A working knowledge of keyword research and search optimization is vital for any Internet Marketing endeavor. Generally speaking, the more one has studied and practiced in the field of keyword research, the faster and simpler it becomes.

An asterisk (*) has been placed by the most highly recommended resources.

Keyword Research Tools and Training

The following keyword research tools are providing along with training, both in the subject of keyword research itself, and in the use of the tools provided.

* Keyword Elite 2.0 – This is the most highly recommended Keyword Research Tools. It also comes with over 40 hours of video training, and access to a members forum. One time payment.

* Web 2.0 Mayhem – Includes Keyword Research Tools as well as a full set of link building and SEO tools. Also includes a complete training program, videos, tutorials, and step-by-step instructions for an entire traffic generation strategy from start to end (including but not limited to keyword research). Paid monthly.

Niche Profit Classroom – Includes a special keyword research tool to help find long-tail keywords which can be used to generate traffic to newer blogs and websites which have not yet built up size, age, or authority. Paid monthly.

Wordtracker – Online keyword research tool which includes training. Paid monthly, after free trial.

Traffic Travis – There is a free version and a paid upgrade.  Includes keyword research tools, SEO tools, and five-part mini training course.

Training and eBooks on Keyword Research and Related Aspects of SEO

* Free eBook by Brad Callen: SEO Made Easy – Free eBook with all of the Basics on Search Engine Optimization, including basics on Keyword Research. Free of charge.

* Keyword Research 101 from Pot Pie Girl – Very good basic information on keyword research, with additional approaches not available in other texts on the subject. This book is very beginner-friendly but also enlightening to experienced internet marketers. One time payment.

* The Master Plan by Charles Heflin – On intermediate to advanced onsite and offsite SEO (including keyword research information). Includes important information on basic principals which hold true through any fluctuation of search engine algorithms. One time payment.

SEO Mindset – Hard copy book on long-term strategies for getting and keeping top search engine rankings.

Search Marketing Elite – A membership site which offers 40+ hours of training videos, software, a forum, and website reviews.

Free Keyword Research Tools

* Google Keyword Tool

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool

SEO 20/20 Keyword Suggestion Tool

Wordtracker Free Keyword Tool

Keyword Discovery Free Keyword Research Tool

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This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at Keyword Research Training and Tools.

We don’t believe in dishonest techniques or shortcuts, and we won’t promote a website that doesn’t contain useful quality content.  But don’t worry – if your website needs a bit more work to bring it up to snuff, we can help you with that too.

Needless to say, any search engine optimization (SEO) strategies we use are white-hat and in compliance with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

For more information on website promotion and search engine optimization, please visit the following sections of our site:

• Search Engine Optimization Services
• Content Syndication Services

This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at Search Engine Optimization Services.

The Purpose of a Search Engine

When you go to a website like Google and type a word or phrase into the search engine, you probably are hoping to find results which are:

• Relevant
• Good Quality
• Useful
• Varied

Imagine if you went to a search engine and typed in “dog collars,” but then got results such as the following:

• Websites about coffee cups
• Pages written in unclear English with bad grammar, difficult to read, and uninformative.
• The same website appearing over and over in the top 10 positions, instead of a variety of different websites with information on dog collars
• Or, even worse yet, pages of incoherent gibberish which simply have the word “dog collars” repeated over and over in their text.

You would probably feel that search engine was not very useful, and you wouldn’t use that search engine again. You would look for a better one.

Those who program search engines and who write their algorithms are aware of this fact. They want their seach engines to provide results which are as useful, relevant, and high-quality as possible. This will make people want to use those search engines more.

On the other side of the coin, there are people who work against the search engines.

How and why would they do that?

Well, usually these are people who own websites. They want their websites to rank well in the search engines, but they don’t want to work too hard to get them there. So they try to short-cut the system and cheat their way to the top.

Its okay to practice SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in order to try to get to the top. But that includes building high-quality and useful websites which will provide useful and relevant information to the people who are searching for information online. When webmasters try to trick the search engines into giving them a higher ranking or more traffic than they deserve, this is called “black hat SEO.”

In an effort to combat black-hat SEO and to maintain the integrity of their search results, search engines (or, the people who program them, that is) are continually modifying and improving their algorithms. Every time someone comes up with a new trick they can use to get around the algorithms, the search engine companies come out with a new algorithm in response – and so it goes.

Search engines algorithms are kept a secret, in order to make it harder for people to try to shortcut them. Therefore, Search Engine Pptimization is an interesting field. It is an area of constant change, some mystery, and lots of room for opinion.

At the same time, there are many key basic facts that you can learn and apply, successfully and ethically, in order to get more relevant traffic to a website or websites. And most importantly, keep in mind what the purpose of a search engine is – so that you can work with it, and not against it. Good website content and good SEO go hand-in-hand. Together they are a highly powerful combination. One without the other is not.

This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at What a Search Engine is and Does.

You might already know what many of these terms – but many people don’t.  And as you are reading, you might realize that you yourself didn’t know what all of these words really meant, even when you thought you did.

What is the Internet?

The Internet (or the “net” for short) is an enormous network of computers all over the world, which are connected together with wires, cables, wireless transmissions, and satellite signals.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is the address of a website (which is a specific group of files or pages under that domain name). For example: websitesandwebhosting.com is the domain name for the website called “Websites and Webhosting.” This website could have many pages inside it, but the address of every page would include “websitesandwebhosting.com.” For example, the following web pages all fall under the domain name websitesandwebhosting.com:

http://websitesandwebhosting.com/webmaster-resources/
http://websitesandwebhosting.com/email-marketing-free-trial/
http://websitesandwebhosting.com/books-ebooks-training/
http://websitesandwebhosting.com/website-building/website-building-services/

What is a Website?

A website is a group of pages which are linked together under one domain name. So, for example, all of the files which are linked together under the domain name websitesandwebhosting.com are referred to as one website.

What is a URL?

“URL” stands for “uniform resource locator.” It is the exact address of any particular page or file on the Internet. (The pages and files are considered to be “resources.”) Most websites have many pages, and each page has its own URL. Here are some examples of URLs:

http://websitesandwebhosting.com/books-ebooks-training/

http://websitesandwebhosting.com/email-marketing-free-trial/

What is a Hyperlink?

A hyperlink (also called a “link” for short”) is a piece of text or an image which connects web pages and files together, usually on the Internet. If you hover your mouse pointer over a hyperlink and you click on it, it normally leads you to some other web page, file, or image. One can also put hyperlinks into a document or an eBook. This is a hyperlink

What is a Search Engine?

Some websites have special computer programs which you can use to search for information. These are called “search engines.” A search engine can rapidly look through millions of websites on the Internet to help you find the information you are looking for. When you type a word or phrase or phrase into a search engine, it displays a list of websites which should have information and pages about the term you typed in. Technically speaking, the search engine is actually the computer program which searches for information, not the website itself. But we tend to refer to websites which use search engines as “search engines.” So the term “search engine” has come to refer to not only the computer programs which search, but the websites which use these programs. The following websites are examples of search engines:

www.Google.com

www.Yahoo.com

www.MSN.com

www.AOL.com

What is a Keyword?

A keyword is an important word which represents the subject you are searching for information about (if you are searching for information). When you are publishing information on the Internet, a keyword is an important word which represents the subject you are writing about. When you publish photos, videos, or sound files, the a keyword is a word which describes the image, video, or sound. If you are searching for “dogs” and you type “dog collars” into a Search Engine, your keyword is “dogs.” If you are publishing a website about dogs, your main keyword would be “dog” or “dogs.”

What is a Key Phrase?

A key phrase is just like a keyword, except it is a group of keywords. An example of a key phrase would be “dog collars.” But most people use the term “keyword” to refer to both keywords and key phrases. I will use the word “keyword” to refer to both keywords and key phrases, as many people do. Its simply easier than continuously saying “keyword or key phrase.”

What is a Search Engine Results Position?

A Search Engine Results Position (or SERP) is the position of a website on the results for a search engine, after a particular keyword is typed in. As I write this book, the URL en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog is #1 in the Google SERPs for the keyword “dog.” What that means is that when I type “dog” into the Google Search Engine, the Number 1 result which shows up is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog.

What is Page Rank?

When people refer to “page rank” they are normally referring to “Google Page Rank.” The Google Search Engine has a way of rating the value of different pages on the Internet, from 0-10. Later on in this book I will tell you how to find out the page rank of different pages when needed (its very simple).

What is an IP Address?

Every computer in the world has its own number which is assigned to it. Its kind of like a street address, but its a string of numbers which other computers can understand. IP addresses in different parts of the world begin with different numbers. IP stands for “Internet Protocol.” The definition of Protocol is “the rules which determine the format and transfer of information on a computer.”

What is the World Wide Web?

The World Wide Web (also referred to as “www” or “the web”) is a term referring to the giant network of computers all over the world which are connected on the Internet. If you imagine all of these connections around the world, it looks a lot like a huge spider web of inter-connection. It is basically a synonym for the word “Internet.”

What’s a Web Server?

A web server (or server) is a big powerful computer where the pages and files of websites are stored. The server is running all the time (ideally) so that anyone can access them via the Internet. Usually web servers belong to big companies which have the entire purpose of storing website and files so that they can be accessed by others via Internet. These companies are called “web hosting companies” or “web hosts.” An example of a web host is my web host, Hostgator My websites, for example, are stored on one of Host Gator’s servers, in Texas, USA. If you visit one of my sites, such as www.WebsitesWebhosting.com, you will be reading the pages which are stored on the server in Texas. If a tornado has just ripped through my server, you will not be able to see my website, you will see an error message instead, like “Internal Server Error.” (Sound familiar?)

What is a Webmaster?

A webmaster is a person who owns and creates one or more website.

What Does “Download” Mean?”

When you find a file on the Internet and you save it onto the computer you are using (the one you are typing on or a storage device connected to it) this is called “downloading.”

What Does “Upload” Mean?

When you take a file from your own computer and send to another computer on the Internet, usually a server, this is called “uploading” the file. You can upload files to your own server if you are creating a website. You can also upload files to other people’s servers. When you publish a video on a website like YouTube you have to upload the file to that website’s server.

What is a Blog?

The word blog is short for weblog. It is a type of a website. The entries in a blog are made in the style of a journal, and they are displayed in reverse-chronological order, with the most recent entry “at the top,” or on the front page. Originally, blogs were used like online journals or diaries. People would post their day-to-day thoughts and ideas on blogs. Blogs became a medium for displaying artistic creations, discussing news events, sharing the latest recipes with friends, and announcing accomplishments. Businesses also began to use blogs in order to keep their customers up to date with the latest developments. Modern day blogs have expanded into much broader use, and they have become increasingly popular for a variety of reasons. This will be discussed in more detail, later on in this book.

What is a Blog Post?

A single entry on a blog is a blog post. Blog posts are made chronologically and the most recent posts usually show up on the front page of the blog. To look at older posts, you usually search through the blog archives section.

What is a Comment?

When you come across a blog, video, image, or similar page on the Internet, you will often be given the opportunity to leave a comment. This will usually be in a space beneath the video, picture, or written text. A comment is a short message, opinion, or idea which you leave in response to whatever has been displayed on the page. Later on in this book you will learn why comments are very important.

What is “Online” and “Offline?”

When a person or computer is connected to the Internet, the person or computer is online. When the person or computer is not connected, the person is offline.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (or SEO, for short) is the process of putting a website into an optimum condition so that it will be found as frequently as possible by people searching for relevant information on the Internet. For example, if you had a webite which sold dog accessories, you would want as many people as possible to visit your website, and you would want those people to be dog owners or dog lovers, or anyone who might be interested in buying a dog accessory from you. You would want people to find your website toward the top of the search results when they type in “dog accessories,” “dog toys,” “dog collars,” “dog seat covers,” “dog leashes …” and the list goes on. Anything you do in order to get more relevant traffic to your website through search engines is called “Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO.” There are different aspects of SEO, and there are right and wrong ways to do it. This will be covered later in this book where appropriate.

What is “Black Hat” and “White Hat” SEO?

In a nutshell, ethical SEO techniques are called “White Hat” SEO, and dishonest SEO Techniques are called “Black Hat SEO.” Different people have different ideas of what falls under which category, but once you have a basic understanding, it is pretty easy to tell the difference. Black Hat SEO techniques are often characterized by efforts to “trick” the search engines, or to shortcut one’s way to success. They are not workable in the long term, and are harmful to one’s reputation as well as to the effectiveness of one’s SEO efforts. Black Hat SEO techniques can even get websites removed from the Search Engine results entirely, because Search Engines don’t like black hatters.

What’s an Algorithm?

An algorithm is a computer program which goes through a series of steps in order to solve a problem or make a decision. Search engines use algorithms to determine which results should be displayed, and in which sequence, when a person performs a search. Search engines constantly change their algorithms in an effort to display the highest-quality and most relevant search results possible to their users.

What’s a Browser?

A browser, or web brower, is a computer program which is used to view and work with pages and documents on the Internet. The names of two popular browsers are Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

What is Internet Marketing?

The use of the Internet to promote one’s company, cause, product, message, or website is referred to as “Internet Marketing.” Internet Marketing is most commonly associate with income-generating activities, since most Internet Marketers are using the Internet in order to earn money (by selling products or services, or by selling advertising space on their websites). Internet Marketing, however, can be applied to any activity in which one wants to spread a message or promote an idea.

What is a Social Networking Website?

A social networking website allows many different users to create their own profile page with information about themselves, publish content, interact with other users, create and join groups, make friends, send messages to eachother, share photos and videos, etc. Examples of popular social networking websites are MySpace and Facebook. There are many different types of social networking websites. Each is unique in some way. Different types of social networks are tailored for different purposes or different types of people. Some focus on particular subject matter, such as YouTube (a vido sharing site), Flickr (a photo sharing site), and Blog Catalog (a social network for bloggers). Social networking sites usually allow you to pubish links to your own websites or to other sites which interest you.

What is a Social Bookmarking Site?

A social bookmarking site is a type of social networking site, with two main purposes:

1. To allow you to store and organize records of websites and pages you find, so that you can find them again easily later on. When you store a record of a webpage you like, this is called “bookmarking” the page.
2. To allow you to share your bookmarks with other people who have similar interests, and to search for useful content among other people’s bookmarks.

An example of a social bookmarking site is Delicious.

What is Spam?

Spam could be defined as unwanted, unwelcome, or uninvited communication which is sent in some way via the Internet. The type of spam we are most familiar with is unwanted and uninvited bulk email, which is usually sent out to large numbers of people. The person sending the spam emails is usually trying to get money – whether by trying to sell something, or by trying to steal people’s personal information so that their bank accounts can be hacked. There are many other forms of spam. Some examples are:

• Leaving irrelevant and self promoting messages and comments on other people’s websites, leaving a link to one’s own site in the comment, in hopes of generating traffic to one’s own website.
• Creating hundreds of copies of the exact same website and publishing it under many domain names, in hopes of getting more traffic.
• Sending out unhelpful, unwelcome, and inappropriate friend-invitations or messages on social networking sites, in hopes of getting more traffic or sales for oneself.
• Creating numerous social network or social bookmark profiles which have little value in themselves, with the sole purpose of publishing links to one’s own websites.

There are other examples but this should give you an idea. Spammers are very badly thought of, and are heavily rejected, in the online world. Some forms of spam are also illegal. But its not hard to follow the rules once one has a basic understanding of them.

Summary

Okay. If you are relatively new to this subject, you might feel like I have just given you a lot to digest at once.  If you are familiar with the Internet, then none of this may be new to you.

I have just touched on these basic definitions so that future articles and concepts will be easier to understand.  After all, when one doesn’t have a grasp on basic concepts, it is easy to get confused later on down the line.   If you forget what one of these terms means, you can always refer back to this post.

This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at Basic Definitions.

This is to give more detailed information on the features that are included with our basic blog setup for small and large businesses, or for personal use.  In case of any upgrades or changes, this post will be updated with the most recent information.

These features are included wherever they are applicable, so long the necessary relevant information has been provided.

Admin Area – Your blog comes with a professional admin area, and a central control area known as a dashboard.  This is your “back office” where you can make changes, adjust settings, and administer your blog.  Once the setup of your blog is complete, we will give you login information so that you can enter your dashboard area whenever you need to, in order to update or modify your blog.

A Variety of Blog Themes to Choose From – The theme of your blog is its overall design, general layout, coloring, look, and feel.  You will be able to choose from hundreds themes for your blog, or you can let us choose the theme we think is best.  For some premium themes, prices may vary slightly.

Full Subscription Setup – Your blog will be set up with a full subscription service so that your visitors can choose to be notified whenever you post on your blog.  They can choose to be notified by email, or by RSS (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication).

Automatic DataBase Backup – A backup file of your blog’s content can be set up to be sent to you regularly by email.

Comment Moderation – You will have the option to moderate all comments that are left on your blog.  This means that when a visitor leaves a comment, you can chose to approve or disapprove it, before it is published.

Anti-Spam – Your blog will be programmed to detect spam comments and protect you from them.  You will have the option to view these comments if you like, in order to verify that they are spam.  (Usually spam comments are marked accordingly by your blog, but occasionally a valid comment is labeled as spam, in which case you will have the option to manually approve it for posting.)

Broken Link Checker – When one of your posts contains a broken link (a link which leads nowhere, which can occur due to typographical errors or because the page that the link leads to has moved), you will be notified of this on your dashboard.  Any time you log on, you will be able to see any broken links and repair them rapidly and easily.

Web Stats and Analytics – Your blog will be tracked by popular and well-established web analytics and analysis tools so that you can see how much traffic you are getting, where your traffic is coming from, and more.

Automatic Sitemap Generator – Your blog will be set up to generate and automatically update its own sitemap.

Sitemap Submission Your sitemap will be submitted to Google so that your pages can be found and easily indexed in by Google’s Search Engine.

Social Networking Integration – At the bottom of each blog post, a small button or group of buttons can appear which allows your visitors to easily share your content with others, by email or by using social networks and social bookmarking sites.  (This is optional and may not apply to some designs).

Twitter Updates – If you have a Twitter account, you can set your blog up to post a notification on Twitter every time you add a new post.

Facebook Updates – Allows you to have your blog automatically post a link to new entries on your Facebook account whenever you add a new post.

Subscribe to Comments – When a visitor comments on one of your blog posts, this feature allows them to subscribe to be informed by email, whenever a new comment is made on that post.

Comment Editor – Allows your visitors to edit their comments after they have submitted them.

Theme Authenticity Checker – In case you choose to add new themes to your blog in the future (other than those we have already loaded) this feature will allow you to check those themes for malicious or troublesome code.

Privacy Policy and Disclaimer - If needed, we can create a Privacy Policy and/or Disclaimer page for your blog.  (This does not constitute legal advice and is used at your own discretion.)

Search Engine Optimization – Your blog will be optimized for Search Engines in the following manner:

• Each post will have meta data created automatically.  This helps your content be found more easily when internet users search for related terms online.  This meta data includes your post title, description, and keywords.  You will also have the option of manually entering your own title, description, and keywords, or your blog will create it for you automatically based on the titles and content of your posts.
• Automatic tagging.  When we have a list of keywords related to your blog’s subject matter, we can set your blog up to automatically add those keywords to your posts whenever the same words occur within the body of the text.  The keywords can be added both as tags (visible to the visitor) and keywords (only visible to Search Engines and important for SEO).  Please note, this feature only works with compatible themes.
• Your blog will be programmed to notify, or “ping” numerous other blog-related websites whenever you publish a new post.  This helps you to get more traffic to your blog.  We will also program your blog so that no “over-pinging” occurs when you edit your posts or if you create many posts in a short time period.
• Additional SEO features will be set up which might be difficult to understand (and possibly uninteresting) for clients with limited technical knowledge in this field.  If you would like further information on these, please contact us.

Centralized Plugin Management – Many of the above functions are performed by small software elements called “plugins.”  These plugins need to be updated from time to time, and as you become more familiar with blogging, you might find that you want to install new plugins.  Your blog will have a centralized plugin management area where you can easily add and update plugins.

(Note: The plugins we configure for your blog are created by individual developers.  After your blog is turned over to you, you will be responsible for ensuring that your website and its software is updated regularly.  This is not difficult.  Additionally, we can provide no warranty or future guarantees regarding your website’s software or related plugins.)

One Month Free Support – After your blog is set up, you may have questions or need advice about how to perform different tasks within your admin panel.  Feel free to email us with any questions you have and we will do everything we can to assist you.

Additional Features As Applicable – Dependent on the nature of your business or website, we may choose to install additional features which we think would be appropriate and useful for your blog.

Prices, Terms, and Additional Information

For additional information and pricing, please see the following pages:

• Services and Fees
• Payment Terms

If you  have any additional questions or would like an estimate or quote for your project, please  contact us.

This post was originally published on Websites and Webhosting at Blog Installation Service.