Robots.txt – Its normal a text file and contain information about the search engine robots and instruct them how to behave when they find our web site URL. By defining a few rules in this text file, you can instruct robots to not crawl and index certain files, directories within your site, or at all. When ever search engine crawler find any URL, it’s looking for robots.txt file and follow the instruction mention in that file that’s why it’s good for us to mention all required condition that we want fulfill when search engine crawl our site.
We need to place robots.txt file if our site includes content that we don't want search engines to index that’s the main purpose of this file.
How to create and where you need to place this robots.txt?
Create a normal text file save as robots.txt and upload in your website root directory I mean – http://www.xyz.com/robots.txt
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
This is the common syntax and its meaning is all robots (indicated by "*") are instructed to not index any of your pages (indicated by "/").
Below details instruct crawler not to crawl these whole directory -
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /privatedir/
If you want disallow any specific page –
User-agent: *
Disallow: /page.html
Disallow: /our/page.html
Some crawlers now support an additional field called "Allow:", most notably, Google. As its name implies, "Allow:" lets you explicitly dictate what files/folders can be crawled.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /
If you want to know more about the robots.txt and some other special cases where you don’t want to crawl you pages or images just mail me your problems -
Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Way to track your website traffic
If we want success in our target we should know what’s our strength and weakness. Website traffic analyzer gives you full details about the traffic like from where user comes, which keyword they have used to visit our site, from which location user belong, what are the bounce rate, how many user comes directly in your website, how many comes through search engine and how many comes through referral. These are some common question arises which you want to know about your website.
There are lots of tools available online who support or help us to get each and every detail about the visitor and support webmaster or web analyzer to make further strategy to achieve target. Some of the useful traffic analyzer tools are –
Google Analytics –
Google’s free analytics software. Includes tight integration with AdWords. Unlike some enterprise apps, the stats are usually on a delay of a few hours.
Statcounter -
Offers free stat tracking of key metrics like visits, page views, and referring source for sites with less than 250,000 visitors per month.
WebSTAT -
Provides installable client-side analytics package that includes more than 40 canned reports.
WebTrends -
One of the top players in analytics since the early days, the company now offers multiple tiers of software packages for different size businesses and specific industries.
SiteMeter -
Provides a basic free tracking service for measuring visitors and page views, and a premium version with more features with pricing based on page views.
SiteCounter -
Offers free stat tracking of key metrics like visits, page views, and referring source for sites with less than 250,000 visitors per month.
Alexa -
Provides widely-reported and widely-criticized statistics on relative popularity of web sites, based on usage of those that have installed the Alexa Toolbar.
ClickTracks -
Enterprise analytics software, shows visitor navigation directly on your site’s pages.
These are some good website analyzer tools that give us exact data in fast manner. Most of tools are totally free and install without any problem. Some of the tools give graphical representation of traffic data and some are not. So don’t waist your time and install some analytics software as soon as possible…
There are lots of tools available online who support or help us to get each and every detail about the visitor and support webmaster or web analyzer to make further strategy to achieve target. Some of the useful traffic analyzer tools are –
Google Analytics –
Google’s free analytics software. Includes tight integration with AdWords. Unlike some enterprise apps, the stats are usually on a delay of a few hours.
Statcounter -
Offers free stat tracking of key metrics like visits, page views, and referring source for sites with less than 250,000 visitors per month.
WebSTAT -
Provides installable client-side analytics package that includes more than 40 canned reports.
WebTrends -
One of the top players in analytics since the early days, the company now offers multiple tiers of software packages for different size businesses and specific industries.
SiteMeter -
Provides a basic free tracking service for measuring visitors and page views, and a premium version with more features with pricing based on page views.
SiteCounter -
Offers free stat tracking of key metrics like visits, page views, and referring source for sites with less than 250,000 visitors per month.
Alexa -
Provides widely-reported and widely-criticized statistics on relative popularity of web sites, based on usage of those that have installed the Alexa Toolbar.
ClickTracks -
Enterprise analytics software, shows visitor navigation directly on your site’s pages.
These are some good website analyzer tools that give us exact data in fast manner. Most of tools are totally free and install without any problem. Some of the tools give graphical representation of traffic data and some are not. So don’t waist your time and install some analytics software as soon as possible…
Choose right domain name for you business
The importance of having your own domain name cannot be over-emphasized. If you are running an online business, and don't yet have a domain name, you are probably losing thousands of dollars worth of business because of this. Why? Simply because, unless you have a domain name, your customers will simply not feel comfortable buying from you. In order to sell on the web, you need to build up your credibility. Having your own domain name is the first step in that process.
So, now that you are convinced that you need your own domain, how should you name your domain? Here are a few do's and don'ts regarding this. While the availability of domains which follow all of these rules may have become limited, try to follow as many of these rules as possible.
1) Consider naming your company and registering a domain name starting with the digit 1. Better still, choose a name starting with '1st'. Why? When people create directories of web sites, they have to decide how they are going to classify those web sites. One way to classify web sites is to list them on the basis of how 'good' they are. Another way is to simply list them in chronological order (and sometimes in reverse chronological order) based on the dates the sites were submitted.
The other and far more popular classification system is alphabetic. Now, the first character in the ASCII chart which can be used as the first character in a domain name is the digit 0. The next character is the digit 1. Normally, you wouldn't want to start a domain name with the digit 0 since it might send all the wrong signals to your customers. For instance, if we had named our domain 0SearchRanking.com, it would be telling our customers that we cannot get them any search engine rankings at all! Hence, unless you really have a good reason for doing so, you should avoid using domain names starting with the digit 0.
The other, and far more popular classification system is alphabetic. Now, the first character in the ASCII chart which can be used as the first character in a domain name is the digit 0. The next character is the digit 1. Normally, you wouldn't want to start a domain name with the digit 0 since it might send all the wrong signals to your customers. For instance, if we had named our domain 0SearchRanking.com, it would be telling our customers that we cannot get them any search engine rankings at all! Hence, unless you really have a good reason for doing so, you should avoid using domain names starting with the digit 0.
Instead name your domains starting with the digit 1. More specifically, name your domains starting with '1st'. This will ensure that you get a high alphabetical placement in those directories which classify sites alphabetically. Furthermore, depending on the industry in which your company operates, it may also send the right message across to your customers - it indicates that you are the first company to consider in your industry.
And guess what - the mother of all directories - Yahoo! - lists web sites alphabetically based on the Title that had been submitted. Yahoo! wants the Title to be the same as the official name of the site. This implies that sites which start with the digit 1 will be placed at or near the top of a category. Assuming that you can get your site listed in Yahoo!, just look at what a top ranking in one of the categories in Yahoo’s directory can do for the popularity of your site!
However, this strategy of creating domain names starting with the digit 1 will not work with The Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org). The Open Directory will only consider the portion of your domain that is really meaningful. This implies that it will ignore the '1' or the '1st' in your domain and will consider the portion of your domain after the '1' or the '1st'. For instance, a site named 1stXYZ.com would be listed with the sites starting with X, and not 1. Of course, in order to 'take care' of both Yahoo! and The Open Directory, you could have your domain start with '1st' and then have a proper English word starting with A after that.
Furthermore, a small caveat here. If you are going to name a domain starting with '1st', also register the domain which starts with 'ist'. Then, have the domain containing the vowel 'i' redirect visitors to the domain containing the digit 1. This is because people will often type in 'ist' when they mean '1st' and vice-versa.
Also, this strategy of registering domains starting with '1st' is mainly applicable if yours is a somewhat new company. If you own a well established concern with a well known domain, you simply cannot change your company name and your domain in a hurry because you will confuse your existing customers.
2) Don't want to start your domain name with '1st'? Consider starting it with 'A', 'B' or 'C'. Although domains starting with A, B or C will be listed after those starting with the 10 digits, you can still get a pretty high alphabetical placement with A, B or C. Also, since The Open Directory considers only the meaningful part of a domain, domains starting with A will be the ones which are listed first in The Open Directory. However, please don't name your domain in the form of AAASomeCompany.com - it'll make your company seem like a fly by night operator. (And you won't get a high alphabetical placement in The Open Directory either - it ignores the 'AAA' bit when it decides the alphabetical placement of sites).
3) Try to register a domain which contains a popular keyword applicable for your industry. This will help your customers remember your domain name better. Furthermore, for searches conducted in Yahoo!, a higher ranking will be given to those web sites which contain the keyword in the title. And according to Yahoo’s instructions, the Title should always be the official name of the site. Thus, if the domain name contains a keyword, you will be able to include the keyword in the Title which will improve your ranking in Yahoo!. As a minor side-benefit, this can also help to marginally increase the ranking of your web site in some search engines.
4) Don't register a domain containing the digit 0 in it, unless it is going to be part of a recognizable word (like 1000 or 2000). This is because the digit 0 is often confused with the vowel O. If you feel that you must register a domain with the digit 0, make sure that you also register the corresponding domain containing the vowel O.
5) Try to avoid using domains that contain '2' for 'To', '4' for 'For', 'u' for 'You' and so on even if they seem to make your domain sound 'cool'. Your customers will easily get confused if you do so. However, if you must register such a domain, register the expanded form of the domain as well, i.e. if you are registering greatthings2do.com, also register greatthingstodo.com.
6) Should you or should you not use hyphens in your domain? Well, the jury is out on the question. While some Internet marketers will tell you that domains containing hyphens are difficult to remember, spell and pronounce, others will state that domains containing hyphens are, in fact, easy to remember, spell and pronounce. Go figure. Personally, I would feel that whether or not hyphens are helpful has to be determined on a case by case basis. However, if you register a domain containing hyphens, make sure that you also register the corresponding domain without the hyphens. Once you do that, you can simply redirect visitors from the domain without the hyphens to the domain with the hyphens.
7) Don't make your primary domain too long. Even though 67 character domains are a reality, exactly how many of your users will want to type a domain name like thisisanexampleofaverylargedomainname.com?
8) Always use '.com'. If yours is a serious business site, avoid using domains ending in 'nu' or 'to'. Your business will have little credibility if you do so. You can consider registering a '.net' domain, but since most people are familiar with '.com', it is better to stick to convention.
While it is unlikely that you will be able to register a domain which satisfies all the rules that I outlined above, try to follow as many of the above rules as you can.
Source of The News - Mosthost
So, now that you are convinced that you need your own domain, how should you name your domain? Here are a few do's and don'ts regarding this. While the availability of domains which follow all of these rules may have become limited, try to follow as many of these rules as possible.
1) Consider naming your company and registering a domain name starting with the digit 1. Better still, choose a name starting with '1st'. Why? When people create directories of web sites, they have to decide how they are going to classify those web sites. One way to classify web sites is to list them on the basis of how 'good' they are. Another way is to simply list them in chronological order (and sometimes in reverse chronological order) based on the dates the sites were submitted.
The other and far more popular classification system is alphabetic. Now, the first character in the ASCII chart which can be used as the first character in a domain name is the digit 0. The next character is the digit 1. Normally, you wouldn't want to start a domain name with the digit 0 since it might send all the wrong signals to your customers. For instance, if we had named our domain 0SearchRanking.com, it would be telling our customers that we cannot get them any search engine rankings at all! Hence, unless you really have a good reason for doing so, you should avoid using domain names starting with the digit 0.
The other, and far more popular classification system is alphabetic. Now, the first character in the ASCII chart which can be used as the first character in a domain name is the digit 0. The next character is the digit 1. Normally, you wouldn't want to start a domain name with the digit 0 since it might send all the wrong signals to your customers. For instance, if we had named our domain 0SearchRanking.com, it would be telling our customers that we cannot get them any search engine rankings at all! Hence, unless you really have a good reason for doing so, you should avoid using domain names starting with the digit 0.
Instead name your domains starting with the digit 1. More specifically, name your domains starting with '1st'. This will ensure that you get a high alphabetical placement in those directories which classify sites alphabetically. Furthermore, depending on the industry in which your company operates, it may also send the right message across to your customers - it indicates that you are the first company to consider in your industry.
And guess what - the mother of all directories - Yahoo! - lists web sites alphabetically based on the Title that had been submitted. Yahoo! wants the Title to be the same as the official name of the site. This implies that sites which start with the digit 1 will be placed at or near the top of a category. Assuming that you can get your site listed in Yahoo!, just look at what a top ranking in one of the categories in Yahoo’s directory can do for the popularity of your site!
However, this strategy of creating domain names starting with the digit 1 will not work with The Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org). The Open Directory will only consider the portion of your domain that is really meaningful. This implies that it will ignore the '1' or the '1st' in your domain and will consider the portion of your domain after the '1' or the '1st'. For instance, a site named 1stXYZ.com would be listed with the sites starting with X, and not 1. Of course, in order to 'take care' of both Yahoo! and The Open Directory, you could have your domain start with '1st' and then have a proper English word starting with A after that.
Furthermore, a small caveat here. If you are going to name a domain starting with '1st', also register the domain which starts with 'ist'. Then, have the domain containing the vowel 'i' redirect visitors to the domain containing the digit 1. This is because people will often type in 'ist' when they mean '1st' and vice-versa.
Also, this strategy of registering domains starting with '1st' is mainly applicable if yours is a somewhat new company. If you own a well established concern with a well known domain, you simply cannot change your company name and your domain in a hurry because you will confuse your existing customers.
2) Don't want to start your domain name with '1st'? Consider starting it with 'A', 'B' or 'C'. Although domains starting with A, B or C will be listed after those starting with the 10 digits, you can still get a pretty high alphabetical placement with A, B or C. Also, since The Open Directory considers only the meaningful part of a domain, domains starting with A will be the ones which are listed first in The Open Directory. However, please don't name your domain in the form of AAASomeCompany.com - it'll make your company seem like a fly by night operator. (And you won't get a high alphabetical placement in The Open Directory either - it ignores the 'AAA' bit when it decides the alphabetical placement of sites).
3) Try to register a domain which contains a popular keyword applicable for your industry. This will help your customers remember your domain name better. Furthermore, for searches conducted in Yahoo!, a higher ranking will be given to those web sites which contain the keyword in the title. And according to Yahoo’s instructions, the Title should always be the official name of the site. Thus, if the domain name contains a keyword, you will be able to include the keyword in the Title which will improve your ranking in Yahoo!. As a minor side-benefit, this can also help to marginally increase the ranking of your web site in some search engines.
4) Don't register a domain containing the digit 0 in it, unless it is going to be part of a recognizable word (like 1000 or 2000). This is because the digit 0 is often confused with the vowel O. If you feel that you must register a domain with the digit 0, make sure that you also register the corresponding domain containing the vowel O.
5) Try to avoid using domains that contain '2' for 'To', '4' for 'For', 'u' for 'You' and so on even if they seem to make your domain sound 'cool'. Your customers will easily get confused if you do so. However, if you must register such a domain, register the expanded form of the domain as well, i.e. if you are registering greatthings2do.com, also register greatthingstodo.com.
6) Should you or should you not use hyphens in your domain? Well, the jury is out on the question. While some Internet marketers will tell you that domains containing hyphens are difficult to remember, spell and pronounce, others will state that domains containing hyphens are, in fact, easy to remember, spell and pronounce. Go figure. Personally, I would feel that whether or not hyphens are helpful has to be determined on a case by case basis. However, if you register a domain containing hyphens, make sure that you also register the corresponding domain without the hyphens. Once you do that, you can simply redirect visitors from the domain without the hyphens to the domain with the hyphens.
7) Don't make your primary domain too long. Even though 67 character domains are a reality, exactly how many of your users will want to type a domain name like thisisanexampleofaverylargedomainname.com?
8) Always use '.com'. If yours is a serious business site, avoid using domains ending in 'nu' or 'to'. Your business will have little credibility if you do so. You can consider registering a '.net' domain, but since most people are familiar with '.com', it is better to stick to convention.
While it is unlikely that you will be able to register a domain which satisfies all the rules that I outlined above, try to follow as many of the above rules as you can.
Source of The News - Mosthost
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Meta Tags- Importance, Quality and Limit
META tags are part of HTML but are there for the sole use of search engine spiders. Lots of Meta tags available but generally people consider below three Meta tags in pages -
Meta Title – It’s a title of the page that gives a short about the page content. The title tag not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears as the linked text when potential customers review results from a search. It is indexed by the big three engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN). To Google, the Title Tag is of average importance in terms of SEO but of high importance in regards to getting the click that’s why it should be combination of both means user friendly as well as search engine friendly.
Meta Description – Descriptive information about the page or you can say a short snippet about the page content. You need to take your target keywords two times in your description tag.
Meta Keywords –
It’s a collection of 10 to 12 phrase that represent your page content or theme. Search can take idea about the page content.
Example – Suppose we have page that offer happy birthday cards free and url of that page is –
URL – http://www.xyz.com/cards/happy-birthday.html
Then Meta tags should be –
Title –
Happy Birthday Cards, Free Happy Birthday Cards, Greeting Cards (Max – 65 Char)
Description –
It’s right time to send free happy birthday cards to your friend’s family and loved ones. Check thousand of happy birthday greeting cards in our cards gallery. (Max – 160 Char)
Keywords –
Happy birthday, happy birthday cards, happy birthday ecards, happy birthday greetings, happy birthday greeting cards, free happy birthday cards, online happy birthday cards, happy birthday wishes (Max – 200 Char)
Meta Title – It’s a title of the page that gives a short about the page content. The title tag not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears as the linked text when potential customers review results from a search. It is indexed by the big three engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN). To Google, the Title Tag is of average importance in terms of SEO but of high importance in regards to getting the click that’s why it should be combination of both means user friendly as well as search engine friendly.
Meta Description – Descriptive information about the page or you can say a short snippet about the page content. You need to take your target keywords two times in your description tag.
Meta Keywords –
It’s a collection of 10 to 12 phrase that represent your page content or theme. Search can take idea about the page content.
Example – Suppose we have page that offer happy birthday cards free and url of that page is –
URL – http://www.xyz.com/cards/happy-birthday.html
Then Meta tags should be –
Title –
Happy Birthday Cards, Free Happy Birthday Cards, Greeting Cards (Max – 65 Char)
Description –
It’s right time to send free happy birthday cards to your friend’s family and loved ones. Check thousand of happy birthday greeting cards in our cards gallery. (Max – 160 Char)
Keywords –
Happy birthday, happy birthday cards, happy birthday ecards, happy birthday greetings, happy birthday greeting cards, free happy birthday cards, online happy birthday cards, happy birthday wishes (Max – 200 Char)
Social Media Optimization Suggestion
Make friends; join communities, groups and specific categories as many as you can because it opens new ways to get referral. You should be very active online, helping others where they could, participate in conversations at every opportunity and recommending possible solutions for problems.
Make tagging and Bookmarking easy –
Adding content features like quick buttons to "add to del.icio.us" are one way to make the process of tagging pages easier, but we go beyond this, making sure pages include a list of relevant tags, suggested notes for a link (which come up automatically when you go to tag a site), and making sure to tag our pages first on popular social bookmarking sites.
Reward helpful and valuable users –
Often helpful or popular users will be influences and champions within your social site, devise ways to elevate them buy promoting their works on the homepage, or develop a rating system. Sometimes a quick email or note in private telling them you appreciate them can go a long way. Some folks have done that to me, and for communities I run, I do that as well. Only do if sincere. Perhaps this is not truly SMO, but it will help to keep the most valuable members of a community closer to your site.
Make a Real Profile -
Make a real profile and behave like a helper or information provider not as a Spammer. Create a complete profile that looks like a real profile and don’t forget to add your photo in your profile.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
10 tips to optimize blog
As we all know- every one start posting on blogs and because they want everyone can see it and they can spread awareness about the topic. I mention below 10 things that make your blog searcheable and people start recognize your blog-
1- Use full text in your RSS feed
2- Optimize the text in the RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.
3- Include keywords clouds on pages.
4- RSS feeds with podcasts and video enclosures will get you into additional RSS directories and engines.
5 - Create Sitemaps
6- Keep blog title to the point
7 - Post Often
8 - Create a unique topic
9 -Ping Other Sites to let them know you have a new blog entry
10 - Submit your blog in blog directories
1- Use full text in your RSS feed
2- Optimize the text in the RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.
3- Include keywords clouds on pages.
4- RSS feeds with podcasts and video enclosures will get you into additional RSS directories and engines.
5 - Create Sitemaps
6- Keep blog title to the point
7 - Post Often
8 - Create a unique topic
9 -Ping Other Sites to let them know you have a new blog entry
10 - Submit your blog in blog directories
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Googel adwords keywords research tool
Pattern of displaying keyword average search volume and monthly search volume has changed. Now it’s shows exact number in place of green bar… it’s looking more easy to pick searchable keywords.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Google SEO Documentation, White Papers and Information
Google over the years has produced a large amount of helpful information that gives us great insight to how their search engine works.
This information includes and is not limited to terms of service details, white papers, discussion groups and blogs.
The following is therefore a list of these resources which mainly focus on SEO, search engine optimization and search engine marketing. This list does not include tool, it is a list of documents that Google has produced (in the main) that provide valuable insights into how Google works.
Using these insights will help you to better understand how search works and give you some very good tips on how to improve rankings.
As Google release more information I will do my best to keep this list up to date. If you find page s in Google I have missed, please email me and I will add them.
Google Blogs & Discussion
Google Webmaster Help Group - A great place to ask any question you may have about Google and your website and SEO.
Google Webmaster Central Blog - If you can’t find it in Google’s TOS or written information this is great place to conduct a search on the exact information you are looking for.
Matt Cutts - Matt Cutts works for Google and blogs about Google updates, algorithms, search engine tips, white hat SEO and a lot more.
Google Help
Google Webmaster Central - Links leading to many of Google’s apps and documents for webmasters.
Google Webmasters Help center – Google webmaster guidelines, tips & FAQ’s.
Google SEO Documents & White Papers
Anatomy Of A Large Scale Hyertextual Web Search Engine - Quoted first paragraph…
“In this paper, we present Google, a prototype of a large-scale search engine which makes heavy use of the structure present in hypertext. Google is designed to crawl and index the Web efficiently and produce much more satisfying search results than existing systems. The prototype with a full text and hyperlink database of at least 24 million pages is available at http://google.stanford.edu/”
The above page is a great place to start in getting your head around the workings of Google and search engines in general.
Google Papers - A list of publications, white papers and texts written by Google employees. A great place to find insights regarding Google algorithms and where they are headed with search.
PageRank - A detailed explanation of PageRank.
Pagerank Explained - An easier, less in depth explanation of PageRank.
Trust Rank - A white paper of how Google may be currently implementing algorithms rules.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Adobe Flash Technology Enhances Search Results for Dynamic Content and Rich Internet Applications
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the company is teaming up with search industry leaders to dramatically improve search results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs). Adobe is providing optimized Adobe® Flash® Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines. This will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers and rich Web content producers won’t need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable — they can now be confident it can be found by users around the globe.
Visit to know more
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