Our quest for information is increasing at a remarkable pace. Internet technology has greatly helped in enhancing our knowledge by making information easily available via web content. Earlier people used to be content by visiting a website and reading its contents. But nowadays, a single webpage simply serves as the entry point to information on a subject. There are numerous URLs in newer websites that take you into deeper layers of information.

Why not Query Strings?

Search engines do not accept special characters

Earlier query strings would be passed for accessing information from another webpage, but nowadays query strings are seldom used because information gathering largely involves search engines which do not recognize special characters like question marks. As a result they do not index the websites which do not get listed in their top ranking lists. Of course there search engines like Google that can index a URL with a query string, but most of them don’t. Apart from the question mark, search engines also don’t index query strings with an “ & “ or an “ =” sign. Because of these indexing problems, a website which is dynamic might simply not get the chance to get listed in the top positions of a search engine listing.

SEF URLs are compatible with different platforms

Your website can be expected to bag a top position in the search engine listing only when the URLs are in a compatible format. Search engine friendly URLs can be sent using different techniques.

SEF URLs are human friendly

Search engine friendly URLs are actually human friendly too! The query strings are not only difficult for the search engines to understand, but also difficult for the program generator or the end user to remember. Search Engine friendly URLs are short and they are mostly English words which is easy for both the search engine and the end user to work upon. Query strings are very lengthy and they are difficult to type as well. Search engine friendly URLs are short and they can be easily typed by the end user or the programmer. URLs that are not search engine friendly are called dirty URLs. An example of this is http://www.simple.com/cgi-bin/gen.pl?id=3&view=basic. The usage of punctuation and the length and the complex nature of the URLs makes typing mistakes very common.

Search engine friendly URLs are easily comprehendible by the end users and hence they work as sources of information for them. A query string on the other hand, cannot be understood by the end users and hence is of little informative value to them.

Query strings are less secure than SEF URLs

The query string also seems to be less secure than the search engine friendly URL. It seems, hackers modify the part of the query string after the “?” mark to intrude into a web application and introduce malignancy into it. Therefore from the security point of view, the search engine friendly URLs are preferable.

SEF URLs encapsulate the technical details of a website

Search Engine Friendly URLs encapsulate the technical details of a website. A query string on the other hand, exposes the technical details of a website. Abstraction of the technology used is not possible. So switching over from one technology to another is a Herculean task owing to the obstacles posed by broken links and innumerable redirecting links. Search engine friendly URLs allow for abstraction of the technology used which easily enables the switching over to a new technology a cake walk.

SEF URLS are important for content management systems

Search engine friendly URLs are suitable for content management systems also. Query strings are not search engine friendly and they are difficult to type and remember. SEF URLs also tell the search engines what a particular website contains. The search engine does not have to waste time trying to decipher a query strings. Many times certain parts of the query string that are not comprehendible by the search engine are ignored by it.

URLs with session IDs not acceptable by search engines

Nowadays, search engines are also accepting dynamic URLs with a “?” and an “&”. So there is no problem if you insert them. But you will not get a very favorable ranking with the keyword search because SEF URLs are ranked well in the keyword search. A “?” or an “&” are not taken as positive or negative by the search engines. But dynamic URLs have session IDs which are not accepted by the search engines. Hence, as SEF URLs do not have session IDs they are accepted well by the search engines.

Linking with other websites easy with SEF URLs

A “?” or “&” is not preferred by the search engines not because the search engine algorithm creates any problems but because they are not going to be linked to by any other website. As they are difficult to comprehend, other websites will not know the contents of the website it represents. As a result there will not be many takers for such URLs. On the other hand, SEF URLs clearly indicate to other websites that are interested in linking, the contents of the websites they represent. As a result, more websites will be interested in linking with a website with SEF URL which will automatically raise its page ranking.

Writing SEF URLs

So after learning about the importance of SEF URL in comparison to query strings, we should also see how a SEF is evaluated by the search engine. If you are a keen observer, you might have observed a lot of websites having highlighted content which when clicked leads to a further source of information. When search engines evaluate your website for page ranking they will consider the title and the highlighted text in the content which serves as the keyword. The search engine crawls through the entire content, identifies the keywords and ranks your website according to the demand and supply of the keywords used in the title and content of your blog or website. Though there are other factors to that determine page ranking, the keywords also play a significant role in your webpage search preference.

The art of inserting keywords into your text is not very easy. If you want your webpage to rank well in the search engine listings you should choose keywords that are high in demand and low in supply. Many others use keyword stuffing as one of the techniques for attracting the attention of the search engines, but nowadays search engines like Google have strict restrictions on these. They will ban your website if it is overloaded with keywords.

You can write short descriptive titles which are not overstuffed with keywords. You can use only one relevant keyword in your title for a high page ranking. Self explanatory URLs are preferred by search engines. For example: a good title for this topic would be “Benefits of SEF URLs “

The art of writing great SEF URLs takes time and you are going to gain expertise with time. You should take helpful tips from SEF experts.

Why do what everyone’s doing on Twitter all the time? How about playing games with your friends – and beating them?! Here are some of the best Twitter games that you can really find addictive.

Twivia – It’s a simple trivia game and perfect for immediate fun. Keep tweeting back the answers to questions that you receive and keep building your score. Top scorers get freebies and sweet gifts. Can you match that level? At various other levels you can exchange your points for goodies too.

140 Mafia – An RPG game for catharsis in the underworld. You start off with some cash and use it to buy weapons. Then, you recruit friends in your gang and earn more cash to buy property. It’s cool, impressive and pure fun. You are the mafia don on the lose and no one’s out to catch you!

Snods (Social Networks Online Defense Squad) a role-playing application where you can be cops or robbers and the more Twitter fellow-beings you ‘capture’ or ‘rob’ the more you earn. Then you have to do lot of jobs too to rake in the virtual cash. You have to cross several levels before you master it.

Spymaster – You can find direct ‘recruitment’ with international spy agencies like American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), or the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). You will get cool gadgets, dream missions and more. So, go ahead live out your James Bond fantasies as long as you want.

Twitbrain – for math and engineering aficionados. You are sent all kinds of maths problems from simple addition ones to difficult multiplication ones. It’s speed that matters and how quickly you can calculate. There’s a Twitbrain scoreboard on the Twitbrain website that keeps track of how fast you respond.

Tweetbomb – This one’s more a a funky spoof than a game really but you must register with it for great fun. Tweetbomb picks a user on a daily basis to @reply minus the text. The idea is to confuse the target until they realize that they were bombed! You never know when your turn will come.

BeatMyTweet – is quite like the trivia game on Twitter but it sends scrambled words. Don’t take this game lightly because it will send you some of the worst scrambles that could have ever been invented. If you are word lover you will just not have enough of this game.

WhoseTweet – sends you 20 tweets from your own list of Twitter friends and you have you have to tell which one came from whom. It’s really tough when you have a long list of friends Tweeting along with you. But then, it also tells you how well you know your friends.

Tweet140 – is on the very basic Twitter concept of 140 characters every Tweet. It keeps track of how many times or how much you stay close to 140 characters in your Tweets. It also tracks your friends. You can check your score and see how much of a ‘140-er’ you are!

And, now you have more to do on Twitter than just Tweet!

Search engine optimization (SEO) has always been the pivot for website visibility on the Internet. An SEO tool – keyword meta tagging – has always been used extensively by SEO experts in streamlining content. But not many people know that no longer does keyword meta tagging impact rankings as it used to in majority of the search engines! And, keyword meta tags do not effect directory rankings at all.

The Internet has evolved and so have Internet surfers. Today, Internet users have several options to look for data apart from typing keywords in search engines. Users can rely on several tools like links from various portals, email newsletters, newsgroup references, Internet banner advertisements, social forums, blogs etc to find websites catering to their needs. Then, there are the non-Internet ways like through friends, books, newspaper advertisements etc that lead users to a website. Incidentally, according to several surveys hyperlinks and directories have lately become the most popular pathways to finding a website. Search engines are only the third popular tools to locate websites.

Most users do not know the difference between the functioning of search engines and directories. Search engines maintain databases of web pages and use programs like robotic spiders and index web pages to help users locate popular websites. The spiders crawl around the Internet to rank websites according to links and what other users are submitting in search entries. The secret is that the way search engines build their spider-surveyed databases includes results they have found in directories as well. Different search engines also use different variables to list, rank and index websites on the Internet.

Directories are also databases but they list websites by content categories. Most directories have a website of their own so users can search in their databases. So, in effect, a search engine lists pages while a directory lists websites! Directories are edited and maintained by human reviewers and editors who go through various websites submitted for their perusal and then rank them. Of course, directories also integrate search engine results.

Several search engines are fed by directories. Most of the time a user may not even know that the results he is seeing in a search engine are actually fed from a directory. For example, a directory like DMOZ sends results to more than 100 search engines and websites. It is used as a primary source by several major directory sites such as AOL Search, Lycos and Netscape Search. Different directories use different ranking variables. But almost none of them use keyword meta tags as the main variable!

So, for search engines what matters is:
• Popularity of links and hyperlinks from various websites
• Body Tag (body text) which is part of the HTML code that has the actual text that shows on a page (depends on keyword/phrase proportion to overall content, first 200 characters being most important, bold text)
• Title that is part of the HTML code and displayed after a search engine or directory result as a description of the website

In case of directories that have humans editing them what matters is:
• Text in hyperlinks
• Meta tag descriptions that are used in HTML code to describe the website
• Alternate Text Tag that describe pictures/photos in in HTML code
• The degree of agreement between keywords provided in the keyword meta tag and the words on the page.

Only Infoseek Spider (supplemental to Go Directory) and Inktomi (Yahoo) use keyword meta tags but not as a primary method to rank pages. Search engines that completely ignore keyword metags are FAST, Google, Lycos spiders, Web Crawler, Excite, Direct Hit. The Altavista search engine does read these keyword meta tags but does not use them in ranking websites. The HotBot search engine uses keyword meta tags only to decide supplemental results.

So, when it comes to your website really getting high rankings what matters in order of importance is
• Link popularity
• Body Text Content
• Hidden text that is of the same color as the background page and not visible to the user but read by search engine spiders. Some web developers use this technique to fool spiders by using keywords not relating to the website but using hidden text in this way will get the website listed as a spam one.
• Keywords in the title tag and at the beginning of the body tag text
• High frequency of keywords in the body tag text
• Keyword meta tags

The Internet has made sharing and storing photo albums extremely easy. You don’t even have to buy web space to upload them either. Many photo hosting sites even offer to send you prints, gifts and other freebies if you put up your albums with them.

Most photo uploading sites are free and they also allow you to put coordinating pages with text too. This is not like blogging but sharing your photos in greater details. Several social networking sites also have photo album storage capabilities but usually sites offering exclusive photo album sharing have more features. Here are some of the top photo album hosting and sharing sites that you can use:

• Ofoto: lets you create albums according to occasion categories. Photo hosting on this Ofoto is free and prints can be obtained for low price. You can even send them your film or upload directly from your digicam.

• Amiglia.com Family Tree helps you have eight family members set up albums of 1 GB each every year. You can draw out a family tree also. For additional members and features, however, you have to buy space

• Fotolog lets you set up a photo-blog and though it’s free, you can only put up one photo per day. You can write about the photo on the free space alongside too. For uploading six photos a day you will have to check out a fee-based membership plan.

• Beanpix lets you password protect your photos for individual users and the drag and drop photo uploading feature makes it one of the easiest photo-sharing site to use.

• Flickr is one of the most popular photo sites on the Internet with password protection, camera phone photo-uploading capabilities for a basic free account. You can edit photos and add notes to them also.

• Funtigo lets you design the text, add backgrounds to your photos, edit them on the page with their tools though it is a paid site.

• OnClickPix allows you to upload 1,000 photos and about ten documents for $10 per year. If you pay extra you get unlimited storage space. Their photo editor is one of the most advanced for these kinds of sites.

• Phanfare lets you link your photos to any other place on the Internet and you can order prints too.

• Photo Bucket gives you about 1 GB of storage for both photos and videos and you can link to your social networking page.

• Webshots lets you download a small software and helps you create slideshows, wallpapers and even screensavers. You can also check out people who download photos from your albums!

• dotPhoto also sends you prints and is one of the easiest to operate photo storing sites on the Internet.

• eBoard is used a lot by teachers in classrooms as you can post texts, links, photos and documents too.

Other sites offering similar services include PhotoSite, PhotoWorks, Rangeela (for Indians specially and for sending photo prints to India), Shutterfly (also accepts a film roll), ShutterPost (for videos they charge an annual fee), and Smugmug and Snapfish (accept film rolls).

Have you been thinking that search engine optimization (SEO) is only for websites then you’re way off the mark. SEO strategies and techniques can also be applied to blogs for popularity. You may be blogging for personal expression or for a small business but SEO can make you gain mouse clicks by the hundreds almost overnight.

In fact, Firefox extension SEO Blogger is a tiny and creative tool that will sit quietly on the side in your blogger editing page and help you find the top keywords relating to your subject as you write away. Wordpress also has a SEO tool for your blog. You can try keyword research and keep optimizing your posts even as you fix up your blog and prepare to publish it.

To start with, all you need to do is download one SEO tool. It will save you plenty of time that you would have otherwise spent looking for appropriate keywords. SEO tools can be used with all kinds of blog publishing software from the simplest to the most advanced ones. It will keep you focused on your topic too as you write.

Here are ideas to help you get the most out of the SEO process for your blog. The most important element of the SEO process for your blog is the Title Tag. Try and include the main keywords of your blog in the title tag and do not go beyond 60-90 letters. Search engines sift through title tags while looking up blogs. Keywords should also be used prominently in the blog links. In WordPress you can get custom-made permalink options. Next, don’t forget to use keywords in headlines and headings in all your posts. This raises your overall keyword density. It is always beneficial to have some keyword from the title and headlines in the post texts also.

A trick is to also to never miss out filling in alt text for your images also because search engines can pick up text descriptions given by using the tag in Wordpress and other blogs. Basically, search engines cannot see the images but are quick to pick up any identifying text that has been used for the photos. Most people who do know how to SEO their blog have no clue about this neat trick for anchoring pictures with text.

If you link your blogs with any outside websites, don’t forget to use same keywords in the anchor texts for the inbound links that will be used for ranking your website. Improving your page rankings is very important and inbound links contribute to it in a major way. Look up synonyms for your keywords and sprinkle them around too. Often, search engines start looking up synonyms too.

Some writers and bloggers think the more they use keywords, the better… but, keyword density more than seven per cent of the total text is of no use. When calculating keyword density check up the main keywords and do not dump them forcefully in the text. Ensure that all articles and posts use keywords in a natural and regular manner. Keep track of broken links also and remove them immediately or have them repaired.

Facebook may have gone in for a makeover but its top-10 most popular applications have continued to attract users. Based on the most number of active users on a daily basis, here is what we’ve got:

• Gambling never fails to attract people. More than 70,000 users keep playing Slots on Facebook virtually every day. Two more games linked to this application are ‘Scratch and Win’ and ‘Pull Tabs’. Tokens won in the latter two games can be used in Slots.

• Digsby is an instant messaging client that integrates Facebook along with your other networks. However, you cannot be logged in both to the Facebook webpage chat version and Digsby at the same time.

• Wordscraper continues to prosper despite the Scrabulous shut-down becoming one of the top-read news articles in the tech section some while back. Wordscraper seems to do better than the official Scrabble. But the makers have done enough to ensure that Wordscraper does not attract a lawsuit like Scrabulous did in their first misadventure.

• And, of course, you must check out the Facebook toolbar for Firefox! It keeps you very promptly updated with friend requests, invitations, messages and pokes. Of course, if you leave a clutter of unopened stuff in your Facebook, this toolbar can get kinda messy so leave it alone.

• Super Scratch Offs is the daily lottery and you cannot how addictive it is with fans returning once every day to check their ’status’. But what you win are only virtual gifts. Ironically, that’s still ‘great’ for some folks out there.

• Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Tiny Adventures: Six stages of Allathose battles of the offline version are replicated here and some people still cannot have enough of this application. It still gives you the fun of the traditional fantasy game of the same name.

• Egg Breaker: Wham! Imagine what all people like doing. Though this one is just like scratch and win in its concept, it includes eggs that the user breaks to win stars, virtual gifts, points and virtual gold. Users get a set number of hammers per day to go cracking. Some eggs are tougher to bust than others. You can purchase more hammers on any day or wait for the next replenishment. This one is similar to Pull Tabs in which you pull off tabs from a ticket. Several Pull Tab tickets are branded for movies and stuff.

• Super Slot Machines: Keep at the Las Vegas experience with this one. Alternatively, you can also check out Slot Machine Bandit. The design’s different and it doesn’t seem to allow you to win as much as Super Slot Machines though.

• Scrabble Beta is still going great. It hasn’t been upgraded for months though. SCRABBLE® Worldwide is for international users while the former one is for US and Canadian users.

• Pet Society: Yeah create a pet then spend time, energy and effort trying to look after it. There is too much to do in the game with stuff to be won, decorate house etc–all in the virtual world though. MouseHunt is also to do with ‘animals’ but is a strategy game that also won the FB Fund. The name tells you what you have to do!

Just putting up a business website and displaying your services and products is not enough. For attracting business and tapping the full potential of your target group, you need search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, a SEO professional can save you as much as $500 per month.

You may spend thousands on design and content but if your site is not tweaked for SEO, you won’t be making much headway in the earnings sector. But, why is SEO so important?

SEO is vital simply because of the way the Internet works and the way users try to find a particular website. Whenever a user wants to look for a particular service or product, he checks out a search engine. He keys in two to five words and run a search across the Internet. Now, search engines maintain a databank of how popular are websites across the Internet on the basis of how many users go to a site. On the basis of this, search engines allot page rankings to websites. When a keyword is keyed in by a user on a website-hunt, search engines list the best websites matching the keywords on the basis of the page rankings.

Eventually, in a matter of seconds, search engines list in descending order of popularity and page rankings the websites that can be brought up for the keywords. Naturally then, if you website is not in the top of page listings, you cannot expect users going to your website. According to various surveys on behavior of surfers, people generally look at the top 20 websites listed for their keywords. The website lists that search engines can include thousands of websites. You cannot expect users to locate your website if it is in the dungeons of such lists. That’s where SEO strategies come in. SEO professionals plug your website straight to the top of search engine lists and page rankings.
It works like an interlinked process. The more users visit your site the more your page ranking in search engines go up and vice versa. Eventually, your percentage of potential customers goes up exponentially as compared to if you had simply stuck to building a super website with scant regard for SEO trick. Most sites that land up in the top-20 of search engines haven’t really spent a lot on design or content. Later, of course, the content and the design of the website can count. Users will pass off a tacky site even if it’s listed right on top and is of little utility. The idea is to showcase a good site in the best possible way.

SEO strategies take up link-building, plugging your sites into social network sites, directories, email newsletters etc. SEO help can truly help you display your site as a special one among hordes of sites hawking every kind of service and product on the Internet.

Of course you can read up and try some SEO tricks yourself. But it is unlikely to be very productive because SEO organizations and professionals keep track of the latest tips, techniques and portal-popularity ideas on the Internet on a 24×7 basis. Considering the dynamism of Internet working, an amateur may not have the time to work SEO strategies to an optimum. Also, if you got a professional SEO to look after your site, you could spend more time enhancing the content and design, or focus on other marketing and financial aspects of your business!

]]> http://www.websitehandlers.com/2009/09/can-a-professional-seo-firm-save-you-500-per-month/feed/ http://www.websitehandlers.com/2009/08/technorati-explored/ http://www.websitehandlers.com/2009/08/technorati-explored/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:34:35 +0000 tulisen http://www.websitehandlers.com/?p=75 According to Wikipedia, “the name Technorati is a portmanteau, pointing to the technological version of literati, or intellectuals.” Technorati monitors millions of blogs on the web. It actually is a search engine for blogs on the web. It is a place where records are made of all kinds in real time interaction going on locally or [...]

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Internet technology is changing by the day. Internet has become such a competitive area that websites are almost fighting with each other to get noticed. When users enter keywords or phrases in search engines, there is a mad scramble to get returned as one of the top search results. Various webmaster and SEO experts use different tools to ensure that this happens. Latent Semantic Indexing is one of those tools that have become indispensable as far as search engine optimization is concerned.

Latent Semantic Indexing is a method to play around with keywords or phrases contained in the content of websites, documents and books. It is a technique where keywords and phrases are index-analyzed, categorized or listed in such a manner that they convey the same meaning or concept when different words are used.

In Latent Semantic Indexing, keywords are found for a phrase that shows a latent relationship in usage and structure. When users search using search engines, they use various words and phrases for similar searches. Latent Semantic Indexing is used to collect data about these various search terms used by search engine users. When such an exhaustive data is created and fed into the web pages, the search results may not only match the exact word or phrase used by the user but also contain latently related words and phrases.

For example, if a user enters “fresh roses” as the search query, the search engine will return search results containing roses as keyword. In addition to that, Latent Semantic Indexing can be used so that the search engine also returns websites that contain the keyword “fresh flowers”. With an exhaustive data, the search result may return results with similar keywords like “fresh pink roses”, “flowers” etc.

The work that Latent Semantic Indexing does is that it categorizes documents. It does not matter what keywords or phrases the search engine user enters to search. Latent Semantic Indexing will return various results that have a latent relationship to the query entered. As a result, the users get more options and may also get web content, notes and even emails as search results.

Latent Semantic Indexing is very important as far as search engine optimization is concerned. It is beneficial for the website, the search engine and the search engine user. It may happen that the user is looking for certain information and enters an incomplete keyword or phrase as the search query. The user may also be lacking in vocabulary and knowledge. If the search process follows the Boolean pattern, the results may not be what the user is looking for. In this traditional mode of search, the search results may not be displayed correctly if the user does not use the right keyword. He or she, as a result, may move on to another search engine. This is certainly unwanted as far as the search engine and the websites are concerned. Latent Semantic Indexing makes sure that this does not happen.

Through Latent Semantic Indexing, SEO experts try to make sure that their client websites are displayed as search results if the user uses similar keywords and phrases. There are various websites that offer an exhaustive list of synonyms for a particular keyword.

SEO experts spend hours creating a list of similar words for a particular keyword and then use Latent Semantic Indexing to create a list. In the traditional method of searching, the desired result may not be displayed if the user does not use the keywords contained in a website.

Latent Semantic Indexing takes care of that by. Some of the English words have multiple meanings. When the users enter these words as search queries, then the chances of getting the right results may reduce. Latent Semantic Indexing takes out unnecessary words from the data and calculates to arrive at an average meaning that is close to the entered keyword or phrase. The chances of returning the right search results increase considerably.

Apart from this, Latent Semantic Indexing also has a method to go through the content of various websites to find out similar words, semantically common words, close in meaning words and also distant in meaning words. Humans work this way. They can identify all these similar words, semantically common words, close in meaning words and also distant in meaning words.

One thing you must remember that Latent Semantic Indexing does not understand word meanings like humans do. However, its algorithm is able to notice the pattern of the words and indexes them as per the pattern. It is this super ability of Latent Semantic Indexing that makes it so important as far as the modern Internet technology is concerned.

For a perfect search engine optimization, Latent Semantic Indexing is one of the most useful tools around. Webmasters and SEO experts use Latent Semantic Indexing extensively to ensure that their websites are displayed as search results when users enter keywords that are similar in meaning to the keywords contained in their websites. They use all their expertise in creating just the right Latent Semantic Indexing for their websites. For example, if the keyword in a website is Jaguar, then the SEO experts or the webmasters need to mention what Jaguar stands for. Jaguar is the name of a car, a species of cat and even a fighter aircraft. If Latent Semantic Indexing does not understand which Jaguar the website contains, it will get confused itself.

When the database of the Latent Semantic Indexing contains words that are similar words, semantically common words, close in meaning words and also distant in meaning words, then it knows exactly the Jaguar the website deals in and if the user is looking for that Jaguar. These days Latent Semantic Indexing has become as important as an Internet tool that no proper website is launched without a thorough research on the topic.

Websites continuously change the way they use their search technique. Most of the major search engines use Latent Semantic Indexing in websites to determine keyword relevancy and phrase relevancy in context with the content and subject matter of the websites. They use Latent Semantic Indexing for ranking pages. We all know how important page ranking is. In order to ensure that a website is ranked high among search engines, it is important to ensure that keywords and phrases are used judiciously.

If, as an SEO expert or a webmaster, you want to ensure that you have a good page ranking with search engines, it is important for you to use Latent Semantic Indexing judiciously. Some people try to take the back door approach in getting popular with search engines. If and when they are caught, they are doomed to stay in the dark and never get displayed as search results. There is no need for such underhand technique when Latent Semantic Indexing is available to use. It is a step in the right direction and data has proved that it actually works. The modern search engines like those sites that have great content. So, when you launch your website, ensure that you have the finest content. Along with that, please also ensure that you use Latent Semantic Indexing as an SEO tool so that the chances of getting a higher rank are further increased.

Blogging is the latest form of interaction between people online. Blogs attract immediate and huge web traffic. Search engines also pay more attention to the blogs owing to their popularity and unbiased approach. To make blogging easy there are number of tools and many are being added everyday on the internet. WordPress is one of the content management software or CMS tools that make blogging simple for someone who is not even technically inclined. If you are looking for a self hosting tool for blogging WordPress is the right kind of platform for you.

WordPress is something every blogger looks for in terms of functionality. In terms of simplicity there is nothing to beat WordPress though it may look a bit intimidating in the beginning. To begin with you can just download the software containing script for WordPress. It will offer hundreds of templates from which you can choose the one that suits you the best. Whether it is business or music, art or technology you can blog about anything effectively using the WordPrss tool for which you don’t need any computer programming skill.

WordPress has the special feature of being compatible with all types of browser. Its other features include multiple page management system, instant updates, themes and links. Moreover, you can put any number of add-ons and plug-ins to make it work more effectively for you. As for outside visitors it is simple to navigate and they can browse easily. They can leave comment and you can later answer to them making you interact with each visitor personally.

To make WordPress perform even better there are small but highly functional software. These can be used as an extension of WordPress’ original function and there are practically thousands of add-ons to it. Add-ons make your site more interesting and more appealing giving you access to use your blog in a more interactive manner with your visitors.

Firefox add-ons for WordPress

While we are discussing add-ons Firefox has numerous add-ons which are related to WordPess. Firefox itself is an extension for Web browsing. One Click installer is an extension which helps you to install any plug-in or theme of WordPress from Firefox.

There are many other Firefox add-ons for WordPress out of which few are discussed here.

• WordPress Helper: It provides tools and helps to work with WordPress
• wordpress.com sidebar: This helps you to get quick access to your Word Press from your browser.
• Deepest Sender: This allows you to search deep within Firefox and find blogs to post in your account.
• Clipmarks: Instead of copy pasting this tool helps to directly place links to your WordPress.
• WordPress post: It helps to select the text from your browser place directly to the WordPress blog.

WordPress business add-ons

WordPress is a tool which is used for online business too. While promoting online commerce through AdSense, Word Press has some amazing add-ons which make it easy to work on. These add-ons will help you to manage your funds more easily.

• AdSense Manager: When you want to show the visitors that you are willing to put ads on your blogs for a price you can use this flexible add-on to your WordPress blog.
• All in One AdSense and YPN:  This add-on is open source and it is able to put Google AdSense ads or Yahoo Publisher Network ads automatically to your post.
• AdSense Revenue Sharing 1.1: This is most useful when you are working with number of people on your blog. This will help you to share up your profit from AdSense.
• Are PayPal: This add-on will help you to monetize your blog with PayPal.
• Who Sees Ads?: By using this add-on control your readers can see the ads placed on your blog.

WordPress Search Engine add-ons

The power that you can access with WordPress as far as your blogging is concerned is amazing. You obviously want the search engines to feature your blog site high in search ranking. So why not make your blog good enough so that they have everything that the search engines are looking for? You can have a very effective add-on for this. What you need to do is Search Engine Optimization by using a tagging add-on.

The tag are present everywhere to put all the text present online into categories. You can say that they are a replacement of categories. They segment the blog so that it is easy for the viewer to find it. They are quite flexible and are a must for SEO as pages with tags get good ranking on a search engine. If you have a well configured tagging add-on it will rank your page higher and get you free traffic from organic search.

Ultimate Tag Warrior Plug-in is one such tag plug-in. When you display your tags under your post, the plug-in will create a new page for each tag. Now when someone clicks on a tag it well open a page showing all your posts related to the tag. You can also move from one page to another very quickly.

WordPress RSS add-on

Another useful add-on is to help your readers to RSS subscribe to your blog. What you need is FeedBurner as an add-on. WordPress itself has a good RSS support built into it. FeedBurner makes it even more compatible. It will give transparency to your feed so that it can be accessed by any viewer. When the reader clicks on ‘sign up my RSS feed’ button they will get a nice organized HTML document on their browser, thanks to FeedBurner. It will also track your viewer of your RSS feed and you will know exactly how many people have viewed it. Once you have installed FeedBurner you will automatically get all you regular subscribers redirected to the new FeedBurner feed.

Related post add-on

Most of the readers online do not have the patience to go through a full fledged article unless it has really valuable and interesting material. To keep your readers focused on your WordPress blog you must have a great article. Also, you must have related post as the reader who is interested to have read it through will want more information. You should put your list of related post at the end of your article. This gets maximum click-ins. To have a related post plug-in you can choose WASABI Related Post Plug-in.

Another plus point of this is that you can join it with RSS feed. This way your post gets displayed to your feed and viewers get more choice.

Get comment on your post

Another add-on for your WordPress is to get comment on your posts. You can make them comment on your blog by highlighting all comments which are recent in all blogs. People may go to your older blogs and comment on them. This is good for you and you can display them as a side bar on your recent post. This way you will get more traffic from the search engine. The whole thing can be done easily with Brian’s latest comment plug-in. This will allow you to add visibility of the comments on your older posts on the side bar.

There are many more add-ons to make working on WordPress easy and interesting. Initially a person starting with WordPress needs some of the above discussed add-ons to start with. As the size of your blog grows and you become more experienced you can search online for some more add-ons.