GoLexa.com

[Tami]

Judging from some of the results, there\'s definitely some work to be done to improve our traffic and rankings. 0.o

[url=\"http://www.smallmouthbass.biz/google4/pagerank/pagerank.html\"][u]Page & Traffic Ranking Checks[/u][/url]

[url=\"http://www.golexa.com/\"][u]goLexa.com[/u][/url]

[url=\"http://www.rustysearch.com\"][u]relevancy checks[/u][/url]

[b]GoLexa.com Provides A Number Of SEO Tools[/b]

By Chris Richardson


The recently launched GoLexa.com offers users a completely ugly website that turns out, in spite of its appearance, to be completely useful, especially to those needing search engine optimization information.

While it may be true that you can file GoLexa.com under the \"you can\'t judge a book by its cover\" category, that does not reduce the usability of their service. Nick at Threadwatch described GoLexa as an SEO Swiss Army Knife, and he\'s not wrong.

GoLexa offers users the ability to perform a complete page analysis, SEO-wise, to any website entered into the search box. Specifically, GoLexa checks for the following:

# Link Analysis performed by PRSearch.net

# Keyword Analysis by Search Engine World

# Domain WhoIs by CentalOps.net

# Traffic Analysis conducted by Alexa

# A way back look at the site queried provided by The Internet Archive

# A general site analysis conducted by Netcraft

# A web site size and speed report provided by WebSiteOptimization.com

# Ping Utility done by Dev Mechanic

# IP analysis courtesy of Search Engine Optimization Tools

# Link Analysis provided by SEOChat

# AdSense Analysis provided by Digital Point


Surprisingly, these are not the only options available to those using GoLexa. As you can imagine, GoLexa is powered by the Google API, a script that gets results for the above analyses, and Alexa\'s Thumbnail program.

With the number of tools available on GoLexa, it\'s easy to see why they came up with the catch phrase: \"The Search Tool with Complete Page Analysis for each Result,\" because the engine certainly provides users with complete SEO analysis capability. So while GoLexa may be a little difficult on the eyes, it is quite functional and provides the SEO curious everything they need to perform analyses of all kinds.

About the Author:
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.

[url=\"http://www.searchnewz.com/searchnewz-12-20050512GoLexacomProvidesANumberofSEOTools.html\"]source: SearchNewz[/url]

[Scott]

SEO is something I really don\'t have a clue about. Must look out for a book on it and perhaps a trip to the library is called for.

[Tami]

I\'m pretty \"up\" on SEO, I just hadn\'t bothered really checking our ratings out but as more sites are getting done or closer to done, it\'s something that\'s going to need working on. I\'ll recruit Shane to help out with that seeing as he\'s the Marketing Admin /blum.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':P\' />

[Endo]

I thought GoLexa was one of those adware toolbars for IE or w/e lol ; Direct me on what to do and ill set to it

[Tami]

GoLexa is part of the Alexa group, but we\'re concerned with their SEO tools, not their toolbar. I\'ll come up with some things to do and post them.

[Trinity]

Some articles on SEO:

[url=\"http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/seo/\"]http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/seo/[/url]

This forum also has a large section devoted to SEO:

[url=\"http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/\"]http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/[/url]

[Scott]

Found this great guide to SEO - [url=\"http://www.socengine.com/seo/beginners.php\"][u]Clickety[/u][/url]

[Tami]

Good site, Scott /smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':)\' />

We\'re going to have to become masters at SEO to increase our numbers. We\'re getting a good number of hits, but once the freeware and store sites are open, we\'re going to need to convert those hits to people who really look around and maybe get involved (oh yes, and who buy stuff in the store.)

[Tami]

here\'s another good site. If I find more, I\'ll just edit this post.

[url=\"http://www.rankthis.com/\"]http://www.rankthis.com/[/url]

[url=\"http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/\"]http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/[/url]

[url=\"http://www.webstyleguide.com/index.html\"]http://www.webstyleguide.com/index.html[/url] eBook

[url=\"http://www.highrankings.com/\"]http://www.highrankings.com/[/url]

[url=\"http://www.searchengineguide.com/\"]http://www.searchengineguide.com/[/url]

[b]Additions:[/b]

[url=\"http://www.pandia.com/\"]http://www.pandia.com/[/url]

[Trinity]

[url=\"http://www.searchengineworld.com/misc/guide.htm\"]http://www.searchengineworld.com/misc/guide.htm[/url]

[url=\"http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200502/basics_of_search_engine_optimisation/\"]http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/2005...e_optimisation/[/url]

[Tami]

[url=\"http://www.searchengineoptimising.com/url_submission/submit-add-url/manual-submissions.htm\"]http://www.searchengineoptimising.com/url_...submissions.htm[/url]

[Tami]

Google API account: I created one for KillaNet as I needed an API licence number to sign us up on another web developers\' site which contains some useful tools for free use, such as a word tracker.

For more info on the API account, click [url=\"http://www.google.com/apis/index.html\"][u]here[/u][/url]

User name: admin@killanet.net pw: t0lk1en

The tools site: [url=\"http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/\"]http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/[/url]

User name: Killanet pw: t0lki3n

[Tami]

This article was in today\'s newsletter from Telus (our office adsl provider)

Searching is the most popular activity on the Internet. Unless they already have a Web site in mind, most people go to a search engine like Google or Yahoo when they\'re looking for more information or want to purchase a product or service. They enter a keyword or two and then either find what they\'re looking for in the first few links that turn up, move on to a new search or give up. In fact, studies have shown that any results past the third page - usually, a total of 30 results - are completely overlooked.

So if you\'re going to bring interested customers and prospects to your Web site, one of the most important things you can do is to make sure that their searches turn up links to your Web site - if possible, within the first 10 results. To do that, you need to optimize your Web site for search engines. And to understand why, you first need to know how search engines work.
How Web sites get into search engine directories

Some search engines such as Yahoo actually hire people to go through your page and rank it manually. They\'re called human-powered directories

Others such as Google use organic or natural searches. They run programs called spiders that search through your Web site for relevant keywords, links, and content. Their spiders work around the clock, searching the Web for new content, so you don\'t even need to submit your Web site to them. If you have enough inbound links, they\'ll find your site naturally. When they do, you want to be sure that the keywords the spiders pick out are the ones most relevant to your target audience.
How to choose the right keywords

Your Web site comes up when a searcher types in a phrase or word that\'s found on your site. The closer that phrase or word is to your keywords, the higher your Web site will rank in the results. Here are some hints to make sure that happens:

* Target your audience by being specific and avoiding general terms

o Instead of \'shoes\' say \'used running shoes\'
o Don\'t just use your business name - use the specific product or service name
o If your customers are experts, use the kind of expert phrases they use - for example, \"flux capacitor\"
o However, if you\'re an expert in your field and your customers aren\'t, don\'t use keywords that are too specific. For example, say \"time travel\" instead of \"flux capacitor\"
* Use a database such as Wordtracker to see what phrases have been used the most by searchers over the past month/year
* Consider testing your keywords with pay-per-click services such as Google AdWords
* Ask your employees, coworkers, clients and friends to help you compile a list of 30 keywords that describe your business or that they would use to find your products or services in a search engine

How to optimize your Web site for search engines

Here are some basic \"rules\" for optimizing your Web site:

* Keep keyword density (the percentage of how often your keywords are mentioned on your page) to around 5%
* Have keywords in different text styles because search engines give different weight to text with certain characteristics - for example, bold, italic and coloured text and links carry more weight
* However, body text also carries extremely high weight - and the first two paragraphs are the most important
* Do not overuse header tags as each tag has diminishing weight as you go down from H1, H2, H3, H4

o Aim for around 30% density of keywords in your header tag
* Spiders also go through your navigation bars and give them more weight. However, be especially careful when you optimize here. You may want to use keywords, but don\'t confuse your end user
* Titles carry very high weight, so title each page appropriately with a 5 to 8 word title, not a description
* Do not create useless code as this will confuse the spiders and mess with your content
* If you can\'t program html, use an application such as Dreamweaver - it makes the coding cleaner than other Web site publishing software and will not confuse the spiders
* Give your page a static URL because spiders understand them better
* Make your site clean and easy for spiders to navigate
* Remember that any page with over 30 links is overkill. The weight of outbound links will be nearly insignificant
* Continually fix broken links
* Create a sitemap as its links will help spiders find all your content
* Remember that spiders have a hard time with Java applets and Flash, so if you do use them, add keywords in regular text as well
* Meta tags were developed to make it easier for search engines to classify your site. Unfortunately, they were abused and many search engines no longer use them. However, it can still be beneficial to include:

o A keyword tag: use a keyword at most 3 times / set
o A description tag: highlight your keyword in a concise and easy to understand phrase
* Footers are given more weight than normal text, but keep it clean and simple, linking only to the most important pages on your site - for example, products, contact us, home
* Always remember that your ultimate goal is to sell to people, not to search engines

o Keep your content high in quality as this will bring in more visitors and increase inbound links
o Refresh your content often to keep visitors and spiders coming back
* Be aware that your Web site can be penalized if you:

o Use hidden text and hidden links
o Stuff too many keywords into your site
o Create multiple pages with duplicate content
* Above all, be ethical and use your common sense

Some general hints and tips

* You don\'t need to submit your Web site to more than the top five search engines - Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Ask Jeeves and Lycos. The other search engines are rarely used and if you follow these steps, they will find your site on their own
* However, if there is a search engine specific to your industry, it will likely be to your advantage to submit your site
* To submit your site, go to the \"add url\" pages
* Publish articles regularly, using them to update your site, to bring in more links and boost your rankings
* Links currently carry more weight than well-written and optimized content, so when linking to your \'Home\' page from other pages on your site, use your keywords e.g. \'cool cars home\'
* Once it has been optimized, review your site to make sure it\'s readable. Get a few outside opinions
* Consider using a tool like [url=\"http://www.Clicktracks.com/analyzer/\"]http://www.Clicktracks.com/analyzer/[/url] to see what search term visitors used to find you, their inbound path, and what search term is the most used to generate traffic
* When linking to other pages or sharing links, be sure to keep it relevant (don\'t link a coffee site to a shampoo site)
* Small to medium-size businesses will get the biggest gain from targeted traffic generated by search engine optimization

# Tools like [url=\"http://www.prprowler.com/\"][u]PR Prowler[/u][/url] can help you build links# It is also important to monitor your competitors\' sites and their rankings in the search engine

* You can do this manually by using search engines to find your own keywords
* Or you can use online tools like the ones found at Mike\'s Marketing [url=\"http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/\"][u]Tools[/u][/url]

# You can add your name to search engines and directories at sites like www.selfpromotion.com
# Keep up to date on the newest techniques by visiting blogs, message boards, newsgroups and reading industry newspapers or newsletters

Helpful Links:

[url=\"http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/\"]Climbing the Beanstalk[/url]

[url=\"http://www.wilsonweb.com/cat/cat.cfm?page=2&subcat=mp_Search\"]Wilson Web[/url]

[url=\"http://www.highrankings.com/subscribe.htm\"]High Rankings Advisor[/url]

[Tami]

weeeeeeee cool tools for free

[url=\"http://www.webconfs.com/\"]http://www.webconfs.com/[/url] backlink & link text checker via yahoo

[url=\"http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/sim_spider.cgi\"]http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/sim_spider.cgi[/url] what spiders see on our sites plus some other nifty tools in the bottom lefthand corner, including a robots.txt checker thing

[url=\"http://www.searchenginegenie.com/seo-tools.htm\"]http://www.searchenginegenie.com/seo-tools.htm[/url]

[url=\"http://www.marketleap.com/services/freetools/default.htm\"]http://www.marketleap.com/services/freetools/default.htm[/url] keyword verification & search engine saturation checker

GifBot by NetMechanic

[url=\"http://www.netmechanic.com/accelerate.htm\"]http://www.netmechanic.com/accelerate.htm[/url]

GifBot will compress your GIF, JPEG, and animated GIF images by decreasing the file size without sacrificing the quality of the image. So, your pages load faster!

Bobby Online

[url=\"http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp\"]http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp[/url]

This online service allows you to test Web pages to help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines. It’s very important to make sure your Web pages are accessible for those who surf the Internet with disabilities.

AnyBrowser.com Screen Size Tester

[url=\"http://anybrowser.com/ScreenSizeTest.html\"]http://anybrowser.com/ScreenSizeTest.html[/url]

Have you ever been to a Web site and not been able to scroll to the bottom of the page? The scroll bar is there, but you can’t get down that far to scroll. It’s not a pleasant experience. At the Screen Size Tester, you can test your Web pages in different screen resolutions so that you can be assured that all of your visitors can view your site in its entirety.

Anti-Spam and Security Fix for FormMail.pl Script

[url=\"http://mailvalley.com/formmail/\"]http://mailvalley.com/formmail/[/url]

“Formmail.pl, one of the most-used perl scripts on the Web, is designed to send data entered into a Web form to an e-mail address. This script could be exploited by a malicious user who could use Formmail as a spam server. If you use this script, spammers may be able to use it to send spam freely using your server\'s resources.” This site offers a patched version that prevents the script from being used by spammers.

Comprehensive Guide to .htaccess

[url=\"http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess.shtml\"]http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess.shtml[/url]

Though not a “tool” per se, this comprehensive tutorial about how to use the .htaccess file is excellent.

Link Reputation Tool

[url=\"http://198.68.180.60/cgi-bin/link-reputation-tool.cgi\"]http://198.68.180.60/cgi-bin/link-reputation-tool.cgi[/url]

We know the importance of link popularity (the number and quality of inbound links pointing to our Web site). Equally important is link reputation - what those inbound links say about our Web site. In other words, link reputation is what is written in the link text, or the clickable text, pointing to our Web site. With this free link reputation tool, you can learn what other sites are saying about your Web site.

FreeWebSubmission Site Ranking Tool

[url=\"http://www.freewebsubmission.com/site-ranking.html\"]http://www.freewebsubmission.com/site-ranking.html[/url]

Plug in your URL and your keyword phrase, and you\'ll quickly learn your rankings across 12 major search engines in a minute or two. Pretty slick!

DNS Report

[url=\"http://www.dnsreport.com/\"]http://www.dnsreport.com/[/url]

Many domains have DNS problems. This handy site will help you find those problems and fix them by providing a DNS report for your domain.

Everything You Want to Know about a URL (and I DO mean EVERYTHING)

[url=\"http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/\"]http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/[/url]

URLinfo is a “tool for handling Web pages,” and it includes 107 tools that you can use to dig for information on a URL. You\'ll be there for hours, so grab a sandwich and a cup of coffee and get ready! There are more nooks and crannies to this site than you can possibly imagine.

Search Engine Relationship Chart

[url=\"http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm\"]http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm[/url]

By far, the best chart to show the relationships between the search engines and directories is Bruce Clay\'s. He does a tremendous job of keeping it up to date, and you can even download a copy as a PDF.

[Tami]

Monitor and Increase Your Search Engine Visibility with the DIY SEO Tools
By Tinu Abayomi-Paul

In this three part article, you\'ll find many tools that any webmaster can use to monitor your site\'s search engine position, and use to increase the visibility of your site in major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

URL Trends
[url=\"http://www.urltrends.com/\"]http://www.urltrends.com/[/url]

Most of the coverage I\'ve seen focuses on the ability of UrlTrends to allow you to \"View Any URLs Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Popular Search Terms and Incoming Links\".

And that\'s a great thing, to be able to see all of that from one place. But one great thing missed about this tool are that you can subscribe to changes to the results via RSS -hands off monitoring of your site.

Fagan Finder\'s URL Info
[url=\"http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/\"]http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/[/url]

This online gadget is like the Swiss Army knife of site information, giving you one-page access to dozens of pertinent check-ups. But monitoring relevant search engine information like your backlinks, or the cached pages in a search engine are just the tip of the iceberg.

You can use URL Info to check that your HTML code is validated, translate your page, and if you\'re a blogger, discover where your site is mentioned in the blogosphere.

Spannerwork\'s Spider Simulator
[url=\"http://www.spannerworks.com/spidersimulator.0.html\"]http://www.spannerworks.com/spidersimulator.0.html[/url]

Ever wondered what your site looks like to the search engine spiders that crawl the web, looking for information to include in their databases? Go to this page to see what information is seen by the spider and what it skips over.

Spannerworks.com can also help you figure out how to troubleshoot content that seems like it should show up to a spider but doesn?t, with its HTTP viewer. They also have a tool that will analyze your keyword density.

GoRank.com\'s Top Ten Comparison
[url=\"http://www.gorank.com/seotools/\"]http://www.gorank.com/seotools/[/url]

If you\'ve been banging your head against the wall in an attempt to figure out why you haven\'t hit the top ten results in Google, GoRank.com has a page that can give you important clues to help you figure it out. One of my favorites, the Top Ten comparison report, will scrub the raw data of the top ranking results for a given keyword.

In studying the results, you may find it easier to understand where your own optimization efforts are going wrong. Don\'t forget to stop by Google for your API key at [url=\"http://www.google.com/api\"]http://www.google.com/api[/url] as you\'ll need it to create your free account.

Search Guild\'s Keyword Difficulty Checker

This one\'s an old favorite of mine. When you find what you may think is an ideal keyword, before you start tweaking your pages, it\'s a good idea to run it through this tester. Using the Google API, it analyzes whether or not a given phrase will be worth your efforts.

You\'ll already have to be well-versed in how to find good keywords to plug into the tool, but once you have that nailed, it\'s pretty reliable in telling you whether it\'s worth your time to target that phrase. If you use flash on your site, check out the flash viewer on their utilities page as well.

In the next article in this series, you can read more about tools specific to Yahoo and Google that will help you track your rankings and study your site.

*waits for part two*

source: [url=\"http://www.searchengineguide.com/tinu/004626.html\"]http://www.searchengineguide.com/tinu/004626.html[/url]