AdSense Checks Can Bounce?

Here is some interesting testimony...

"So, today I go to cash the check. I’m standing at the teller window, and realize, gee - this is taking a long time. She looks up at me and says, “There aren’t sufficient funds in the account to cover your check.” *stunned silence* I say, “Excuse me, could you repeat that?” She does."

Carol Anne More on her story

"Has this happened to anyone else? My account isn't suspended, I've been with adsense forever, and blammo, the bank calls and says that one of the checks I cashed (Google's) bounced!
Anyone else have this happen this month?"

McMasters More on his story

So...I seem to falling on the same two stories above searching Google. I'm sure this must have happened to others...right. I just think it is very strange following my Google's AdSense Isn't NonSense post. I'm sure we would have heard if the $900,000.00+ check bounced...or maybe this is what caused the insufficient funds.

Google's AdSense Isn't NonSense

With the right traffic and skills, Google's AdSense program can really pay out for small businesses. Take for example the online dating service "PlenyOfFish.com" made the largest Google AdSense check to date on Feb. 27, 2006 for over $900,000.00. Yes that is almost a million dollars in one month!

As stated by Markus Frind of PlentyOfFish: "I was poking around alexa today and saw that Plentyoffish is now a top 30 site In Canada ahead of all other dating sites. (Ask.com's toolbar network) puts me in the top 43 most viewed sites on the web. In the bigger picture Plentyoffish.com is neck in neck with yahoo personals and still a ways behind match.com. It amazes me to think that my 1 person company is able to compete at a level where all the competitors have 600+ servers, and 300+ full time staff. I feel like I am ahead of my time, and when I look around at the companies out there today I have a hard time seeing them existing in a few years. I believe that in a few years 2 or 3 person companies will replace companies that have 40 or 50 employees.

I sometimes wonder if i'm crazy for not going paid, and passing up 100's of millions a year in revenue. But i created this site to change the world, and make money at the same time. I may not make $20 million a month like the other sites my size but google pays me good money. My effective CPM (under $1.00) may be very very low, but when you have a site this huge it really ads up. (My girlfriend is holding up the cheque, its for 2 months as googles EFT bounced.)"

If other small businesses can find their niche, and of course, work very hard to drive in traffic, AdSense could altimately become a launching pad...making small businesses large.

In relation to this, but just a side note: I have heard of some stories of Google checks bouncing due to insufficient funds. You'd think with all the money they have, the accounts would have enough funds in them...or at least have overdrawn protection.

SEO Terms Defined

In the confusing world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), webmasters have to deal with many difficult aspects and obstacles. The ever changing world of the search engines is difficult enough without the enormous list of search engine optimization terms which need to be defined in order to move ahead in understanding SEO. I have compiled a large list of search engine optimization terms and the definitions in order to create "one less obstacle".

Glossary: Algorithm Anchor Text Back Link Bot Cloaking Conversion Crawl CPC CTA CTR Doorway Page FFA Gateway Page Google Sandbox IBL Keyword/Key phrase Keyword Density Keyword Stuffing Link Farm

Link Popularity PR Reciprocal Link Robots.txt SEM SEO SERP Spam Spamdexing Spider Spider Trap Stop Word Title Tag Meta Tag Mirror PFI Portal PPC

Algorithm Back to Glossary

A complex mathematical formula used by search engines to assess the relevance and importance of websites and rank them accordingly in their search results. These algorithms are kept tightly under wraps as they are the key to the objectivity of search engines.

Anchor Text Back to Glossary

Anchor text refers to the visible text for a hyperlink. For example:

<a href="http://www.searchbliss.com/">This is the anchor text</a>

Back Link Back to Glossary

Any link on another page that points to the subject page. Also called inbound links or IBLs.

Bot Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for robot (also called a spider). It refers to software programs that scan the web. Bots vary in purpose from indexing web pages for search engines to harvesting e-mail addresses for spammers.

Cloaking
Back to Glossary

Cloaking describes the technique of serving a different page to a search engine spider than what a human visitor sees. This technique is abused by spammers for keyword stuffing. Cloaking is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.

Conversion
Back to Glossary

Conversion refers to site traffic that follows through on the goal of the site (such as buying a product on-line, filling out a contact form, registering for a newsletter, etc.). Webmasters measure conversion to judge the effectiveness of PPC and other advertising campaigns. Effective conversion tracking requires the use of some scripting/cookies to track visitors actions within a website. Log file analysis is not sufficient for this purpose.

Crawl Back to Glossary

Search engine finds pages on the World Wide Web and records their details in its index by sending out ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’. These spiders make their way from page to page and site to site by following text links. To a spider, a text link is like a door.

CPC Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for Cost Per Click. It is the base unit of cost for a PPC campaign.

CTA
Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for Content Targeted Ad(vertising). It refers to the placement of relevant PPC ads on content pages for non-search engine websites.

CTR
Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for Click Through Rate. It is a ratio of clicks per impressions in a PPC campaign.

Doorway Page
Back to Glossary

Also called a gateway page. A doorway page exists solely for the purpose of driving traffic to another page. They are usually designed and optimized to target one specific keyphrase. Doorway pages rarely are written for human visitors. They are written for search engines to achieve high rankings and hopefully drive traffic to the main site. Using doorway pages is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.

FFA Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for Free For All. FFA sites post large lists of unrelated links to anyone and everyone. FFA sites and the links they provide are basically useless. Humans do not use them and search engines minimize their importance in ranking formulas.

Gateway Page
Back to Glossary

Also called a doorway page. A gateway page exists solely for the purpose of driving traffic to another page. They are usually designed and optimized to target one specific keyphrase. Gateway pages rarely are written for human visitors. They are written for search engines to achieve high rankings and hopefully drive traffic to the main site. Using gateway pages is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.

Google SandBox
Back to Glossary

All new websites have their ratings placed in a holding rank until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence.

IBL Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for In Bound Link. Any link on another page that points to the subject page. Also called a back link.

Keyword/Keyphrase
Back to Glossary

Keywords are words which are used in search engine queries. Keyphrases are multi-word phrases used in search engine queries. SEO is the process of optimizing web pages for keywords and keyphrases so that they rank highly in the results returned for search queries.

Keyword Density
Back to Glossary

A measure of the frequency of your keyword in relation to the total wordcount of the page. So if your page has 200 words, and your keyword phrase appears 10 times, its density is 5%.

Keyword Stuffing
Back to Glossary

Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of adding superfluous keywords to a web page. The words are added for the 'benefit' of search engines and not human visitors. The words may or may not be visible to human visitors. While not necessarily a violation of search engine Terms of Service, at least when the words are visible to humans, it detracts from the impact of a page (it looks like spam). It is also possible that search engines may discount the importance of large blocks of text that do not conform to grammatical structures (ie. lists of disconnected keywords). There is no valid reason for engaging in this practice.

Link Farm
Back to Glossary

A link farm is a group of separate, highly interlinked websites for the purposes of inflating link popularity (or PR). Engaging in a link farm is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.

Link Popularity
Back to Glossary

The number of links to your website. Link popularity is the single most important factor in a high search engine ranking. Webmasters use a number of methods to increase their site’s link popularity including article PR, link exchange (link partners / reciprocal linking), link buying, and link directories.

Meta Tag
Back to Glossary

A short note within the header of the HTML of your web page which describes some aspect of that page. These meta tags are read by the search engines and used to help assess the relevance of a site to a particular search.

Mirror
Back to Glossary

In SEO parlance, a mirror is a near identical duplicate website (or page). Mirrors are commonly used in an effort to target different keywords/keyphrases. Using mirrors is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.

PFI Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for Pay For Inclusion. Many search engines offer a PFI program to assure frequent spidering / indexing of a site (or page). PFI does not guarantee that a site will be ranked highly (or at all) for a given search term. It just offers webmasters the opportunity to quickly incorporate changes to a site into a search engine's index. This can be useful for experimenting with tweaking a site and judging the resultant effects on the rankings.

Portal
Back to Glossary

Designation for websites that are either authoritative hubs for a given subject or popular content driven sites (like Yahoo) that people use as their homepage. Most portals offer significant content and offer advertising opportunities for relevant sites.

PPC Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for Pay Per Click. An advertising model where advertisers pay only for the traffic generated by their ads.

PR Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for PageRank - Google's trademark for their proprietary measure of link popularity for web pages. Google offers a PR viewer on their Toolbar.

Reciprocal Link Back to Glossary

A mutual agreement between two webmasters to exchange links (i.e. they both add a link to the other’s website on their own website). Most search engines (certainly Google) are sophisticated enough to detect reciprocal linking and they don’t view it very favorably because it is clearly a manufactured method of generating links.

Robots.txt Back to Glossary

Robots.txt is a file which well behaved spiders read to determine which parts of a website they may visit.

SEM Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for Search Engine Marketing. SEM encompasses SEO and search engine paid advertising options (banners, PPC, etc.)

SEO
Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization. SEO covers the process of
making web pages spider friendly (so search engines can read them)
making web pages relevant to desired keyphrases

SERP
Back to Glossary

Abbreviation for Search Engine Results Page/Positioning. This refers to the organic (excluding paid listings) search results for a given query.

Spam
Back to Glossary

In the SEO vernacular, this refers to manipulation techniques that violate search engines Terms of Service and are designed to achieve higher rankings for a web page. Obviously, spam could be grounds for banning.

Spamdexing Back to Glossary

Spamdexing was describes the efforts to spam a search engine's index. Spamdexing is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.

Spider
Back to Glossary

Also called a bot (or robot). Spiders are software programs that scan the web. They vary in purpose from indexing web pages for search engines to harvesting e-mail addresses for spammers.

Spider Trap
Back to Glossary

A spider trap refers to either a continuous loop where spiders are requesting pages and the server is requesting data to render the page or an intentional scheme designed to identify (and "ban") spiders that do not respect robots.txt.

Stop Word
Back to Glossary

Stop words are words that are ignored by search engines when indexing web pages and processing search queries. Common words such as "the".

Title Tag Back to Glossary

A short note within the header of the HTML of your web page inbetween the <title> </title> tags which describes the title of the web page. This title tag is read by the search engines and used to help assess the relevance of a site to a particular search as well as show as the page links anchor text in the SERP's.

SEO - Content, Popularity, Saturation...

Now I will briefly discuss the more difficult and time consuming aspects of SEO..

Assuming the information from the first 3 pages have been utilized, it is time to make sure your site has plenty of quality content. Good web site content does several things. It gives your web site visitors a reason to return, it gives site owners a reason to link to your site (link popularity), and it adds pages for the search engines to index and display in their search results (search saturation).

Content, content and more good content.

Any "relevant" content will due, as long as it is useful to the visitor. Original content is best (but more difficult). This will not only add quality pages to your site, but attract visitors. The more often new content is added, the more of an increase in repeat visitors. Make sure it is useful and relevant to your site, or you will only "water it down" which can have an opposite effect. Good content will then incourage others to link to your site. The infamous "backlinks". Link popularity is very inportant for both ranking high in the SERP's (search engine results pages) as well as sending traffic to your site through these links.

HINT: We are a webmaster related site. What we provide for free to our visitors is webmaster related. Intern, we get repeat visitors. But we must continue to add and improve our content or they may no longer feel the need to return.

Link popularity or back links.

If your content is valuable to your visitors and they own sites with similar subject matter, they may link to your site. Google uses incoming links to your site (one of many) in the calculation of your web site's Google PR or Google PageRank. PageRank is part of what determines the "importance" of your web pages (according to Google). The more sites (with SIMILAR SUBJECT MATTER), that link to yours, the better your Google ranking becomes. For example, a hundred related sites linking to yours is more valuable then a thousand unrelated sites. You can find targeted back links using our back links finder. Some sites require a reciprocal link back to theirs and other sites do not, but both are worth exploring.

Keep in mind, many seo companies will offer services at a fee and claim to "increase PR", "Get you listed on page 1", etc. Make sure they are legitimate if you decide to try one out. They should have no problem sending you actual references from clients. NEVER trust an SEO company that sends you unsolicited emails or spam.

Adding an invitation on your web pages like "Feel free to link to this page" or a "Link to Us" page containing links and banner suggestions is a good idea. It's not the fasted way to increase your link popularity, but it won't hurt. You can also offer other sites content that "plugs" into something valuable on your site, like news feeds for example, that link to your site. Trading links with similar sites is good, but avoid "link farms". Link farms are pages that contain "directories" of unrelated content. They are often built with programs so they can be "loaded to the gills" with links.

HINT: We offer services and tools for others to add to their own site, that utilize our resources. The free content contains a link back to us. The purchased content does not.

Search engine saturation.

The more content your site has, the more pages the search engines will index. This increases your chances of being found in their search results. Plus, a larger site is often taken more seriously by the SE's, which will help increase your web site ranking. Make sure the pages are individually optimized as discussed on pages 1-3.

Branding

This is also important. It's an old but very effective method. Even four year olds today know what "Google" is, and "Pepsi", "Coca Cola", "Xerox", etc. How many times have you said "grab me a Coke" instead of "soda" or "pop". Or "Where can I Xerox this page" instead of "copy". We all do it without even realizing it. Now "branding" or creating an "Icon" is very, very difficult and may never "take off", but starting now certainly won't hurt. How, well create a physical image or icon that says your business (without having to say it). How many times have people seen the Nike symbol with the words "Nike" before the symbol alone said it? A lot is an understatement, but images do stick. At SearchBliss, I use a dragonfly icon. I'm sure there are at least a few out there who would say "SearchBliss" when looking at it (even if they can't tell what it is). Another example is the "Olympic rings". Well, you get the point.

We try our best to create content and services as useful as possible. I hope you found this SEO tutorial useful in increasing your web site ranking. If you have any questions or recommendations, please feel free to contact us.

Title and Meta Tags|The Body Content
Linking Structure|Content, Popularity...

SEO - Linking Structure

Your web pages anchor text and structure is one of the MOST important aspects of SEO, for two big reasons. The first is for the web site visitor. If your site is tough to navigate and/or confusing, you will lose visitors. The second reason is that many of the search engines not only give the linking (anchor) text a lot of weight, but good navigation helps their indexing robots or "spiders". If the robots get stuck or have no where to go, they will stop indexing.

So let's begin with static text links.

Here's an example:

<A href="myPage.html">My Link Text</A>

This is basic enough. Now you should again add your keyword phrase inside the anchor text linking to a RELEVANT web page.

Here is a good example:

<A href="/seo/seo-tools.html">browse through our large selection of SEO tools</A>

Note that the link text, AS WELL AS THE DIRECTORY (named SEO) AND THE PAGE NAME it is linking to, have the keyword phrase. This will help your SEO greatly. If you search for anything on Google, you will notice that the key search terms (if present in the url) are highlighted as well as the key terms "striped" from the URL's body content. This says to me that naming your links with the key terms for THAT web page is important. I would suggest adding your keyword/phrase 3-5 times in the link text (with 15-25 INBOUND links present). In other words, 1 time for every 5 links.

Now let's take a look at a good way to implement the links into your body text.

Example:

<H1>Since 1987, Search Engine Optimization Inc. has been the foremost provider of SEO Tools</H1>

<P>Search Engine Optimization Inc. has been developing SEO software and tools for webmasters around the world. Founder John Schmit who... Please <A href="/seo/seo-tools.html">browse through our large selection of SEO tools</A></P>

Note that the text link is now embedded inside a readable paragraph but DOES NOT take the place of the other key terms in the paragraph text. SE's like this. We will still need a "menu" for navigation that will contain some of the same links.

I will now be covering good navigation for both your visitors and search engine robots.

Every "important" page on your site should link to every "important" page on your site. Here is what I mean. First, "important" refers to pages (for example) that DO NOT include "thank you pages" after making a purchase or submitting a form. Pages like this have one purpose so you wouldn't want to link directly to them (but link FROM them for your visitors). If every important page on your web site follows this, the search engine robots will have no trouble indexing your site.

This diagram shows you good linking structure:



A static link (text) menu is important and is easy to build. It can be a basic as the links shown at the bottom of this page.

What if I use a fancy JavaScript or DHTML menu? This is OK, but use both if you decide on the fancy menu. Search Engines do not read the content within <script> tags. There systems could crash, so they just don't do it. And if possible, place the static text menu toward the top (but if it looks bad, it's not worth it. Visitors are more likely to trust a professional looking web site - I do, don't you?).

Another very important tool is the "Site Map". Every medium to large site should have one. A site map is a page that contains every "important" link to your site. Make sure the layout "makes sense". This allows your visitors to find what they want easily, and search engine robots will eat them up. I would add a link to your site map on every page on your web site. You can build a "fancy" looking site map, that is search engine friendly. Only the users see it as fancy, but to the search robots, it is just static links. Build your site map now.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Search engines are RELUCTANT to index dynamic pages with query strings. Dynamic pages are WRITTEN to the browser using scripts like ASP, CGI etc. Query string contain special characters like "?", "&" and "=", which are read by the these scripts. SE's are reluctant, but DO index them SLOWLY. They do not want their robots to get trapped and crash. But once they index one dynamic page and things go smoothly, they will index more, but still in a conscious manner. If you must use dynamic pages, then create static links to these web pages for the robots to follow. And try to keep the query strings short.

Here is an example of a static link to a dynamic web page:

<A href="dynamicPage.asp?id=12&Resource=QueryString">My Link Text</A>

Title and Meta Tags|The Body Content
Linking Structure|Content, Popularity...

SEO - The Body Content

Page text is very important part of search engine optimization. Many search engines like Google "strip" the body text and use it to not only to display sections in their search results, but they also use the body text to determine the subject matter of web pages. This way mostly relevant sites are found in their search results.

Keywords and phrases should appear toward to the tops of your web pages and "trickle" down the page. Here is how. Let's start with the HEADING tag.

Here are example Heading tags in order which should appear in-between the BODY tags of your web page(s):

<H1>My 1st Business Heading</H1>

<H2>My 2nd Business Heading</H2>

<H3>My 3rd Business Heading</H3>

I would suggest no more than 4 headings on a page and each heading should be accompanied by text with subject matter that pertains to the heading above it. Then I would add your keyword phrase 1 time inside one heading, preferably the first heading.

Here is a good heading tag example:

<H1>Since 1987, Search Engine Optimization Inc. has been the foremost provider of SEO Tools</H1>

I believe that SE's like Google view the text inside heading tags as important. After all, it does set the tone of the entire web page. The same importance is applied to text that is BOLD and/or in ITALICS. But DON'T over do it. If a page text is mostly headings, in bold, and/or in italics, it may not appear as important. It certainly wouldn't to the viewer.

The paragraph(s) to follow would then be a summary of the heading. Somewhere inside this summary should be your keyword phrase. I would suggest separating the keywords like I showed you in the description meta tag on page 1 to avoid any "spamming". example (e.g. "SEO software and tools").

Example:

<H1>Since 1987, Search Engine Optimization Inc. has been the foremost provider of SEO Tools</H1>

<P>Search Engine Optimization Inc. has been developing SEO software and tools for webmasters around the world. Founder John Schmit who...</P>

In my opinion, use NO MORE than 1 keyword or phrase for every 60-100 words.

Don't forget, you can use bold and/or italics in place of the heading tag(s).

Now let's take a look at image ALT tag tips. The purpose of the image ALT tag (Alternative Tag) is to display a text description in place of an image that doesn 't load for whatever reason(s). ALT tags are also used in conjunction with computer programs used by the visually impaired.

Here is an example:

<img src="MyLogo.gif" alt="My Image Description">

Image alt tags are an important part of SEO. Google and some other SE's use the alt tag content in the same way they use the body text. So if you use an image (like your business logo) at the top of your web page(s), make sure there is an alt tag with your keyword/phrase inside.

Here is a good example:

<img src="MyLogo.gif" alt="SEO Tools from Search Engine Optimization Inc.">

Note that the alt tag is the same as the title tag we used in the example on page 1. I did this because this is the alt tag of the business logo. I also believe that some search engines, like Google, ignore (or give little merit to) alt tags that are not hyper linked. So I would link the LOGO image to the home page on EVERY page of your site. This includes linking the business logo ON the home page to ITSELF. Even naming your logo image after your targeted keyphrase like "seo-tools.gif" is thought to help, especially with image optimization when search engines add images to their image searches.

Here is an example:

<A href="http://www.TheDomainName.com/"><img src="seo-tools.gif" alt="SEO Tools from Search Engine Optimization Inc."></A>

Title and Meta Tags|The Body Content
Linking Structure|Content, Popularity...

SEO - Title and Meta Tags

Good search engine optimization includes several factors that are explained in these SEO articles to help you achieve better search engine placement. Most of the advice given can be achieved almost immediately, where as other factors explained will take a lot of your time and effort. If you are serious about search engine optimization then you're on the right track. Please note that the tips mentioned in these SEO articles are used by SearchBliss and some of the information stated is merely our opinion.

Before you begin reading these articles, please keep this in mind. The most important advice I can give you is to build your web pages with your visitors in mind. We have all been to sites that "don't make much sence" as a result of webmasters targeting keywords that they have trouble placing into readable text. You can have thousands of web site visitors each day, but it is useless traffic when they exit your page out of frustration, and they may never return.

Targting the Right Keywords

Choose the right keywords. This is extremely important. Optimizing a site takes a lot of time, patience, and hard work. Doing this targeting the wrong keywords can be devistating. Find relevant keywords that are searched for often. Make sure you target "phrases" rather than single keywords. For example, targeting "hosting" alone will not help you. There are too many search results. But targeting "web hosting provider", "web hosting service", and "hosting business" will get you more realistic results (and a ton of traffic). Plus you are still targeting "hosting". I would suggest targeting ONE "reach phrase" and TWO "realistic phrases". Three phrases may seem like a lot, but not when one or two keyterms is in all three phrases. When this occurs, things don't get watered down, giving better results.

Let's begin with the "bare bones" of SEO. Title tag and meta tags. Most search engines give little to no relevance to some of these, however, since no one really knows how they are factored by each engine, they are still important steps in optimizing any web site.

1: The TITLE tag

Here is an example Title tag which should appear in-between the <HEAD> tags of your web page(s):

<title>My Business Title</title>

The title tag is very important. Why? Because search engines not only give it value in relation to optimization, SE's use it in their search results. Search on ANY search engine, and you'll see the content of this tag used in the anchor text of the links for each web site. Here is a little experiment. Follow the Google link (opens in a new window) and take a look. Google Experiment

There are 28,100,000+ pages in Google with the title tag <title>Untitled</title> So most of the web page links displayed are Untitled. Why? Because who ever built these web pages used an editing program that adds the title tag, and they never changed the title text.

So what should be in the title tag? The name of your business or web site with the "keyword phrase" you are targeting. For example, your business sells "watches". This is a broad search term and using it alone my not work out for you. There are 42,500,000 estimated search results in Google. However searching for the term "Swiss watches" I get 2,760,000 estimated results. The likelihood of your site appearing in the first 3 pages of Google is much more realistic using "Swiss watches". Plus, the keyword "watches" is still present, so you are actually targeting both terms.

Here is a good title tag using this example:

<title>Search Engine Optimization Inc, SEO Tools</title>

Keep it short and to the point. Targeting too many keywords can "thin out" your website's relevance.

2: The DESCRIPTION Meta Tag

Here is an example description meta tag which should appear in-between the <HEAD> tags of your web page(s):

<meta name="description" content="A Description of My Business.">

The description meta tag is less important for optimization, but it is still utilized by the search engines. Google for example, will use the web pages body text, image alt tags, and yes even portions of the description meta tag will show at times. The body text and alt tags will be discussed later on in these articles.

So in my opinion, it is important enough to use. The best way to use it is to place your keyword phrase inside this meta tag "once", then split up the phrase and add the keywords again separately. But keep it readable, and avoid too many comas. This can be viewed as "spam", so don't do it or your site could be black listed and ignored by search engines all together. Also, use two sentences maximum and avoid "sales pitches" like "The best shop ever", and so on.

Here is a good description meta tag using the "watches" example above:

<meta name="description" content="SEO Tools from Search Engine Optimization Inc. Browse through our large selection of SEO software and tools.">

Notice that "SEO" and "TOOLS" appear twice, but the second time is split with the term "SOFTWARE" (SEO software being a secondary targeted keyword phrase).

3: The KEYWORD Meta Tag

Here is an example keyword meta tag which should appear in-between the <HEAD> tags of your web page(s):

<meta name="keywords" content="my,keywords,and phrases,separated by,commas">

The keyword meta tag is believed one of the LEAST recognized meta tag by search engines. It carries very little weight when it comes to search engine optimization. However, it is not ignored by all engines. For example, through my own experiment, I have used a single keyword (like spaloof - which means nothing) that had very little if any results when searching for it. After being indexed, SearchBliss had appeared at the top of MSN. The keyword was NO where else on SearchBliss. Only in the keyword meta tag. This says to me that some search engines DO give the keyword meta tag some weight. So as a result, I still use the keyword meta tag.

I suggest adding your target keywords 3 to 4 times without REPEATING THE SAME TERM. This is viewed as "spam". Spam example: Swiss watches,Swiss watches,Swiss watches,... This is more commonly know as "keyword stuffing". It also applies to everything else being covered is these articles.

Here is a good keyword meta tag using the "SEO Tools" example:

<meta name="keywords" content="SEO Tools, search engine optimization tools, website ranking, SEO software, webmaster tools, search placement, SEO articles">

Notice that the keywords listed 3 times (SEO & tools) are not only split up using other key terms, but are also never too close together. I do this by adding other keywords/phrases in-between the ones with the target terms. The term "SEO tools" only appears together one time.

There are also several other meta tags like the "abstract", "robots", etc. But I feel that there is no need to cover these. I believe they are not an important part of search engine optimization and have no use in these articles. Build title and meta tags now, then optimize your meta tags.

Title and Meta Tags|The Body Content
Linking Structure|Content, Popularity...