News about what is happening in technology today!

Search engine optimization (SEO) is important to the success of a website. However, successful search engine optimization takes time. Many webmasters don’t want to invest the time and work that’s necessary to optimize a site.

For that reason, some webmasters use cloaking to get their websites listed on search engines.

What is cloaking?

A website that uses cloaking recognizes search engine spiders by their IP address. It returns web pages to search engine spiders that are different from the web pages that web surfers see. Usually, the cloaking software creates hundreds of web pages that are optimized for a special search term so that search engine spiders get the impression that the website contains a lot of relevant information about a special topic.

If you often search on Google then you probably can confirm that you can get good results with cloaking. You can often find web pages on Google that have little to do with the description on the result page.

Does this mean that cloaking is the holy grail of SEO?

Cloaking obviously works. Does this mean that you should use it for your web pages? That would be very risky. Very few web pages that use cloaking can keep their search engine rankings for a long time.

Google has a clear statement about cloaking on its webmaster pages: “Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as cloaking.”

In general, most websites that use cloaking are getting banned from Google and other search engines sooner or later. It’s only a question of time. In countries such as Germany it can even be illegal to use cloaking. If you want to get long term results with your website, you should avoid cloaking at all costs.

What do search engines want from you?

Search engines want to return high quality websites to their searchers. That means that you must make sure that your website is such a high quality site. There are three main factors that make a website a high quality website:

• Your website should have a lot of content. If your website consists of one or two pages or just a few pictures then it will be very difficult to get high search engine rankings. Search engines also aren’t interested in the 825th eBay affiliate page. It’s important that your web page has great content. If that content can only be found on your website then that is even better.
• You must make sure that search engines can parse your web pages. Make sure that your HTML code is clean and that search engines can easily find out what your web pages are about. Cluttered HTML code and web pages that have been ‘optimized’ for dozens of keywords often prevent high rankings. Focus on one or two keywords per web page. It’s better that a web page is highly relevant to one or two keywords than somewhat relevant to a lot of keywords.
• Your website must have good incoming links. Links from centralized link farms and link exchange systems don’t work. You should make sure that the web sites that link to you are at least loosely related to your web site. The more related websites link to your site, the better.

All of this requires work and efforts on your part. Your web site is an important part of your business that requires the same attention as other parts of your business. The sooner you treat search engine optimization as an important investment for your web site success the sooner you’ll get great results.

How much do you think Slashdot is worth? Or Nick Denton’s Gawker Media or TheFaceBook or Boing Boing? You can find out the answers here… in my latest Business 2.0 story, The Return of Monetized Eyeballs. A sharp rebound in the online advertising market, and big media companies like AOL (a division of Time Warner) buying up folks like Weblogs Inc, has prompted a sudden increase in the value of the “eyeballs,” the dreaded phrase from the early days of Internet mania.

This time, the buyout metrics are slightly different as new variables like cost of customer acquisition and stickiness. In the article, I point out that the acquisition price per unique visitor had fallen from an all time high of $710 (Yahoo’s purchase of Broadcast.com) in April 1999 to about 73 cents in November 2001. How are we doing these days? About $10 a unique visitor! Weblogs Inc. co-founder Jason Calacanis advises “And build a brand. Because without that, you’re going nowhere.”

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(PRWEB) November 29, 2005 — Search engine marketing firm @Web Site Publicity announced today its online public relations services to drive qualified traffic to client websites. The menu of PR services includes writing press releases, optimizing them so they are “findable” when people do searches at Google News, Yahoo News and other portals, and distributing the releases to these portals. In addition, releases are e-mailed to a network of thousands of journalists and editors who have opted-in to receive press releases in specific categories.

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Ellicott City, MD (PRWEB) November 29, 2005 — The Web has revolutionized human interaction. In a decade, the Web has evolved from a curiosity to the most important communications medium on Earth. Entering its second decade, the Web’s increasing economic and social impact will be informed by the emergence of a new trend in Web design and development called Customer Experience Design.

The sudden expansion that marked the Web’s first decade drove a continuous improvement cycle in Web technology, and in understanding how to use the medium as a way to acquire new customers, communicate with existing customers, and convert “surfers” to customers. Organizations realized that they needed to think like retailers, putting the customer first, both leading them and reacting to their needs. Customer experience design is a framework for integrating all aspects of a Web site to build relationships that will translate to a profitable experience for the customer and the Web site owner.

Accomplishing this requires the integration of a variety of factors, including branding, content, marketing, and measurement.

Branding Defines the Experience

Brands are no longer just logos and taglines. Marketers know that branding embodies the entire customer experience, composed of every interaction a person has with a company. Apple isn’t a strong brand just because of its logo and high-gloss design. It produces clear, consistent, messages that match its products and speak to its customers’ sense of what they want from their technology. And that has instilled a passion in its customers. A brand is a promise fulfilled.

Marketing Is the Bait

Web marketing encompasses a gamut of strategies, including public relations, feeder sites, pay-per-click advertising, and search engine optimization. Experiential marketing combines these in a holistic approach that blends marketing into the overall customer experience. Web marketing is the initial step in customer experience design: establishing the relationship.

Content Is the Meat

A byproduct of the ubiquitous Web is information overload. Zealous site owners have inundated customers with Web pages. Sites that work use content to enhance the customer experience by clearly presenting the information the customer needs. Web content needs to underscore the brand message, support marketing programs, and increase customer acquisition through search engine optimization and a customized experience.

Measurement Provides the Proof

The only way to know whether customer experience design methods work is to monitor site performance. In building relationships, a company must listen to its customers. Never before has commercial activity been so interactive, and with this comes the ability to converse with customers more easily. Web tracking systems and online customer communications guarantee that a company knows which techniques are working, and how to tune them for optimum performance.

Successful CEOs know it. Retail managers know it. Web designers are finally getting it. The customer comes first. Customer experience design, an integrated approach to providing Web sites that better serve their customers, will result in increased customer acquisition and retention, but most importantly, sales.

About the Author
Kara Brook is the founder and president of Brook Group, LTD. To learn more about her innovative customer experience design strategies, visit http://www.brookgroup.com/customer. For more FREE resources, visit http://www.brookgroup.com/resources.

About Brook Group
Brook Group, LTD (http://www.brookgroup.com) is a strategic Customer Experience Design firm, specializing in Web design, content management, and application usability engineering. Brook Group provides information architecture and user experience solutions that help organizations streamline internal efficiencies and increase market share. The firm has earned its impressive reputation with over 20 years of innovating customized communications and Web “experienceware” solutions that help businesses, non-profits and federal clients reduce costs and increase productivity. Brook Group also provides best of breed branding, Search Engine Optimization and Internet marketing.

Major Clients include: Ameritrade, America Online, VeriSign, The Executive Office of the President of the United States and the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Web-savvy searchers have a new way to find information. For the first time searchers can enjoy a free flowing experience in the same way surfers navigate the web and easily unlock all kinds of helpful results usually buried pages into other search engine results or simply beyond their scope. And no more wondering what is real and what is an advertisement. For iPureSearch, the priority is to return quality search results. Unlike linear engines that simply prioritize the sources that pay for prime spots, this new engine ranks according to importance to users, not the bottom line.

(PRWEB via PR Web Direct) November 29, 2005 — iPureSearch (http://www.ipuresearch.com) is a brand new Website that offers users information in an easily accessible format, filling the void for a search engine adapting to changes in internet technologies and user demands.

‘Highlight & Search’ for example is a brilliant new feature that lets users move seamlessly between different searches. By just highlighting any interesting text in a result with your mouse and clicking another information resource you get a whole new set of search results for just that text without any additional typing.

At the heart of iPureSearch is a matrix of 28 distinct kinds of searchable resources, accessible by entering a search term only once. Searchers can go from web search results to news headlines to shopping and other information resources all in a single click and see what’s relevant, not who’s paying the most.

For example, “Web Search” for your favorite film and find 1000s of results based on popularity not payola, click “Movies” and find current and classic trailers, click ‘Quick Look’ and watch one or all of those trailers on the same page without leaving your results, click “Blogs” and see what the web community is saying, or click on “Entertainment News” and get up to the minute updates.

Shopaholics won’t find a better home. Click “eBay” and see what’s up for auction. If you want it fresh from the box click “Amazon,” or if you want to see if you can find it cheaper you can click “PriceGrabber” and comparison shop.

But it’s not all just fun. iPureSearch is also popular for all kinds of homework and research. Projects can be jump started using the sites “Dictionary/Reference” which offers definitions, a thesaurus, encyclopaedia, almanac, atlas and more. More in depth articles are available via a click on “Wikipedia” the web’s favorite online encyclopedia. And if you need some pics to bring life to your project then just click “Images.”

iPureSearch really shines both in the depth and breadth of search resources easily accessible through a single search engine, and a design that reflects the growing expectation of online users for attractive, clear, pleasing and easy to use pages.

While the art and science of optimization proceeds as a way to get eyeballs onto pages using conventional search engines, the next generation of search engine has appeared, iPureSearch.com.

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