When I sit down with new clients and discuss the status of their new or existing site they are often shocked when I am forced to inform them that their site is not search engine friendly. Encountered with a blank but slightly shaken look I then explain that this means their site has a particular problem that is hindering search engine rankings. Often this is represented by an inflexible design, overuse of advanced web technologies, or simply a weak navigation scheme. As a result, if they were to continue with the site as it stands they are unlikely to attain competitive search engine rankings.

The following is checklist designed to help you gauge the search engine friendliness of your website and, if you are in the midst of planning a website this checklist will help you avoid the common pitfalls of unfriendly designs..

According to Matt Cutts, there are over 100 factors that affect search engine ranking. For those of you who don't know, Matt is a Google guy guru, he is employed by Google but writes an independent blog and shares information related to Google and search engine optimization. Unfortunately, of those 100 items that account for search engine ranking, there are only a few that webmasters can actually control.

Unless you are a interested in an exercise of futility, it is important to only focus on those ranking factors that you, as a webmaster, can control and influence..

It seems that as fast as search engines are updating their algorithms to defeat Black SEO and promotion tactics, unethical operators are finding new ways to fool these new routines.

Inevitably, it is the customer who pays the price (quite literally) when search engines catch up with shady tactics since unethical operators will merely alter their approach and cash in with a fresh set of clients, leaving their existing clientele high and dry.

Whilst most articles of this type will usually concentrate on outdated techniques such as keyword stuffing and hidden text, I have tried to concentrate on some of the tactics currently being employed by unethical operators..

In these ten steps we will know ten basics and important steps to optimizing a website to perform better on major search engines. If you will follow these steps correctly your website search engine position website will be surly improve depending on you industry competition..

Is Google PageRank (PR) the be-all, end-all of the internet marketing equation?

I have wanted to discuss this topic for quite a long time. But, there is risk in discussing this topic. It is a lot like religion and politics. We are advised not to discuss religion or politics in mixed company, because people are willing to argue and sometimes kill, based solely on your disagreement with their religious or political beliefs.

In a lot of ways, Google PR is a matter of religion to some internet marketers. And for me to discuss this topic openly is tantamount to telling someone that his or her religion is false religion..

After spending two years building my own website, I was very disappointed that my Alexa ranking was still higher than one million. Alexa ranks each website based on the number of visitors it receives. The top ranked website, Yahoo! has an Alexa rating of 1 or 2. Less popular sites could be ranked up to 5,000,000.

In order to improve my Alexa rating, I spent about three weeks combing the web to find tips, secrets, and proven strategies for increasing my Alexa ranking. Unfortunately, many of the sites offering advice didn't even have a high ranking themselves. Finally I discovered a number of sites ranked within the top 100,000 that were all applying the same "Alexa techniques" to improve their ranking. I've begun implementing a number of these techniques and have improved my Alexa ranking by 250,000 spots in just one week..

I expect most of you have heard of Web 2.0. If you haven't, Wikipedia defines it as "a second-generation of Internet-based services that let people collaborate and share information online in previously unavailable ways."

Now, we all know that the Internet is about sharing information, so what's new? And how does Web 2.0 affect your online business?

Web 2.0 is all about the rise of consumer-driven content - social networking sites (My Space and Facebook), Folksomonies (Flickr and Del.icio.us), and Wikis (Wikipedia).

What makes Web 2.0 interesting from an online marketing point of view is that it offers (among other things) more link building opportunities for website owners. And we all know how important links are in the search engine optimization game..

All search engines have their own algorithms to determine the value and, therefore, positioning of websites. While the majority of SEO work tends to concentrate on Google because of the sheer weight of searches they receive it would be foolish to discount or ignore the other major search engines. Yahoo is considered one of the big three along with Google and MSN and by concentrating a little more time and effort on Yahoo optimization it is quite possible to gain a good amount of traffic. With ultra competitive keywords it may actually provide an easier way to generate search traffic than gearing all your efforts solely towards Google..

Of the most important on-page SEO factors, the content of each page is obviously important. However, the inclusion of a large number of pages also gives your site a lot of credence in the eyes of Google. This is because Google loves content, and the more of it you have the more weight you will receive. Obviously the quality, relevance, and optimization is important but generally speaking the more content you can provide the better. This content can come in various forms and by optimizing every page you can also target a much greater number of keywords with more effect..

Choosing a niche market is a very important step that will really be the difference between possible success and failure.

What should be considered when choosing niches? One of the most important points is whether there is demand for products in that particular niche and what type of competition there is..