Internet Business Blog

Google employee and search engine “Guru” Matt Cutts recently gave a presentation stating that underscores embedded in URLs are now officially considered word separators. Though many of us in the industry thought that this may have been the case for some time, it is nice to hear it confirmed.

Other highlights from Matt’s presentation that you may find interesting:
• Google treats URLs with a query string the same as static URLs.
• The number of slashes in your URL isn’t a factor in your Google rankings.
• The file extension in your URL won’t affect your rankings.
• To qualify your blog for Google News inclusion, your blog must have multiple authors.

Matt also mentioned that he will hopefully have an MS Powerpoint version of his presentation on his blog (assuming Google allows him to do so). I was unable to attend the presentation in person, so am hoping that this happens or a video is posted soon.

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Often times fellow web developers or hobbyists will come up to me and mention their brand new website, how nice it looks, and how no one can seem to find it through organic searches via Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Without even browsing their web site to see whether or not it is optimized, I begin the conversation like so:

Me: What keywords are you targeting visitors with?
Client: [insert extremely vague keywords here]
Me: That may be the problem.

Why might this be the problem you ask? Vague keywords, even when they relate to your niche subject, can be extremely difficult to rank well with. If you’re using a new, unoptimized site, the deck is already stacked against you – using such vague keywords is a recipe for doom.

Here’s an example. Let’s say this client runs a website centered on Internet Business. The keywords he has decided to focus on using are “Internet” and “Business”. He includes these keywords in his meta tags, title tags, and content as often as possible. This is bad.

Why is this bad?

My research shows that the word “internet” was searched for 387,165 times last month on Yahoo. This is only Yahoo mind you; you don’t even want to know the results on Google. Likewise, the word “business” was sought after over 1,000,000 times on Yahoo, Google was nearly 8 times that amount!

When search volumes are this high there will be so much competition for these vague keywords that you will never (and I mean never) rank on the first page of search results.

What do I do?

Get creative. Use the Overture Keyword Selector Tool and start researching. Instead of listing “Internet” and “Business” – use “Internet Business”, “Internet Based Business”, and “Internet Home Business”. It’s important when first starting out that you chase after keywords that are obtainable, so you will rank within the first couple pages of search engine results and pull in more organic traffic.

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Last night I posted an article written by Daniel J. Briere entitled: “Ever-lasting Habits of Highly Profitable Webmasters”. The article was such a hit that I decided to post part #2 of this series just a few minutes ago, which you can read here.

These two articles outline nine habits that are essential to becoming successful on the internet and I highly recommend everyone take a few minutes to read through them. For the intermediate/advanced webmaster, they may be review but even the best need a refresher from time to time.

Part #1 introduces the following concepts:
Off Site Backups
Independent Domain Registration
Good Client-Host Host-Client Relationship
Regular Website Updates
Prompt Reply to Emails

Part #2 touches on:
Making Use of SEO
Exchanging Links with Related Websites
Examining (and Conforming to) Customer Needs
Keeping Things Simple

Like I mentioned earlier, both part #1 and part #2 of this series are excellent material for Internet Business rookies as well as the entrepreneurs and webmasters who’ve been in the industry for awhile. Many of us could write a white paper on each topic discussed in the article, and depending on reader interaction I may do just that. Let me know your thoughts!

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