HELPFUL SEO TOOLS

Take advantage of web analytics services
If you've improved the crawling and indexing of your site using Google Webmasters Tools or other services, you're probably curious about the traffic coming to your site. Web analytics programs like
Google Analytics are a valuable source of insight for this. You can use these to:
• get insight into how users reach and behave on your site
• discover the most popular content on your site
• measure the impact of optimizations you make to your site (e.g. did changing those title and description meta tags improve traffic from search engines?)
For advanced users, the information an analytics package provides, combined with data from your server log files, can provide even more comprehensive information about how visitors are interacting with your documents (such as additional keywords that searchers might use to find your site).
Lastly, Google offers another tool called Google Website Optimizer that allows you to run experiments to find what on-page changes will produce the best conversion rates with visitors. This, in combination with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools (see My video on using the "Google Trifecta"), is a powerful way to begin improving your site.
Make use of free webmaster tools
Major search engines, including Google, provide free tools for webmasters. Google's Webmaster tools help webmasters better control how Google interacts with their websites and get useful information from Google about their site. Using Webmaster Tools won't help your site get preferential treatment; however, it can help you identify issues that, if addressed, can help your site perform better in search results. With the service, webmasters can:
• See which parts of a site Googlebot had problems crawling

• Upload an XML Sitemap file

• Analyze and generate robots.txt files

• Remove URLs already crawled by Googlebot

• Specify the preferred domain

• Identify issues with title and description meta tags

• understand the top searches used to reach a site

• get a glimpse at how Googlebot sees pages

• Remove unwanted sitelinks that Google may use in results

• Receive notification of quality guideline violations and file for a site reconsideration

• Yahoo! (Yahoo! Site Explorer) and Microsoft (Live Search Webmaster Tools) also offer free tools for webmasters.

Helpful resources for webmasters

• Google Webmaster Help Group - Have questions or feedback on our guide? Let us know
• Google Webmaster Central Blog - Frequent posts by Googlers on how to improve your website
• Google Webmaster Help Center - Filled with in-depth documentation on webmaster-related issues
• Google Webmaster Tools - Optimize how Google interacts with your websit
• Google Webmaster Guidelines - Design, content, technical, and quality guidelines from Google
• Google Analytics - Find the source of your visitors, what they're viewing, and benchmark changes
• Tips on Hiring an SEO - If you don't want to go at it alone, these tips should help you choose an SEO Company
• Find pages that link to your site and competitor site using Site Explorer
• Check your web page in different screen resolutions
• Out your domain or keywords in search box to find relationship between linking sites and topics, a Visual Meta search engine
• Check you site load time and fix if it is too slow. This will help search engine spiders to crawl easily
• Find out how search engine spiders look at your site
• Find how your website is targeted in local search engines
• Find insight of your website keyword search terms and location; target your business accordingly
• Find insight of your website keyword search terms and location; target your business accordingly
• Get quick traffic and cost estimates on your keywords for sponsored listings
• Measure your ROI from SEO, PPC and conversion rate optimization

Some Helpful Tools

• Back link Builder: http://www.webconfs.com/backlink-builder.php

• Check duplicates URL: http://www.copyscape.com/

• Check Similarity- http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php

• Comparison- http://tools.seobook.com/general/website-comparison/

• Convert Host/Domain Name to IP Address and vice versa: http://www.hcidata.info/host2ip.cgi

• Computer & IT learning center: http://www.flazx.com/

• Check internet speed: http://www.abeltronica.com/velocimetro/pt/?idioma=uk&newlang=uk

• Check page rank: http://www.pagerank.net/pagerank-checker/

• Check class c back link: http://www.webrankinfo.com/english/tools/class-c-checker.php

• Check IP Address: http://www.ip-report.com/

• Check you position: Your Google™ SOAP API Key* :(JqVOWahQFHLDxtvbSKcRYZiAtEdoRDTa) http://www.googlerankings.com/index.php

• Ex-change of Money: http://www.x-rates.com/cgi-bin/cgicalc.cgi?value=1&base=AUD

• For Directory Submission: Link Suggestion Tool: http://tools.seobook.com/general/link-suggest/

• Google Competition- http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

• HTML Validated: http://validator.w3.org/

• Keyword Density: http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/

• Keyword Suggestion- http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/

• Meta Tag Analyzer: http://www.submitexpress.com/analyzer/

• Link Popularity Check Tools:http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
http://www.submitexpress.com/linkpop/

• Page Size: Home Page Analysis: Loading Time: Connection Rate: Download Time: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/index.html

• Reverse IP: www.domaintools.com

• Reciprocal link checker: http://tools.seobook.com/general/link-check/

• Similar-page-checker: http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php

• Site score: http://www.silktide.com/tools/sitescore

• Spider Test: http://tools.seobook.com/general/spider-test/

• Site Report Card: http://www.sitereportcard.com/

• Translation Tool: http://translate.google.com/translate_t#

• Website-comparison: http://tools.seobook.com/general/website-comparison/

• Website Analysis: http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/

How web beacons perform web analytics data collection

How does web beacons work? if you have asked the question any time and would like to know still, read on !

If you are looking forward to know how does an analytics tag work or what is a web beacon, this post might help you.
A web beacon is usually a 1X1 pixel transparent image which gets embedded into a web page or an email message which acts as a way to exchange data between the client and the web analytics data collection server.

Lets see how web beacons really work and transfer data to the server.

Web beacons through javascript tags

The usual web analytics data collection method being used is by means of javascript tags. Each web page which need to be analyzed or tracked contains few lines of javascript code. Following is an example of statcounter code (which is taken out of this page itself, as I use statcounter as one of the web analytics tool. Its free!!)









Let me explain what this code does.

In first 4 lines of this code, few statcounter account related variables are being initialized (such as sc_project, sc_invisible etc). The last part of the code is inclusion of an external js file from the statcounter.

The code from statcounter does many things. For example it finds out the referring URL to the current page you are viewing, the page’s URL, title of the page, your browser’s resolution, your IP address etc etc).

Now comes the web beacon. The web analytics data is collected by the script from statcounter. And at the end of this initial process of collecting information, the data need to be passed to the statcounter server. This is achieved by use of a web beacon or image plug. An image request URL is formatted appending all the variables and values which need to be passed. Javascript outputs an tag with this URL as the src attribute. When the browser renders this image, the script at statcounter.com collects the data present in the query string and sends out the 1X1 transparent image as the response (it was a request for an image – remember that).

Web beacons as part of a mobile specific web page

You would have seen a

Intro into Web Analytics

What is Web Analytics ?

Web Analytics refers to collection and analysis of website visitor activity data, to derive at key business decisions, corrective actions etc.

First and foremost thing in web analytics is the user data, how it is collected etc. There are various ways the user data is collected (Mind, each view of a page like the one you are reading now is being recorded by web analytics tools. I am using tools called StatCounter and Google Analytics at the moment).

How Website Visitor Data is being recorded ?

There are various methods which can be used to collect the visitor activity data in a website. The oldest among them is the server logs. A webserver keeps a log of the visitor requests, pages etc, This is the raw form of web analytics data.

The most commonly used method of web analytics data collection method as of date is by using web beacons. A web beacon is nothing but a transparent 1X1 image pixel which gets embedded into each web page being tracked. I will explain how web beacons work in detail in another post.

The most sophisticated method of website visitor data capture is using packet sniffers. A packet sniffer sniffs the data packets being sent from web server to the client system and records it.

Why you need Web Analytics ?

Whether big or small online business taken into consideration, the common objective would be increasing the sales/revenue through the online medium. In this point, it is very much required that the business is aware whats happening in the website, how useful is the website to the users, is the number of visitors increasing and how many leave the site without completing the enquiry/sales section and why. Web Analytics can provide answers to all of these and can also give you business recommendations on the corrective actions if necessary.

Web Analytics: Understanding the Uniqueness of a Visitor with Web Cookies and IP Addresses

Web cookies or HTTP cookies is an individual unique id or value stored by a user’s web browser. Web cookies can be used for verification/authentication, storing site preferences, shopping cart contents, the identifier for a server-based session.web analytics, visitor analytics, google analytics, cookies

Cookies consist of one or more individual unique id or value pairs containing bits of information, which may be encrypted for information privacy and data security purposes. Cookies used to maintain data related to the user during navigation, possibly across multiple visits. The cookies are sent as an HTTP header by a web server with a unique session identifier. The web browser will send back that session identifier unchanged each time it accesses that server.

Cookies used to track internet users’ web browsing habits. This can also be done in part by using the IP address of the computer requesting the page or the referrer field of the HTTP header, but cookies allow for a greater precision. For example, if a user requests a page of the site, but the request contains no cookie, the server presumes that this is the first page visited by the user; the server creates a random string and sends it as a cookie back to the browser together with the requested page. From this point on, the cookie will be automatically sent by the browser to the server every time a new page from the site is requested; the server sends the page as usual, but also stores the URL of the requested page, the date/time of the request, and the cookie in a log file. By looking at the log file, it is then possible to find out which pages the user has visited and in what sequence.

Without cookies, each visit to a Web page or part of a Web page is an inaccessible event, mostly not linked to all other views of the pages of the same site. The cookie setter can specify a deletion date, in which case the cookie will be removed on that date. If the cookie setter does not specify a date, the cookie is removed once the user quits his or her browser. Cookies can also be limited in scope to a specific domain, sub domain or path on the web server which created them.

web browsers cookies, web servers, visitors loyaltyIf more than one browser is used on a computer, each usually has a separate storage area for cookies. Hence cookies do not identify a person, but a combination of a user account, a computer, and a Web browser. Thus, anyone who uses multiple accounts, computers, or browsers has multiple sets of cookies. Likewise, cookies do not differentiate between multiple users who share the same user account, computer, and browser.

Users may be tracked based on the IP address of the computer requesting the page. This method has been available since the introduction of the World Wide Web, as downloading pages requires the server to know the IP address of the computer running the browser, if any is used. The server can track this information whether or not cookies are used. However, these addresses are typically less reliable in identifying a user than cookies because computers and proxies may be shared by several users, and the same computer may be assigned different IP addresses in different work sessions.

Tracking by IP addresses can be reliable in some situations, such as the case of always-on broadband connections which retain the same IP address for long periods of time, so long as the power stays on. Both cookies and IP addresses have their strengths and weaknesses for determining the uniqueness of a visitor. It is impossible to be 100% accurate Analysis.

Cookie basics

What is a Cookie?

Cookies, HTTP Cookies, Web Cookies or Tracking Cookies are small pieces of data stored by a website on client system. This data is sent back to the web server which initially set the cookie for any additional hit to the web server.

What are the uses of cookies ?

Cookies are majorly used for user authentication and carrying the active session across different page visits by a visitor in a visit session.

Say user A has a login at xyz.com. There is a login page where A enters his login details and goes ahead browsing pages in XYZ.com. Now cookies can be a method by which xyz.com distinguish user A as the same person visiting different pages at xyz.com.

Web analytic tools use cookies to calculate unique visitors.

How a cookie is set ?

Cookies can be set by javaScript or any server sided script.

JavaScript cookie example

Setting a cookie
document.cookie = “COOKIE NAME”+”=”+”COOKIE VALUE”+ “;expires=”+”EXPIRY DATE”+”;domain=”+”DOMAIN”;

COOKIE NAME is a string as a name for cookie, Value is a piece of data, EXPIRY DATE is created by using Date.toGMTString() method of javascript. Expiry value and domain are optional.

Reading a cookie

Reading a cookie is not straight forward. All the cookies set for a domain are available in document.cookie variable as a string. We need to have utility functions to read a specific cookie.

PHP Example

Setting cookie
bool setcookie ( string $name [, string $value [, int $expire [, string $path [, string $domain [, bool $secure [, bool $httponly ]]]]]] )

Reading a cookie

The cookie is directly readable from the $_COOKIE global variable as $_COOKIE[$name]

Same origin policy related to browsers and cookies

In simple terms the explanation of same origin policy would be, if xyz.com sets cookie, only javascript code in a page at xyz.com or a server sided script at xyz.com can only read the cookie. This is a browser policy. If www.xyz.com sets the cookie, the same way only www.xyz.com page js code / server sided script can only read cookie.

Same cookie over all subdomains

If you would like to share the same cookie data across all subdomains of a site, say xyz.com, the domain parameter in a setCookie function should be .xyz.com (dot at the start of the base domain name. No www’s in it !!)

References

HTTP Cookie on WikiPedia

31 Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free

LINK BUILDING:

1. Exchange links with other bloggers
2. Use BlogRush
3. Submit to RSS directories
4. Submit to blog directories
5. Submit to general directories
6. Start a 2nd blog and link to yourself
7. Create and give away blog themes (with a link to your blog in the footer)
8. Create free plugins
9. Create link bait
10. Participate in blog carnivals
11. Comment on DoFollow blogs
12. WordPress Backlinks Plugin (link removed due to possible security issues)

COMMUNITY:
13 Join communities at MyBlogLog
14 Join communities at Bumpzee
15 Join communities at Blog Catalog
16 Start a community at any of these sites
17 Comment on other blogs in your niche
18 Email your friends and contacts about a new blog post that may interest them
19 Email your readers to say “thank you”
20 Email other bloggers to introduce yourself
21 Link out to other blogs

SOCIAL MEDIA:
22 Digg
23 del.icio.us
24 StumbleUpon
25 Reddit
26 Netscape
27 Magnolia
28 MySpace
29 Facebook
30 YouTube FORUMS:
31 AuthorityBlogger

You can view also:
http://writetodone.com/2008/11/06/branding-101-how-to-promote-your-blog-like-the-big-guys-do/
http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/20-ways-to-increse-blog-visibility-by-lijo

Website Usability Checklist

Search engine optimization and other online marketing techniques get targeted traffic to your website. As per research, a visitor spends an average of less than 8 seconds on the web page. So, you have just less than 8 seconds for the visitor to do what you want them to do. Or else they will go away. So, you need to also pay proper and more attention how the website is treated by different visitors and the major portion of your visitors find the website navigation easy and comfortable. They should be able to use the site easily and should understand the content.

This is a simple usability checklist for the website.

1. Have the navigation links easily visible. Visitors should know where they are and should easily find out where they have to go next. Also, they should know what all additional pages are there apart for the page they are on.

2. The navigation links should be consistent and at the same place on all the pages. Visitors may get annoyed of the links appear and disappear unpredictably. The best practice is to use include files for the navigation system. This will ensure the changes made to this are effected on all the pages.

3. Use appropriate anchor text. As the anchor text is important for search engine optimization, do not stuff them with main keywords without considering to which page it will lead to after clicking. Make the anchor text more meaningful at the same time so that the visitor will know where they will be moved to on clicking. Don’t keep them guessing as to where the link is going to take them.

4. It is a normal practice to highlight the anchor text so that it conveys the message that the visitor has to click it. Usually, the anchor text is underlined or used in a different font or bold font. It is always a best practice to use CSS to emphasize the text links.

5. You can use JavaScript or other scripting language to create menus for the navigational links. Just take care that the visitor can easily navigate through the link structure in the menu.

6. Home page link is a must in the list of navigation items you have. Also, the logo should always be linked to the home page.

7. Include site search box on every page of the website. If the visitor can’t find what they need, they should be easily guided to the search box. Moreover, if you refer the search keywords, you will know what information is searched more number of times and what should be made easily available to the visitor. Thus, prominently displaying the search box will help in improving a website.

8. Always use breadcrumbs to let the visitor know on which page he is on and how they have navigated to the page.

9. Always have your main content and call-to-action lines on the top or above the fold. Do not expect the visitor to scroll down, read and then click.

10. Use proper background color and font color so that it gels with your brand and branding. Moreover, the content should be easily readable by the visitors.

11. Always use ALT and TITLE attributes to all images. Some browsers may block images so in this case the visitor can read the ALT text.

12. Have a custom error page that will help a visitor when clicked on a broken link or type the address incorrectly. The custom error page should be in synch with the website design and structure.

13. Have a feedback form to always dope you with you information that will help you to increase the performance of the website. Try to improve the usability depending on the feedback you receive. The users of the site can tell you exactly how they are feeling about it.

Your website is designed just not for you but, for the ones who use it – your visitors who are your customers. A site that confronts to users’ expectations, makes them more comfortable and more compelling to visit again. Good usability is always critical to website’s business.