If you utilize a lot of images on your site and you feel that having those images indexed by the search engines then you could consider creating an image sitemap as part of your search engine optimization strategy. As far as sitemaps go, this is not your standard official search engine sitemap. In fact once completed you cannot 'submit' this sitemap as you would a normal sitemap. However, once spidered,

There are times when an individuals search engine optimization techniques actually end up doing more damage than good, to the point that search engines like Google remove the site from the index altogether. When this happens, what can you do? Identifying the problem: If you feel your web site may be in difficulties your first step should be to do a search on your websites URL.

Google are pushing their offline advertising with a new blog - called - Let's Take It Offline. Most advertisers aren't aware of Google's offline advertising in more traditional media outlets such as print, radio and television. The blog is supposedly going to keep everyone up to date with all that is happening with offline advertising. This means that, if Google runs true to form,

Marketing Pilgrim's post on Long Tail keywords being short on proof reports on a Wall Street Journal article on the same topic. The article's author, Anita Elberse a marketing professor at Harvard Business School, questions whether or not long tail search will stand the test of time. From a search engine optimization perspective, the question is whether or not we can afford to ignore them.

Google have never really openly endorsed search engine optimization consultants - until today that is. The Google Webmaster Help Center finally has an advice piece on how to hire a consultant - a change from their previous stance of simply warning against 'black hat' SEO operators. Google's advice is fairly reasonable too and includes: Before beginning your search for an SEO,

There is an interesting discussion on the search engine optimization forum at WebProWorld around the topic of NoFollow-DoFollow . The comments are varied although there are a few common points. The most common being the use of NoFollow for paid links. Little of the conversation actually relates to search engine optimization. Some of the conversation goes to extreme, however it should be remembered the NoFollow is, generally speaking, a harmless tool.

We have written many articles that either allude to, or come right out and say that your web design should avoid flash scripts wherever possible. It simply wasn't good for search engine optimization. We have also written on several occasions about how quickly things can change when it comes to search engines and optimizing your pages. Google have gone and done it again. Changed all the rules, and this time not for the better. Call me old fashioned,

One of the areas of search engine optimization that can never be emphasized enough is your content writing. Content is what visitors are looking for no matter what type of website you have. If you are selling products, your buyers are going to want information on the products they are buying. Sometimes it is the simple areas of content writing that let websites down. Whilst we may not undertake a search engine optimization program on a service agreement page,

As a search engine optimization expert we are frequently asked to get a site to number one in Google. Number one for what - your site? Getting a site name to number one can often be an easy task. Give me a week and it's done. But is that what you really want? I think not! When looking to get to 'number one in Google' you need to have some idea as to why you want that number one position for.

Search engine optimization is as easy as you want it to be - and as difficult as you want it to be. The reality is that it is as simple as A,B,C. A well designed SEO friendly website that is W3C compliant and user friendly. Your websites design should include a good URL structure and easy to navigate links. B uilding links from other other related sites. Whether you gain links from similar sites, directories or social sites is not important.

Search engine optimization is not a cheap process with cost ranging from $35 per page to $100 per page. If you have a website with 20 pages then you are going to pay from around $700 for very basic services upwards to around $2000. So how do you justify those costs. Justifying costs and setting a budget for search engine optimization is no different to setting a budget for advertising, salaries or any other area within a business. The real justification comes in the results.

Wherever you go you are going to find advice on how you should undertake a good search engine optimization program. There are however many website owners )and blog owners( who feel that a couple of SEO tricks will do the job. Here are the top three myths debunked. SEO Myth 1 : Search engine optimization only needs to be done once. If your website is providing 'fresh' content on a regular basis then your SEO program needs to work on that new content.

Your own analytics may just be hiding a few gems when it comes to keywords and search engine optimization. Most people look at their analytics and start to assess their keywords; what is working; what is not working; which pages are drawing traffic; what search terms are delivering the most traffic. Sometimes it pays to look at which search terms are delivering the least amount of traffic. Think about this logically.

ICANN has voted to make some interesting changes to domain names and the management of those names. WebProNews has a fairly comprehensive post on the topic. One of the areas that I do find interesting and worth reporting is the proposed end to domain name tasting. To quote from the post: It passed a resolution to eliminate domain tasting, a practice of using the grace periods to register domain names in bulk to see which ones are profitable.

Sometimes it is easy to understand why doctors hide their professional when going to parties, you know the story, "hey your a doctor, I have this pain in my '..". These days, tell people your a search engine optimization consultant and those with web pages will pounce. "I've got this web site and I was wondering if you could take a look at it sometime and ''." Sometimes I oblige,

WordPress has for a long time been a popular platform for blogs. It has also been loosely classified as a content management software or CMS. There are however many other different types of CMS out there and they to need effective search engine optimization strategies. Two of the more popular CMS platforms are Drupal and Joomla. Drupal has not always been an easy tiger to tame when it comes to search engine optimization.

Many search engine optimization 'experts' will tell you that organic traffic is 'free'. Don't believe them! Nothing is free as the saying goes and that includes traffic from the search engines. If you have a well optimized site that has used all the best search engine optimization techniques then you may find your site ranked highly for your keywords in the search results. Any traffic from those searches may not cost you a cent,

Search Engine Optimization )SEO( is an uncommonly dynamic and broad field of marketing which is constantly changing and adapting to market conditions, users' search habits, industry trends, and other factors. As such, Search Engine Optimization facts that were true six months or even six weeks ago may or may not still apply.

Believe it or not there was a time when search engines didn't exist, at least, not in their present format and back then, there was little in the way of search engine optimization. We still received visitors, and some sites even managed sales! So how did we get visitors to our sites when search engines couldn't help and search engine optimization was totally unknown? Believe it or not, it was simple old fashioned marketing.

Yahoo! Search Marketing blog has an interesting article on what they feel are the " 5 secrets for managing keywords in your account ". Their '5 secrets': 1. Consider Your Customer The advice here is to consider 'browsers' and 'buyers' separately. Browsers are still researching whilst buyers have their cash in their hand ready to spend. But yourself in the users shoes and consider terms that 'browsers' may use along with terms that 'buyers' may use. 2.