The Google Webmaster Blog is about to piss off a lot of people. They're going to discuss links in a four-part series, starting with the overview, which was today. Tomorrow they'll discuss internal links. The day after they'll cover outbound links. On day 4 the topic will be inbound links.

Search engine optimization geotargeting is getting to be much more popular today than it used to be. As more and more businesses go online, and many of them are local businesses trying to leverage the internet to increase their local business, then more of those companies are engaging in the practice of geotargeting. Is it necessary? If so, how do you know when to geotarget your website versus going it full force with a global SEO effort. That's a good question.

If you write a blog and you write more than 300 words in your blog posts then you might want some tips on how to make your blog post better from an SEO perspective. Coincidentally, these tips will also help your blog post in other ways as well. Here are some ways you can improve those long posts: Break up your paragraphs with subheadings - If you write for more than three paragraphs, add a subhead. It should be short and contain your keyword.

After 15 years, there is still the question of whether or not keywords in domain names are effective. The argument continues. I likely won't settle the issue here, but I'll give my two cents worth. There are plenty of people who say that keywords in domain names are necessary. Other people say they aren't necessary at all you do effective branding. Then there are the people who say it isn't necessary to include keywords in your domain name, but it is a good practice.

If you own a lot of websites then you may want to consider moving them to separate servers, especially if they are in the same niche. Google does not give the same weight to inbound links from sites in the same niche that sit on the same server. That's because it is assumed that they are associated with each other and therefore not really "inbound", but "crossbound.

MSN Live Search posted on its blog a few days ago that it wants to earn your loyalty. One of the ways that Live Search is planning to do that is to bribe you with perks for using their search engine. Is this a good business plan? There have been other search engines try offer such incentives for using them. Remember BigDaddy ? It didn't work. Now BigDaddy is using the kids. Ho hum. Well, MSN Live Search started out with a bit more clout than BigDaddy in the first place.

This morning's Pay Per Click  Journal post was about how Sarah Palin can teach you how to run a PPC campaign . The same principles can apply to SEO. For instance, Sarah Palin knows her target market and what it takes to win their hearts. You must write your SEO content so that it reaches your target audience. Here are Sarah Palin's talking points: Be "folksy" - You don't have to be Bob Dylan to create a folk artist identity.

When it comes to detailed SEO, which is more important - meta tags or alt tags? Before answering that question, let's examine what each is supposed to do. Your meta tags define important elements of your page. The title tag appears in the top left corner of your site visitor's web browser and is also the top line in the search engine listing.

You've optimized your website to the hilt, made the design look sleek and pretty, ensure it meets all the latest W3C standards, now what? Is it ready for public consumption and viewing? Not quite. You should make sure that it is compatible with all the browsers. Many a webmaster have spent hours working on their website only to see it go live and get an e-mail weeks down the road saying that something on the site isn't viewable or "looks funny.

Real SEO is not that hard. It's not that simple either. At least, some people seem to go out of their way to make it unsimple. Remember the KISS principle? Keep It Simple, and I won't call you Stupid. But it's a simple little thought process that you can use to help you stay on track where SEO is concerned. Don't try to make it difficult. SEO is about keyword and link management.

One thing that is often forgotten, or not known, in Search Engine Optimization is how website registration affects your trust with the search engines, particularly with Google. You should, if at all possible, register your site for several years. Sites that are registered for just one year do not get the same level of trust as sites that are registered for longer.

Article submission has long been touted as a valuable way to gain backlinks to your website, and backlinks are the central focus of any SEO program. One of the problems with article submission is that a backlink is not generated until someone picks up your article and republishes it - and also maintains the source links. There is a growing interest within the online community, particularly bloggers, for a newish article directory by the name of Qassia.

This past weekend saw another update of the toolbar Page Rank by Google and for the first time in a long time, there was hardly a blinking of the eyes from either the SEO industry or the broader web community. Whilst there has been mention around the forums, the conversation has been fairly light. As with all updates there are winners and losers with the losers generally having the most to say. Not this time.

These days we store video files, audio files and PDF files. In the early days we also stored documents created by a word processor or a spreadsheet. Come to think of it, we still do, and these documents can be optimized for the search engines just like a PDF )see our post on SEO for PDF's (, video or audio file. Microsoft Office makes it quite easy to include SEO related meta information such as title, category, keywords and a description of sorts.

Almost every SEO article you read deals with issues surrounding your website or blog. Occasionally you will see an SEO article on landing pages or ecommerce sites. Since the days when the internet was a babe in arms, it has been used for more than just websites. These days we store video files, audio files and PDF files. In the early days we also stored documents created by a word processor or a spreadsheet. Come to think of it, we still do,

The majority of small business owners who have a website prefer to use a more traditional form of advertising. For those with a local bricks and mortar presence, it will be the traditional media such as print or radio. For those with only an online presence, it will be advertising in the form of banners or pay-per-click such as Adwords. There are many more than fail to use any form of promotion including basic SEO for search rankings.

There is an old saying, "the world may think you're a fool, it's not until you open your mouth that you prove it". Sometimes I think reporters should note that before they start espousing SEO concepts. Forbes recently published an article titled How To Build A Killer Small Business Web Site . Some of the concepts were fine; some were so terribly off the mark.

SEO is based on keywords. From that basis stems everything else including content and link anchors. With that in mind, the announcement that Google Labs have just released a new toy which, while limited at present, could be a real bonus in the future. Called " In Quotes" , it will allow users to pull quotes based on keywords entered. At present,

We often hear talk about some of the page requirements for SEO. One of these is page loading speed. You may be wondering how load speed could affect your search rankings. From a purely visitor point of view, a poor load speed may see the visitor hit the back button and find another site. Search engines can now read a users actions, if they click on a search result and then hit the back button, the search engine will record this.

If there is one major flaw in Google Maps it is the fact that virtually anyone can claim a business and enter in the details. Once they do, they can put what ever details they wish. There are probably more unscrupulous people on the internet than there is in your local neighborhood and some of these have discovered the concept of hijacking unclaimed businesses in Google Maps. What these individuals do is change the business information so it promotes their own affiliate sites.