What is your Google Page Rank

We often hear of Google Page Rank and this topic is imminent in most Internet Marketing forums. We know higher Page Rank means that the website or blog is of some quality but what is Page Rank? and How is it determined?

Page Rank(PR) is a tool that Google uses to determine a sites quality and effectiveness. It is determined by the number of quality backlinks a site has. What is determined as a quality backlink?

Link building is the most trickiest part of SEO. Most website and blog owners go about link building by the reciprocal link method. It simply means both sites links to one another, so a fair and win-win situation for both parties. Each of these links carries a different weight which is determined by their Page Rank.

If your site is of PR 3 and you link to a site of PR 5 and this site links back to you, then the weight of the link from the PR 5 site to your site is higher than the weight of the link from your site. This is because the link which is pointing to your site is from a PR 5 site which Google have already determine to be a quality and important site to them. The weight of that link can be higher if the PR 5 site that linked to your site is of the same content as your site. Google rates link of the same content to be more higher and important than from a link of a different content.

The limitation to reciprocal linking method is that when a site has too many links that points to other sites. This effects the weight of the link. When you link to a site of this type, even when the PR are the same and your site has only two links pointing out from your site, then the weight of the link you receive is lower.

The best is still a one way link and this carries much more weight than reciprocal links. If you inject real quality content and very useful resources to your site, then eventually your site will achieve this. This site '30 Minutes Backlinks' offers tutorial on how to obtain backlinks.

To get started, this tool below might be of help for you to check your sites Page Rank and get you on the way to obtain a higher PR, now that you know how to.

Check Your Page Rank Instantly:

This page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

How To Drive Traffic Via Forums

One of the best ways to drive quality traffic to your website or blog is undoubtly via forum postings. In addition. it's also one of the proven and effective way to increase your subscriber base, if you be a little creative!

As easy as it may sound, there are of course certain rules of forum postings that you should adhere to obtain these traffic. Merely posting on forums will get you nowhere as many would have found out by now. These guidelines will definate make you stand out from the rest.

1. Finding Your Niche Forum

The ultimate rule is finding your niche forum to post in. If your site is about 'web design' then google to locate popular forums about it. This step gets you to your targeted audience, people who are already interested to know or share their thoughts about this topic.

2. Set Up Your Signature

Once you've selected and joined the forum, you MUST set up your forum signature! Remember to include your website or blog address in it. Signatures will appear at the end of every posts and is vital in driving traffic to your site.

3. Post in Topic

When you decide to post on a topic in forums, ensure that you are knowledgeable enough to contribute on that topic in the first place. DO NOT post for the sake of posting or to try to get these forum members to your affiliate pages or such. You will lose your credibility in that forum! Select and post on your topic or expertise only!

4. Steal The Attention

If you have recently written an interesting article, you could request for feedback from the forum members. Provide a brief introduction on your article and ask a question to these members. You will be surprised with the replies you receive!

5. Be A Problem-Solver

Yes, everyone will love solutions for their problems. Provide a detailed explanation when there is a question raised on your topic of expertise! Give out handy tips, any secrets that you may know or useful links to them. You will arrest the attention of the forum readers and maybe it will make them want to visit your site to investigate more.

You might not see an overnight burst of traffic to your site but when you feature prominently on forums with these guidelines, traffic to your site will gradually increase.

Banned From Google Adsense - Make Sense!

There are topics arising around most forums i visit about website owners who laments of getting banned from Google Adsense's program. Most say without any valid reason, Google banned their account - Make sense?

This surely prompted me to write this article which might just make some sense on why Google will ban an Adsense account. Of course there are reasons! some known to many and some never knew of it at all. Below are some of the reasons (never knew) why Google will ban an Adsense account.

1. Encouraging users to click the Google ads by using phrases such as 'click the ads', 'support us', 'visit these links' or any similar jargon.


2. Directing user's attention to the ad's via arrows or any graphical gimmicks.
   
3. Placing misleading labels above the Google ad units. For instance, ads may be labeled as 'Sponsored Links' but not 'Favorite Sites'.







4. Sites displaying Google ads that contain 'pop-ups' or 'pop-unders' which interfere's with the site's navigation.


5. Driving traffic via online advertising to pages that displays Google ads are deceptive to users.


6. Placing Google ads on pop-ups, pop-unders or in an email.


7. Elements on a page that obscure any portion of the Google ads.
   
8. Google ads placed on pages that are published specifically for showing ads whether or not the page content is relevant.

On your lucky day Google might give you a second chance should you get banned but if they dont, it's not the end of the road. There are abundant of Adsense Alternatives and two of my favorites are Bidvertiser and Adbrite.

Top 5 Most Valuable Google Marketing Tools

Google has become the most dominant search engine that almost every webmaster or web owners devote all their attention to with the ultimate aim to get their website to rank on the #1 page in an organic search. Seems a tough task but did you know Google offers help along the way?

Yes, help in sense of their FREE marketing tools available at your disposal but more often than not is looked over or ignored by many since it's been offered free! These useful marketing tools can make your website or blog promotions easier and more profitable. Lets snap up this marketing tools now as I run through the top 5 most valuable marketing tools Google has to offer.

1. Google Analytics

Perhaps the premier marketing tool offered, Google Analytics gives you a daily snapshot of your website. Google Analytics analyzes your traffic, where it comes from and how it interacts with your site. This vital information allows you to create targeted ROI driven marketing campaigns which in-turn can increase your site's conversion rate.

2. Google Sitemaps

A Sitemap is a list of pages on your website. Google Sitemaps lets you furnish Google additional information of your web pages and URL's that might not be discovered by Google's normal crawling process. Information such as how often pages on your site changes, last modified date of each pages and relative importance of each pages on your site are very useful information to Google that can help them crawl your site better.

3. Google Alerts

Get email notifications on topics or stories that you are monitoring with Google Alerts. It also helps you in keeping current on a competitor or industry.

4. Google Groups

As social networking fast becoming an important aspect of website or blog promotion, Google Groups offers these platform. You can manage your contact lists efficiently to make your marketing activity easy and precise!

5. Google Docs

Google Docs is a full featured online writing editor which allows you to create and share your work online. Your files are stored securely online so you can edit your work anytime and from anywhere. It also lets your publish your content directly to your blog.

All the best in exploring these very useful tools and be sure to use it to your advantage!

Search Engine Optimization Secrets Revealed

"Are you certain that your web site is optimized for high visibility in search engines?", Do you know the answer if i were to ask you "What position in the major search engines does your site appear in for your target search terms?" Or "Does each page of your site have tailored Title and META Tags?" If you would answer "No" or "I don't know" to any of these questions, you would be amongst the 60% of web site owners whose web sites are missing out on traffic because they are not designed for search engine compatibility.

But what exactly is search engine optimization? Simply explained, it is the technique of attaining a high ranking in search engines and directories via changes to your site code to make it more search engine compatible. In my experience, web designers keep a lot of secrets. One of the biggest ones is that they have no clue about what makes a web site compatible with search engines. Another is that they like to build expensive, flashy sites and so convince their clients that an attractive web site never uses a lot of text. So your web designer may have included target keywords and phrases in your Title tag and META tags (in the HTML code of your site). They may even have explained to you that these are very important references that search engines use when ranking web sites for search relevancy.

I've met many a web designer who claimed that this was all it took to optimize a web site. But did you know that you need to tailor your Title and META tags for each page of your site? Did you know that optimizing your site meta tags is only a tiny fraction of the job? Did you know that search engines actually need to find target keywords within the visible body text on your site pages in order to find it a relevant match for related search queries? Did you know that they also need to find those same keywords and phrases used within the text links that help people navigate your pages? It's true. For search engines to rank your site highly for particular words or phrases that you would expect potential visitors to type in, each individual page of your site MUST be built with those words and phrases in mind. Better still, build and optimize a page for each product or service that you offer. That way, if anyone types in those phrases in a search engine, your site is more likely to appear higher in the search results. Can you honestly say your web designer has built your site with your target search terms in mind?

So why wasn't your site optimized for search engines when it was built? Depending on who developed your site and how it was built, you'll find a million different reasons for this. Most don't bother checking that your site is found in the important search engines, assuming you or your marketing department will do it. Or perhaps it wasn't discussed in your original development budget. Not many web design firms know how or have time to optimize a site successfully, no matter what they tell you. They might feel it is outside their core business, or they might believe it is not part of the "design process". Consequently, your site can be launched for many months without the search engines having any idea it exists. Some web development firms don't include even the most basic META tags in your site code when building it. Or those that do include META tags without close consultation with you, resulting in the wrong search terms used and poor performance. This is quite typical!

Remember that search engine optimization requires both client interaction and constant monitoring to be successful. The bottom line? If your designer can't show you substantial search engine traffic they've achieved for other clients, chances are they won't be able to optimize your site properly. Search engine optimization (SEO) specialists have sprung up to fill the need for these services. My suggestion is to pay a little more for a specialist with a good track record and reap the rewards. Remember, search engine users generally only explore the first 10 or 20 search results. If you site isn't in the top 20, you won't be found, it's as simple as that. Always include search engine optimization into your marketing budget or your site could be as effective as a billboard at the end of a dead end street.