| Page Rank Myths and MonstersThe Google Page | | | | helpful, and you will be regarded as an expert in your |
| Ranking system does not discriminate between | | | | field.* Place a link to your website on all of your |
| novice and professional level websites. Nor does it | | | | outgoing e-mails. It sounds simple enough, yet very |
| award Page Rank where editorial decisions are | | | | few people do it.* Write articles about your craft or |
| concerned. Case in point: I've seen well conceived | | | | your business. There are hundreds of article |
| content pages with 10 to 20 out bound links fare no | | | | directories where you can post your articles for |
| better in Page Rank than a web site with long lists of | | | | free.* Visit web directories and list your web site in all |
| mismatched links. Both had Page Ranks of 4 even | | | | appropriate section.* Set up an email list and send out |
| though there was a remarkable disparity in quality | | | | weekly or monthly newsletters. Include links back to |
| and content. Page Rank is a worthless.True Value of | | | | your website to entice readers to click and visit. This |
| a Web PageWhen a large corporation purchases | | | | equates to increased traffic.What about Link |
| web-based ad space or banner ads, do you think | | | | Trades?99% of the websites that trade and post |
| they use the cute little colored Page Rank bar as a | | | | links have pages and pages of links that are |
| measurement? | | | | completely useless to a website visitor.SEO |
| Emphatically no.Media buyers look at a web site's log | | | | professionals, web site designers and marketers have |
| statistics for 'viewers and unique viewer's per hour, | | | | extensively written and Blogged about how to |
| day, month and year. It's the same principle when | | | | achieve a high Google PageRank and 1st page |
| companies do media buys for broadcast, radio and | | | | position for targeted terms across major search |
| print. It's all about how many readers or how many | | | | engines.Some think in-bound linking and out-bound |
| viewers are attracted. Advertisers set their rates by | | | | linking with relevant high Page Rank sites is a key |
| the analysis of this web traffic to include stats for | | | | component to Google's secret sauce. Others believe |
| gender, demographics, click through rates, pages | | | | that smart linking combined with keyword density |
| visited, length of visit and much more.So how do you | | | | and keyword page positioning earns you the magic |
| get quality visitor traffic and good search engine | | | | ticket to the Google factory.I would like to believe |
| ranking?Keeping It Really SimpleGoogle, Yahoo, MSN | | | | that the engineers at Google and the other search |
| and like black text on a white background. | | | | engines giants are not devoid of gray-matter. Google |
| So what are you going to do with all your Java | | | | has hired and is still recruiting an army of PhD |
| Script effects, Flash, fancy graphics and great | | | | candidate programmers, developers, scientists and |
| photography?Balance your creativity and technology. | | | | mathematicians. So sooner or later all the thousands |
| Use CSS and good design while weaving in a fair | | | | of hours spent on creating useless link pages will go |
| share of text content into your pages.Attracting | | | | the way of the keyword meta-tag.They will become |
| Visitor TrafficMany marketing websites promise they | | | | useless and unnecessary.Where Search Engines are |
| can get you tons of traffic or business inquiries by | | | | GoingIt can be said that, 'if you have nothing to say, |
| submitting your site to thousands of search engines. | | | | then no one will listen'. Computer scientists are |
| Other companies send out an email blast campaign to | | | | working towards building a semantic search engine, a |
| over a million plus emails. The problem with this | | | | search engine that will closely emulate, answer and |
| method is that a surge in traffic to your website will | | | | analyze your search queries like a human librarian.For |
| be little more than a blip on Google's radar. Google, | | | | example, imagine a user is looking for documents that |
| Yahoo, MSN and awards higher page position to a | | | | mention an organization with "center" in its name, but |
| website with consistent visitor traffic.If you are a | | | | is not sure of the full or precise name of the |
| mega-site like with a gargantuan television advertising | | | | organization. |
| budget then you have the advantage of pummeling | | | | A keyword search on "center" would likely produce |
| TV viewers with your web site name and | | | | way too many documents because "center" is a |
| commercials.But what about the rest of us?Doing | | | | common and ambiguous term. Our semantic search |
| Battle with GoliathWhether you are a corner | | | | engine supports a query language called XML |
| neighborhood ice cream shop or an online gourmet | | | | Fragments. |
| ice cream vendor, both have the same challenge of | | | | This query language is designed to exploit UIMA | |
| getting and keeping traffic. Plain and simple, you have | | | | IBM Research's CAS annotations entered in the |
| to give people a reason to visit and to keep coming | | | | search engine's index.It's all about building a |
| back. A website can accomplish this by using some | | | | community. A web community connected by relevant |
| of the following techniques:* Offer something for | | | | links and great content which hopefully will garner you |
| free, maybe a download of some sort. If you are an | | | | tons of traffic.Black text on white pages! - Visionefx |
| online store, considering offering a free/discount | | | | President Ricardo Vidallon has been in the creative |
| coupon. If you are a logo design site you could give | | | | business of advertising, cable broadcast, animation |
| away a Photo Shop template or clip-art. A surf shop | | | | and the World Wide Web for more than two |
| could offer cool screen savers and so on. If you are | | | | decades. His work has been featured on the Christian |
| a loan company or realtor, perhaps you could offer a | | | | Broadcasting Network, Inc., Fox News and NBC |
| free document about, 'how to increase your credit | | | | Entertainment. His career track in Web consultancy |
| score'.* Visit Blogs and Forums related to your | | | | includes the global companies of Reynolds and |
| business. Share your ideas and talk up your website. | | | | Reynolds, CMGI Solutions, and Automark, Inc. |
| Develop a reputation for being knowledgeable and | | | | |