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Hi Everyone!
I’m Kevin Kantola and I approve this message. Won’t
you be glad
when the elections are finally over? I’ve grown quite
weary of
all the election coverage myself, though I do think election
day
will be quite entertaining. Anyway, down to business!
Here’s some Q &A to get us started.
Hi Kevin,
I’ve placed about 20 words in my Alt text area. Is this
too much?
-Candice
Hi Candice,
Yes, 20 words is too much and may get your site penalized
or
banned for spamming. While there is no official count as to
how
many words to put in the Image Alt text area, I like to keep
it
between 1 – 5 words. It is important to stop thinking
of the Alt
text area as a place to put an advertisement. The Image Alt
text
area is useful for people with disabilities and people who
still
access the Internet using slow modems.
The Image Alt text area is there to describe the image itself.
For instance, you may have a graphic at the top of your webpage
called company-name-logo.gif. Your Alt text could also be
alt=”company name logo” or another graphic could
be something
like alt=”company name special pricing” if that
describes the
graphic. Think of the Alt text area as a place for an abbreviated
description of the graphic and you will do fine. Also remember
that if you don’t wish to use the Alt text area, then
don’t. It’s
as simple as that.
Hey Kevin,
How many reciprocal links to I need back to my site?
-Chenf
Hey Chenf,
It is good to get both reciprocal and non-reciprocal links
pointing back to your website. In order to determine how many
back links you will need, do a search in the search engines
for
your main keyword phrases and check how many back links your
competitors have. Use this number for a target and make it
your
goal to get more. Also try to get links from the same partners
as
your competitors since it appears that they are open to trading
links.
-Kevin
News
Google has finally updated the Page Rank (PR) in its toolbar
after 3 months. It looks like now they are doing this on a
quarterly basis.
Well, it looks like Yahoo! is getting an extreme make over
and
letting users beta test their new offering. More details here:
http://www.detnews.com/2004/technology/0410/08/technology-297100.htm
and here:
http://www.yahoo.com/upgrade
Google third quarter profits more than double Google states
in
its first earnings report as a public company. Google has
profited greatly by its paid advertising and at the close
of
today’s stock market their share price is $149.38. For
more info:
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=akvK
FuPH6hg8&refer=top_world_news
Google to the rescue! It seems an Australian journalist was
saved
during the Iraq War when his captors Googled him and found
out
his true identity was a journalist and not a CIA operative
or U.
S. contractor. More news here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3755154.stm
Google unveils the beta version of its Desktop Search
application. If you have a hard time finding files on your
computer, you may wish to give this a try as it is reported
to be
much faster than your PC’s native search program. Apparently,
when your PC is not active, the Google Desktop Search application
is busy indexing the content of your computer. Because of
privacy
issue, you may wish to forgo installing Google’s new
application,
though. Also Google has just fixed a security hole for the
Desktop Search app. preventing hackers from changing the look
of
a Google page or snatching credit card numbers in a phishing
scam. For more info see:
http://desktop.google.com/?promo=hpp-gds-en-us-5b
AOL also has confirmed that it is testing a new desktop search
tool that scans for files on a PC’s hard drive, similar
to what
Google has just unveiled. For more info see:
http://news.com.com/AOL+launches+new+portal%2C+tests
+desktop+search/2100-1032_3-5409844.html?tag=nefd.top
Windows XP Service Pak 2 now comes with an automatic pop-up
blocker inside of Internet Explorer. This gets rid of 95-percent
of the pop ups but it can get in the way of wanted information
as
well. For instance, I like to jump on the Internet and check
my
AOL webmail from there and the pop up blocker automatically
blocks the html webmail. But the good part is that the pop
up
blocker automatically gives you the ability to temporarily
suspend its functionality so that you can receive those messages.
Microsoft quietly launches its new shopping portal, Windows
Marketplace. This shopping portal is devoted to selling hardware
and software but Microsoft claims it will not use this portal
to
promote its own products. Well, you can insert your own comment
here and if interested, check out:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1675318,00.asp
Yahoo! announced record profits for the sixth consecutive
time.
Yahoo! has said that is has tripled its profits from a year
ago.
For more info: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3738230.stm
New SEO Firm Resource Article
We’ve added a new article on our website titled SEO
Your PDF’s
which talks about the viability and limitations of optimizing
PDF’s using Adobe Acrobot 6.
Tip of the Week
Dmoz.org is not only an important directory for your website
to
be listed in, it is also a good resource for finding reciprocal
link partners. In whatever category your website is listed
in, it
is surrounded by similar sites and thus lots of potential
partners. Also, go up a level in the directory and find more
potential partners. Any directory will do, but since Google
and
other SE’s place a high value on being listed in Dmoz.org,
then
it goes to figure that link partners from this directory will
be
valuable as well.
If you have questions, send them in. Remember not to ask
for
free website critiques, but if you have general questions
to
share, by all means email them in!
-Kevin Kantola
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