Improve the Google PageRank of your Website

Google Pagerank is a system for ranking web pages, think of every link to your website as a vote, so the more websites that link to your site the higher your website will rank, especially if these websites have a high Pagerank themselves. This article will cover some effective practices you should follow to help you improve your websites Pagerank.

Increase Your Website Backlinks

There are many ways to help increase backlinks to your website. Below is a list of some effective ways to help you increase you backlinks and, in turn, improve your Pagerank. Remember, content is key, so make sure you have regular content posted on your website to increase the chances of gaining repeat visitors and avoid your site becoming stale, which may result in your ranking to drop.

Write Articles

Create unique and informative articles and submit them to free article submission websites that have a high Pagerank. It’s advised you include a link back to your website within the article to help increase your sites backlinks and also drive traffic to your website. I have listed some of the most popular article submission websites below:


* www.ezinearticles.com

* www.articleclick.com

* www.1888articles.com

Provide an RSS Feed

Make people aware of when content is updated on your website via RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Allowing people to subscribe via RSS to your website will increase repeat visitors and also increase the chances of you gaining backlinks. It’s also worth submitting your RSS feed to the most popular blog search engines such as Technorati and BlogSearch, these will help increase your websites exposure. If your website is powered by a CMS/Blog system then it is likely that it already has RSS functionality built in. If you are looking to update your RSS feed manually then the following website should help you, www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial/

Social Bookmarking & Networking

Social Bookmarking is an effective way to receive a high volume of traffic very quickly and also allows you to gain backlinks. As mentioned previously, publishing unique and interesting content on your website increases the chances of generating interest; submit this content to websites such as www.digg.com and www.stumbleupon.com and if your article becomes popular expect large volumes of traffic to come to your website. This added exposure can become beneficial especially if you’re posting regularly as it’s likely people will link to you as a valued resource.

Submit Your Site to Directories

Submitting your website to popular directories will help it gain backlinks. Most of the higher quality directories must manually approve your website before it’s added, this will usually take between 3 to 5 months, which can be frustrating. If your website is not listed by then, it’s worth re-submitting. Below is a list of three popular web directories which will certainly benefit your website if you get listed.

Popular Directories:

http://www.dmoz.org

http://dir.yahoo.com

http://www.open-site.org

Helpful Links

Google Pagerank & Backlink Checker - http://www.urlpagerank.com/pr/pagerank.php

Official Google Pagerank Page - http://www.google.com/technology

Websites, websites, websites...

First post in a long time, as have been very busy! We have two websites currently in development;

Ripplevale School
Bubbles Nursery

and one which has recently gone live:

VinylGen

Working on updating the above sites and seo on vinylgen at the moment. Also, working on developing a sharepoint site... and the sun is shining!

All good!

Web users 'getting more ruthless'

Web users are getting more impatient, selfish and ruthless when going online, research suggests.

Channel 4 in live advert attempt

Channel 4 is to stage a live television advert involving an ambitious skydiving jump later.

What is Web 2.0?

We have customers often ask us “can we use Web 2.0 on your system?” so we thought we would put together a post explaining what Web 2.0 is all about.

Web 2.0 is not a specific technology but a term used to describe the modern way in which websites are designed, developed, how the information on the site is used and how the user interacts with it. Many successful Web 2.0 websites share many similarities, one of which is social interaction. Some of the most popular Web 2.0 applications include Flickr, Facebook, Digg and del.icio.us  to name a few and are all built around user generated content.  Though social interaction is a major part of Web 2.0, it’s not the only defining factor, below is a breakdown of some of the technologies and practices used in today’s Web 2.0 websites and applications.

Design and Coding

Modern websites now tend to be built with standards-compliant code with semantically valid XHTML and HTML mark-up.  Websites are styled using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Using a single CSS allows the developer to make site wide design changes very quickly. You will also notice with Web 2.0 sites that the designs share common characteristics including drop shadows, rounded corners and subtle gradients.

Rich Internet Applications (RIA)

Using technologies, such as Ajax, Adobe Flash, Java, Flex etc., allows developers to enhance the user experience on a web page.  These powerful technologies can not only improve the usability but also the design and the way the user interacts with the page.  Developers can now create an interactive website that is similar to the way a computer application works, e.g. a drag and drop interface or perhaps updating information on a site without having to reload the page.

Social Interaction

User-created data is a large contributor towards Web 2.0. You will find that a common characteristic with most of today’s successful websites is allowing users to interact and participate with them.  The most popular interaction methods include Blogging, Tagging content, maintaining a Wiki and Podcasting.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

SOA is the way in which a website provides and permits the use of its data, allowing developers the freedom to use this information to create a richer user experience on their own website.  The distribution of this data is commonly found in the following formats: RSS, Feeds and API’s.  A related Web 2.0 term that utilises multiple data sources, such as API’s, to create a single integrated application is a Mashup.  Some good examples of Hybrid websites utilising some of the most popular API’s are as follows:

A combination of Flash and the Google Maps API to create a flight simulator:

http://www.isoma.net/games/goggles.html

Utilising Flash and the Flickr API to create this slick-looking gallery application:

http://www.bcdef.org/flappr/

ShareThis

Added to the site

Ok, so I was thinking why would anyone actually read this blog? And if they wanted to, how would they get here in the first place?! So I've added a link to here from the About Us page on our website... for no real reason, just for something to do I suppose...!!

It's raining outside now... great start to the weekend!! :(

A few changes...

Ok, so it's 23:58 and I've made a few changes to the blog... firstly I've added a BBC News feed, not sure why only that I like the BBC and wanted to have an RSS feed on the page... and it's my blog, so I thought, "Why not?"

Secondly I've added the company logo to the blog, it's too big for the page so I'll amend tomorrow at some point as it's just too late now and I'm getting very tired!!

Think that's about it for the changes... Got a meeting tomorrow morning regarding a possible new website but that's about it - hopefully we'll be awarded the work.

I'll update tomorrow... I'm off to bed now!!