13 SEO Techniques Every Web Developer Should Know

When web developers create a new site, or approach a site redesign, they seldom do so from the perspective of search engine optimization (SEO). Instead, their goal is to inject a high level of aesthetic appeal. Flash videos and engaging images take precedence over a site architecture designed for easy search engine indexing and competitive organic ranking. Indeed, it is a rare developer who considers SEO a priority.

The challenge is that the development process can cause enormous problems with regard to a website's ability to rank well. Because search engine optimization is a core marketing strategy, these problems often have a severe impact on a site's profitability. With this in mind, here are 13 SEO techniques every web developer should integrate into a site's design:

1. Streamline Your Code

Many web developers create attractive sites, but the underlying code they use is staggeringly heavy. Search engine spiders enjoy efficient, light code. They can crawl it more quickly and index it more accurately. Not only does that lead to higher organic rankings for a site's target keywords, but it's also easier to maintain those rankings.

It's worth noting that clean code does not hamper a web developer's design creativity. It merely streamlines a page's structure. For example, an external CSS file can accomplish the same thing as a heavy HTML table, but it does so with far less code.

2. Choose One Main Keyword For Each Page

For optimal search engine optimisation, each page should be designed to focus upon one main keyword. The content, tags, and surrounding code on the page should be developed to emphasize that keyword. Two or three secondary keywords can be used to add thematic support, but the main keyword should be the priority.

3.Place Keywords In Title Tags

Organic search algorithms rely heavily on page titles to determine the thematic relevance of a page's topic to a searcher's query. If all pages within a site's architecture have similar title tags, that will have a negative influence on each page's respective ability to rank competitively. Each page should have a unique title that includes its primary keyword. Furthermore, that keyword should be placed as closely as possible at the beginning of the title.

4. Use "Friendly" URLs

A site's URL structure plays a key role in supporting - or hampering - the owner's SEO efforts. Web developers will often design a site with URLs that are unfriendly to search engine spiders. For example, pages might look like the following: domain.com/?page24&num=4197&fs=thur34&q=dr476

While spiders can crawl such URLs, their ability to index them properly is limited. What's more, the above URL does little to support the page's main keyword. If a page is focused on "running shoes," the following URL would be far more search engine "friendly": domain.com/running-shoes/.
Search algorithms can identify keywords within an URL; they are used to further identify thematic relevance to searchers' queries.

5. Seed Keywords Throughout Each Page

Besides the title tag and URL, a page's main keyword should be used in specific ways throughout the page. It should be positioned at the top and placed within H1 header tags. It should be used within the first paragraph of content. If possible, the keyword should also be placed within H2 header tags.

6. Limit Your Use Of Flash

Many web developers continue to use Flash in order to create visuals that engage visitors. While Flash can be a powerful design tool for captivating an audience, it cannot be read by search engine spiders. If the spiders cannot read the underlying content, they cannot index it properly. This is the main reason beautifully designed sites rank poorly in the search engines. Spiders read text and little else.

7. Create Semantically-Related Content

As noted above, each page's main keyword should be used in specific ways on the page. However, it is also important to develop content that employs phrases that are semantically related to the main keyword. When search engine spiders crawl a site's content, they determine relevance based partly upon whether a coherent theme exists.

For example, consider a site that reviews products developed by Apple Inc. The pages are more likely to rank well for queries about Apple's products (rather than the fruit) if each page uses phrases related to electronics, MP3 players, and computers. A good web development company will typically offer strong SEO copywriting services.

8. Use Internal Linking

Links are the vehicle used by search engine spiders to find pages throughout a site. Normally, a sitemap will contain links to every page. However, web developers can further improve a page's organic ranking ability by generously linking to internal pages. Internal links should be placed within a page's body content and use anchor text that includes the linked page's main keyword.

9. Approach Ajax Cautiously

Ajax loads dynamically, which reduces the load time of individual pages. It is a popular development tool for web applications because it offers a near-seamless browsing experience for visitors. The drawback is that Ajax cannot be spidered well by the search engines. As a result, the individual pages that load dynamically cannot be indexed properly -- leading to poor search engine optimization.

10. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the practice of seeding a keyword throughout a page (including within the underlying code) with an alarmingly high repetition. It is done as a search engine optimization strategy. Not only is stuffing an ineffective website marketing technique over the long run, but it can also result in a site's organic rankings being penalized. While keyword density is important for ranking competitively, it should rarely climb above 3%; in most cases, it should remain under 2%.

11. Take Advantage Of The Image Alt Attribute

Search engine spiders cannot "read" an image; they have no contextual understanding, regardless of how simplistic the image appears. However, they can easily read an image's description if it is placed within the accompanying alt attribute. This is an on-page SEO technique that is simple to use, yet often neglected by web developers. By using a description that supports the page's main keyword, developers can further boost that page's organic ranking ability.

12. Fix Broken Links

Broken links are dead-ends for search engine spiders. While it is not known for certain how large an influence they have on a site's overall ranking ability, they have an impact. When spiders come upon broken links, they do not simply turn around and retreat. They collect data about the missing page as well as the page that carried the link. When the spiders return to the search engine, that data is used to determine thematic relevance, topical authority, freshness, and the resulting ranking power that should be attributed to the site.

Again, the level of damage broken links can have upon a site's ranking ability within its space is unknown (though, it is widely speculated). However, they play a role and should be fixed.

13. Develop For Inbound Links

Inbound links are the driving force behind a website's ability to rank competitively for its target keywords. Though many web developers don't realize it, there is a lot they can do to design a site that attracts high-quality links. Using "friendly" URLs (described in #4 above) is important, but creating engaging content is what ultimately draws attention.

When people link to a website, their links create ranking authority for the site, especially if they use thematically related anchor text. This creates long-term momentum. As a site or page climbs within the search engine's organic listings, its visibility increases. Assuming the content is engaging, the page's higher ranking draws more links over time, helping to fortify its position.

As millions of website owners have discovered, a beautiful site can go unnoticed by its target audience. It needs exposure. Web developers can use the 13 SEO techniques above to design - or redesign - a site that looks attractive while climbing the search engine listings.

source: http://www.designfirms.org/articles/2009/09/2054/13-seo-techniques-every-web-developer-should-know/

Warning : Social Networking may be Hazardous to your anonymity

Attack Unmasks User Behind The Browser

Researchers develop proof-of-concept that exploits social networking patterns to 'deanonymize' online users
By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading

A group of researchers have discovered a simple way to reveal the identity of a user based on his interactions with social networks.

The 'deanonymization' attack uses social network groups as well as some traditional browser history-stealing tactics to narrow down and find the user behind the browser. The researchers were able to deanonymize more than half of the users in their initial test using their attack method, which entailed their joining and crawling groups within social networks, such as Germany's Xing business social network and Facebook, using a fake profile. They then matched pilfered browsing histories with social-network group members to "fingerprint" and identify them.

"Without using the group info, an attack that only uses history stealing is infeasible in a real-world scenario. So, in fact, it is the combination of history-stealing and group information that is novel," says Gilbert Wondracek, a post-doctoral researcher with the International Secure Systems Lab of the Vienna University of Technology in Austria, who co-developed the proof-of-concept.

Criminals could use this for phishing and targeted attacks. The attack requires only that the victim visit a malicious Website that contains the attack code -- there's no malicious link, per se. "We could put the attack code on a Website that contains a political, dating, religious, [or other] forum. If someone posts anonymously to this Website, there is a chance that we could find out the social network profile for this person," Wondracek says. "Since social network profiles contain a wealth of info and, per definition, the friends of this person, blackmailing is also an option."

Wondracek says he and fellow researcher Thorsten Holz had wondered how the well-known history-stealing technique could used to unmask online users via their social networking profiles. History stealing allowed them to peek at a user's URL browsing history to see if he had visited specific social network groups -- sports-related or other groups that friend or fan organizations, for instance -- that the researchers had joined.

"We can now perform an intersection and find out that there are just a few people in the whole social network that belong to exactly these ... groups. The group fingerprint is rather unique among all users," Wondracek says.

Then the attacker uses history-stealing once again to check for links that are similar to each member of the groups.

The researchers say that while their PoC was for Xing, it can work with any other social network. They crawled 7,000 public groups in Xing and found around 1.8 million users belong to at least one group. "These users are vulnerable to our attack," Holz blogged recently.

Volunteers from Xing can participate in the experiment via the researchers' demo Website here. The more regularly a Xing user participates in groups on the social network, the more likely he will be deanonymized by the PoC.

There is no fix for this attack, but workarounds include turning off browsing history or using private-browsing mode. Wondracek says the only protection social networks could provide is to change the way their Web applications use hyperlinks to move information from one point of their site to another in "keep state." Xing has implemented this as part of its response to the attack research, he says.

"I was -- and am still -- quite surprised that, a, getting the group data was so easy, and, b, almost all social networks use URLs that leak private information," Wondracek says."The attitude behind this is pretty scary from our maybe naive point of view."

The researchers will present their paper (PDF) on their preliminary results on the attack in May at the 31st IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy.

How Do I Start a Home Based Business?

We'd like to let you in on a little secret: ANYONE can start an Internet home business. In fact, there are home business opportunities everywhere... you just need to know where to look for home business ideas and ways to make money online.
For example, to make money with a home based Internet businesses, you can:
Become an affiliate and get paid for recommending other people's products
Sell downloadable electronic products -- you don't have to deal with inventory, storage, or shipping, and every sale is almost 100% profit
Sell physical products -- it's easy to source products (and you can get drop shipping companies to do all the shipping and handling for you!)
Sell a service, whether you deliver it locally or via the Internet
Sell paid subscriptions or memberships if you can provide valuable information that people can't get anywhere else
Why is it a good idea to start a home business?
Home business opportunities mean you get to work at home, without the hassle of commuting or dealing with office politics. Running your own Internet home business lets you work when you want, and how much you want. It's a win-win situation!
And in today's tough economic climate, there are actually a lot of home business opportunities -- in fact, according to a recent article in Entrepreneur.com, recessions are notoriously good times to make your home business ideas a reality.
But there are five key points you should consider before you take action and start a home based business:
Are you ready? Ask yourself why you want to start a home based business and if you're prepared to do it.
Can you work from home? You need a computer, an Internet connection, and a designated place to work away from distractions around the house.
Are you disciplined? It's vital that you can set aside a few hours each day or week (depending on how fast you want to go) to focus on your business, without procrastinating and being distracted by email, Facebook, and YouTube.
Are you committed? If you've got what it takes to start a home Internet business, you thrive on learning new things, challenging yourself, achieving goals, and reaping the rewards of your effort.
What is the opportunity cost? What will you have to give up in order to spend a few hours a week building your business -- and are you willing to do that? It doesn't have to be much... a couple of hours' less TV or aimless online surfing will give you all the time you need.
Where do you look for help?
Here at the Internet Marketing Center, we've been helping people with home business ideas for over a decade. We've helped thousands of people find home based business opportunities that net them steady income, and are also a lot of fun.
If you'd like more information on starting a home business, we suggest you sign up for our newsletter. Once you're on our list, we'll give you unrestricted access to our article archive, where you can access 10 years' worth of FREE home business ideas.
What kind of product or service do you want to sell?
To get your ideas flowing of what YOU can sell through your own home based Internet business, we've created this FREE eBook that guides you through the steps of finding a lucrative, untapped niche market and hot product to sell. To get instant access, simply enter your details below...
So what are you waiting for? Get started today on the road to your own Internet home business.

source by: http://www.marketingtips.com/starting-home-business.asp

Website Audit:

Colorful web design might be attract the visitor, but your web page comes on batter position in search engine on a major desired keyword. A search engine like Google, MSN etc, isn’t interested in Color / Design of your website them crowing your codes behind like webpage structure, Title, MATATAG and other KEYWORDS which are using in your programming systems.

For the top in search engine result website audit and analysis improve your website’s performance.

Why not getting enough visibility of your website? Two are basic reason:

1) Lack of promotion.
2) Lack of visitor engagement in web pages.
So, i hope you understand why Website audit is necessary.

Internet Marketing

The Internet is one of the greatest inventions of all times. Through websites and email we are able to operate a business, network, advertise and keep in touch with our customers. If you do not have funds for a large marketing campaign, you may want to try internet marketing. It is less costly than TV, radio or printed ads, but many products do sell through Internet marketing.
Internet Marketing differs from print advertising and person-to-person marketing, but there are quite a few strategies to reach customers and get them to buy online. Here are a few of the more popular and effective online marketing techniques:
1. The more traffic your Website receives, the more sales you are likely to close. One way to increase traffic to your site is through SEO (search engine optimization). This means your Website is clear of any obstacles that would deflect traffic and has plenty of keywords and metatags to attract search engines. I suggest you hire someone who knows how to write in code language and create style sheets rather than set up your own website through one of the templates offered by email providers.
2. Another way to bring more traffic to your site is by using pay per click programs where you create ads and link them to keywords. Both Yahoo and Google have these programs available. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad. The rate may be from two cents to hundreds of dollars per click. The more you pay per click the higher your ad appears in the search engines.
3. Google AdSense is a program that allows you to generate revenue by placing other people's text or image ads on your website and in turn have your ad appear on the pages of sites related to your product or service. You can filter out your competitor's ad so it does not appear on your Website. AdSense puts your ad all over the Web and creates links back to your site which increases your ranking in the search engines. These are not pop up ads that open a box or new screen while you are trying to read the text of a Website. Web page, the hyped up ad remains and may be hard to close. Pop up ads are annoying and along with spamming, they are the worst marketing schemes available.
4. Banner Ads are usually animated, colorful graphics that go horizontally across the top of a Web page. Sky-scraper Ads are similar but they run vertically on the left or right side of a page. Both ads link to another Website (yours) and entice the visitor to leave the page they are on to see what the other site has to offer. These are losing popularity because people don't enjoy being distracted by the movement. Ads that don't move or talk are more effective.
5. E-commerce newsletters allow us to develop relationships with our clients and let them know when we invent something they may be interested in. You may start with just a few names and email addresses asking those folks to forward your newsletter (it should have a link to a permission-based sign up form) to their friends and urge them to sign up. Before long you have a new client base to market your product. You will not be spamming since everyone on your list has given you permission to email them.
6. Online magazines offer ad space for a fee (depending upon the magazine's popularity and traffic) and may appear for the duration of the current issue of the magazine. By selecting a magazine that relates to your product you are able to direct your ad to your target market rather than to a generic audience.
7. Online city guides or industry directories such as Hellometro.com and CitySearch.com are Yellow Pages on the Internet instead of in print. They feature businesses in a particular area. For example, if someone in Atlanta is looking for a toy store, they may use the search engine to browse the online guide and find all the toy stores within a 10 mile radius of their zip code. In addition to the general listing which are many times free, you may purchase an ad for a related page.
8. Website Lead Generation provides you with qualified leads at a set price per lead. These are generated by telemarketing companies who do cold calling to find potential clients for you. Lead Generation Services guarantee a particular level of ROI (return on investment) and frees your staff of marketing efforts.
There are other types of internet marketing, but one thing they all lack is personal interaction with the potential client. You must convey your message with words and pictures to sell your product. Therefore, your website needs to have a call to action. Ask the customer to buy your product or hire you. At the very least ask the visitor to click on a link and get more information. Make sure you have an easy payment system in place to handle credit card purchases. A frustrated customer will take their online business elsewhere.
No matter what online marketing strategy you use, make sure it produces enough sales to cover the ad costs and make a profit. I wish you well in your business.
Source by: http://ezinearticles.com/?Marketing-Online:-8-Types-of-Internet-Marketing&id=360552

Internet Marketers Build

Are you excited to know how internet marketers build their cash pulling machine on the net? If yes, you will learn this deeply in this article.
Here are 5 surefire steps to follow...
Step 1 - Create Low Budget Internet Business Model. Step 2 - Learn How to Promote. Step 3 - Write and Submit Articles. Step 4 - Start Blogging. Step 5 - Social Bookmarking.
Let's get down for more details...
Step 1 - Create Low Budget Internet Business Model.
You can start earning very easily from your internet business, if you know the process. Initially you don't require high budget business model. Research any high demand niche and design small but attractive website.
Step 2 - Learn How to Promote.
Once you are ready with your business model, it's time now to promote your website to get visitors in. There are many ways available on net that you can use for promotional task. Some of them are article marketing, blogging, forum, SEO etc.
Step 3 - Write and Submit Articles.
Article marketing is very easy and effective way to start promotion of your website. You should write quality articles on your niche and post them to leading high traffic directories on net.
Step 4 - Start Blogging.
This is also one of the best way to get traffic on your site. Start blogging with quality content and it will automatically give you tons of visitors from net.
Step 5 - Social Bookmarking.
You should learn this tactic to attract more and more traffic towards your site. Use onlywire.com to submit your bookmarks to some social bookmarking sites.
source by:http://ezinearticles.com/?Your-Cash-Machine---In-5-Simple-Steps&id=1811313

What is Blog

- A blog (short for weblog) is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs are defined by their format: a series of entries posted to a single page in reverse-chronological order.Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or reflect the purpose of the Web site that hosts the blog. Topics sometimes include brief philosophical musings, commentary on Internet and other social issues, and links to other sites the author favors, especially those that support a point being made on a post.
The author of a blog is often referred to as a blogger. Many blogs syndicate their content to subscribers using RSS, a popular content distribution tool.
For more information, see weblog.
source by: http://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid8_gci214616,00.html