Server Side Includes, Search Engines, and SEO

What does a Server Side Include do?
Server side includes allow you to (dare I use the word) include a remote file in the current page. The server constructs the page on the fly. When a browser or search engine spider comes through they see the whole page as one unit.

Why Should I use Server Side Includes?
They make it extremely quick to update navigation and other common page elements by only changing one file.

Are Server Side Includes Evil?
Server side includes were a bad thing in the past. Slower server speeds would sometimes cause errors when a spider spidered the page. With faster server speeds the server side include is no longer a problem. On sites with a large amount of traffic SSI will slow down your server speed ever so slightly.

What do Server Side Include Requests look like?
<!--#include file="navigation.htm" -->
if the SSI file is in the same directry as the file calling it, or
<!--#include virtual="/globalnavigation.htm"-->
if the SSI file which is to be included is in the root directory. Using virtual causes the server to look for the file location based on the root URL.

How do I use a Server Side Include?
To use server side includes you must change your file path to .shtml .shtm or something with the .s at the begining to tell the server it needs to construct the page. Place the include file in the code where you want it to show on the page.
Note: you can controll the layout using an external CSS sheet if you like.

Why Changing Filepaths is Bad
The problem with changing filepaths is that you can lose much of the inbound link popularity you have built up with your site. Any links to the root domain will still be there, but interior links fall away. Blindly changing filepaths is extremely bad:

  • You lose link equiyy.

  • People who were linking to you end up owning a bunch of broken links.

How do I Use SSI without Changing FilePaths?
Our good friend .htaccess is here again to save the day.

Here is the .htaccess file you should use to allow a server to parse .shtml and parse other file extensions as .shtml

AddType text/html .shtml

AddHandler server-parsed .htm (.htm is whatever extension you are using)

AddHandler server-parsed .shtml

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes

301 Redirects - What is a 301 Redirect?

301 redirect is a catch phrase often used in SEO where nobody really explains how to do it. Many people feel too dumb to ask "how do I do a 301 redirect?" because they feel they should just know what one is.

Use a 301 redirect to move a site from
http://www.oldurl.com/uncool/ (root of the old homepage)
to http://www.newurl.com/cool/

Create a .htaccess file in your root directory. If one already exists then you can just add this line of code to it.

Redirect permanent / http://www.newurl.com/cool/

in addition you can use a 301 redirect to move any given page.

Redirect permanent /bla/bla.html /newspot/bla.html

301 redirects are used to permanently move a site to a new location. Search engines do not apply penalties to 301 redirects the way they apply them to many other types of redirects.

When you create a .htaccess file make sure you transfer it in ASCII and not binary. You will probably want to CHMOD the file to 644 for security reasons as well. .htaccess is an Apache technology and not a windows server technology. Learn more about .htaccess

Paid Search Survey

I recently started posting again over at The Search Engine Journal. If you have not visited recently, The Search Engine Journal is working with the Kelsey Group to promote a new Paid Search Survey which your feedback will help improve. If you buy pay per click advertising, feel free to participate.

The Kelsey group is one of the main data aggregators of information about the growing local search industry, and this quick survey is looking more at general paid search practices.

Bonus: Getting Cheap Feedback

Survey Monkey is free for up to 100 responses a month. Their more full featured survey costs as low as $20 per month.

If you do not appreciate how valuable feedback is, or how hard it is to get feedback then juist look at how few comments are posted on this blog. Yesterday I had over 1,000 page views and 0 comments.

Free Link Analysis Software Tool

I will be the first to say that most SEO software is garbage. A complete waste of money. Most of what you want for SEO software is 100% free. This amazing find is no different.

Link Tree is a free web based link analysis software program which compares the links to other websites to your own. This is not a boring overly dressed up link tool (like what Marketleap offers), this tool is super duper cool. What does Link Tree Do?

Link tree looks for topical hubs which are not yet linking to your site.

How does Link Tree Work?

Enter the URLs of up to seven of your competitors and then your own URL at the bottom. Any page that links to at least two of your competitors which does not link to your site will display on the results.

What does that do for my site?

It shows you where some potential easy link opportunities are. If you have done a good job concentrating on creating quality content, then getting the links should be a snap.

Give Link Tree a try!

Creative ways to use Link Tree

  • If one of your competitors moves websites you can tell the people who were linking to them that the site is no longer there. You can also state that you have a wonderful resource they may want to link to. People are more likely to help you after you have helped them.

  • Find where link popularity is comming from if you have a couple competitors who are building bogus link popularity in kahoots. Perhaps you can also rent some quality inbound links to level the playing field.
  • Find quality resources you did not know about by viewing the pages that link to many resources in your field.
  • You can also set one of the test URLs to an extremely popular topical website, which will aid you in viewing the hub links which go into any one competitor at a time.
  • You can set one of the URLs to a really popular site. It will act as an overly generic catch all to make it easier to find hidden smaller hubs in your field. After you have completed your task you can then switch to another generic link to find more micro hubs.

I originally found Link Tree from Larry Chase.

I also use OptiLink, but if you can not afford the $224 fee then Link Tree is probably the best link software on the web.

SEO Authority Websites

When people talk about hubs and authorities, these are some of the most authoritative sites in the SEO industry. Search Engine Watch - considered the bible of search engine information. Danny Sullivan keeps up with all angles of search. He provides an excellent free newsletter (SearchDay) and also hosts Search Engine Strategies.

Search Engine Guide - probably considered the #2 site in search, Robert Cloude collects articles from various authors which provide an in depth review of what is going on in the search world.

Pandia - a bit more of an old school website, Pandia still provides many quality articles about SEO and the search engine industry.

Search Marketing Info - this is my article and general information website. While not as powerful as the above sites yet, I look to keep improving throughout the next couple years to increase the usability and quality of my content to where the site is equal parts beef and cake.

Black Hat SEO - nobody has made a worst practice SEO guide until I created this evil being. It will probably never garner amazing support, but the site is fun and I have been told it has helped many webmasters.

SEO Forums

This is a somewhat comprehensive list of SEO forums. If you know of any SEO forums that are missing from this list, feel free to add them in the comments and I may eventually get around to adding them to the list.

Update:
Due to popular demand and numerous customer requests we added an exclusive private SEO community forum to our online SEO training program.

Forum Meta Information:
There are a ton of SEO forums and it is hard to keep up with all of the information that is put out in all of them. Fortunately there are a bunch of bloggers like me who try to point out some of the good stuff in them. ThreadWatch is a bit of a hybrid, sorta like a blog and a forum. It is ran by DaveN, many other friends, and I.

ThreadWatch also sports a good number of gossip column type entries that makes each visit enjoyable. ThreadWatch was created to help the mid to high level SEO professional. ... on with the list of forums.

Top Rated SEO Forums:

  • SearchGuild.com (retired) - Chris Ridings SEO Forums. Very open and layback...good community feel to it, though activity has been a bit slow over the summer...I moderate at SearchGuild.

  • V7N Web Dev Community - John Scott's SEO forum...John is known to challenge some of the "norms" and put out info that sometimes goes against the grain. In the past I moderated at V7N.
  • Search Engine Watch Forums - newer SEO forums where many long time / old school SEOs hang out. Lots of breaking news breaks at SEW forums.
  • Digital Point - a newcomer on the forum scene, Digital Point has quickly grown to be the most active forum by combining a fairly hands off social policy with innovative forum features and cool SEO tools.
  • SEO Guy Forums - newer SEO forum which has taken off well. SEO Guy is a longtime member of SEO Chat. When he made his own forums many of SEO Chat's best members went with him. I moderate at the SEO Guy SEO forums.

What I consider to be a top rated SEO forum is one where:

  • it is ok to express various opinions (if you find an SEO technique effective it is ok to discuss it even if search engines do not particularly like that technique); &

  • there is a high signal to noise ratio.

Largest SEO Forums:

  • Digital Point - a newcomer on the forum scene, Digital Point has quickly grown to be the most active forum by combining a fairly hands off social policy with innovative forum features and cool SEO tools.

  • Jimworld / searchengineforums.com (retired) - Webmaster Forums. The late Jim Wilson created what I think was the first popular SEO / webmaster forum. From what I know the forum seems well past its brighter days.
  • SitePoint Forums - webmaster coding forums. Many of the other forums have been primarily driven by the marketing angle. SitePoint places more focus on coding and site development than most of the other large forums.
  • SEO Chat - It was originally started by Darrin Ward around the same time as SearchGuild was launched. Darrin sold SEO Chat to the owner of the DevShed network. SEO Chat has a ton of ads on it and is advertised heavily on networks like O'Reilly. The link rentals mean their posts come up well in search results and also that they parse a good amount of link popularity out in post sig links. The heavy on site advertising (some pages have huge ads and even have sponsored text links for buying prescription drugs on them) coupled with the large # of "me too" type posts that their link popularity has makes SEO Chat appear unappealing to many experienced SEOs. DevShed later sold SEO Chat to Jim Boykin, who drastically reduced the on-site ads to improve user experience.
  • Webmaster World - Webmaster Forums. Currently this is perhaps the largest SEO / Webmaster forum (although Digital Point might be getting more daily posts). It was created by Bret Tabke and a few other webmasters with the goal of beating out Jimworld. They appear successful in that goal, but now Webmaster World has strict posting guidelines and over time lost many of its best members. Many of the best old timers from Webmaster World moved to post at the Search Engine Watch Forums, though it too eventually closed. Jim Boykin eventually acquired Wemaster World.

The volume of information in large SEO forums is immense...hence the fact I classify them as large ;-)

Large SEO forums tend to eventually lose some of their community feel. They are hard to scale without losing that community feel, and when that community feel goes away the forums become too hard to moderate as the signal to noise ratio makes them too hard to keep up with. Digital Point has done an amazing job of scaling out a forum that still has a good sense of community to it.

The Big SEO Forum List:

  • Abakus Forums - SEO forums - smaller, but they have a larger German version too. Webby moderates at a good number of various SEO forums. Swell chap :)

  • Band of Gonzo's Webmasters Forums - A few of the lead posters at WebProWorld created their own SEO forums. Dodger tends to dig up a good number of interesting news pieces.
  • Buscador Espa�ol - Small Spanish SEO forums.
  • Cre8asite Forums - usability / design / webmaster forums - mid sized. Guys Like Peter D, Black Knight, and bragadocchio post many enlightening posts with lots of experience in business and marketing.
  • Digital Point Forums - Shawn Hogan's mid sized SEO forum. Shawn is a programmer by trade and has created some of the coolest free SEO tools available. His forums tend to be rather liberal and many people who are kicked out of other SEO forums learn now to behave before they get kicked out of his (I do not think I have ever seen him ban anyone). He seems like a rather swell chap.
  • Dirson Google Foro - Spanish forums about Google.
  • Foro Buscadores - Spanish seo forums.
  • Forums Abondance - French webmaster forums.
  • Geeks on Steroids - Newer SEO & webmaster discussion forums.
  • Highrankings SEO Forums - Jill Whalen's mid sized SEO forums. Jill is branded as "the SEO copywriter." Her forum is geared primarily at people new to SEO, but there are also a variety of more experienced SEOs there too. Her forum tends to be rather conservative or "white hat."
  • HTML.it - Italian webmaster forums.
  • IhelpYou Forums - Doug Heil's mid sized SEO forums. Doug is a self appointed crusader against search engine spam. He is quick to judge and his opinion is strongly reflected in his forums. Above when I wrote about the gossip column posts at ThreadWatch the one about Doug Heil's SPAM comes to mind.
  • Jimworld - large webmaster forums. A bit past its prime in my opinion. A larger and older forum on the forum scene which I rarely visit.
  • Ozzu - mid sized webmaster forums. I do not post at their forum frequently enough to adequately review it, except to say that it has a decent signal to noise ratio and a cool looking design :)
  • Resource Zone - Webmaster forums for public interfacing with the DMOZ (Open Directory Project) editors. Lots of major webmaster conflicts occur there. Some of the editors are great, but some are also judgemental and mean. Often frustrated webmasters directly accessing these editors means you get to see the best and worst the editors have to offer.
  • Search Engine Watch Forums - newer SEO forums where many long time SEOs hang out. One of my favorite SEO forums.
  • SEO Blackhat Forums - paid forum discussing aggressive SEO techniques.
  • SEO Chat large SEO forums. The signal there is kinda drowned out by tons link drops and some of the top SEOs are driven away by the massive amounts of advertising on that forum.
  • SEO Guy Forums - newer SEO forum which has taken off well. SEO Guy is a longtime member of SEO Chat. When he made his own forums many of SEO Chat's best members went with him.
  • SEO Debat - Danish SEO forums.
  • SEO Place - Derek Chew's newer SEO forum. Derek also runs Organic Rankings.
  • SEO Refugee - independent SEO forum which sprung up after SEO Chat imploded.
  • SEO Town - Darrin Ward's new small SEO forum. After his 1 year non competing clause with SEO Chat lapsed he made the site, but it has not really picked up much steam.
  • SearchGuild - Chris Riding's mid sized SEO Forums. One of my favorite forums. Great signal to noise ratio and great sense of community.
  • Search This Forums - small webmaster forums.
  • SitePoint Forums - large webmaster coding forums. Site is primarily focused on coding and web development instead of marketing.
  • Spider Food Forums - J.K. Bowman's SEO forums.
    Suchmaschinen Community - German SEO forums.

  • Syndk8 - black hat SEO forums.
  • Top25Web - Anthony Ettinger's small SEO forums. He is a programmer by trade, and I believe the Top25Web forums are primarily geared toward those new to SEO.
  • V7N Web Dev Community - mid sized webmaster forums - John Scott's SEO forums. John has a tendancy to be blunt, but he means well. I post there frequently. :)
  • Web Inspect Forums - smaller, newer forums
  • Webmaster World - large webmaster forums. Strict posting policies. Search Engine Watch forums has recently cut into their userbase.
  • Web Pro World - mid sized webmaster forums. An SEO forum aimed at people new to the SEO scene.
  • Webmaster Homepage - German webmaster forums.
  • Xeoweb SEO Foro - Spanish SEO forums.

Newsgroups:
Google Groups: Google Support
Google Groups: Search Engines

While the Newsgroups do have good stuff in them, they also lack moderation and that can lead to lots of misinformation. A newer Newsgroup powered by Google Groups 2 and moderated by Andrew Goodman is located here.

Andrew writes for Traffick.com, is consider as one of the leading gurus on Google AdWords, and he was the moderator of the I-Search list before the I-lists went away. His newsgroup has many higger level posts from sophisticated and experienced marketers.

LED Digest, one of the original email only discussion lists, also discusses SEO and other internet marketing and webmaster related issues.

Old SEO Forums Article
Here is a review of SEO forums I did near the end of 2003. Please note that some of its info may be slightly outdated, as things have changed and I have learned a good bit more in the past year. The information on this page is WAY MORE up to date than the info in that article.

SEO Blogs and Search Engine Blogs

This is a list of most of the SEO Blogs and Search Engine Blogs on the internet. If you know of an SEO Blog or Search Engine Blog I am missing from this list, just add it as a comment and I will include it on this list.

Currently my list of SEO Blogs is only in English due to my lack of fluidity (is that a word) in other languages.

  • 10e20 - Chris Winfield 's SEO blog, focusing on SEO, blogging, and social media.

  • About Websearch - About.com has had a couple popular editors in their WebSearch position. Recently it seems as though they have not been putting out as much cool info though.
  • Andy Beal - personal blog of the writer of Marketing Pilgrim.
  • Anthony Parsons - SEO blog from an Aussie.
  • Ask Jeeves Blog - official blog from Ask Jeeves.
  • John Battelle's SearchBlog - a well rounded view of the evolution and impact of search and technology. John Battelle eat sleeps and breathes search.
  • Bazac Blog - Daniel Bazac is a fan of serch who writes his commentary on the subject. He has had a few of his articles syndicated on many websites. A couple of these blogs were found via his list of blogs here.
  • BeSpacific Search Engine Category - covers web search in general. More focused on the technology vice optimization side of it.
  • Tim Bray has a blog which covers many fields including an extremely opinionated view of search. He is one of the people who truely seems to understand the web.
  • Burdon of Truth - Art Saturn has an interesting blog which covers the history and DNA of search.
  • BPWrap - Barry Welford covers current Internet Marketing issues usually from a different perspective.
  • ChrisG - Swell chap from Leeds UK who knows SEO marketing ASP PHP etc.
  • Tim Converse - Tim works at Yahoo!. His blog is cool.
  • Corrupt DMOZ Editor - fun blog about DMOZ corruption.
  • Creative Confusion - Craig Wilson reviews some of the SEO techniques he is currently using as well as other news within the SEO and web development landscape. Craig's blog has a good amount of UK focus.
  • ChriSEO - is not so much a classic blog, as it is a source for random fun articles about the search field. Chris Ridings is one of the most knowledgeable SEO's in the industry, and owner of SearchGuild. He does not update ChriSEO too often, but it is always fun when he does.
  • Clicksharp Marketing - small business interactive marketing blog by Paul Burani.
  • Cr8PC is a usability and search engine marketing blog by Kim of cre8site forums.
  • DGs Desk - weblog covering search, SEO, and marketing.
  • Daily Rundown - Sid Yadav is a web professional who updates his blog more than a couple times a day. His blog includes classical up-to-date info on Search Engines, Internet, Marketing, Companies, His Life and basically anything "techy".
  • David Naylor - blog offering various tips and tricks. DaveN is a rather advanced agressive creative type SEO.
  • Disgust - SEO and webmaster blog.
  • DocuTicker - Gary Price's blog about interesting research, reports, whitepapers and whatnot.
  • Duct Tape Marketing - John Jantsch's blog. Real world small business marketing tips, tactics, and resources from a 20 year marketing pro.
  • Everything Else - Brad Talmir's random stuff blog. He runs many niche directories.
  • Brad Fallon - author of the search engine stomper program.
  • Google's Official Blog - yup, they got one.
  • Google Blogscope - Philipp Lenssen's blog about search and the web.
  • Google Fan - created by Rob of SearchEngineZ.com.
  • Google Guy Says - old blog which in the past archived posts made by GoogleGuy at WebmasterWorld forums.
  • Hobo SEO - A great blog about SEO. Also check out the interview they did with me about keyword research.
  • Inlogical Bearer - Canadian SEO & search engine blog.
  • Internet Marketing Blog - John Scott's blog about internet marketing, with his own fun and sometimes slightly offensive twists to it.
  • Internet News Gwen Harris writes an opinionated blog discussing search engines and other large internet interests.

  • James Trotta's blog - discusses his personal experiences with SEO.
  • JenSense - blog about Google AdSense and contextual advertising.
  • Jill Whalen Exposed - typically only uses her blog for occassional search engine optimization tests. Jill is a well known "white hat" SEO.
  • Jon Payne - A friend who has been in SEO about as long as me who recently started up his own SEO blog.
  • Key Words - Dan Theis's blog on SitePoint.
  • Marketing Pilgrim - Andy Beal's blog about search, blogging, and public relations.
  • Marketing Wonk - probably the best marketing blog on the web. Collaborative effort.
  • McAnerin's Manic Meanderings - Ian McAnerin's personal blog. He is involved with SMA NA.
  • Alan Meckler - CEO of JupiterMedia.
  • Micro Persuasion - Steve Rubel's blog about blogging, technology, and PR.
  • MSN Search Blog - official blog from MSN Search.
  • Nielson Tech Blog - Christian Nielson is a smaller, independant search engine marketer who believes strongly that search engine optimization provides a far greater ROI than paid search. His words are those of a man looking out for the small guy.
  • Niki Scevak - blog by a JupiterMedia analyst.
  • ODP Weblog - blog maintained by an ODP editor to help other editors (and regular web junkies like me) keep up with the latest happenings with the ODP.
  • Pandia Blog Per and Susanne Koch have ran a long time search engine marketing hotspot. They give their coverage of most of the major search engine news here.
  • Pebody's Cre8tive Flow - collaborative blog from members of the Cre8asite forums.
  • Phil Bradley - blog which covers many of the interesting aspects of online research.
  • PR Weaver - SEO and search engine information weblog.
  • Precommerce Blog - Craig Danuloff's blog on search and the internet. He takes a lengthy gander at some of ironic details and provides commentary which makes you wonder & sometimes explains why they exist.
  • Research Buzz - search blog about every interesting angle of search. Not really an SEO, but a true fan of search. Tara Calishain has co authored multiple books about search engines.
  • Resource Shelf - Gary Price's in depth look at the different faces of information retrieval.
  • Reverse Direct Marketing - David Berkowitz's search engine marketing blog.
  • Rob Frankel - what appears to be a personal rant blog by my favorite branding expert.

  • Robin Good's Sharewood Tidings is a great resource for any type of online researcher. Three thumbs up :)
  • Search Engine Genie Blog - SEO blog by the SEO Genie team.
  • SE Roundtable is a colaborative effort led by Barry Schwartz which has a representitive from most of the major SEO forums.
  • SEO.com - blog from the company owning the #1 SEO related domain name
  • SEO Radio - blog with weekly radio shows with various SEO experts.
  • InfoThought is Seth Finkelstein's blog covering internet censorship, which is frequently a topic closely related to search engines.
  • SEO2Go is the blog from SearchEngineWriting by SEO veteran Detlev Johnson and copywriter Heather Lloyd-Martin. This blog seems to link to some fairly useful articles.
  • SEO Book - amazing SEO blog which also covers many other aspects of search engines and internet marketing. What a wonderful site. Oh wait, Aaron Wall is me and perhaps this review is a bit biased. ;)
  • SEO Dev - blog by SE Basic.
  • SEO Scoop - Donna Fontenot's SEO Blog. She is a moderator at SEO Chat.
  • SEO Shed - Sebastian (from SEW forums) blog.
  • Sage Rock Sage Lewis provides more of a corporate look at search engines as they apply within the overal internet marketing field.
  • Scoreboard Media - this guy kicks ass.
  • Search Engine Blog - Peter Da Vanzo has to be one of the funniest search engine marketers in the world. He provides extremely witty commentary.
  • Search Engine Genie - SEO and webmaster related weblog.
  • Search Engine Journal is a colaborative effort blog by about a half dozen search engine marketers. It is led by Lauren Baker at Web Advantage.
  • Search Engine Lowdown - KeywordRankings blog on search. Wrote by Garret French and crew.
  • Search Engine News Blog - Kalena Jordan is one of the original search engine blog writers. Her blog checks takes a good look at search daily.
  • Search etc - Eric Edelstein's new blog about search and internet marketing.
  • Search Engine Visiblity Report is edited by Merrick Lozano, who keeps a business like look and feel to his blog. Many of his posts are loger than the average blog. More of a comentary versus short and punchy type of blog.
  • Search Engine Land - Danny Sullivan's new blog about search.
  • Search Engine Watch Blog - Blog on the popular site launched by Danny Sullivan.
  • SearchGuild Blog is a blog kept by Chris Ridings and many other SearchGuild moderators.
  • Serge Thibodeau is the owner of RankforSales. He reports the news as it is, but does not seem to add much flair to it or offer real helpful in depth tips.
  • Smart Keywords Blog - AussieWebmaster's blog.
  • Gary Stein - blog by JupiterMedia analyst.
  • Step Fourth Blog - Jim Hedger offers his daily search engine comentary. His blog does have some original SEO content that goes with its search focus.
  • Strategic Marketing Montreal - Barry Welford's blog.
  • StuntDubl - Todd Malicoat's SEO and internet marketing blog. Has a cool design and Todd is a swell chap. He gave me a cool white hat that I turned beige, but it is still cool to wear 5 - 6 days a week.
  • Text Link Brokers - newer community driven blog from one of the top text link brokers on the market.
  • The Caveman - A friend and business partner blogging about SEO.
  • ThreadWatch - Community driven blog which looks at some of the seedier and more interesting threads in various search related forums and blogs.
  • Top 25 Web - software programming, SEO, and perl coding blog.
  • TopRank Online Marketing Blog - Lee Odden's marketing blog where he points to many of the major search news stories.
  • Traffick - Andrew Goodman is the moderator of the Isearch discussion list. His blog is generally more concerned with pay per click angle, and the major effects of search and portal changes on the web as a whole.
  • Tropical SEO - new blog by a brilliant SEO named Andy Hagans.
  • Tyler Dewitt - newer SEO blog.
  • WebSage is currently a rather plain looking newer blog which tends to cover a couple of the more interesting aspects of how search interacts with society in the big picture.
  • Yahoo! Search Blog - official blog about Yahoo! Search.
  • Jeremy Zawodny is a current Yahoo! employee who occasionally posts a coment or two on Yahoo! Search and web search in general. The main focus of his blog is his own life, Linux, Perl, Open Source...

Increase Your Alexa Rank

Free tips to help you increase your Alexa Rank for your website.

  1. Download the Alexa toolbar and surf your own site.

  2. Have a few friends download the Alexa Toolbar and surf your site.
  3. Shift the focus of your site toward a more webmaster like theme.
  4. Participate in many webmaster forums which allow you to place your site in your signature.
  5. Write articles about webmaster topics and distribute them around the web.
  6. Optimize pages of your site for Alexa and related phrases.
  7. Buy ads on search engines to increase your traffic. Your Alexa traffic rankings will increase.
  8. Write an article with tips on how to increase your Alexa rankings.
  9. Advertise that article on the world's largest network.
  10. Join an autosurf network which exchanges Alexa credits. <--- this actually exists and they sell off some of the credits. The problem is that those are credits. They are not real visitors. They are not what you need.

    Direct Hit failed as a search engine because it based a large portion of its algorithm on web traffic. Alexa ranking is highly inaccurate and easy to manipulate.

    It is the quality and quantitiy of traffic to your site and how you convert those visitors that determines whether or not you will be a success. If you need help obtaining targeted traffic read my eBook. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

Increase Alexa Rankings

1.) Download the Alexa toolbar and surf your own site.
2.) Have a few friends download the Alexa Toolbar and surf your site.
3.) Shift the focus of your site toward a more webmaster like theme.
4.) Participate in many webmaster forums which allow you to place your site in your signature.
5.) Write articles about webmaster topics and distribute them around the web.
6.) Optimize pages of your site for Alexa and related phrases.
7.) Buy ads on search engines to increase your traffic. Your Alexa traffic rankings will increase.
8.) Write an article with tips on how to increase your Alexa rankings.
9.) Advertise that article on the world's largest network.
10.) Join an autosurf network which exchanges Alexa credits. <--- this actually exists and they sell off some of the credits. The problem is that those are credits. They are not real visitors. They are not what you need.

Direct Hit failed as a search engine because it based a large portion of its algorithm on web traffic. Alexa ranking is highly inaccurate and easy to manipulate.

It is the quality and quantitiy of traffic to your site and how you convert those visitors that determines whether or not you will be a success. If you need help obtaining targeted traffic read my eBook. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

Top Search Keywords List

So many people ask what the top search keywords are. Generally this is an unimportant topic. What is important is the top keywords in the subject you know or are interested in. Looking at the general terms means you must compete with the entire web. Thinking of your specific segment (and those who compete with it) makes it easier to determine which keywords are important to you.

Here are some of the top keywords lists though just for the heck of it...

Yahoo Buzz index (also in UK version)
Lycos 50
Google Zeitgiest
Ask Jeeves

and of course the traditional Keyword tools
Overture Search Term Suggestion (also in UK verion)
Espotting
Wordtracker

and Hitwise offers a monthly search term report

many of these were found in a thread at Highrankings Forum

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