Search engines use complicated secret formulas, called ranking algorithms, to determine the order of their results.

The SEO profession is an upstart one, with no degrees to be earned or widely accepted canon of literature (and if there were, it’d change every five months anyway).

So we’re all out there trying to figure this stuff out on our own, using different test cases, chasing morphing search engines, and possessing varying levels of interest and talent in the writing and technical components of SEO.
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Tags: age, age factors, ark, components, dev, engine, Google, Google, IDE, image, Keyword, keywords, list, page, pay-per-click, PHP, ping, PPC, ranking, search, Search Engines, search ranking, SEO, SEO, Sites, XP

Recently I received an email from Caroline Middlebrook promoting her free guide on creating mini sites with WordPress, I’m not looking at creating mini sites here but there is some good tips there none the less, especially for people that are new to WP. Any way onto my check list:

• Install CMS Software, in my case this is WordPress so some of these points will be specific to that platform though other CMSs will likely have an equivilent.
• Choose and set your permalink structure, this is the format of the URL for each post. I like to use: /%year%%monthnum%/%postname%.htm as this means posts are grouped (artificially) in a folder per month and are only one directory level away from your sites root.
• Enable Askimet antispam and make sure that you have a valid key.
• Install tracking software, be it Google Analytics or something else. You can generally either use a plugin to add it to your site or add a bit of Javascript to your themes footer.php. I need to find (or write) a plugin that works with the latest code version of Analytics as maintaining multiple themes will become a pain
• Create a new FeedBurner account to track your subscribers and follow the instructions (installing another plugin) to make your feed URL point at the burnt one.
• Install and automate a backup system. A good method is to use the plugin WP-DB-Backup and get the files emailed to you on a daily basis. This is where having a free email account with large storage space can come in very handy.
  • General Options -> Weblog Title - Set to whatever the title of your blog is
  • General Options -> Tagline: A short (sentence) description of the site
  • Reading Options -> Show at most: 8 posts, I find 8 is enough for my blogs (the default is 10)
  • Reading Options -> Syndicate the most recent 20 posts - This is double the default but gives new subscribers plenty to read
  • Reading Options -> For each article, show: Full text - I find showing the full text is the best way to keep subscribers, it does mean you get less visitors to your site but is worth it in other ways. If you use the more tag you’ll need to install a plugin like this for full feed syndication to work.
  • Discussion Options -> Hold a comment in the queue if it contains 1 or more moderation, I go for all other default options but do manually approve ALL comments with links in

Next up is to through the other options and change any accordingly, these are the ones I find are worth changing:

Once your blog is set-up it’s a good idea to keep it running (doh), Vladimir has some great tips on insuring your blog.

I will be adding to this list as I remember, learn and discover new things that I should be doing. If you have any suggestions for the list please let us know via comment.

This post is just about setting up new blogs, I will go into promotion and launching in a future post.

Tags: adding, age factors, Bank-of-America, CMS, disk cylinder, Free, PDF Generator, QuickTime, solaris 8, Tutorial, WordPress

SEO experts left and right are telling you that the so called on-page factors are dead. In a weird sense they are right, but also utterly wrong. Admittedly, on first glance meta tags don’t count for much. It’s all about links and their anchor text today. Yes it’s true you can’t manipulate SE rankings with meta tags much.

But here comes the shocking truth, and it’s getting more true every day:

You can’t really manipulate SE rankings with links either!
Modern SEs use very sophisticated algorithms. They are not fooled anymore by reciprocal link dumps. They are not fooled by blog comment spam. Nearly all the black- und white-hat pure SEO techniques fail. Yes there are still some black-hat techniques that just work but they come with a cost and I won’t talk about them here and they will only work for a limited time.

But what does really matter?
Yes you’ve heard that quite a few times but I’ll say it again cause it’s more relevant than ever: High quality content people will want to link! That, and marketing your content, is all you have to do to be successful, and it’s the only thing you can do.

You can’t emulate thousands of quality backlinks from thousands of different class-C IP addresses on pages belonging to unique sites. It ain’t gonna happen.

Today, SEO is more than ever Internet Marketing in its purest form. Producing excellent content and then marketing it, to show your content to as many people as possible. And search engines will follow.

And here the circle closes and we are back to on-page factors. They are more important than ever. Because good content is reflected in content structure and good meta tags. Someone who produces good content will take care of a good title tag and well-defined structure (reflected by carefully chosen hx tags). Oh, and the author who cares about what she writes will know what to put in the meta description. And know the keywords this content is about.

Tags: age, age factors, Internet, SEO, SEO

Age is a very important factor in Search Engine Optimization. There are several different types of age that can play roles in how Search Engines rank websites. Knowing these factors can be helpful in determining how long it will take for a website to rank well. Keep in mind age is only part of the algorithm, as other factors such as link popularity and keyword rich content will play a major role as well in rankings.

Every few months the factors that effect the Search Engines’ ranking algorithm may change sometimes slightly, sometimes dramatically. The best thing you can possibly do is stick to your guns and get good quality links to your site and get good quality “original� content on your site and grow your site with new quality content as often as possible.

Yahoo and MSN like clean, well written, well linked sites as much as Google does.

In the past we noticed a certain order in rankings, whereas MSN would pick up changes first, then Yahoo, then Google. We now see Yahoo takes the longest. So age may be a big factor for Yahoo’s current algorithm. Google has always put a high priority on age, hence, we have the Google Sandbox Effect, where new domains are reported to take 9 months or longer to rank. MSN places more importance on Content, Keywords and Links, so younger sites have a chance to rank in MSN. Knowing and understanding age factors is part of the battle, these are the factors that no one can fake. Popularity can be faked or handed out via networks of friends or businesses, but Age cannot be manipulated, its the purest factor in rankings, however, it obviously does not count for quality.

When we talk about Search Engine Optimization, Age is:

* Domain Age - Age of your domain.
* Link Age - Age of links pointing to your site.
* Site Age - When the site was first found by each Search Engine (this is not always the creation date, that would be domain age).
* Page Age - The Age of the page when first found by a Search Engine (this is not always the creation date of the page).

The one factor in search engine optimization that no one can fake is when the Search Engines first found the website and the data they have about the site at that point. Early data can effect your long-term rankings, so how sites start can be important for their future rankings.

Determining these age factors can be useful to get a realistic understanding of how long a site can take to rank well. While ranking well can be an endless time cycle for competitive terms, younger sites that are becoming aware of the importance of Search Engine optimization, can have a realistic goal.

For instance anyone claiming that a brand new domain will be able to rank at the top of a particular Search Engine in 3 months for any competitive term is pulling your chain, unless you own the domain with the vanity keyword term in it and that is the term you want.

It is important to consider age as part of an SEO process. Utilizing existing age and existing aged links and anchor text, can turn very competitive long-term campaigns, into successful campaigns with a realistic time frame for rankings.

Tags: age, age factors, domain age, Google, link age, msn, page age, search engine optimization, SEO, SEO, seoimage, site age, Yahoo