Archive for January, 2010

I can see myself from the USB Video Device but when I try to open my webcam to use Yahoo IM (v10) I just receive a green screen. Any suggestions greatly appreciated

Go back to the down load’s site and look through the specs to make sure you have everything you need in order to make it work.

Are your MSN Updates automatically loaded onto your computer? That could be the culprit, or maybe you need your drivers updated.

I have a website and I am working the SEO to get my products to show up in the search engines, but is there a specific way to get your products listed in Yahoo shopping other than having a Yahoo hosted store or paid advertising with them? Thanks in advance!

Current Yahoo! Store merchants can continue to participate in Yahoo! Shopping by opting into Shopping within the Store Manager tool. You’ll continue to be charged the appropriate network revenue share fee.
If you upgrade to the new Yahoo! Merchant Solutions service, you can opt in to Yahoo! Product Submit by simply clicking the " Yahoo! Shopping" link under "Promote" from your Store Manager tool. Your product data is pulled from your store, and Yahoo! also categorizes your products into Yahoo! Shopping categories as a default. Instead of being charged a revenue share fee, you’re charged only when someone clicks a product listing that takes him/her directly to your site.

well theres no phone jack plug in or eathernet plug in either Does it take a internet card or what?

You will probably need an external modem to get connected to the Internet.

I have an existing website with a combination of html and php pages. I want to optimize some of these pages for search engines. Will the same techniques (keywords, descriptions, etc) that work on html pages work on php pages?

You optimize .php pages the exact same way you optimize .html pages. The search engines NEVER see your PHP code… they see the resulting HTML that gets rendered server-side by the PHP. It’s the HTML that is returned when the crawler requests the page that gets indexed and used for ranking.

As far was "what" to optimize, there is basically two types of optimization… on-page and off-page optimization. On-page optimization means using elements ON the page to help your page rank. Off-page optimization is using elements OFF the page (on other pages of your site as well as on pages on other sites) to help your page rank.

Overall, it is off-page factors that carry the most weight… i.e. inbound links from other pages using your targeted keyword phrase or slight variations as the link text… preferably from pages that are relevant to the topic you’re trying to rank for and pages with high PR or link popularity. It’s estimated that off-page factors might influence 70-80% of your overall ranking while on-page factors might influence 20-30% of your overall ranking.

Here’s a quick rundown of on-page factors:

Optimizing the title element is very important since it’s generally the most important on-page ranking factor for most search engines ranking algorithms. The title should target a single keyword phrase (possibly 2-3 IF they are VERY similar… almost identical in meaning and keywords). Minimize "fluff" words in the title element as they reduce the keyword density within that HTML element and thus make the real keyword phrase(s) you want to rank for seem less important. Put the most important keyword phrase first in the title element if you have multiple keyword phrases in the title. Avoid putting your site name in the title as it only hurts your page’s ability to rank.

The h1 element is generally the 2nd most important on-page ranking factor. It should reinforce the keyword phrase(s) targeted in the title. Since it’s less important from a ranking perspective, it’s ok to add a few fluff words to give it more pazzazz or marketing flair. But again keyword density withing the h1 element does affect rankings slightly. Every page should have a single h1.

The h2 element is generally the 3rd most important on-page ranking factor. If your content lends itself to have sub-headers, then use them… again targeting keywords from the title element.

Words that are emphasized using bold or strong/italics or em are given a little more weight than words that are not. But I avoid this as it tends to make pages look spammy.

Using keywords that your title is targeting in the page name is also useful. It’s a very minor ranking factor but MOST ranking factors are minor. It’s rarely any single thing that you do that makes a page rank well. It’s the sum of lots of small things that you do that when taken as a whole leads to good rankings.

Optimizing the meta keywords element is virtually worthless. Google and most search engines ignore it in their ranking algorithm because it has been sooooooooooo abused by blackhats and spammers over the last decade. Yahoo! is still using it to rank pages as Danny Sullivan (a renowned SEO) proved just days after a Yahoo! exec announced at SMX that Yahoo! did NOT use it. I include a meta keywords element in all of my pages just for completeness (not for rankings). I use 5-10 keyword phrases and ONLY words/phrases that appear on the page.

The meta description is also ignored by Google and most search engines for the same reason… it is not displayed on the page so it has been abused by spammers and blackhat SEOs. BUT optimizing the meta description element is VERY important since having a good meta description with a call to action can greatly improve click-thru-rate when your page appears in the SERPs and the meta description is shown as the snippet of text for your organic listing. At Google they only show your meta description if all keywords in the user’s search phrase appear in the meta description. So I recommend including all keywords from your title in the meta description since the keyword phrases in the title "should" be the pages most often used to find your page if it is well optimized. This will maximize how often it is shown as the Google snippet.

As far as off-page factors (which are the absolute MOST important ranking factors at almost all engines):

The link text used in hyperlinks pointing to your page give the search engines STRONG clues as to what your page is about. Using "Click here" as link text for a hyperlink is worthless… it only helps you rank for the keyword phrase "click here". Be very cognizant of how you link to your pages both on your site on from other sites where you might drop a link.

Inbound links from relevant and/or high PR pages on external sites with your targeted keyword phrase (from your page’s title) or slight variations are the MOST important thing you can do to help your page rank for its

What do people mean by improving local Search Engine Optimization?

optimizing your website for local queries. In other words, if you stay in South Africa, optimizing your website for traffic originating from South African servers.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/570428?source_id=aw&camp_id=Skimbit/%20Skimlinks

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=3207504&blogid=18

Both look ok but Advent?, not the best of products, take a look at Dell web site, im sure you could do better 13.3inch screen is small.

My Mum has brought an XBox 360 Arcade for my sister, however she wants an Elite. What is the difference, will an Arcade be the same as Elite. Thanks to all who answer.

Arcades have no Harddrive ( Memory unit ). Whereas the Elite has 120gb harddrive (Memory unit)

I’ve read about training routines in various books and magazines. They mostly just throw in an extra set for the "advanced" bodybuilding routine for a total of maybe 3-4 sets per exercise, each exercise usually once a week. I don’t for a moment believe that this is the type of routine an elite bodybuilder is actually using.

Yup your right.

1) Body Building magazines are a joke.

2) Frequency should be twice a week not once.

3) Sets usually are more than 4, some body builders will do 20 sets for a muscle group(my 5 sets of 4 different exercise though).

How important is it to put a BLOG on the top level of a DOMAIN in terms of Search Engine Optimization?

I’m guessing that you are asking whether your blog should be installed in the domain’s root directory (and have the blog’s home page be the same as the site’s home page) or if the blog should be installed in a subdirectory or subdomain (and have a link to the blog from the domain’s homepage–or from elsewhere on the site)

As far as SEO goes, it doesn’t really matter much whether the site is in the root directory or a subdirectory. Installing it in a subdomain is a different matter, though. At Metapilot, we tell clients that as long as you have links pointing to the blog from other areas of the domain (and from other domains of value), the blog will most likely get crawled and indexed by search engines. If your blog posts are well focused on keywords and phrases, the posts can show up in at the top of the search results, provided the posts have enough links pointing at them from other web pages of quality.

There are plenty of examples of sites with blogs installed in the root directory and in subirectories, as well as in subdomains. If the whole reason for having the domain is to have a blog on it, then you have every reason install it in the root directory. If the blog is not to be the main focus of the domain but the blog’s content is relevant to the main focus of the site but the information on it will be complementary to the rest of the site, why not install the blog in a subdirectory.

If the blog covers an entirely different topic than the primary purpose of the domain, install your blog on a subdomain. The search engines will treat the subdomain as an entirely different domain and though, from an SEO standpoint, it won’t directly benefit from the authority and popularity of your top level domain, its presence won’t confuse your visitors, either.