SEO your Drupal website is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

Use Blocks for Content Distribution and Drupal SEO

So in my last article I talked about my new favorite open source software application for web development and I posted my review of Drupal CMS. Now I have to admit I love Drupal but it is weak in just about everything and SEO is definitely non existent in a generic fresh install but that may be a good thing in the end when you consider what you can accomplish with a little hard work and determination. Having a full and complete understanding o Drupal and al lit’s many features is certainly important for everything but even more so with SEO and search engine marketing in general. Knowing the difference between Blog posts, Book pages and Aggregator content can make or break your SEO on a Drupal site.

Drupal is raw and you need to do a lot of work to get up and running but once you get it going it is a sweet piece of free software and a great tool for building SEO ready websites. Understanding what kind of site you are building and your content sources really helps in getting started on your Drupal SEO and knowing what the site goals are and who the end users are are of great benefit. The first thing you want to do when you SEO a Drupal site is to sort out your Content Types, Vocabulary and desired Taxonomy which will lead to Meta Tag formats and URL Alias for the base layout of a site optimized for search engines. Because you have to set all details for your Drupal site such as Url Alias and Taxonomy Breadcrumb for search engine optimization you need first to understand your content layout and whether how you use Vocabulary tools and Tags or you could end up with a complete mess.

drupal pathauto settings

SEO with Drupal requires a number of modules such as PathAuto and Token for creating proper URL format as well as FeedAPI and News Page if you intend on syndicating content from other sites without paying a duplicate content penalty with Google. You will need to install Nodewords Module and Page Title Module for proper Meta Tags, Global Redirect for formatted URL alias and 301 redirects and you will need to enable Core features such as Path, Taxonomy and Menu for those to work.

On my site i use FeedAPI and News Page modules to import RSS feed content from other sites. I import the content as Story with proper reference to the original site on the News Page. I then link to it with a teaser in blockquotes on my Blog with additional fresh content from commentary that my bloggers create which spins the original article into unique website content. My next step is the use of Nodewords Module and Page Title Module for unique in page meta tags while using custom PathAuto settings to output the correct URL for SEO keyword inclusion. Here is where understanding your content payout helps because formatting URL’s based on Vocabulary and taxonomy can be a hassle.

Your PathAuto Rules will determine your final URL layout and you may find that you need to play around with your settings for the best results. I do totally suggest you settle the format or your URL’s immediately and before you import a lot of content that will be indexed by search engines. Although you can use the URL redirect to create new alias and 301 redirects it makes little sense to cause any type of change in the content format or any chances for confusion on resource location. The quickest and easiest way to end up in the Google Sandbox is to have too much duplicate content when you get started.

What theme your site uses makes a difference and you’ll want to make sure it makes proper use of H1, H2 and H3 tags. Be sure to include at least one header tag on every page by surrounding the title in H1 and if possible try using H3 or H4 around descriptive keywords or content teasers. Of courser site navigation and proper breadcrumb help end users move around your content as they do the same for search engines so make sure to check out the Custom Breadcrumbs Module for better layout and drill down SEO for your Drupal website.

Related posts

• Must have Drupal Modules for community websites (0)
• Software Review: My first experience with Drupal has been amazing (0)
• My Resume (0)
• My Lifestream (1)
• Contact Me (2)

Apple May Build a Search Engine to keep iPhone Data from Google is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

Ever wonder just how valuable user data is? What is the information gather from users of mobile dev ices such as iPhone or Sony PSP worth? Well we now know that Apple might rather build their own search engine than allow Google access to the user data from iPhone users. Building a search engine is no easy task and the idea they will invest in their own search engine just to keep the rights to this data is impressive.

I assume they will consider buying an existing search engine technolgy or maybe try a partnership with someone like Bing who might actually allow them to retain their data in exchange for the bragging rights and added traffic iPhone users are worth. How much is the iPhone user data worth and what would Google gain from it that they don’t alreay know or have? I mean does the largest search engine actually need user data from iPhone owners? Can’t they just use Android data for the same research?

Apple May Build a Search Engine to Shield iPhone Data from Google – Search Engines from eWeek

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said there is a 70 percent chance Apple will roll out a mobile search engine tailored for its iPhone within the next five years. As the search provider for the iPhone, Google sees what iPhone users are searching for, which can help it tailor software and services for its own mobile smartphones. This competitive advantage has not gone unnoticed by Apple. Building its own iPhone-centric search engine would help Apple shield Google from its App Store data, Munster said in a March 30 research note.

Related posts

• No related posts.

WordPress blogs for musicians is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

I’ve been building a lot of blogs lately with great success on most of my sites. I’ve been able to use them to kick start a number of new websites and boost traffic to what used to be some parked domains.

I started to work with some musicians here in Jamaica that were in need of more than a website. I’m hoping to use the blog as a communication platform for a group of Jamaican musicians who want to post their music, videos as well as sell music online. The music selling is going to be a trick I think but I’ll get to it over the next few weeks.

The first three sites are still in early content stages and I am hoping to have the artists and their fans help us with the content development because I simply cannot do it myself. My first blog was for my bredren Ras Slick who turned out to be a much better performer than I expected. His live shows are great and he has a way with the crowd that seems to set him above so many other musicians around here.

I’m looking for the best solution to allow music downloads from these blogs. Anyone got a tip on the ebst way to sell mp3 files in a wordpress blog?

Related posts

• No more parked domains (0)
• Maintaining a posting schedule for my blogs (0)
• Bridge your WordPress Blog with a Simple Machines Forum (3)
• Automatically Upgrade WordPress to latest Version with WordPress Automatic Upgrade (0)
• Software Review: My first experience with Drupal has been amazing (0)

I need a social network! is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

I need a big idea like Youtube or Plaxo so I can sell off one of my web properties for $100+ million and retire! Anyone working on a future hit in need of a marketing professional to assit you then please contact me

Comcast To Become Plaxo’s Owner

Comcast announced Wednesday that it will acquire social network site pioneer Plaxo. The deal is valued somewhere around $135million to $175 million, and is intended to make the social portal part of Comcast Interactive Media. Plaxo will remain located in Silicon Valley and one of the things it could do is work with Comcast’s Fancast Internet to facilitate users’ access to the internet service provider’s movies and TV shows database.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Are directory submissions worth the effort? is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

I have long considered it a hassle submitting websites to swearch engines and online directories but I begrudgingly keep up with it because over time I have found there to be some benefit to it if you know how to do it right. The first thing you should know is that automated directory submissions will not work work as well as you want them to but they can provide some benefit to you if your site stands out. Having a top notch site is the key to converting all those directory submissions into inbound links for your websites.

Having just another WordPress blog or any other run of the mill website is a surefire way to have a directory owner deny your request for inclusion and building your site well is as important as how you submit the site. One must consider why the directory owner would bother to list your site if you’re using a generic keyword string instead of a tastefully written title or description of your site. What directory owner wants to list another of the same websites with the same hype and noise as all the rest when they can list a unique and quality project like yours?

For best results on directory submission you have to take your time and do it by hand. Blasting 3000 directories with the same listing is not going to get you anything but lots of email spam and little in the way of SEO benefits. The spiders don’t like it if you add too many links at one time anyway. It’s better to target niche directories and submit your site to a dozen or so directories each week than 100′s per day like some folks advertise. Changing the title and description for each directory is best but not feasible with the 1000′s of directories to choose from so using tools like Firefox and InFormEnter plugin makes it go by quicker. I use at least 5 different title and description options for every 100 sites and I rotate between them.

Submitting to directories is painstaking slow work but worth the effort if you have time. If not hire someone you can trust to do it for you and move on to something else but don’t stop submitting to directories. The free links are worth it if you’re site is good enough to get some.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Outsourcing blog content and where to find the best bloggers is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

When I started blogging it was because I could easily write an article on just about any subject. I began to realize I could build a blog for just about anything and soon enough my army of blogs was up to 20 or more sites requiring fresh content each and every week. I soon found myself burned out on writing and many of my articles were starting to sound the same or even worse I just quit updating a few blogs. I had about a half a dozen old blogs that needed some new content and I had ideas for at least another halfdozen sites. How could I keepup with this?

My first effort was to try to find guest bloggers for some of my sites and this worked to a certain extent. People are only willing to write bu so much for a site without some soliod dollars behind it though and the traffic and link trade ideas only allowed for so many blog posts. I decided I needed to hire some new content writers that could produce quality work but still keep my cost per article down under $10 each. Updating a blog every 3 days would require 10 articles per month or $100 at that rate. It’s tough to put so much into a site if it’s not making any money and even harder for a dozen sites in different niche categories.

My goal was to find one person who like me could write on just about any subject with a little research and effort. I searched high and low for advice on information on content for blogs and I came up with some interesting articles from places like Icontact but no real sources for what I wanted. In the end I turned to the Forums at Digital Point where I hired just that perfect content writer who now blogs with me on 15 or so different blogs in a wide variety of subjects. She can produce 350 word articles for under $10 each and she writes for the search engines with some nice keyword research and more in each article. With her working steady my content production has tripled and all of my blogs have fresh nerw articles posted to them on a very regualr schedule.

I have been purchasing articles in packs of 100 or 200 and this allows me to post the articles to my WordPress blogs using the timestamp feature so I can post into the future as far ahead as I wish. Right now 85% of my blogs have unique posts created until March or April of next year. The blogs will automagically make the post and ping the top 50 servers to announce each one to search engines. All I need to focus on now is proper link development and the sites are on cruise control for the next 90 days or so. Many of these are new blogs or old blogs with few recent updates. The 90 days of fresh content should make a marked difference in the sites traffic. I’ll post a review some time later with performance updates on the content.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Big changes in the world of search engine marketing is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

Google is growing up and has just announced a new home page redesign and plans to mature from a basic internet search engine to a new universal search engine whihc displays more than just 10 websites in the top results. Search engine results pages will now include relevant videos, images, news, books and websites. From a search marketers view this is a very bad thing because we will now be sharing the front page results with unrelated items such as pics and videos that are more difficult if not impossible to optimize for.  What used to be 10 spots for websites may now only be 5 websites with 2 videos, 1 pic and a book. When you add all the competition from big sites like Wikipedia and eBay then it really gets tough to achieve first page results for competitive search terms such as products or services.

It looks to me like Google has found a way to deal with spammers and it’s by duiluting the results on their own. This also has the added benefits of increasing clicks to Ads on the page because of the number of non relevant results per page. Think about it. For competitive keywords you may end up with the results above and only 5 pages in the organic serp’s nbut there will always be 10 paid spots on the sidebar that are more targeted. IN effect the Ads on Google will become the most relevant results. If someone is willing to spend the big bucks for top spots and front page results they must be relevant right?

Google Press Center: Press Release

Google Introduces New Search Features and Unveils New Homepage Design

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (May 16, 2007) – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced its critical first steps toward a universal search model that will offer users a more integrated and comprehensive way to search for and view information online. The company also introduced an updated homepage design and several new navigation features that make it faster and easier for users to find the information they are looking for.

“Our focus has always been making our users’ search experience as simple and straightforward as possible,” said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. “The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query. While we still have a long way to go, today’s announcements are a big step in that direction.”

Google’s vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the company will incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results. At first, universal search results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as the company advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience.

For example, a user searching for information on the Star Wars character Darth Vader is likely interested in all the information related to the character and the actor – not just web pages that mention the movie. Google will now deliver a single set of blended search results that include a humorous parody of the movie, images of the Darth Vader character, news reports on the latest Lucas film, as well as websites focused on the actor James Earl Jones – all ranked in order of relevance to the query. Users no longer have to visit several different Google search properties to find such a wide array of information on the topic.

The Power of Google Technology

Google is also in the process of deploying a new technical infrastructure that will enable the search engine to handle the computationally intensive tasks required to produce universal search results. The company is also releasing the first stage of an upgraded ranking mechanism that automatically and objectively compares different types of information. As always, Google™ search results are ranked automatically by algorithms to deliver the best results to users anywhere in the world.

“Google has continued to concentrate on improving the quality of search,” said Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google. “The level and speed of search innovation at Google has increased. Most of this innovation addresses basic ranking algorithms and is often not obvious to users. Users just see more accurate results, more often, in more languages, which is our primary goal.”

New Navigation Features

New dynamically generated navigation links have been added above the search results to suggest additional information that is relevant to a user’s query. For example, a search for “python” will now generate links to Google Blog Search™, Google Book Search™, Google Groups™, and Google Code™, to let the user know there is additional information on his or her query in each of those areas. As a result, users can find a wider array of information on their topic, including data types they might not have initially considered.

Google’s homepage and a number of applications have also been updated with a new navigation bar to provide easier access to popular Google products. Now, instead of having links above the Google.com homepage search box, users will see a navigation bar on the top left side of the page with various Google search properties and popular products including Gmail™, Google Calendar™, Google Docs & Spreadsheets™, and Picasa Web Albums™.

Experience the Experiments

Google also announced today a new experimental version of its popular search service called Google Experimental™, available on Google Labs™. This new test site provides users an opportunity to try out some of the latest search experiments and innovations and provide Google with feedback. One of the first experiments to be featured on the site enables users to view their search results on a map or timeline. For instance, when someone searches for “Albert Einstein” on Google Experimental, they can choose to view the search results on a map that shows locations mentioned within web pages about Albert Einstein or on a timeline that illustrates the history of Albert Einstein’s life. More information on Google Experimental search is available at Google Labs at http://labs.google.com.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Related posts

• No related posts.

SEO consultant offers professional search engine marketing services is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

Everyone who works online understands quickly that in order to be a success online your website needs traffic and the best source of free traffic remains the search engines and specifically the Google Search engine. Search engines have become so important online that they have inspired an entire industry of search engine marketers and web gurus always looking to game the search engines for the best results.

Having your website listed on the front page of Google Search engine result page, or SERP’s as they are know in the industry, for the right keyword can mean big bucks in your bank account in short time. With the going rate on some keywords reaching over $100 in the Google Adsense program it’s no wonder so many are entering the market and calling themselves search engine optimization consultants. In the past couple years it seems like millions of marketers have taken to calling themselves SEO consultants when many of them have no experience in producing long term results from their search marketing. Finding a SEO consultant with the skills and experience to manage marketing for your company isn’t as easy as you think and claims made on a website must be verified.

Shimon Sandler graduated Pennsylvania State University and moved on to his first job as a Marketing Manager for a global detergent company where he was responsible for developing & executing online & offline marketing programs, forecasting, and implementing strategies. He then moved on to DigitalGrit and Did-it.com where he developed enterprise-wide online marketing programs consisting of SEO, Paid Search, email marketing, affiliate marketing, and web/banner design for Fortune 500 corporations. Shimon offers some great advice on internet marketing strategies and his 9 Step SEO consultant pricing guide is an excellent break down of what to expect from a professional search engine optimization consultant.

Related posts

• No related posts.

The Wonders of WordPress is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

I built my first WordPress blog just a few short months back. I’ve had a blogger account up for a couple years now but I never built my own custom blog configuration. With some of my sites I even use blogger to upload files direct to my own domain but I never realized the power in installing my own WordPress blog until I got into ZuneMAX.com. This site grew fast and I know that the tools I used in the blog we’re an important part of it’s success and growth. With this site I have developed WordPress more into a Content Management System (CMS) by adding features such as the SimpleMachines.org forum and the CopperMine Gallery scripts. I’ll write more about those integrations at a later time but for now let me tell you why I love WordPress.

I guess the first things one notices with WordPress is just how easy it makes web publishing. I built my first website in 1997 and since those days it has become almost too easy for anyone to publish anything online. The rise of the blogosphere and power wielded by elite bloggers has been awesome. Bloggers have struck fear in the ruling power structure. Newspapers ar eon edge over lost strength in news and politicians ar flipping over what the influence bloggers have on elections. I don’t fancy myself a powerful blogger or political activist but I do understand business and WordPress is a business tool for me.

I have taken this free blogging software and adapted it to my own needs with a variety of free plugins from WordPress developers and the community as a whole. Another piece of beautiful open source software has established a strong business site for me at little or no cost beyond my time and efforts. I have learned quite a bit about web development in the past few months just by playing around with this tool and all it’s wonderful features. I think the SEO advantages to running a WordPress blog are worth the time and learning curve on their own. Built in features such as SEO friendly "PermaLinks" and "RSS Feeds" have shown a great benefit in getting the site spidered and content indexed properly. The Google Sitemap plugin and Ultimate Tag Warrior are awesome and powerful tools you can pick up for free on the web.

I’ll be going into much greater detail with the WordPress tools and Plugins tips on this blog for some time to come. I now feel comfortable with all the built in features and I’ll go over use of those some more but it’s the customization that makes this software so awesome and that’s what we’ll be showcasing here soon.

Related posts

• No related posts.

WSNlinks and SEO friendly link directory scripts is a post from: Affordable Web Pro

I’ve had a few directories over time but part of this years changes involved converting a dozen or so single page affiliate sites over to web directories utilizing a link directory software application. My goal was to try to use the platform as link exchange tools for the site and also as a way to generate some fresh content through new site submissions.

I took a look at many different packages and ended up selecting WSNlinks.com for a few reasons. First and foremost I chose WSNlinks for the robust tools and features available in their paid directory script. They offer a free directory script but I was looking for a little bit more in a link directory script for these sites and WSNlinks fit the bill. The script was well written from a users point of view. The admin tools are quick and easy to access and you can customize almost every aspect of the directory. WSNlinks is perfect for people looking for a quality SEO friendly directory script with more bang for the buck then any other in my opinion. I’ll spare you the run down but there are a lot of scripts and I tried the top ten I think and WSNlinks is my choice for the better tool to manage multiple sites with.

For SEO purposes you can’t beat this script for site enhancement and management tools. The built in HTACCESS and modrewrite takes care of SEO friendly url’s’ and there are more tools for setting these sites up then I found in any other script at the price point. Even the free version lets you do some cool stuff like set who can submit links and categories but the advanced features in this make it my favorite directory script.

The Sponsor level paid links directory is very cool but my favorite part was the DMOZ importer which allowed me to suck down a category navigational structure based on the webs leading directory and build each site in a matter of minutes when compared to the days it may have taken me in the past with our tools. The DMOZ importer in conjunction with the Tulip JAR file allows me to select whether I want to import just the category structure or if i also want to import the links from DMOZ as well. If you want to kick start a new directory then the DMOZ import is the way to go. You can have a brand new directory up and running from a clean install in minutes once you’ve done one the first time. First time installation and total configuration was very easy and the customization options will have you fiddling around with settings for a long time.

WSNlinks offers a private message system, comments and various levels of users permissions to allow you to set just what members can or can’t do. This script also offers a very unique tool in the Integration Generator which will help you configure your site to work with a large list of other scripts. In one case we took the WSNlinks directory script and integrated it with a PHPBB forums allowing users to cruise from the link directory to the forums under one login. The features we’re very well received in the forums and we have had a great participation across both sides of the site. Integration is not for every site but tying the forum to the directory was a very desirable feature on a portion of our network and has worked out very well.

I was able to take domains with less then 3 pages on average to each site and with the help of these SEO friendly directories no have 1000′s of pages of cached content on Google servers and a big boost in traffic with the introduction of so many new keywords. The domains I used had existing PR value and I was able to boost sales of links by increasing the number of indexed pages to sell links on. I integrated the CARP RSS feed system from GeckoTribe and have the beginnings of my own CMS system. I’m considering a new version with a WordPress blog integrated but the trouble lies in making it sync with WSNlinks logins properly. There are some issues with password formats outside or my skill set I am working on my but I think I can get it to happen. I’ll showcase my work on that in later posts possibly.

A healthy directory program is an important part of the Index MAX network of sites and should be a consideration for all network managers. Directory scripts like this make better sense to me for use as domain holders then landing pages.Even if it’s a lower grade content you can still get more indexed page then by parking domains at your registrar.

I suggest you test drive the demo at WSNlinks.com when you want to setup some directories.

Related posts

• No related posts.