlantic CEO Robert Orlich would retire.

Last month, Transatlantic rejected a hostile takeover bid from fellow insurer Validus Holdings Ltd. The board also adopted a one-year stockholder rights plan, commonly called a "poison pill," a move used to avoid hostile takeovers.

In light of the latest offer from National Indemnity, Validus also issued a statement Sunday calling on Transatlantic to "remove the obstacles" it said were preventing shareholders from receiving the greatest value for their stock.

Source:Associates Press

Building Search Into Your Organization

Most corporations understand that a great search strategy relies mostly on incorporating the absolute best practices throughout their organizations. It can become a nightmare as a corporation’s activities start to become separated from each other. Departments often have territorial or political reasons for not talking and communicating interdepartmentally, and sometimes the organization of these departments prohibit excellent communication across multiple branches.

The key to great support comes from the top down. If your upper management creates an environment which is central to having search strategies a priority, then it can then be a goal shared by the entire corporation. Upper management absolutely needs to provide the necessary resources for search integration and to make sure that all departments are motivated to create great upward momentum to the search marketing strategy.

Here are some tips to great content architecture across your organization.

1. Make sure that your website has the most useful and functional information architecture possible
Make sure that multiple pages don’t have similar or thin content. Will your website’s visitors be confused at all? Is the page they access relevant to the information they’re looking for? Don’t ever confuse your visitors, and don’t ever show them something they aren’t looking for. Keep it simple!

2. Make sure that the copy on your website speaks to your customer
Keyword research is a huge part of this. You must make absolutely certain that anyone writing web copy has access to (and understands) your keyword research. Make sure they use this research in the writing and development of web copy – if your core demographic is high school children, don’t write using the vocabulary of someone with a PHD.
3. Although your meta keywords tag is not helpful in search engine optimization, it can be helpful in collaboration.
Often, a company will spend countless dollars and time on research about how to speak to their customer, how to create the best marketing calls, marketing segments, and then a copywriter will change the message without realizing all of the energy that was put into the message. To help avoid this, make sure the copywriter has coordinated site wide, and make sure they incorporate the correct keywords into the content. Don’t focus too much on keyword density, but rather on providing valuable content.

4. Remember that every page of your site is a possible entry point.
Every page of your website is a possible entry point for your customer and should be developed using this mentality. Make sure that each page clearly states the primary subject, provides contextual navigation and momentum about the rest of the website, helps the visitor complete a task/find what they were looking for, and to motivate the visitor into your sales funnel. Pages often don’t have a strong call to action and conversions may suffer greatly.

Your corporation should create a checklist for each page to ensure all of these actions get met.

5. Make sure that your website has a great internal linking structure.
This is absolutely crucial to make sure that you have an easily crawlable website. At least one internal link should be in place to each page of your website. A page that does not have an internal link to it is called an “orphan page” and will never be seen by the search engines.

6. Think about what you’re going to link to from the home page.
Your website’s home page is the page that most visitors will see – so it’s important that you link to your most important pages. Search engines also recognize this, and they use your home page link architecture as a sign of what your most important pages are.