SEO For The Common Webmaster

Well there is a definite changing in the Google data centers when it comes to Page Rank (PR) the last couple of days. As webmasters, many of us, yes including me, look at the holy Google PR update as some sort of sign rather we are doing a good job with our site. I decided it was a good time to analyze  the importance of PR.

First of all PR is simply a calculation of how many backlinks you have and the value of each one. There is a set formula that Google uses but it remains a big company secret what it is. Many will tell you just get a few good PR7-PR9 links and you will have at least a PR5, well in my experience this is not always correct. All PR7-PR9 links are not equal. Some say if the links are related to your sites niche (topic), than it will carry more value for PR. Once again, this has not been my experience. The best way I have found to build your PR is to constantly build back links wherever you can. If they carry PR juice, that is great, if not, someone might see your site and visit it. If you have a choice between a high PR link and a low PR link with all other factors equal, I would take the higher PR.

Now that I explained a little about PR, lets look at the importance of PR. Having many back links are very important to any site. By having high PR, it normally means you built several good back links. Does this equal more traffic? It may, but in most cases, it does not by itself equal more traffic. The main importance of PR is in the value it brings to your ability to sell blog posts, reviews, or links. People buying advertisement will often pay more for a link on a high PR site than on a lower PR site. The other factor of the importance of PR is when you go to sell a website or blog. Higher PR will often times increase what a buyer is willing to pay for a website.

If you do not plan to sell your website or blog and you are not concerned about selling advertising or text links, it is a waste of your time to even bother with rather you have PR or not.

So why do webmasters drool over PR? It simply comes down to the fact that  besides where your site is placed in the search engine results (SERPs), PR is a way that Google gives you some sign that you are doing something right for your site. It is an assigned number. You can see it, share it, advertise you have it, and it feels like a big pat on the back by the Google Gods.

People become webmasters for many reasons. It may be for fun, as a hobby, to make money, to advertise their business, or just for the thrill of sharing their life’s with others. No matter the reason, PR looks good but means nothing at all if you have no traffic to your website or blog. This is why I stressed the need for Quality Content. PR is fun to watch and can be a thrill, however, you should first and foremost create your website or blog for the benefit of your users. Write original material, advertise where you can. and do everything you can to get quality traffic flowing to you site.

In conclusion, PR is of small importance and the Google PR updates are like waiting for Santa at Christmastime; however, in the big scheme of web development, PR is of very little value. Spend your time developing the best website or blog you can and the rest will fall into place if you have patience to wait it out. If you add the best content you can and do the best SEO you can, I assure you that the rest will follow behind it.

The last few days weird things have been happening with the Google data centers. Many have been down, webmasters have reported up and down ratings for PR, and back links are being changed. Many sites are changing the Search Engine Results (SERPs).

There is a lot of talk through the webmaster forums that this is the next Google PR update. It would be very strange if this really was because the last update was around January 10th, 2008 and the common pattern has been every three months or so. It would be rare indeed to see such an update in just over a month.

One thing we webmasters can count on is the fact that Google remains a mystery and if we all think we have them figured out, they burst our bubble by changing things up. I too have seen some weird happenings the last two days. This blog, which was created after the last update, always showed n/a for PR. Today, it is showing PR0 which is sometimes an indication that the update is about to happen. The other sign I have seen is one of my blogs that was PR3 is showing up some places as PR2.

I still have no back links showing up on Google for seo08.com but I know I have several. This could be just an adjustment and not a full out update but I guess only time will tell. The last PR update came as a shock because the one before took a long time to happen. Is this a sign of quicker PR updates or just a Google burp and everything will be back to normal in a few days?

If you are seeing any weird stuff in Google PR, please share your experience by leaving a comment.

If you are not familiar with Stumble Upon, it is a social bookmarking site owned by eBay. It works best if you are using the Firefox browser. It is an installed tool bar add on that allows you to thumbs up or thumbs down a site you come across. It puts that site in a cycle where it is sent out to people who are looking for a certain topic.

On Stumble Upon, you can also get friends (up to 200) and have fans of your personal page. When you have friends and fans, you can send pages to them for them to view. When you hit the stumble button, you will also view pages that your friends have sent.

Along with thumbs up and thumbs down, you can give a review of the page rather you liked it or not. This is helpful to other people.

Stumble Upon is fun and you can spend hours just stumbling sites and finding interesting sites to view. However, I just wanted to give a basic overview as an opening to the main point of this article so to find out more, just download . Once you have the browser go to tools and add ons and download the Stumble Upon add on and sign up for an account.

I use Stumble Upon everyday and every time I write a post on any of my blogs I stumble them. At one point I started a blog dedicated to website reviews and stumble exchanges but I was told this is no longer allowed so I changed the site to just website reviews.

Now on to the point of traffic from Stumble Upon. In my experience and the experiences of many webmasters that I converse with everyday, Stumble Upon provides a lot of traffic. The problem with the traffic from Stumble Upon is that it does not convert well. If you are selling something or trying to make money on clicks from ads, this traffic does not turn into money as well as regular search engine traffic.

Many users of Stumble Upon just keep clicking through and do not stay long enough to even read what you have on your site. I would venture to say that less than 1% converts into any ad click or sale. I am not sure what the percentage is that stay on your site and read it but I would say that is low too. There are those who search for your topic and are really interested in your site but like I said before, many just click right on through.

So after reading that, I am sure you have one big question. Why should I use Stumble Upon at all? The answer is clear. It is free and though it may not be the best traffic, it is still traffic. If you get just a few people out of thousands that will really enjoy your site and make you a little money, that is more than you had without Stumble Upon. It is also a great way to get your site seen. If you site get many thumbs up, you can thousands of visitors a day to your site. Many will not return. However, some will and you could end up with a nice loyal reader base.

I love Stumble Upon and find it both fun and a good way to drive traffic to my site. Do not use it as your only source of traffic because you will be disappointed. However, mixed with other sources, it can add visitors to your site and money to your pocket.

The basis of any good website is good hosting. I have had many websites over the years I have been on the Internet and I have been happy with very few. I decided after my recent problems to share some advice when it comes to purchasing hosting.

First of all, the term “you get what you pay for” applies when finding good hosting. I once purchased what seemed to be a great deal off of eBay. The company was Vamp Host and it was only $9.99 for a year with unlimited everything. I was excited, they had good feedback, seemed pretty solid and I could host all my sites in one place. I jumped on the deal.

Well as I soon learned, cheap is not always better. I updated my site everyday with new pages only to go on and check the next day and all my work was gone. I contacted the host and was told they had to switch servers and anything I change that day was lost. I was annoyed but I understood and redid all my work. Then it happened a total of 14 more times in the three months I was with them. I switched hosting really fast.

As you know from my last post, I recently received a free hosting account in exchange for doing a review. I had the account for a couple of weeks and I started having the same problems as with Vamp Host. I lost posts, they had server problems and I just did not want to waste my time and damage my website with such garbage. I am not saying that all are bad. Just be careful who you deal with and make sure they have a good reputation. There are some really good ones that are truly free and offer a great service.

I am with A1 Web Hosting Solutions and have been very happy with them. I started with them a couple of months ago with my other blogs. They have several plans with reasonable prices. I have not had any downtimes and everything loads quickly.

My advice when looking for hosting is to look for the best plan that you can afford. Do your research by searching for information on your future host. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it is. There is no such thing as unlimited anything, all servers have a limit. The problem is that many hosting companies oversell their servers and hope you never use what you paid for. If you use too much bandwidth or space, they end up suspending your account. This brings up a big point when buying hosting.

DO NOT purchase hosting from the same place you have your domain registered. I am sure many of these companies have great hosting services. However, it creates possible problems for you. First, if you overuse the server and they suspend your account, you also lose access to both the site and the domain. This could also happen if you are reported for something bad such as copyright infringement. It would suck to get your site suspended and not have access to the site. Of course it would be worse to not even have access to your domain. You can get new hosting and get your site back up if your site is suspended but if they also control the domain, you could end up losing everything.

As with buying anything in life, it is important to think before you buy hosting. Do not rely on testimonies on the website of the host, ask around and Google the company for real feedback from customers. Look for good uptime, good support, what they are compatible with as far as PHP and such, and what they offer for features. I recommend looking for a host that offers Fantasico which allows you to add many of the popular programs like WordPress with ease. This is important for people like me who hate to do any kind of coding.

Other important features you need to look at are how many add on domains you are allowed. If you plan to have more than one domain, you want to know how many are allowed on your plan. You need at least one SQL Database for every software you plan to load like WordPress or a Directory software. If you have five add on domains and are only allowed two SQL databases, you will not be able to do all five domains with certain programs. You also want to know how many sub domains you are allowed to have. There are many other features that you will need to check depending on what your needs are. Just make sure that you have the option to upgrade if your site becomes so popular that you need more space or more bandwidth.

Just be smart and do not settle on cheap or free when often times for a little more you can get what you really want.

I would like to apologize to any of my readers who have had problems accessing the blog. I became aware that there was a problem only yesterday when I was submitting to a directory. Apparently my hosting company’s server has been having problems and they failed to let us know.

I have had this problem before and I did not want to deal with it again. I have switched everything over to a new hosting. I have use the new host for my other blogs and I have had no problems so I signed up for a new account for this blog.

The old host Lime-designs.net was given to me for free because they wanted me to review it. I have been with them for a couple of weeks and I have had other problems with busy server and I also lost a post. I guess free is not always better.

Hopefully everything transferred correctly and we should not experience anymore problems. Thanks for sticking with me.