SEO tips = better search engine ranking

Dating Culture site doing well

Here's an update on my new dating culture site - if you need to refresh your memory, this is the site where 300 free non-reciprocal directory listings and two or three other links helped me avoid Google's sandbox.

Anyway, at the end of our first month (well 2 days left but I can't wait) we've seen over 1,000 unique visitors. Search engine traffic is fine for such a young site (though notice how Yahoo is missing - maybe I am in the Yahoo sandbox!):

Links from an Internet Search Engine - Full list
- Google 572
- MSN 213
- Dogpile 8
- Unknown search engines 2
- MetaCrawler (Metamoteur) 2
- WebCrawler 1
- AOL 1
- Mamma 1

Clearly with this traffic I'm not on page 1 for "dating" but I do see some traffic from pretty competitive keyword phrases that involve dating and marriage. I'm still waiting for all those links from .edu sites and other culture and education related site, so still no ads on my site. I'd actually love to keep it that way forever, but once the traffic is there, I'll probably be too greedy not to try an Adsense unit, just one ad under tha navigation menu to see what happens...

2 free inclusion directories

Yesterday I found a couple of new directories that I would like to recommend - www.GoSearchBusiness.com, a general directory and www.GoSearchTechnology.com, a general directory with a focus on tech listings.

Both offer free regular listings and low-cost featured listing options. The submission process is simple and my site was approved very quickly. By quickly, I mean within 30 minutes.

One thing I really liked it that their featured listings are permanent, no monthly or yearly renewals needed. So far I have one featured listing in each and hope to report some traffic and things soon. Not that I expect a lot of traffic for a little money, but some.

Fun SEO blog

After reading about 3 trillion posts regarding when the last Google page rank toolbar update would occur I was definitely in the mood to stumble upon this cartoon over at www.2BlogSEO.com.

Although I myself did not feel the way this guy did (well maybe a little when my projected PR 7 stayed a 6), I am sure there were 100s of webmasters that did. After reading through a few posts in the webmaster blog I also came across this really funny poem (many of you old timer's will appreciate it).

Directory categories - specific or general?

John Scott's internet marketing blog recently talked about web directories and what information to use when you're deciding when to submit. One things John mentioned was that you want only a few other listings on your page (and I'd add that they should be related, quality sites).

John goes on to recommend a directory called rubber stamped. So I checked it out, considering submitting my site to travel, but I guess travel information would be a more specific fit. But go to the travel information category, and you see a large range of sites from sites for expats to casino cruises to Christmas vacations, to Anchorage Alaska.

Sure they may be travel sites, but are they really related? I'll stick to directories that organize sites into more specific categories, unless they want to give me a listing on the more general top-level travel category page.

Cheetah Find web directory

I just wanted to take a minute to blog about Cheetah Find web directory because I'm trying to decide how best to use it. You can opt for a reciprocal link, a one-way link (9.95 one time fee), sponsor a section for 20/month, or do everypage links for 100/month.

I don't think everypage links are for me. But sponsoring the travel section or paying 9.95 for a listing are definite options. The directory isn't too crowded, so a listing on the travel page would be sharing that page with about 20 internal links and 12 external links (10 travel related, 1 internet marketing, 1 camera). Then there are the 6 Adsense units that might drain a little traffic.

Now with the regular listing I'll likely be stuck on page 2 or 3 as listings are done alphabetically. If I sponsor the section for for 20/month I get real nice link placement under the recommended links heading above all the normal listings. Of course I need to contact them to see what kind of traffic that page sees.

Overall, Cheetah Find is a great looking directory that appears to be useful for humans and inspires confidence. I suggest taking a peek at the advertising page to see if they have a plan that can help you.

You might also want to check out the computing section and the Internet - SEO section since you wouldn't be here if you didn't want to read a little something about computers and SEO.

DVD & TV technology

I'm working on a new site related to the Slingbox and high end TV technoolgy so I've been doing some scouting. I've come acroos this DVD software site that seems well optimized.

For starters, the site has lots of content (705 pages indexed by Google). The DVD blog probbaly helps here (and could help even more if it were updated daily) as do the articles.

The articles are quite professional, with screenshots and everything. See How to Speed up DVD Backups and Shrinking for one example of an informative article that uses visuals to help show how things are done.

One interesting resource is the DVD forums: 1,000 members and 242,000 posts? That's a lot of posts per user.

No sandbox for dating site promoted in directories

So my new dating culture site is being promoted almost exclusively in directories. Google now has 55 pages indexed. That's probably all of them. Remember that a month ago, Google had only indexed one page.

After a little more than a month, we're seeing 41 uniques/day. Some come from directories:

http://www.kingbloom.com 9
http://www.jtrotta.com/links/detail/828 3
http://www.jtrotta.com/Relationships 2

Some from search engines:

- Google 303
- MSN 140
- Dogpile 5
- AOL 1
- Mamma 1

Now I do have a few very powerful links (a few from this blog and one from the homepage of eslgo.com) in addition to the many directory links but I think this shows how valuable directory listings can be. Not only for SERPs, but also for a bit of extra traffic.

Keep in mind that dating is fairly competitive industry. Also, I did nothing to "beat" the sandbox. This was a brand new domain that was suddenly submitted to over 300 directories (100/week for 3 weeks) and also received a quality link from eslgo.com and a couple from this SEO blog.

Choosing between Lunarpages.com and Ipowerweb.com reseller hosting

Lunarpages.com - I like that they have been around for along time and have a great reputation as well as a message board. I don't like that After 2 domains, there's an extra charge of 2.50/month/domain. In other words, hosting 5 domains would cost an extra 7.50 every month. Features I care about:

7.95/month
FREE Domain Name For Life
UNLIMITED MySQL Databases
Up To 5000 Megabytes Storage
400 Gigabytes Data Transfer

iPowerWeb.com - Here's another company that has been around for along time and still has a good reputation. 6 domains/account should be enough for my purposes and they don't charge the extra 2.50/month that Lunarpages does.

7.95/month (6.95 if you pay for 24 months)
FREE Domain Name For Life
UNLIMITED MySQL Databases
Up To 10,000 MB Megabytes Storage
250 Gigabytes Data Transfer

Well, I've checked out a few others, but I suppose Ipowerweb is the one for me. If you're curious, I have accounts with Powweb, Globat, Splitinfinity, Hostgator, Bluehost, RealWebHost, and d7host. I like to spread things out. I used to also host with evil unithosting.

Wireless LAN, bit encryption, and the Best Buy computer salesman

So, I bought my new computer last Friday. A Hewlett Packard 7334n. It's pretty sweet. It has an AMD Athalon 64 dual core chip, 2G RAM, 250G hard drive and I bought a 2nd, internal 160G hard drive. 20 inch Samsung LCD monitor, speakers, ups battery backup, and a few other goodies. I ordered Comcast broadband today.

Both the Comp USA salesman and the Best Buy salesman recommended a front-end router for security. Apparently the front end router has it's own IP address and if a hacker comes down the line they'll run into the router, not be sure what's behind it or where it is, and possibly move on to an easier target. Securing the wireless LAN is an issue though, according to the Best Buy salesman, who tried to sell me a service visit to ensure that the "bit encryption was properly set up on the LAN for maximum security." Everyone else I have spoken to, including Cisco certified networking techs and other IT professionals tell me the salesman is full of u know what. What should I believe?

Answers:

Its very easy to do it yourself: set the wireless encryption (WEP) to at least 128 bit, and turn off the broadcasting of your network name. All this can be done by logging into your router and setting it up. the instructions should come with your router. Also change the name of the SSID (network name). As you said, follwo the directions that come with the router and it's not very difficult.

If you truly want to secure your wireless network, disable SSID broadcasts, and exclude ALL MAC addresses from the allowed pool except for your own machines. There is also a little software utility that's free from a company called AirDefense that keeps your wireless clients safe from intrusion. And as was said, we can all help you do that, don't listen to some BestBuy hack.

I just bought a Linksys Wireless-G card for my desktop and their Wireless-G router, I pressed a button on the router during setup, and I had an instantly configured WPA-encrypted Wireless LAN. Whatever you do, I recommend buying the same brand router as the Wireless card you have. I'm assuming that your 7334n is a desktop and that you need to buy a wireless network card if you haven't already.

A good router coupled with the Windows Firewall is probably sufficient, assuming you aren't serving up content that could attract random attention. Simply blocking any inbound connections will protect you from most hacks and a good anti-virus/anti-spyware program will take care of the rest. But it is important to put a relatively good firewall/router at the frontgate. Norton Internet Security and even Norton AntiVirus can cripple system performance depending on the version and/or the other system processes with which it has to interact/co-exist. Norton's tools are quite comprehensive and effective, but they are often unpredictable in their interactions with other software apps/services. I'd probably go with McAfee or AVGFree.

Starting a contest to market your site

You don't have to be a webmaster site like v7n.com to start a contest that gets your site noticed. John Scott has said that the v7ndotcom elursrebmem contest has incresed activity on his webmaster forum.

There's clearly some buzz going on here. Links from people who report on SEO things, discussion on SEO related message boards, etc. I want the buzz!

I want the buzz for my travel blog, so I started a 2006 Summer vacation plan travel writing contest. The idea is to get submissions, publish them, and then give out prize money (1,000 dollars total).

This will do a few things (I hope):

1. Give my readers something to read that I didn't write. Sure sometimes I pay for articles, but this should generate lots of good travel articles by lots of different authors. One cool Moroccan vacation plan has already been submitted.

2. Get me some links. John Scott was the first blogger to mention my contest - hopefully he is not the last.

3. Get traffic. People should come to my site to check out the contest, read the travel plans being submitted, or just because they heard about me (if the contest generates buzz, people who never would have heard of my blog otherwise will come check it out).

Wish me and my contest luck!