IdeaPro.com has improved from 3/10 to 4/10.

The last Google Pagerank Update happened on or around July 26th. So, we’ve had just over two months since their last shift in page ranks across all 100 or so of the Google data centers around the world. Understand that these new ranks will perculate around the world from system to system. It may take a few days for your own local version of Google to show the new ranks.

This new ranking, will effect the relative positions of your site(s) for keyword searchs that you are concerned about, and will therefore significantly increase or decrease the traffic you get from Google, which is usually the majority of traffic for most well designed and search engine optimized web-sites. Google traffic can range from anything around 50% to a maximum of about 95% for some sites.

To check your own ranking, download and install the Google Toolbar, directly from Google.com. It is free and does not slow down your page loading. There are versions for both Windows and Mac OS, and for all major browsers, including MS Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and so on.

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Like the rest of the web, the directory sites that many of us use to help promote our online marketing have also changed. Below you will see our complete list of over 246 sites that have been known to offer “free” backlinks as listings on their pages. You will notice some important changes from the list we provided last month.

General Trend for Lower Traffic over Last 9 Months

We have noticed that many major ‘destination sites’ around the web have lost significant traffic volume — from 25% to 50% reductions in many cases — since Google began to reorganize its rankings back in late 2007, somewhere around the end of October or early November. The decreases in traffic did not happen all at once, and appear to have generally bottomed-out sometime in June or July for most large sites. We’ve documented amazing dips in traffic for Dell.com, HP.com, OfficeDepot.com, OfficeMax.com and many many more famous web brand names. This trend seems to be so dramatic and widespread that one question is obvious: “Where did all the traffic go?” Only Google can answer that question, but it is certainly interesting. If true, an overall decrease in traffic could reveal important news for web marketers and users. We’ll share some of that information with you in another web marketing report soon.

Free or No-Charge and Non-Reciprocal Links

Note that while all of these sites did offer free, non-reciprocated links as of our research, their policies may have changed by the time you read this report. Some of these index sites require you to provide personal or email information, others do not. Some sites offer FREE backlinks only for listings which provide reciprocal links back to them, and offer non-reciprocated listings for users who pay a fee.

The best backlinks are those which are non-reciprocated.

However, in general, you will find this list an excellent resource to enhance your web marketing and search engine optimization efforts.

PAGERANK 8

• www.dmoz.org

PAGERANK 7

• www.lii.org

PAGERANK 6

• www.accoona.com
• www.buzzle.com
• www.ezilon.com
• www.maxpromo.com
• www.surfsafely.com

PAGERANK 5

• www.123kidzarea.com
• www.canlinks.net
• www.clickey.com
• www.directory.ldmstudio.com
• www.diroot.com
• www.geniusfind.com
• www.gimpsy.com
• www.illumirate.com
• www.info-listings.com
• www.information.com
• www.infotiger.com
• www.internet-web-directory.com
• www.linkcentre.com
• www.mastermoz.com
• www.mostpopularsites.net
• www.muslimmatrimonial.com
• www.odp.in
• www.pegasusdirectory.com
• www.prolinkdirectory.com
• www.re-quest.net
• www.resourcehelp.com
• www.searchsight.com
• www.searchtheweb.com
• www.searchwiz.com
• www.spheri.com
• www.strictlycss.com
• www.turnpike.net
• www.urlcable.com
• www.worldsiteindex.com
• www.zensearch.com

PAGERANK 4

• www.consultant-directory.com
• dir.mymaldives.com
• directory.cipinet.com
• english.hispanoempresa.com
• homepageseek.com
• invo.info
• mkdir.anchorbase.com
• search.able2know.com
• www.01webdirectory.com
• www.aardvarkbusiness.net
• www.abacho.co.uk
• www.ablazedirectory.com
• www.add-url.googlepagerankings.com
• www.all-linkdirectory.com
• www.amray.com
• www.anaximanderdirectory.com
• www.anywhere.ca
• www.arakne-links.com
• www.automotoforum.cz
• www.best-websites.net
• www.bhanvad.com
• www.directoriobus.com
• www.directorystorm.com
• www.earth-directory.info
• www.earthstation9.com
• www.exactseek.com
• www.friendly-links.com
• www.fx1.co.uk
• www.gmdir.com
• www.hedir.com
• www.jayde.com
• www.linkaddurl.com
• www.linksmatch.com
• www.littlewebdirectory.com
• www.massivelinks.com
• www.mavicanet.com
• www.netinsert.com
• www.nonar.com
• www.onemission.com
• www.pedsters-planet.co.uk
• www.premierdirectory.org
• www.searchwebworld.com
• www.sitesondisplay.com
• www.software-pointers.com
• www.surfdirections.com
• www.verticaldirectories.com
• www.webolink.com
• www.websavvy.cc
• www.websitespromotiondirectory.com
• www.wikidweb.com
• www.zeezo.com
• www.zunchdirectory.com

PAGERANK 3

• admart.ca
• directory.ticketretriever.com
• directory.trout.pl
• fabaroo.com
• www.1abc.org
• www.4-every-1.ws
• www.abilogic.com
• www.abydir.com
• www.achx.com
• www.addlinksuggest.com
• www.admcity.com/search
• www.allsitessorted.com
• www.allthewebsites.org
• www.anyapex.com
• www.bahiacar.com
• www.bestbusinessdirectory.com
• www.bluenoserlinks.com
• www.bryaa.com
• www.busybits.com
• www.c2000.com
• www.caven.org.uk
• www.cheapdirectory.net
• www.clarib.com
• www.coopdir.com
• www.crawlr.net
• www.creativeagency.eu
• www.ctapda.com
• www.cyberwebsearch.com
• www.digitaldir.eu
• www.directory-free.com
• www.directory-global.com
• www.directory-link.info
• www.directory5000.com
• www.directorydelux.com
• www.dirlist.net
• www.domaining.in
• www.dotrig.com
• www.dramba.com
• www.elitesuite.com
• www.exactlook.com
• www.fabaroo.com
• www.forage.in
• www.fxdir.com
• www.gainweb.org
• www.geeez.com
• www.gimmemydomains.com
• www.gotowebguide.com
• www.gqsky.com
• www.greece.snn.gr
• www.grizzlyweb.com
• www.hitalyzer.com
• www.honeyrunapiaries.com/bee_links.phtml
• www.hrent.com/_directory.html
• www.imomlinks.com
• www.indexme.info
• www.indexwebdirectory.com
• www.infignos.com
• www.jtob.com
• www.kaikus.com
• www.kazancity.ru/en
• www.linkdirectory.com.ar
• www.linkfeads.com
• www.linkgrinder.com
• www.linkspub.com
• www.linktoria.com
• www.look4business.org
• www.lybot.com
• www.makisearch.com
• www.massreps.com
• www.mygreencorner.com
• www.netkushi.com/directory
• www.norlinks.com
• www.osy-directory.com
• www.paradigmamed.org
• www.pblake.com
• www.pileiton.com
• www.piseries.com
• www.plentylinks.com
• www.poddys.com
• www.pop-net.org
• www.primefind.com
• www.profitchoice.com/webdir
• www.projectultra.com
• www.pukt.com
• www.purple-links.info
• www.putmyfinger.co.uk
• www.reviewedweb.com
• www.samaprzyjemnosc.pl
• www.sanory.com
• www.sapujagat.com
• www.sc3m.com
• www.search4i.com
• www.searchcity.biz
• www.searchlook.com
• www.searchsols.com
• www.searchtwentyfour.com
• www.searchwiz.org
• www.seo-sources.com
• www.sgtsearch.com
• www.shophomebased.com
• www.shoula.com
• www.sirpac.org
• www.somuch.com
• www.submitweblinks.com
• www.suggestlink.co.in
• www.tbwd.org
• www.telugulinks.com
• www.textlinkdirectory.com
• www.thalesdirectory.com
• www.the-free-directory.co.uk
• www.theeverywherepages.com
• www.tsection.com
• www.uk-web-index.co.uk
• www.urlshack.com
• www.uudir.com
• www.viesearch.com
• www.web-central.info
• www.webdirectory-submit.com
• www.webit.net
• www.webnetclick.com
• www.websquash.com/search/index.html
• www.webworldindex.com
• www.wura.co.uk
• www.yeandi.com
• www.yhay.com

PAGERANK 2

• www.777media.com
• www.biobidet.com/_directory.htm
• www.carromshop.com/resources
• www.epooch.com
• www.eurofind.bi
• www.explodesearch.com
• www.findwhatwhere.info
• www.indexme.info
• www.isins.com
• www.kingoftheweb.net/directory
• www.nicksyear.com
• www.opendirectory.in
• www.pakimp3.org
• www.raiisa.com
• www.skypemedia.com
• www.topsearchengineranking.us
• www.tx6.org
• www.urltube.com
• www.uuiq.com
• www.wonder-directory.com

PAGERANK 1

• www.avissoft.net

PAGERANK 0

• miriblack.com
• www.buzz-directory.com
• www.directswift.com
• www.down2e.com
• www.eliteweb.cc/directory
• www.eliteweb.cc/directory
• www.gtsquared.com
• www.gulqro.com
• www.itzalist.com
• www.network-room.com
• www.network-room.com/links
• www.o13.org
• www.seocourt.com
• www.siteseek.net

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Note that we are adjusting the rankings of the INDEX sites we list below, as we note changes. Check back in a few days for the complete list. We can already see a trend that many Pagerank 6 sites have de-ranked by one ranking, to a PR-5 and sometimes even a PR-4. Many of the lower ranked sites do not seem to have changed yet. However, this may be an early trend, as Google works its way down its internal list of sites to change ranks on. Until the results stabilize at the final level, expect to see some sites’ rankings decrease, increase and even go both up and down again. That’s why it’s called the “Google Dance.” Watch the changes at real time here!

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July 27, 2008 — 01:54 EST

ALERT: Google is currently updating their Toolbar Pageranks. We are editing the Pagerank values we show below as they get changed. Expect that these values may be temporary, and subject to change as the new official Google rankings evolve over the next few days. Check back for latest listings daily.

Most experts agree that increasing the number of highly ranked, high quality backlinks pointing to your site is the best way to increase organic traffic from search engines. The more popular sites that link to you (without a “nofollow” tag of course), then the more likely you may be to show up near the top of search result pages for most search engines. Like in high school, being successful online means being “in with the in crowd”.

And, the easiest way to do that is simply to go through the tedious process of submission to hundreds and hundreds of the most popular free listing sites. You might want to buy links from some of them, but Google has recently opposed this practice vigorously, and decreases their Pagerank and in some cases even bans them for the practice. So, we’re left with choices that require a bit of work from us.

So… there are really only 3 “safe and sure” ways to ensure that your site gets high quality incoming back links (IBLs):

• Free Article Sites (like eZineArticles.com)
• Free Web Site Directories or Indexes (like DMOZ.org, or Yahoo.com, which isn’t free)
• Free Press Release Sites (like PR.com)

Of course, the easiest way to get started is to submit your web-site to at least the top 100 free directories or so. Once you’re accepted by these sites, you will get free high quality backlinks without spending hours writing tedious articles or press releases.

That doesn’t mean that you should ignore the press release sites or article sites. I think that considering the work involved, most of us would want to start with the free directory or index lists.

Today, we’ve researched the actual current Google Pagerank of over 1,500 sites called “free web directories”. We’ve spent hours carefully logging the true popularity of these sites, trying to determine which are the best as of the moment (things change rapidly these days). Obviously, if you’re taking the time to fill out the forms on these sites to “join” their community and so on, you should start at the top, and work your way down.

One suggestion — work fast! We’ve found that some of these lists that purported to be currently only a few weeks ago are completely worthless. Hundreds of these sites have decreased in Google Pagerank by 2, 3 or even 4 whole positions merely over the last 2 or 3 months.

Here is the complete list. Enjoy it and tell your friends!

Note: If you use this list to help improve the rankings on your own site, please include a working link that points back to us, without a “nofollow” tag, please. Use the link shown below. We appreciate it, and it’s the way to pay us for the work in producing this valuable compilation. Thanks!

HOW TO LINK TO US: Drag across the text below to select it. Then press CONTROL-C to copy the selected text. Open a page on your site and paste using CONTROL-V the copied link into your page. Thanks!

<a href="http://www.ideapro.com/" title="SEO Expertise Since 1997, by IdeaPro.com" target="_new">SEO Expertise Since 1997, by IdeaPro.com</a>


Over the next few days, we will be researching hundreds of the free press release and also the free article sites. We’ll upload those as soon as they are finished, so come back soon to check.

Remember, it is important to act fast on these lists. In today’s world, the value of a “free” SEO web marketing site can increase or decrease overnight.

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You complain to your unwise client that this could get both of you in trouble. “Don’t worry,” says the client, “we can draw up a contract that says you’re not responsible for this project. I’ll take all the blame.”

So, are you protected?

What If Someone Dies?

To illustrate this kind of situation, assume that what you’re doing might result in someone dying. Hard to imagine, but grant me that for a moment. Are you protected from the legal, criminal or civil penalties because you had an agreement with your “employer” that spelled out a claim that only the hiring client was responsible?

Sounds silly, of course. No you would not be protected. Both of you would go to jail, maybe even get the death penalty if it applies.

What If People Merely Lost a Limb?

What if the contracted project only resulted in maiming someone, or seriously injuring them — say it chopped off their arm, for example. Could you avoid responsibility there? Surely not. You could be both criminally and civilly prosecuted for damages, assault, conspiracy, etc.

Okay, What About Causing Financial Ruin?

Say your project only did financial damages to someone or some company. Who is responsible? Can you avoid paying damages, since you only did the web design of the damaging web-site? Or, if you gave advice about contents for the site, will your contract absolve you of any responsibility for possible damages?

It’s a slippery slope, extending down from death, maiming, financial ruin to mere insults; who IS responsible, you or the client?

The “Devil Made Me Do It” Defense

This sort of reasoning didn’t work for the accused Nazis at The Nuremberg Trials. They died, even though they were only following orders (so they claimed).

Aren’t  Web-Site Contracts Different?

Working under a contract that says you aren’t responsible could help (possibly) give some protection from the client sites’ being banned by any 3rd party due to policies he recommends or requires of you. This is an EMPLOYMENT contract. You are a “work for hire” type employee, and he assumes all responsibility for your actions. That’s the point of the contract, one of them anyway. This is the intent of the document, but it may not survive scrutiny in cou

Just because you both signed it doesn’t mean a court will agree to it. The court didn’t sign it. In fact the court can dissolve it. Courts can “penetrate” the veil of protection enjoyed by parties to any agreement. A court can enforce the agreement, or completely erase it and treat the parties as unprotected actors; each responsible for his own actions. It’s done all the time in tax cases, for example.

The Judge Didn’t Sign Your Contract, You Did

When you walk into a court, you’re in a special place. The “boss” there is the judge (and/or the jury). While they CAN recognize instruments that create “fictional relationships” like partnerships, corporations, contracted work arrangements, etc., they are not required to. If they decide to set aside such a relationship, watch out! Each individual is on their own.

Even employees are required by the law to follow certain commonly accepted legal, moral and ethical practices.

Any contract between the client and the employed independent contractor, no matter what it says on its face, must still obey any and all controlling State and Federal laws governing the Internet. Further, they will both be liable, as agreed parties taking the contracted actions, to suffer any penalties exacted upon the action — whether such penalties are exerted or enacted by governing authorities, search engines, ISP companies or whoever.

Some contracts designed to avoid external authority, laws and regulations are really a CONSPIRACY instead of a contract. An agreement between two parties that any actions they take under the agreement that violate laws, terms-of-service, regulations of ISP firms and so on will only result in actions upon one of the signatories to the contract could easily be set aside by any court. The agreement presupposes that there will be a violation and tries to evade responsibility. This is certainly a kind of conspiracy.

A court friendly to the worker might preserve the contract to protect the worker against civil claims of damages in court — but only if the judge preferred to ignore the controlling body of common law pertaining to “generally accepted” practices.

Many judges can dissolve a contract if it flies in the face of a “reasonableness” argument. This always surprises people who are new to the courts. A judge and a jury (when convened) has enormous power. The best plan is to STAY OUT OF COURT. The way to avoid the court is to DO THE RIGHT THING in the first place.

The point is: Obey the laws governing the ‘net. Obey Google’s TOS. Obey the commonly understood ‘good practices’ of being a webmaster. You’re the professional. If you do something bad that was demanded by your client, any court or authority can judge you legally, morally and ethically (and even financially) responsible, setting aside any contract between you.

Not saying they WILL set it aside, only that they could and might do. Why not simply do the right thing in the first place.

If a web-design or internet marketing client insists that you break the rules, don’t take the job, contract or no contract.

We first published these comments in simpler form at WebProWorld.com, a great place to read lively discussions about web mastering topics.

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That’s good advice, as far as it goes. However, if you want real-world people to ACT on what you write, you should get to know THEM, in addition to writing something that you know about.

If you’re writing for an audience of computer geeks, hangout where they do for a while before you write stuff you want them to act on.

1. Find out where your audience gathers for coffee, meetings, seminars, classes or conventions
2. Get into the room with these terrific people — mingle!
3. Smell them, touch them, hear them, laugh and cry with them, get angry with them, learn to feel like they do in your gut
4. Watch what they do, what they read, what they eat, what they drink, what they wear, what they like and what they hate
5. Participate in discussions with them
6. Ask questions
7. Listen to what they say
8. Hear what they complain about
9. Take notes on what you learn in real time

Take your notes from those real-world sessions and read them carefully. Summarize them for yourself, so you understand what you have learned.

Now, write a list of the ten or twenty things you think these fine folks might want to know that you do in fact know about. This will be the list that will enable you to write persuasive, informative and effective traffic-generating articles or posts that your target buyers or readers will want to read, to bookmark and to link-to on their own web-sites.

Rubbing elbows with your audience is the secret to producing persuasive copy for advertising or internet marketing. If you don’t know your audience, you may be able to write wonderful copy. But what if nobody reads it? To get people to actually READ and ACT on your copy, you need to think and act like your target buyers and readers. And, the best way to learn about them is to actually spend time with them in the real world, where you can in fact smell them and touch them.

The web may have changed MOST things, but it hasn’t changed one thing — the 5 senses. When you use all five senses — touch, smell, taste, vision, hearing … you get the idea. So get in their face!

The copy you write will sell more, produce more traffic and you’ll be a much better copy writer.

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How you end up with long urls

A long URL usually comes about because most automatic Content Management System software platforms such as Wordpress or Movable Type, Drupal, Joomla and so on have a setting or plug-in that magically produces really long URLs for each post. Sometimes you have to switch them into a search-engine-friendly mode. Of course, some web-masters actually create the document “name” in HTML manually — wow, image that!

CMS “search engine friendly” settings do this by simply taking the TITLE tag of the post of page and using it to produce a long URL that includes the main words from the title as a url-line or document name, buried down in the permalink for the page or post.

NOTE: A good plug-in for Wordpress that lets you control these factors easily is All-in-One-SEO. We suggest installing it for all Wordpress users.

For this post you’re reading now, the full search engine friendly, SEO’d URL might look something like this:

http://www.ideapro.com/seo-tips-do-long-urls-hurt-or-help-increase-google-pagerank/

This is usually considered okay by most of us “seo experts” or “web marketing guru’s”. The reason? Because it does seem to work well most of the time.

How We Got a #1 Position for “Generate Backlinks” in Google

For example, do a search in Google for one of our previous posts or articles “How to Generate Backlinks to Increase Your Google Pagerank,” which we wrote on December 6, 2006 about 1-1/2 years ago. If you search for “generate backlinks” in Google today July-2-2008, you will see that post in the #1 position, and #2 for “generating backlinks”.

Not too shabby, considering there are 3,870,000 other web-sites who are competing for this term in the Google search results. And, most of these lower-ranked sites were actually written by other SEO companies and web marketing companies. Beating them isn’t easy! The page has continued to pull-in good traffic for 18 months. This traffic is free — we didn’t buy a single click-thru visitor!

HINT — Want us to help you increase your web traffic with better free Google search results? Drop us a quick email using our Contact Us form. We work fast and our prices are reasonable.

The permalink URL for the page looks like this:

http://www.ideapro.com/how-to-generate-backlinks-to-increase-your-google-pagerank

If you scroll down the Google search results page that comes up on this search, you will notice that almost every single top-ranked site listed uses at least one of these 2 search term keywords in their URL. Some of the URLs are quite long. See a screenshot of today’s search results below…

How IdeaPro.com outranks 3,870,000 other sites

Ideapro.com is #1 rated in a
Google search for GENERATE BACKLINKS
in organic free search results as of July 2, 2008

Only 2 of the top-20 SERPs don’t include at least one of the terms. The higher ranked sites use both terms. Sites not using the terms in the URL rank lower. Sites using the term in the TITLE, description or on page content, and URL rank highest. Sites with the term(s) actually in the top-level domain or “term1term2.com” might rank even higher.

This may not be conclusive, but it IS a STRONG hint: Make sure your top keywords appear in the “name” of the page, so that they will appear in the URL. Copying the TITLE tag down into the URL appears to be the best policy.

Notice a few interesting things:

1. The length of the actual resulting URL does not appear to matter, if it includes the searched for terms.
2. The order of the terms does matter. They should appear in the order they are most likely to be searched for by the users targeted.
3. The complete phrase ranks higher than only part of the phrase. Using just one keyword of the 2 terms ranks lower.
4. Using hyphens or dashes to separate the words or using no-hyphens does not matter. Either works. You can simply run all your words together in the permalink, or use dashes — as far as Google is concerned. However, humans and other search engines may like the hyphens. That’s why I say use them.
5. Spell everything correctly. Spelling matters. Bad spelling gets lower rankings or no ranking at all.
6. Notice that none of the highly ranked URLs have really-really super long lists of keywords. You can believe that there are thousands of sites that have such extra-long URLs, but none of them show up. So, keep your URL to a “reasonable length” — something like 10-12 words tops — 6-8 is probably better

So, use long URLs. They don’t hurt, and they do give you a chance to match more searches. You can use a couple of different basic keyword phrases in one title or page name.

For example, this page title of the post you’re reading includes several popular keyword phrases:

• seo tips
• long urls
• increase pagerank

This post might also end up highly ranked for various combinations of these key phrases, like “seo pagerank tips”, “long url seo”, “pagerank seo tips”, “pagerank seo help”, etc.

Want Professional SEO Help?

If you want help in search engine optimizing your web-site, we’re available for a reasonable fee $50 and up, payable through Paypal. Usually only takes us a day or two to get the job done. Use our Contact Us form.

Or you can always do-it-yourself for free! Either way, happy SEO marketing!

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We say this is “guaranteed”. Okay, maybe we should have said “probable” or “likely”. After all, the only things in life that are guaranteed are death and taxes, right? But, this is, according to Google marketing experts or engineers like Matt Cutts and others, the right way to promote your new site and give it the best chance to get a good page ranking. (Matt didn’t specifically endorse my recommendations below, but these are the KINDS OF THINGS he has said in the past, less a detail here and there.)

So, you’ve just established a brand new shiny web-site. Chances are that after a month or two, it got a nice Pagerank from Google. Boy were you pleased, right?

Then something terrible happened… the page-rank it used to have suddenly disappeared or dropped down a notch or two. What happened?

Assuming that you’ve not done anything wrong or nasty, there is a good chance that what you’re seeing is all very natural.

Here’s what happened, and more important — what you can do to fix it!

Google often gives a new site a “first look rating” that’s pretty high… sometimes a PR-4 or 5, which seems outstanding. This is based on a couple things…

1. What the site’s first page has on it, the “contents” or “about-ness” of the page
2. What the overalll structure of the domain underneath the front page is like

These two factors only consider what the contents and structure of the ON PAGE elements are like. If everything is pretty good, your new site will get a “first look” rating that reflects Google’s estimate of what the site MIGHT deserve, based on some mathematical algorithm that we’re not party too, naturally, compared to other sites which were similarly-well (or not well, as the case may be) and those sites’ keyword relevancy outlines.

Ahem.

What that means is, a first look rating is basically worthless, or nearly so.

As you’ve read above, the REAL and more-or-less permanent (nothing is permanent these days) Page-rank will be based on a very complicated list of factors, probably only 40% of which have anything at all to do with what is actually ON YOUR PAGE. In fact, this figure may even be lower, considering the big changes in Google’s ranking system last October and again in December, March, etc.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR “ON SITE” CHANGES

Your site probably looks okay, from what I could see in the code on the pages… looking at the source itself. I do have a couple of recommendations that apply to most new sites:

1) Remove any links to off-site page in your footers, site-wide. Move them to a credits page or about us page. Do not show them on every page. You don’t need those silly W3C buttons, page counters and other credits and links that amateurs often put at the bottom of their pages. Even “credibility logos” are probably a bad idea. Move them to the About Us page — anywhere but at the bottom of every page on your site. They create duplicated content and make it look like you’re selling links — which is a no-no.

2) Religiously apply a rel=”external nofollow” label inside EVERY external link that points off your site. Do this on every page. This tells Google that you are not selling links, which they are very sensitive about these days. Your links will end up looking like this…

<a href=”http://www.somesite.com/” rel=”external nofollow”>Some Site or Keyword Here</a>

You can also put a target=”_blank” label inside the tags, which tells the user’s browser to open the linked site’s page in a new window. Optional.

IncredibleHelp, a moderator at WebProWorld.com suggests that I’ve gone too far with this instruction. After investigating around the web, I think his remark that I’ve gone too far is most likely correct. So, we might want to apply the NOFOLLOW tags merely to external sites that we don’t trust. — Thanks, Incredible!

QUICK STEPS TO ENSURE YOU GET RE-RANKED

You need to build quality back-links pointing to your new site. These can be accomplished quickly and will cost you absolutely nothing. Depending on how well and how quickly you can write some new articles, this should only take you a couple of hours, from start to finish.

What you’re going to do is create 3 high quality back-links from 3 new free blogs, plus you’re going to write 2 free press releases or articles on highly ranked free press release or article sites.

CREATING THE FREE BLOGS

These are the 3 most popular free blogging systems:

1. Blogger.com — Pagerank: 10? (Google owns it!)
2. WordPress.com — Pagerank: 9
3. LiveJournal.com — Pagerank: 8

On each one of those, you will create a new account/blog.

1) Name the blog something related to your site, one of your main keyword phrases.

2) On each of these blogs, write one nice long article or “post” about your main topic related to your NEW or TARGET site. Do NOT write about the target site itself, nor any product you may be selling. Write these posts about the details of (your new site main keywords or topic), details about how to do things, the history of the craft, where to find good (your topic here), how to use (your topic), etc. Write about some related to your new target site, but avoid repeating stuff that’s already on that site. Do NOT duplicate something from any other site on the web, especially your own site. Make it completely, 100% original content. Organize the structure of the post nicely with a headline, sub-headings and topical paragraphs that reflect the keyword phrases (3 or 4 of them) that are similar to those of your main site. Make these posts at least 500 words. Longer is better. Remember NOT to duplicated phrases, sentences, headlines or anything between any of these new blogs and your main target site.

3) Near the top of your new article-post on each of these blogs, insert a link around the number-1 most important keyword phrase that your main site is about. Make this link point directly at the front page of your site, and do NOT “nofollow” this link. Be sure this link is in the first paragraph at the top of the page or post. Put it INSIDE the paragraph, not above or below it. Make sure that this link is surrounded by related “good content”. Do not put any other links on this post that point to any other site. Only one link, and it points to your target main site. Near the top of the post. In a well constructed paragraph. Check this post/article over carefully to ensure that it is spelled properly and uses excellent grammar. That’s important to Google.

4) Save that post and “publish” it so that it is available to the world.

If you’ve done this well on the 3 free blog sites above, these 3 posts will earn you some nice rating value from Google. You don’t need to “publicize” these blogs. They do that automatically, all by themselves. Blog technology magically notifies the world about each post you make in seconds.

There is only one more thing to do…

WRITE TWO PRESS RELEASES ABOUT YOUR MAIN SITE

Now you can write about your main site itself. Here’s the way we’re going to make these press releases “news worthy”. We’re going to debunk an idea or thought that people may have about your industry.

What does “debunking” mean?

To debunk is to take something that is commonly thought about a topic, and to prove conclusively that this thinking is NOT TRUE.

By doing this, you will guarantee that your press releases get accepted by the free press release sites, and that they will ultimately be READ by readers over the months and years to come!

Another thing, debunking is a negative. Readers and editors alike will find it irresistible. They get sick and tired of all the “positive” junk that is all over the web — fake press releases that are filled with repetitive claims about how wonderful something is. Debunking works!

In your press release you are going to quote yourself as the owner of your targeted main site as an “expert” in the field. You will say whatever needs to be said to disprove the common misconception that you are debunking. At the top and bottom of your press release, you will refer people to your main site, where they can find more information.

You will write these two press releases in a way that the most important stuff is near the top, and less important stuff is nearer the bottom. Mention your target site 2 or 3 times without links. Put a link somewhere near the top (if they allow it). Otherwise, they will give you one single link at the bottom as the “contact” person for the press release.

Here is a pretty-good list of well-ranked “free press release” sites. Most will try to sell you a wider distribution for $30 or more. Don’t do it. Just use their free distribution. You will have to sign up and give them your email address and site name, etc. Do it. Then submit the press releases you’ve written.

Here is high-to-low-Pagerank sorted list of some great “free press release” web-sites to try… it’s fairly current (as of this writing), but some sites may have gone “pay only” instead of “free”, by the time you read this article. Check them out. I recommend as “first bets” these — PRWeb.com (PR-7), NewswireToday.com (PR-6), PR.com (PR-6), PRLeap.com (PR-6), PRLog.com (PR-6) and finally PressBox.co.uk (PR-6). There is no limit to how many you can submit to, but those are great places to start. We recommend writing an all-new press release for each site, since it’s not nice to create duplicated content on the Internet, right? Here is the full list:

Pageranks were accurate on June 30, 2008:

1. PRWeb.com - PR 7
2. NewswireToday.com - PR 6
3. PR.com - PR 6
4. PRLeap.com - PR 6
5. PRlog.com - PR 6
6. PressBox.co.uk - PR 6
7. 1888PressRelease.com - PR 5
8. ClickPress.com - PR 5
9. eCommWire.com - PR 5
10. Free-News-Release.com - PR 5
11. Free-Press-Release.com - PR 5
12. Free-Press-Release-Center.info - PR 5
13. IndiaPRWire.com - PR 5
14. PRFree.com - PR 5
15. PRzoom.com - PR 5
16. PressAbout.com - PR 5
17. PressReleasePoint.com - PR 5
18. TheOpenPress.com - PR 5
19. AddPR.com - PR 4
20. FreePressReleases.co.uk - PR 4
21. i-Newswire.com - PR 4
22. MediaSyndicate.com - PR 4
23. PR9.net - PR 4
24. PR-Inside.com - PR 4
25. PRCompass.com - PR 4
26. PRurgent.com - PR 4
27. PressMethod.com - PR 4
28. Yudkin.com - PR 4
29. 24-7 Press Release - PR 3
30. BizEurope.com - PR 3
31. FreePressIndex.com - PR 3
32. MyFreePR.com - PR 3
33. PressRelease.com - PR 1
34. Express-Press-Release.com - PR n/a
35. FreePressRelease.co.cc - PR n/a
36. PageRelease.com - PR n/a
37. PressFlow.co.uk - PR n/a
38. TechPRSpider.com - PR n/a

Just pick 2 or 3 of these outfits that appeal to you. Visit their own front or home pages to see which of them is the highest page-ranked by Google at the moment. Of course this changes from time to time. So be sure to check. Give your best written press release to the highest ranked site.

Wait a few days. They usually publish your press release 2-3 days after it is submitted.

A few hours spent now the way I’ve outlined here will pay off big dividends in the months and years to come.

And, you have violated no “Google Rules”. Everything is white hat. Just do the steps, and wait. It does take time. How long? Well, maybe only a few weeks, but usually several months.

Good luck and happy promoting!

A first-edition, somewhat less detailed version of this post was created as one of my comments on WebProWorld.com. That site is a great web marketing resource for newbies and experts alike.

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We own thanks to Barry and SERoundtable.com for his/their hard work in recording this for us, and hosting the audio downloads (never easy on a server). You may want to make his site a regular stop on your daily surfing schedule.

The audio is in MP3 format, which means almost anyone can play it right in their browser. Read the text or listen to the MP3 file at the SERoundtable.com archived page (78 minutes long, or about 71MB).

If you want to participate in the post-mortem discussions or read even more about the session, where some of the unanswered questions are dealt with, then visit the Google Groups: JuneTune Unanswered Questions page.

Enjoy the rare event, while the audio version is still available.

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Quantcast shows two kinds of site traffic measurements:

1. Estimated traffic
2. Metered traffic from cookies

They also provide an amazing amount of demographics on the real or estimated economics, ages, sex, family status, income, educational level, and so on of the site’s visitors. To see an example, visit their page for one of our own health related sites — Level1Diet.com. You’ll notice that they link you to dozens of ’similar sites’ that have a similar audience profile by demographics, psychographics, etc.

This is remarkable information. You won’t find such detailed visitor profile info on any public advertising metrics site. In fact until recently, you would have had to pay online data and marketing research companies thousands of dollars just to get access to similar data. This ‘free access’ is amazing… and extremely useful.

Quantcast Marketing Info is Used For:

1. Advertisers — media buyers and ad agencies, who want to know about the sites where they buy banners, links or other ads.
2. Ad-accepting sites or the ‘new media’ companies themselves, who want to know about the incomes, education, and other habits of their visitor traffic.
3. Competing sites, who want to know about the traffic and profiles of their competitors… for marketing purposes.

The New Improved Cookie-Metrics at Quantcast

Since June 22nd or so, the usual cookie measurements have been automatically adjusted to account for the frequency that cookies are erased, modified, and so on. This makes significant differences between visitor measurements before and after the new adjustments. Some visitors erase cookies more often than others. This tendency can be predicted by the type of visitor — their profile specifics — and by the type of site being measured — by contents and related site cha