In today's rapidly changing and evolving web industry, every aspect is being viewed from a material angle and is thought to be a money generating area of Internet marketing. Among these aspects, web traffic is a stand alone matter and, since recently, it has been overlooked due to the rather poor development of the web itself. Webmasters have realized its enormous potential and have tried different methods to optimize the results to the fullest; by far the most effective has proven to be a process known as SEO.

Search engine optimization (SEO), considered by many to be a subset of search engine marketing, is a term used to portray the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines, usually in organic or algorithmic search results. Many site holders and consultants engaging in SEO try to follow qualified visitors to a site, and the quality of visitor traffic can be measured by how often a visitor using a specific keyword phrase leads to a desired conversion action, such as making a purchase, viewing or downloading a certain page, requesting further information, signing up for a newsletter, or taking some other specific action.

Creating web pages with SEO in mind does not automatically mean creating substance more encouraging to algorithms than human visitors. Some SEO efforts may involve optimizing a site's coding, presentation, and structure, without making very obvious changes to human visitors, such as incorporating a clear hierarchical structure to a site, and avoiding or fixing problems that might keep search engine indexing programs from entirely spidering a site. Additional, more perceptible efforts, involve including unique content on pages that can be easily indexed and extracted from those pages by search engines while also appealing to human visitors.

At first, all a webmaster needed to do was submit a page, to the various engines which would send a spider to "crawl" that page, extract links to other pages from it, and return information found on the page to be indexed. The procedure involves a search engine spider downloading a page and stocking it up on the search engine's own server, where a second program, known as an indexer, extracts various information about the page, such as the terms it contains and where these are positioned, as well as any weight for precise words, and any and all links the page contains, which are then placed into a scheduler for crawling at a later time.

SEO, as a marketing strategy, can often generate a very good return. However, as the search engines are not paid for the traffic they send from organic search, the algorithms used can and do change; there are no assurances of success, either in the short or long term. Increased visitors is equivalent to amplified foot traffic in retail advertising. Increased traffic may be damaging to success if the site is not ready to handle the traffic or visitors are generally displeased with what they find. In either case increased traffic does not promise increased sales or success. While attempting to meet the guidelines posted by search engines can help build a solid foundation for success on the web, such efforts are only a start. Further efforts have to be made in order to keep and improve the whole system of functions and processes that SEO creates.

In addition, while SEO can be considered an independent marketing approach, it is often considered (in the view of industry experts) to be a single part of a greater whole. Marketing through other methods, such as viral, pay-per-click, new media marketing and other related ways is by no means irrelevant, and indeed, can be critical to maintaining a sturdy search engine rank. In conclusion, SEO is a must for each self-respecting site and every webmaster must integrate this method into his websites for it offers great advantages in the long run, and most importantly, it helps to improve the marketing segment of the Internet for everybody.

WHY WE DO THE OPTIMIZE CORPORATE SITES

Why do you have to optimize corporate websites? Will search engine optimization be useful in corporate websites? What are the advantages of SEO for corporate websites? There are many benefits that SEO could give to corporate websites. Here are some of them:

• SEO makes a corporate website more search engine friendly;

• SEO will increase the sales leads of corporate websites;

• SEO brings higher return on investment from corporate websites; and

• SEO increases the corporate website's brand awareness.

SEO for Corporate Websites

When you optimize a corporate website, you are actually making it easier for the search engines to index it. And more, you are making it a search engine friendly site. What would this imply? It means that you can rightly expect for higher site traffic and more site visitors. Furthermore, it also increases the site's return on investment.

Optimizing the Home Page

To start the search engine optimization process for your corporate website, consider first the homepage. The homepage is the most essential element of your website. It carries all the relevant links to other pages of the site. Aside from that, the search engines put more value on the homepage since this is also the page from which other relevant websites link to. Here are some of the simplest yet the most effective tips you can possibly learn from while you endeavor to optimize your website's homepage:

• Do not redirect the home page to other pages of the corporate website;

• The home page of the corporate website should have a title tag bearing the name of the company and tells about what the company does;

• Include a meta description tag that tells about the company;

• Include relevant texts on the home page of a corporate website (don't rely too much on graphics since visitors always need relevant information which can be contained in texts);

• The home page of a corporate website should have links to the company's products and services, contact information and resources.

Optimizing the Products and Services Web Page

After the homepage, what needs to be optimized next? The next object of your search optimization process should be the products and services page. This is also an important page as it carries the company's products and services. Optimizing the products and services page determines how well your visitors will be able to land on that page. The following tips will be helpful in the overall search engine optimization process applied to the corporate website's products and services page:

• Identify the relevant keywords or key phrases that tell exactly about the products and services that the company offers;

• The products and services page must include a title tag that carries these relevant keywords and key phrases including the company name;

• If you have more than one page allocated for the company's products and services, make each of the pages unique; and

• The products and services page must contain relevant texts.

Now that you know how important search engine optimization is for your corporate website, and now that you are already equipped with useful knowledge on how to go about the optimization process, would you still wait? Start optimizing your corporate website now and enjoy higher site visibility, site traffic and return on investment. One of the most frequently asked questions in the web marketing world is how to increase site traffic? This question has bothered webmasters, website owners, web advertisers, web marketers and online business owners since the birth of web marketing. Site traffic has become a vital part of a website's survival. This is due to the fact that the higher traffic your site receives, the higher is its chance to generate sales, be popular and be visible on the top of the search engines. You can find several resources on the entire internet world teaching you how to dramatically increase your website's traffic. Because there are so many of them, you may have been confused by now. Well, to better simplify what those other resources are speaking of, here are the top three ways to generate not just traffic but targeted traffic to your website.

Cost Effective Ways to Generate Targeted Traffic To Your Site

Write relevant articles and distribute them!

This is the most cost-effective way to generate targeted traffic to your site. The method includes two simple steps: 1) write articles and 2) submit or distribute articles. What are you supposed to write? Write anything about your field that will showcase your expertise. If your field is web marketing, then write about web marketing.

After you have written good articles, submit them to article directories. Remember to submit them to directories with high ranks or PR. And don't forget to include a link back to your website on every article that you submit.

Ads on A Particular Location

How can you make the most out of the ads on a particular location? Make an effort to give your visitors free and useful resources. This can be done by providing an item's explanation and including a link back to your website. This method is also cost effective and can really increase your website's traffic especially if the location is a good site with higher Page Rank.

Get Good and Relevant Links

This is still another cost effective way to increase your website's traffic. Inbound links can be generated through link exchange or reciprocal linking. This is free method to receive incoming links. The higher the number of links that point to your site, the better!

Remember to get relevant links. The search engines can identify whether a link is valuable or not. And the importance of the links is part of the search engines' algorithm. And remember to avoid link farms as much as possible.
The next time you think about increasing your website's traffic, remember these three simple, cost effective and reliable methods that are guaranteed to work

Online & SEO News

News Corp., AOL Pursue Yahoo Deals

Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL are closing in on a deal to combine their Internet operations, a move aimed at thwarting Microsoft Corp.’s effort to acquire Yahoo, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

But Microsoft is recrafting its assault plan by talking with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, about mounting a joint bid for Yahoo, people familiar with the matter said. Microsoft and News Corp. have yet to reach an agreement on joining forces but one person apprised of the plan described the discussions as serious. Such a deal would combine three of the biggest Internet properties: News Corp.’s MySpace, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo.

Negotiating Leverage

The AOL-Yahoo deal under consideration would include the repurchase of some Yahoo shares at a price above Microsoft’s offer. Taken together with a possible search advertising pact with Google Inc., the plan could give Yahoo an alternative to a Microsoft takeover — although many analysts and investors believe Microsoft will ultimately win out. At the least, Yahoo’s efforts could give it more leverage to negotiate a higher price from Microsoft

Source: Online

Microsoft Makes $42B Bid for Yahoo

Unable to topple Google Inc. on its own, Microsoft Corp. is trying to force crippled rival Yahoo Inc. into a shotgun marriage, with a wager worth nearly $42 billion that the two companies together will have a better chance of tackling the Internet search leader.
Microsoft’s audacious attempt to buy Yahoo, spelled out in an unsolicited offer announced Friday, shows just how much Google threatens the world’s largest software maker’s grip on how people interact with computers.

For Yahoo, the bid represents another painful reminder of how missed opportunities and mismanagement combined to open the door for Google to supplant it as the Internet’s main gateway, decimating its stock price in the process.

Source: Biz Yahoo

AOL buys BEBO for $850 Million

In an unexpected move, AOL has acquired social-networking site Bebo. The price tag: $850 million in cash.Rumors had floated over the past few months that Bebo, which has over 40 million members, was up for sale. Reports suggested a $1 billion price tag, but there were few hints as to potential buyers. Though Bebo had already partnered with AOL’s AIM messaging client to facilitate friend-invite interoperability between the two services, even the most creative blogger speculation didn’t seem to point to AOL eventually buying the social network.

Ironically, AOL itself has been talked about as an acquisition target. Jeffrey Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, which operates AOL, has spoken recently about plans to spin off or sell divisions of the company.

Source: News

Internet founding father steps down from ICANN

Vint Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the internet, is stepping down from his role as the chairman of its oversight committee to focus on writing books, advocacy and his job at Google Inc.

The 64-year-old has spent the past seven years as the head of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which counts the administration of domain names as its chief responsibility. Cerf is also a vice-president and “chief internet evangelist” of Google.

He is stepping down from ICANN this week after guiding the organization through several battles over the past few years. In 2005, ICANN was under threat of being taken over by the United Nations after several countries complained the group was too U.S.-focused. Cerf helped negotiate an agreement that kept the running of the organization largely unchanged.

“My sentence is up,” he told the Associated Press with his trademark humour.

Cerf said he has spent between 25 and 40 per cent of his time on ICANN-related business. He said he will step away from the group completely for at least a year, to allow it to become self-sufficient. ICANN has not yet named a successor.

Under Cerf, ICANN introduced new top-level domains for Europe and Asia — .eu and .asia — but could not decide on how to implement a .xxx name for pornographic sites.

He said he plans to write several books, including at least one about the internet and another about hearing impairment. Cerf is also an outspoken advocate of net neutrality principles and the development of the internet.

Source: CBC News

MySpace starts Skype call service

Social network website MySpace has joined forces with internet phone firm Skype to allow MySpace users to make calls to each other.

With the service, which starts from the end of November, the two firms say they are creating the world’s largest online, voice-connected community.

MySpace users will be able to place free internet calls to other people on MySpace, or to Skype users.

In addition, MySpace users will be able to pay to call landlines and mobiles.

‘Natural step’

The Skype option will be added to MySpace’s existing instant messaging feature, and will not require MySpace users to download any additional Skype software.

“Internet calling is the natural next step for how our members communicate with each other,” said MySpace chief executive Chris DeWolfe.

No financial terms of the arrangement have been released.

Source: BBC

Google Pledges $30 Million for Private Moon Landing

Google Inc. will pay up to US$30 million in prize money to anyone able to land a privately funded spacecraft on the moon, because “it’s cool,” the company said on its blog.

“More seriously, space exploration has a remarkable history of producing technological breakthroughs,” wrote Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering, on Google’s blog. He cited ablative heat shields, asteroid mining, invisible braces, and the Tang orange drink as past achievements, and said the prize money could lead to further developments in robotics, new space-age materials, precision landing control technology, “and who knows what else.”

Teams from around the world will vie for the Google Lunar X-Prize by building lunar missions complete with robotic rovers capable of roaming the surface of the moon for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and other data back to Earth, according to a statement from the X Prize Foundation.

The X Prize Foundation is best known for another space competition, the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private suborbital spaceflight, won by SpaceShipOne three years ago. Google teamed up with the foundation on the lunar project.

A grand prize of $20 million will go to the first team to land a privately funded spacecraft to the Moon and complete several tasks. Bonuses of up to $5 million can be earned from roaming an additional 5,000 meters on the surface of the Moon, finding and photographing man made artifacts left on the lunar surface, such as hardware from one of the Apollo missions, discovering water ice, and surviving a lunar night, a frigid affair lasting 14.5 Earth days, the foundation said. The remaining $5 million will be paid to the second place finisher in the competition.

Images from the lunar landing will be available online at the Google Lunar X Prize Web site.

There is a time limit to the competition. The value of the grand prize will drop to $15 million after Dec. 31, 2012, and on Dec. 31, 2014 the contest will end unless extended by Google and the X Prize Foundation.

Source: PC WORLD

‘Fake Steve’ Blogger Comes Clean

For the last 14 months, high-tech insiders have been eating up the work of an anonymous blogger who assumed the persona of Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive and one of the world’s most famous businessmen.

The mysterious writer has used his blog, the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, to lampoon Mr. Jobs and his reputation as a difficult and egotistical leader, as well as to skewer other high-tech companies, tech journalists, venture capitalists, open-source software fanatics and Silicon Valley’s overall aura of excess.

Source: NY TIMES

Microsoft to test ad-supported version of Works

Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it will offer a free, advertising-supported version of its basic productivity software, Microsoft Works, as part of a test program with computers manufacturers.

The world’s largest software maker has been pondering the future of Microsoft Works, its basic spreadsheet and word processing software, in the face of rising competition from Google Inc.’s suite of business software services.

Unlike Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which are delivered through an Internet browser, Microsoft plans to pre-install Works on computers and display advertisements stored in cache. The software normally retails for $39.99.

Source: Reuters

Google spending hundreds of millions on mobile?

Google Inc has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its cell phone project and is courting U.S. and European mobile operators, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Anian, a Reuters company that tracks industry trends for institutional investors, reported last month that Google had engaged Taiwan’s High Tech Computer Corp to design a Linux software-based phone for launch in the first quarter of 2008.

The Anian report cited industry sources as saying T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, would likely be Google’s U.S. partner with France Telecom’s Orange selling the phones in other markets.

Source: Reuters

Wikia Search Engine Gains a Web Crawler

Wikia Inc.’s project to develop an open-source search engine got another boost with its acquisition of the Grub distributed Web crawler, the company announced Friday.

Wikia acquired Grub from LookSmart Ltd. and released it under an open-source license, adding a significant component to Search Wikia, scheduled to debut in this year’s fourth quarter.

The Search Wikia project seeks to create a search engine based on open-source search protocols and human collaboration, drawing from the concept of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, which is written and edited by a community of volunteer collaborators.

As such, it will provide a better search experience than the ones offered by commercial, proprietary search engines like those from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., said Jimmy Wales, Wikia’s co-founder and chairman, and Wikipedia founder.

Source: PC World

BBC launches Internet TV service

The BBC’s flagship online TV service (iPlayer) is being launched, offering viewers the chance to download their favourite programmes from the last seven days.

The iPlayer allows viewers to download a selection of programmes from the last seven days and watch them for up to 30 days afterwards.

In the UK, Channel 4 offers a similar service, called 4OD, for programmes across its portfolio of channels.

Viewers interested in the iPlayer can register for the service on Friday and will then be invited to join. The number of users will increase over the summer, before a full launch in the autumn.

Source: BBC

Microsoft CEO defends move beyond desktop

Chief Executive Steve Ballmer defended the software company’s expansion beyond its Windows and office software businesses, saying Web services and consumer devices are key to the company’s future.

Speaking on Thursday at an annual meeting with financial analysts, Ballmer acknowledged he had been “hammered” by investors who argued Microsoft should focus on its core desktop and server software business and forget businesses like digital music players and video games.

Source: Reuters