Here is a article I got in my inbox today that I thought I would share.
Google Page Rank - Importantor Just Another Number?
By Richard Grady (c) 2004
In my last newsletter, I wrote about how your website's Alexa rating is not actually that important to the success of your online business. In this issue, I want to look at another popular statistic - Google Page Rank - and ask a similar question - is it that important?
First a quick overview as to what the Google Page Rank actually is...
Google Page Rank (or PR as it is often referred to as) is simply an indication of the number of websites that link to a specific website. It also attempts to indicate the quality of those links. PR ranges from 0 to 10 (with 10 being the 'best' PR and 0 being the 'worst'). The vast majority of small business websites will usually find they have a PR of between 0 and 5.
To calculate a particular sites PR, Google uses a fairly complicated algorithm based on the number of web links that it is aware of that link to the site in question. This algorithm will also take into account the PR of the page that is providing the link. Thus, a link from a web page that has a PR of 7 will be considered more valuable than a link from a page with a PR of 4.
Because of the way in which links from higher PR-ranked sites are considered more important, many people are choosing to buy links from websites with high PR's just so that they can increase their own PR. I have seen sites selling a simple text link on their home page for over $700 a month purely based on the fact that they have a PR of 7 or above. This may seem like a lot of money but when you consider that the website owners who are buying these links often have websites that are in no way relevant to the content of the site linking to them, it is absolutely ridiculous.
Take this example, let's say you have a website about health and fitness and you buy a link for $500 a month from a random website because it has a PR of 7. This random website has no relevance to your health and fitness site so what is going to happen? Well, your own PR may increase as a result of the link. You may get a bit of extra traffïc but probably not much since people don't click on links that that they are not interested in. You will definitely be $500 poorer at the end of the month!
Instead, why not spend the $500 on pay-per-click advertising and benefit from some quality, targeted traffïc?
Of course, there is a bit more to it than that and the reason that most people want to increase their PR is because Google takes this statistic into account when determining where a website will be displayed in their search results. Many people assume that a high PR automatically equals a high search engine placement for their chosen keywords. Not so....
PR is just one of over 100 different factors that Google takes into account when deciding where your website will feature (and these factors and the main algorithm change on a very regular basis). It is perfectly possible for a website with a PR of 5 to get a higher ranking than a PR 7 site if it has better content or is more relevant for the search term in question.
Remember that relevance is all important with Google and a link from a website that is not relevant to your own site will be considered far less important than a relevant one (which makes buying links from random sites primarily because they have a high PR even more crazy).
I have read several rumours lately that Google hasn't updated PR's for a couple of months and they are considering phasing PR out or modifying it in some way. This is pure speculation but it wouldn't surprise me in the least. PR is easily manipulated (for example by purchasing links as described above) and Google doesn't like to have their calculations or search results manipulated. It stands to reason that they are looking at ways of preventing this.
Google Page Rank - Importantor Just Another Number? By Richard Grady (c) 2004 In my last newsletter, I wrote about how your website's Alexa rating is not actually that important to the success of your online business. In this issue, I want to look at another popular statistic - Google Page Rank - and ask a similar question - is it that important?
First a quick overview as to what the Google Page Rank actually is...
Google Page Rank (or PR as it is often referred to as) is simply an indication of the number of websites that link to a specific website. It also attempts to indicate the quality of those links. PR ranges from 0 to 10 (with 10 being the 'best' PR and 0 being the 'worst'). The vast majority of small business websites will usually find they have a PR of between 0 and 5.
To calculate a particular sites PR, Google uses a fairly complicated algorithm based on the number of web links that it is aware of that link to the site in question. This algorithm will also take into account the PR of the page that is providing the link. Thus, a link from a web page that has a PR of 7 will be considered more valuable than a link from a page with a PR of 4.
Because of the way in which links from higher PR-ranked sites are considered more important, many people are choosing to buy links from websites with high PR's just so that they can increase their own PR. I have seen sites selling a simple text link on their home page for over $700 a month purely based on the fact that they have a PR of 7 or above. This may seem like a lot of money but when you consider that the website owners who are buying these links often have websites that are in no way relevant to the content of the site linking to them, it is absolutely ridiculous.
Take this example, let's say you have a website about health and fitness and you buy a link for $500 a month from a random website because it has a PR of 7. This random website has no relevance to your health and fitness site so what is going to happen? Well, your own PR may increase as a result of the link. You may get a bit of extra traffïc but probably not much since people don't click on links that that they are not interested in. You will definitely be $500 poorer at the end of the month!
Instead, why not spend the $500 on pay-per-click advertising and benefit from some quality, targeted traffïc?
Of course, there is a bit more to it than that and the reason that most people want to increase their PR is because Google takes this statistic into account when determining where a website will be displayed in their search results. Many people assume that a high PR automatically equals a high search engine placement for their chosen keywords. Not so....
PR is just one of over 100 different factors that Google takes into account when deciding where your website will feature (and these factors and the main algorithm change on a very regular basis). It is perfectly possible for a website with a PR of 5 to get a higher ranking than a PR 7 site if it has better content or is more relevant for the search term in question.
Remember that relevance is all important with Google and a link from a website that is not relevant to your own site will be considered far less important than a relevant one (which makes buying links from random sites primarily because they have a high PR even more crazy).
I have read several rumours lately that Google hasn't updated PR's for a couple of months and they are considering phasing PR out or modifying it in some way. This is pure speculation but it wouldn't surprise me in the least. PR is easily manipulated (for example by purchasing links as described above) and Google doesn't like to have their calculations or search results manipulated. It stands to reason that they are looking at ways of preventing this.
So, in summary, is Google Page Rank important to your business?
Well, it is a good indicator of how many other sites link to yours and how important Google considers your site to be, but I personally don't place too much importance on this statistic and I certainly won't be paying out for a link from a website just because it has a high PR.
As I said above, Google changes it's rules on a regular basis and I see little point in chasing a particular PR on the basis that it might get you higher search engine rankings. If Google does decide to do away with PR, all your work will have been for nothing.
Instead, concentrate on building quality, relevant links from sites that are connected in some way to your own site content. This will ensure that any traffïc you receive via these links will at least have an interest in your site. Building links on this basis will automatically increase your PR over time (without the need to pay out for overpriced, irrelevant links). If you do things this way and Google does scrap the PR indicator, it shouldn't affect you in any way and the links you have in place will continue to benefit you.
Remember, in the same way that a low Alexa rating doesn't guarantee traffïc or sales, neither does a high PR. Sure a high PR is a 'nice to have' but lots of traffïc and high sales is even nicer :-)
About The AuthorRichard Grady has been helping people earn online since 1998. Find out more about Richard at: TheTraderOnline.com.Fr-e-e wholesale search engines: UK- Wholesale 118and US- TheWholesaleTrader.com
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Enterprises
http://www.mommyenterprises.com
Monday, October 11, 2004
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Free traffic for your blogs
I was looking at my stats for one of my blogs on BlogPatrol and seen that one of the top referrers on my visitors stats was BlogExplosion. BlogExplosion is a traffic exchange program for blogs. I signed up last week and been doing a little surfing here and there.
I just logged into my BlogExplosion account and I already have a downline of 15 under me. That is exciting! Looks like a few in my downline haven't surfed with the program yet but a pretty good percentage of them have. Everytime anyone in my downline surfs up to three levels deep, I earn credits towards my blog on someone elses screen.
Just an idea on getting a few extra hits to your blogs!
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
I just logged into my BlogExplosion account and I already have a downline of 15 under me. That is exciting! Looks like a few in my downline haven't surfed with the program yet but a pretty good percentage of them have. Everytime anyone in my downline surfs up to three levels deep, I earn credits towards my blog on someone elses screen.
Just an idea on getting a few extra hits to your blogs!
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Mom's Traffic Tip ~ ~ #2
Looking for a way to drive some extra visitors to your site?
Place a "Tell A Friend" script on your website and let your visitors advertise for you. I know I have used these in the past and I am sure lots of other people in this BIG world do too.
There are many websites that provide free scripts to do this for you. I have found a pretty neat looking one called TellaFriends.com. I am installing it on MommyEnterprises to give it a try. The TellaFriends program allows a visitor to enter in the email addresses of their friends or family that they would like to tell about your web site they have just discovered. It will then send that person an email inviting them to your website. Most of these programs you can customize the email that is sent to the people you invite.
This is a great way to get some word of the mouth referrals :)
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
http://www.mommyportal.com
Place a "Tell A Friend" script on your website and let your visitors advertise for you. I know I have used these in the past and I am sure lots of other people in this BIG world do too.
There are many websites that provide free scripts to do this for you. I have found a pretty neat looking one called TellaFriends.com. I am installing it on MommyEnterprises to give it a try. The TellaFriends program allows a visitor to enter in the email addresses of their friends or family that they would like to tell about your web site they have just discovered. It will then send that person an email inviting them to your website. Most of these programs you can customize the email that is sent to the people you invite.
This is a great way to get some word of the mouth referrals :)
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
http://www.mommyportal.com
Sunday, October 03, 2004
A Tip To Get Others To Publish Your Aticles
Do you write articles but wish you had more places publishing them? You need to offer them with an incentive. Make them have a reason for wanting to publish your article on their site or newsletter.
For those that write articles about your own products you could offer them the right to replace your affiliate link or your link with their own affiliate link. This is a win, win situation. You get your article published with your bio at the bottom with your link and the other person gets great content plus the posiblity of making a sale.
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Portal
The Web Portal For The WAHM
http://www.mommyportal.com
For those that write articles about your own products you could offer them the right to replace your affiliate link or your link with their own affiliate link. This is a win, win situation. You get your article published with your bio at the bottom with your link and the other person gets great content plus the posiblity of making a sale.
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Portal
The Web Portal For The WAHM
http://www.mommyportal.com
Monday, September 27, 2004
Link Popularity
Link Popularity - Pretty popular phrase these days!
I have been slowly but surely gaining inbound links to Mommy Enterprises through link exchanges, advertising, etc.
On 09/19/04 I checked my link popularity with Market Leaps Link Popularity tool. On the 19th this tool told me that I had 1,954 links to Mommy Enterprises. Eight days later, I check to again see how popular I am!!
Wow, as today Mommy Enterprises now has 2,427 links to it. Pretty impressive huh? That is 473 more links in just eight days.
How am I doing it you ask? Well I am always looking for ways to get my link out there. I have signature files in all my mailing lists, discussion groups, forums. I also have a link directory for link exchanges.
Want to build your link popularity? A few things you might want to try are:
I have been slowly but surely gaining inbound links to Mommy Enterprises through link exchanges, advertising, etc.
On 09/19/04 I checked my link popularity with Market Leaps Link Popularity tool. On the 19th this tool told me that I had 1,954 links to Mommy Enterprises. Eight days later, I check to again see how popular I am!!
Wow, as today Mommy Enterprises now has 2,427 links to it. Pretty impressive huh? That is 473 more links in just eight days.
How am I doing it you ask? Well I am always looking for ways to get my link out there. I have signature files in all my mailing lists, discussion groups, forums. I also have a link directory for link exchanges.
Want to build your link popularity? A few things you might want to try are:
- Add a link directory on your site. Make sure to add a page just with a variety of image and text links for your site that other webmasters can use.
- Join a few discussion groups/forums and become an expert in your area. Make sure to include your signature file, if permitted on these forums you join.
- Write your own articles and include your website info in your bio. After writing your articles, submit them to related websites to be published.
- Browse related websites and sign their guestbook if they offer one. Most guestbooks include an entry for your website url.
- Take advantage of free advertising. Some webmasters will offer free advertising spots when they are new to the web.
There are many more ways to increase your link popularity out there. The methods I mention above are the methods that I have tried and are proven to be working for me.
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Enterprises
http://www.mommyenterprises.com
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
$110.00 in FREE PPC Advertising Money
Hope all of you have been using PPC advertising to drive targeted traffic to your websites. Most that do use PPC advertising use either Google or Overture. But there are thousands of other PPC engines out there that everyone is missing out on.
I have heard that advertising on Overture can be expensive. I myself have not tried Overture but am in the process of experimenting with Google and the smaller engines to test the waters. As some of these smaller PPC search engines don't provide the large amount of traffic that the search engine giants provide, the smaller engines give you free advertising money. Some give you $5.00 to open account where I have seen others offer $25.00 in free money.
I found a few of them that offer free advertising money just for opening an account. There is no money required to open an account. This money is completely FREE.
A1 Search - Offering $25.00 free
911 Search - Offering $5.00 free
Combustive.com - Offering $10.00 free
Federacy - Offering $10.00 free
KwickSearch - Offering $20.00 free
My Town Search - Offering $10.00 free
Below are a few offering free money but you have to put a deposit money first before you can receive your free bonus.
$10.00 free with Dot Surf. This one requires a $10.00 deposit
Jumpfind is also offering $25.00 free with a $25.00 minimum deposit.
Wow, that is a total of $110.00 in FREE PPC advertising money for you to practice with. Have fun!
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Portal
http://www.mommyportal.com
I have heard that advertising on Overture can be expensive. I myself have not tried Overture but am in the process of experimenting with Google and the smaller engines to test the waters. As some of these smaller PPC search engines don't provide the large amount of traffic that the search engine giants provide, the smaller engines give you free advertising money. Some give you $5.00 to open account where I have seen others offer $25.00 in free money.
I found a few of them that offer free advertising money just for opening an account. There is no money required to open an account. This money is completely FREE.
A1 Search - Offering $25.00 free
911 Search - Offering $5.00 free
Combustive.com - Offering $10.00 free
Federacy - Offering $10.00 free
KwickSearch - Offering $20.00 free
My Town Search - Offering $10.00 free
Below are a few offering free money but you have to put a deposit money first before you can receive your free bonus.
$10.00 free with Dot Surf. This one requires a $10.00 deposit
Jumpfind is also offering $25.00 free with a $25.00 minimum deposit.
Wow, that is a total of $110.00 in FREE PPC advertising money for you to practice with. Have fun!
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Portal
http://www.mommyportal.com
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Want to build your list of subscribers
Do you have a newsletter but don't have the subscriber list you once imagined having? Going a little extra out of the way may bring in a few extra subscribers per week. Those few new subscribers per week can add up, leading to more advertisers and more sales.
Here are a few ideas to get you going to build your subscriber list.
* Free Stuff - Offer your subscribers a free gift for joining. Heck, you might want to offer them several free gifts. Some free great gifts are free ebooks, free reports or maybe free advertising in your newsletter. There are a ton of ebooks online that you can download and brand with your website name to give away.
* Ad Swaps - Look online for newsletters that have an audience that would enjoy what you have to offer and ask the publisher to swap newsletter ads. There are forums/boards online just for this ad swap purpose. Here is a forum on Internet Based Moms that serves just for ad swaps.
* Contests - Offer a monthly or weekly contest for your newsletter. Make the prize available to those who are members of your newsletter. You can also ask others to sponsor your contest and provide the winner with the prize. Of course you would give the contest sponsor free advertising somewhere but I heard contests bring in lots of new subscribers.
* Ezine directories - Get your newsletter listed in as many online ezine directories as you can.
* List Building Services - There are services online that can help with adding to your subscriber list too. One of the services I recommend is ListInferno. How these services basically work is you put a line of code on your site. This line of code produces a list of newsletters. As you receive hits to your page with that code on it, your newsletter is then shown on others list of newsletters, easy enough!
There are plenty of other ways of gaining subscribers to your list. Just practice with different methods and find the ones that work for your newsletter.
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Partyswap
Direct Sales Resources
http://www.partyswap.com
Here are a few ideas to get you going to build your subscriber list.
* Free Stuff - Offer your subscribers a free gift for joining. Heck, you might want to offer them several free gifts. Some free great gifts are free ebooks, free reports or maybe free advertising in your newsletter. There are a ton of ebooks online that you can download and brand with your website name to give away.
* Ad Swaps - Look online for newsletters that have an audience that would enjoy what you have to offer and ask the publisher to swap newsletter ads. There are forums/boards online just for this ad swap purpose. Here is a forum on Internet Based Moms that serves just for ad swaps.
* Contests - Offer a monthly or weekly contest for your newsletter. Make the prize available to those who are members of your newsletter. You can also ask others to sponsor your contest and provide the winner with the prize. Of course you would give the contest sponsor free advertising somewhere but I heard contests bring in lots of new subscribers.
* Ezine directories - Get your newsletter listed in as many online ezine directories as you can.
* List Building Services - There are services online that can help with adding to your subscriber list too. One of the services I recommend is ListInferno. How these services basically work is you put a line of code on your site. This line of code produces a list of newsletters. As you receive hits to your page with that code on it, your newsletter is then shown on others list of newsletters, easy enough!
There are plenty of other ways of gaining subscribers to your list. Just practice with different methods and find the ones that work for your newsletter.
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Partyswap
Direct Sales Resources
http://www.partyswap.com
Friday, September 17, 2004
Mom's Traffic Tip ~ ~ #1
Mom's Traffic Tip #1
Get as many links as you can to your site. Im talking thousands and thousands of links.
I would suggest adding a link directory on your websites and exchange as many links as you can with other sites in your niche.
I love Google! So I am always trying to find Google tips. If you are looking rate high on Google and you want your site to get indexed more frequently work on getting more links to your site. Google's bots are going from webpage to webpage via hyperlinks. So the more links you have going to your site, the more likely you are to be found by Google. Make sense?
You can use MarketLeaps Link Popularity tool to keep track of your incoming links to your site too!
Have a great weekend
Stefani Partin
Mommy Portal
The Web Portal for the WAHM
http://www.MommyPortal.com
Get as many links as you can to your site. Im talking thousands and thousands of links.
I would suggest adding a link directory on your websites and exchange as many links as you can with other sites in your niche.
I love Google! So I am always trying to find Google tips. If you are looking rate high on Google and you want your site to get indexed more frequently work on getting more links to your site. Google's bots are going from webpage to webpage via hyperlinks. So the more links you have going to your site, the more likely you are to be found by Google. Make sense?
You can use MarketLeaps Link Popularity tool to keep track of your incoming links to your site too!
Have a great weekend
Stefani Partin
Mommy Portal
The Web Portal for the WAHM
http://www.MommyPortal.com
Thursday, September 16, 2004
How many people are linking to you?
Do you ever check on who is linking to you? I have been using a free online tool for about a year now from MarketLeap. It is a link popularity check.
Check your link popularity free here:
http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
You put in your website as well as three other websites you want to compare against. So therefore, put three urls to your competitors.
I just put in my url of http://www.mommyenterprises.com compared to http://www.wahm.com. Wow, I got quite a long ways to go before I have as many
links as http://www.wahm.com.
The results that are given back from the link checker are from AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Google/AOL, HotBot and MSN. So these are not all the links to your site but you can a pretty good feel on how many people are linking to you just from one quick search.
As of today 09/19/04 there are a total of 1,954 links to www.mommyenterprises.com. I hope to increase this by the hundreds within the next month. It takes a long time to build up good link popularity.
Make sure to check out this neat little free online link tool and save it in your bookmarks.
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Enterprises
Helping Moms Make & Save Money From Home
http://www.mommyenterprises.com
Check your link popularity free here:
http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
You put in your website as well as three other websites you want to compare against. So therefore, put three urls to your competitors.
I just put in my url of http://www.mommyenterprises.com compared to http://www.wahm.com. Wow, I got quite a long ways to go before I have as many
links as http://www.wahm.com.
The results that are given back from the link checker are from AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Google/AOL, HotBot and MSN. So these are not all the links to your site but you can a pretty good feel on how many people are linking to you just from one quick search.
As of today 09/19/04 there are a total of 1,954 links to www.mommyenterprises.com. I hope to increase this by the hundreds within the next month. It takes a long time to build up good link popularity.
Make sure to check out this neat little free online link tool and save it in your bookmarks.
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Enterprises
Helping Moms Make & Save Money From Home
http://www.mommyenterprises.com
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Great Tool ~ Google Alerts
I stumbled across a new tool the other day called Google Alerts. I have heard of Google Alerts before but really paid no attention to it. Then, the other day I read how these alerts can help you with bringing in traffic to your website.
Google Alerts are updates that are delivered via email of the latest Google results (web, news, etc.) based upon your search terms.
There are two sites from which you can create these alerts:
http://www.google.com/alerts
http://www.googlealert.com
I myself created my alerts at http://www.googlealert.com/. This site allows you to choice three different search queries free. You can also upgrade if you prefer more alerts. I set my three search terms to my name, my website name and my link.
Now, after setting up these alerts I will receive a daily email from Google with new results of my search terms that were indexed by Google. I now can find out when people are linking to me, using my name or using my website name. This is great for you that write articles because you can find out when someone is using your articles.
To help increase your traffic with these alerts you can create alerts for your competitors and find out when and who is linking to them. With that information, you can then email the person who linked to them asking for a link to you as well.
Google Alerts is also a great way to keep up with web pages that get indexed with specific content you are interested in. A great way to find other sites to ask for a link exchange!
I started a thread on Lynn Terry's forum on Google Alerts here: http://selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2405
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Enterprises
Helping Moms Make & Save Money At Home
http://www.mommyenterprises.com
Google Alerts are updates that are delivered via email of the latest Google results (web, news, etc.) based upon your search terms.
There are two sites from which you can create these alerts:
http://www.google.com/alerts
http://www.googlealert.com
I myself created my alerts at http://www.googlealert.com/. This site allows you to choice three different search queries free. You can also upgrade if you prefer more alerts. I set my three search terms to my name, my website name and my link.
Now, after setting up these alerts I will receive a daily email from Google with new results of my search terms that were indexed by Google. I now can find out when people are linking to me, using my name or using my website name. This is great for you that write articles because you can find out when someone is using your articles.
To help increase your traffic with these alerts you can create alerts for your competitors and find out when and who is linking to them. With that information, you can then email the person who linked to them asking for a link to you as well.
Google Alerts is also a great way to keep up with web pages that get indexed with specific content you are interested in. A great way to find other sites to ask for a link exchange!
I started a thread on Lynn Terry's forum on Google Alerts here: http://selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2405
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Enterprises
Helping Moms Make & Save Money At Home
http://www.mommyenterprises.com
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
My new website traffic blog
To Whom It May Concern,
I am now starting my second blog. This blog is going to be about driving traffic to our websites. Daily, I look for more and more ways to increase the visitors coming to my website. As I found new tips, techniques, ideas, etc, I plan to share some of them with you.
I currently have a section on Mommy Enterprises that I update regularly called "Free Ways To Generate Traffic To Your Website". So far I have 29 different ways but I plan to add more. In my journeys I have came across way more then 29 different ways. I learn new traffic stuff daily, I just choose to add certain ways to this section.
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Enterprises
Helping Moms Make & Save Money At Home
http://www.mommyenterprises.com
I am now starting my second blog. This blog is going to be about driving traffic to our websites. Daily, I look for more and more ways to increase the visitors coming to my website. As I found new tips, techniques, ideas, etc, I plan to share some of them with you.
I currently have a section on Mommy Enterprises that I update regularly called "Free Ways To Generate Traffic To Your Website". So far I have 29 different ways but I plan to add more. In my journeys I have came across way more then 29 different ways. I learn new traffic stuff daily, I just choose to add certain ways to this section.
Until Next Time
Stefani Partin
Mommy Enterprises
Helping Moms Make & Save Money At Home
http://www.mommyenterprises.com
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