Directory and Reciprocal Link Exchange

Directories in Link Exchange – Is it still worth a game?

Links so simple a word yet so complicates are its effect. Some people go crazy for them as it affects Search Engine! Well How?

1. Lot of inbound links will help them gain position in the Search Engines.
2. Quality Inbound Links will increase the PR of the site.


Though, I should mention that Toolbar PageRank (TLBR PR) is not the original PR it is just an indicative of the real PR that is part of the Google algorithm.

Many people think that submitting your site to directories will help you in many a way.

1. To get listed in directory for quality traffic
2. To get free one way links
3. To get a part of the PR.

Oops, did I say free one-way links. Not really, you will come across many directories where they will list your site only for a reciprocal link. Huh! A reciprocal link from a directory is it really required. In my opinion there should be few factors to determine the quality of a directory. Though I will probably list the qualities in my next post. Coming back to the point is it really beneficial to get reciprocal link from a directory. The answer would be a Big NO.

Check out Dmoz will they ever ask for a link back. No, they will never. Because they are concerned about their reputation, their content as in the quality of sites listed. This is probably the reason why an editor-based directory is always preferred ahead of any one.

I have always found out that a low PR Directory with quality sites listed is always better than a directory with no rules or regulation where anyone can submit. To be precisely you can narrow down into some handful of quality directory.

Directory should always aim at providing quality result through proper relevant site listed in them. This means that a site listed should have proper good content should be submitted to relevant category and have lots of information to provide to the visitors.

Fee Based Directory

Well, again it is upon you to decide whether they are worth it. Calculate the return on investment and then go ahead. Yahoo - $299, if you think Yahoo Directory will provide you with quality visitors and the number will be quite interesting then not a problem. Otherwise, establish your site and after a period of time decide whether it is worth going for it.

Directories

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SEO Services In Kolkata

SEO Kolkata


I remember when I started working as a SEO Executive, people hardly knew about what SEO is and often use to wonder and conceptualize it as a part of Web Design. Gradually, with SEO Conference in India and clients of Web Design Companies understanding the importance of Search Engine Optimization, companies in Kolkata made way for seo service implementation in their own company.

SEO as a Service in Kolkata

With different type of services available from different companies it is for the client to decide which one suite them best. There are some benchmarks that make it easier for a person to decide on the ultimate company to go for seo service. Like if I am given the option to decide on a company’s ability to prove itself as a good provider of seo service.

1. The age of the company
2. The Profile
3. The type of seo services
4. Different plan (Basic, Advanced etc)
5. Type of activity & technique followed for seo
6. The amount charged for the service
7. How many clients do they handle
8. Case studies for at least few type of industry and
9. How flexible they are.

Having said so, I believe it all narrows down to how flexible a company is on their agenda. Whether they are ready to make you understand on their plan of action and extend support when in need. If it requires, may be a small chat with one of the existing or previous client would be helpful.

Today, when I come across a client, the first thing that I have in my mind is to make him/her comfortable with their problem issues, to build friendly terms with them and make them understand about the plan of action. After all you need to be transparent about what you do for others.

Hope this provides as a support for people looking to narrow down on the list of SEO Companies or Freelancer to work for their site.

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Supplemental Index and How to Overcome it

Google – The Evil Part of It or Is It So?

Webmasters over the world are quite surprised to see a change in their Search Engines Result Page (SERP) the reason for it well its because of the number of pages moving in to the supplemental index. Many have their own thoughts on this issue and so I have mine.

Supplemental index, which is considered to be a bit different from the main index, is acting like a demon. Why? Consider you having a large site with 100 of pages and suddenly for the site operator you seem to have 30 results coming up from the main index and rest of them being transferred to supplemental index. People say and most of them agree on the sitemap issue that it provides google a better insight to the inner pages of a site having pages deeper than two levels from the home page.

I have pointed out some more information on supplemental result based on my experience and research. The factors are noted below:

1. The problem mainly arises when you have a new domain and so the inner pages of the site do not get indexed soon. Or it may so happen that the site inner pages are too deep to be crawled.

2. Pages having similar content with that of its own site or having similar content with that of other sites are at risk to move into the supplemental index. The famous example can be domain.com
www.domain.com
domain.com/index.html
www.domain.com/index.html

Though these are canonical issues but still this is a major issue for pages moving into the supplemental result.

3. When pages are too deep and so Google is unable to pass the PageRank value to the inner pages but remember always toolbar PR is not the original PR calculated by google for ranking pages it is just an indicative of the original PR.

4. This is the most common problem perhaps after the indexing issue when considering supplemental index. Domain name does not have the power or strength enough to pull back itself to the main index. I take the example of sites having songs. For a particular song the title and the description of the song more or less remains the same. But only that site will move ahead of the competition that will have unique description along with proper page strength.

Having said all that it happens some time that for the site operator some of the pages might me shown as supplemental result but again these pages come up for particular keyword when they are searched for in the search engine.

Really a food for thought right?

I would really invite comments on the same to gain more insight from various people. But what I feel is that if you have search engine friendly URL’s with good content proper title and meta description then you can easily avoid the supplemental issue at any point of time.

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Webmasters Conference Delhi, 2007

SEO Tips on Link Building and Link Bating

The summer has just set in and it’s quite hot here in India. Recently, I went to attend the Webmasters Conference held in Delhi named Delhi SEO Meet. I had the opportunity to talk to Andy Hagans and Rich McIver. They are simply awesome on their tips. We had a long discussion on Link Building and Link Baiting. It was quite exhaustive discussion where we all had the opportunity to share our own views and get quality information on the different aspects of getting free traffic. The food was quite lip smacking. After the days conference we had a person singing Ghazals in the evening followed by dinner and a bit of dancing. The experience was quite thrilling as we don’t have a seo meet every now and then.

Will post snaps and further discussions in my next posting.

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WhiteHat vs BlackHat SEO

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of positioning a site in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The main aim is to make a site search engine friendly i.e. the search engine robots can crawl the pages of the site and can rank them according to their relevance to the searched term.Search Engine – Automated programs that return a set of result for a typed in query. E.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN etc.

Is SEO ethical?

It is ethical if certain rules and regulations are followed. As per the set of guidelines set out by different search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

WhiteHat SEO

This is the typical seo that is loved by visitors as well as the major search engines. The seo work is done in accordance to the rules laid down by the different Search Engines.

Black Hat SEO

Better known for its spam techniques. Blackhat seo is the seo work that is followed by the most spammers in the world of Internet. From sneaky redirects to keyword spamming to doorway pages it’s just a way to spam google or any other search engines to rank high. The most common Blackhat seo found on the Internet is hidden text. With specialized filters and checks this has been tackled well by search engines.

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Keywords and Site

The main idea of doing seo work for a site is to gain page positioning in major Search Engines and thus to attract visitors to the site through the optimized keywords.SEO work involves a lot of small issues that account to the Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Good coding in the web pages along with proper navigation and quality content is a part of the SEO work but SEM part involves proper marketing of the product and thus enabling the visitors to buy the product.

After a Page has been ranked for the targeted keyword we assume that the visitors will come in and then some will convert into customers.Assuming all other things remaining constant even after the page is optimized and the visitors are coming to the site but there is a lack of conversion into sales there may be the following possibilities.

1. The product is not well recognized.
2. The content describing the product is not good enough.
3. The product page or the shopping cart is having some problem and
4. The steps involving the ultimate sale are a lengthy process.

If all the above process is in right condition then we have to assume that the keyword for which the site is optimized is not the proper keyword. This means that visitors look for other keywords to search for similar sites.

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Blogs for the purpose of SEO - Is it worth it?

General Understanding of Blog

Many people have the concept that having a blog is good enough a reason to be happy that there site would get ample visitors.Blogging as the term is doesnot always mean there will be a huge flow of traffic to your blog.

The Next Step

After this question has been solved then comes the next question of whether to have a blog at its own site or to buy a separate domain for it. Well my suggestion would be to go for a blog or an article listings in ones own site the simple reason would be that the site must either be an old one or that the domain name is recognized by many in the world of Internet.

The Final One

Once all this has been confirmed the owner posts innumerable articles in the blog with innumerable keywords stuffed in without any reason. To get into the core of the matter blogs become famous and attract traffic for all the other reason.

1. Good Content
2. Relevant Discussions.
3. Proper Answer for the comment
4. The frequency of posting an article.

If all these factors are met then automatically visitors will come in and some may go beyond a step to link back to your posting. In this way not only you have the basis of regular update (fresh content on your blog) but also visitors will like to come in to your site for greater content.

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