fantomNews™ — the ultimate know

[21 free articles]

1. How to Generate Fillertext Content For Your Phantom Pages and Shadow Domains
2. Paid Search Engine Inclusion Programs — The Details (1)
3. Paid Search Engine Inclusion Programs — An Overview
4. Search Engine Index Flux and Rank Checking
5. Cloaking For Google
6. How to Get 100K Unique Search Engine Hits For Free
7. Typos In Search Engine Optimization
8. The Wisenut Framejob
9. Decloaking Hazards — Why You Should Shun Caching Search Engines
10. How To Recognize a Good Automatic Search Engine Submitter
11. Building Doorway Domains for Optimized Search Engine Positioning
12. Utilize the Local Versions of Yahoo! to Boost Your Online Search Exposure
13. Choosing Domain Names For Search Engine Placement
14. The Myth of Manual Search Engine Submission
15. PDF Files — Your Undiscovered Gold Mine
16. Keyword Density — More Than Meets the Eye
17. Achieving Top Rankings With the Search Engines
18. Amazon Burundi? The Search Engine Metaspam
19. Inktomi Spiders with UserAgent Mozilla — Pseudo or Real?
20. Infoseek-GO Spider Codes Debunked
21. To WAP or Not to WAP

Phantom pages are web pages offering highly optimized content intended for search engine spiders only. Shadow Domains are dedicated web properties focused on offering optimized content to search engines while redirecting human visitors to another site, typically a company's Core or main domain.

So, technically speaking, Shadow Domains are web sites consisting entirely of cloaked pages not intended for human perusal.

The article explains how to fill them with highly relevant content for top search engine rankings without having to write it yourself — and where to get it for free.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Following our overview of current paid search engine inclusion (PFI) programs, we will now take a closer look at the technical procedures involved, spidering activity, quality of service, etc. This first instalment deals with Inktomi and AltaVista, more will follow in a later article.

Dirk Brockhausen

Search engine and directory pay-for-inclusion (PFI) programs - as opposed to pay-per-click (PPC) models - have been around and making their mark ever since Yahoo! introduced its own in December 1999.

Today, several major players have gone this way to rev up their revenues. This can get confusing (and, obviously, costly), so here's a current overview as per 2002-02-23 for your orientation.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Like so many other search engine optimization agents, we, too, have found all ranking checkers we tested, including the market leaders, to be highly inaccurate at times, though not consistently so, which of course only makes matters worse.

And which is why we finally resorted to writing our own server based, customized solution. However, when determining a web site's search engine ranking, there's another fairly important issue to consider as well: search engine index flux.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Don't cloak for Google — they don't like it! :-) However, if you must cloak for Google whatever the reason, take great care to heed the following tips.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Here's a current list of pay-per-click search engines that offer bonus payments for signing up and hence, free traffic, in most cases without demanding any additional deposit. This could generate a stately 100+K in unique targeted search engine hits for free!

Ralph Tegtmeier

As all experienced search engine optimization hands know, typoed versions of search terms account for a considerable amount of traffic.

When optimizing pages for typos competition is generally less fierce. Hence, everyone involved in search engine marketing should at least include the most common typos in their optimization efforts. The question is: which typos to choose?

Ralph Tegtmeier

Freshly launched new Google contender Wisenut has met with a good deal of media buzz. But their peculiar “Sneak-a-Peek” function is not to everybody's liking. When clicked, it opens a textarea like window immediately under the search result displaying the targeted web page.

Framing third party content without their express permission is a moot practice legally. After all, there are those who would argue that displaying copyrighted content within a different environment (framework, if you'll excuse the pun) constitutes a violation of copyright, and indeed there have been several court rulings supporting that contention.

Ralph Tegtmeier

While all search engines use caching to build their indices, some of them make a point of displaying cached web pages to their users under the pretext that it offers searchers faster access to a page's content.

Of course, what this actually does is keep visitors on the search engine's site, making them more susceptible to banner ads and other means of promotion. It also turns the search engine into a prime decloaking hazard.

Ralph Tegtmeier + Dirk Brockhausen

A good automatic submission program is quite undetectable if you do it right. And it can help you save tons of time. So what constitutes a “good” submitter?

Ralph Tegtmeier

Doorway pages have been around for a long time and most people trying for search engine optimization are more or less familiar with them.

To recapitulate: a classical doorway page is focused on a certain keyword or search phrase, carrying highly optimized text, pertinent meta tags, title, etc. It is submitted to the search engines to achieve better rankings. When human visitors hit the page, they are required to click a link to get to the site proper.

Ralph Tegtmeier

As the world's largest directory/portal and generator of search related traffic, Yahoo! entertains a wide range of localized sites and categories.

Not all of them require paid inclusion for business sites. So if your site qualifies (or if you can make it so!), you may want to sign up under a regional category instead of paying $$$ for the mere chance of having it reviewed and to keep it included if you ever make it.

Ralph Tegtmeier

The very best place to start thinking about promoting a site is before the site is ever built. This gives you the opportunity to use a few techniques that will immediately give you a head start.

The choice of title and domain that you make for your site can have a significant impact on the future promotional prospects.

Anthony Butcher

One of the ongoing myths abounding in the search engine world is that of manual submission being strongly to be preferred. If you follow discussions in forums and newsgroups you will frequently encounter advice of the type: “submit manually only, or else ...”

Well — or else, what? Is there something inherently evil or inefficient about automatic submission? And if so, where's the problem?

Ralph Tegtmeier

Many corporate web sites are at a loss when required to generate search engine optimized content. Yet, quite a few of these companies entertain a plethora of textually rich material which would literally be gobbled up with glee by the search engine spiders.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Until very recently the ratio of keywords to body text was deemed to be one of the most important factors to achieve a good search engine ranking. Learn here how and why this is changing.

Ralph Tegtmeier

In a nutshell: what it takes and what it doesn't.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Yes — even the big names aren't above spamming the search engines.

A world exclusive investigative report!

Ralph Tegtmeier

Spoof, hoax or a sneaking cloak job? Find out here.

Dirk Brockhausen

Discover the underlying logic of the mystery spiders.

A world exclusive investigative report!

Dirk Brockhausen

Coping with the wireless craze.

Ralph Tegtmeier

[17 free articles]

1. Module mod_rewrite: Rewriting URLs With Query Strings
2. Making More Money By Lowering Your PPC Ranking Bids
3. The Google Trap: A Warning
4. Spam Fighter's Toolkit
5. Easy Domain Migration To a New Unix Server
6. Protecting Your Server From Unwanted Directory Listings
7. Configuration of Cron Jobs For Automatic Search Engine Submissions
8. Cloaking Meta Tags
9. Cloaking and Security Tips #1:
10. How to Use Invisible Text Without Being Penalized by the Search Engines
11. How to Protect Email Addresses in Textarea Fields From Harvesters and Spammers
12. Determine IPs' Geographical Location
13. Code Protection Under Cold Fusion
14. The Apache mod_rewrite Tutorials
14. Part 1/4 The Apache Server Power Commander
15. Part 2/4 Rule Conditions
16. Part 3/4 Rewriting URLs
17. Part 4/4 Special Directives and Examples

The Apache server's module mod_rewrite is typically used to rewrite one URL to turn it into another one. Long URLs full of hard-to-read character strings are cumbersome and may actually impede your search engine rankings. This article illustrates how you can make use of very sparse mod_rewrite syntax to efficiently manipulate URLs for your SEO campaigns.

Dirk Brockhausen

Pay-per-click (PPC) search engines are gaining in importance dramatically: the Overture (formerly GoTo) paid search results are featured on most major search engines now (e.g. MSN, AOL, AltaVista, Lycos, etc.), while high traffic meta engines like Dogpile and Mamma have resorted to biasing their findings towards several competing PPC engines. In Europe, ESpotting has effectively cornered the market.

Welcome though the traffic generated by paid rankings may be, it can also cost you a bundle. Don't throw your money out of the window — by heeding our tips, you may well save hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month!

Ralph Tegtmeier

If you happen to use Google's proprietary NOSNIPPET meta tag the search results pages will only display your web page's title and the URL. No other page content will be displayed. However, this does not deactivate Google's standard caching function, thus constituting a prime decloaking hazard unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Dirk Brockhausen

Fighting the never ending tide of spam mail can turn into a very frustrating experience if you don't know the real tricks of the trade. After all, there's a whole lot more to it than simply responding to a (usually bogus) From: address with a peevish complaint!

Here's a fairly extensive overview of resources that will aid you in effectively combatting unsolicited email, showing you the possibilities (and, alas, the limits) of your endeavor.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Switching web providers or installting a new server entails migrating all your domain's web pages and other files. Here's a method to simplify your migration and slash unnecessary workload overhead in the process.

Dirk Brockhausen

When a URL is called which isn't pointing to a file but merely to a directory, the server will look for the default documents. This, of course, will inadvertently reveal document names to your visitor which can then be downloaded directly. There are basically two methods to protect your server from this security leak.

Dirk Brockhausen

Cron is a mechanism for planning and scheduling batch jobs. Implemented on Unix systems, you can use it to schedule automatic submission of URLs to search engines. This takes the hassle out of regular and/or recurring submissions.

Dirk Brockhausen

This short tutorial covers the cloaking of web page meta tags, which follows a different procedure than the IP delivery and full page cloaking method commonly employed for high grade stealthing.

Ralph Tegtmeier

1. MultiHTML vulnerability
2. Mail File vulnerability

In the first instalment of this series we will discuss two major, albeit little known security vulnerabilities all too common with many web programs.

Dirk Brockhausen

Contrary popular belief you can safely put a fair amount of invisible text on your web page. Find out how.

Russian version

Ralph Tegtmeier

Prevent the harvest bots from scanning your pages for spam fodder.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Use this neat online tool.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Great anti code napping tip.

Ralph Tegtmeier

The Apache mod_rewrite Tutorials

By Tech Wizard Dirk Brockhausen

The Apache Server Power Commander

Rule Conditions

Rewriting URLs

Special Directives and Examples

Dirk Brockhausen

[17 free articles]

1. Online Advertising Sinks Into the Abyss!
2. Marketing to Today's “Distracted” Consumer
3. Absolute Top Five Search Engine Marketing Myths Uncovered!
4. Speed Kills on the Web!
5. All Along the Digital Watchtower
6. Growing your Company in today's Chaotic Market
7. Achieving Tangible Results via Search Engine Marketing
8. Driving qualified traffic using Directories
9. Don't become .com Road Kill
10. Branding on the Web is like Mining for Fools Gold
11. Ten Basic Steps for Building a Click-ready Web Site
12. Building a Revenue-producing Ebiz Brand
13. “Bye, bye, Clonedike!” — Why the affiliate programs treadmill may not be such a brilliant idea after all
14. Don't Lose Your Foreign Web Site Visitors by Insulting Them With Brain-Dead Translation Services
15. Branding, Sloganizing and Search Engine Marketing
16. Make Your Site Accessible To the Disabled

Recently, Netsurfer became the proverbial canary in the coalmine that succumbed to the hazardous winds blowing across the online advertising market. They simply couldn't build a sustainable business model via ad inserts, even by delivering a million impressions a month to an upscale, well educated, target rich demographic group.

This denouement has broad implications to many who are dependent on advertising supported business models. If this wonderful award winning publication with excellent graphics, topical information delivered in snappy “let's get to the point” journalism can't make it then it's time to batten down the hatches — the rough ride is still underway for online advertising.

Lee Traupel

The average consumer today is exposed to a deluge of 1,700 marketing messages during a single 24-hour period according to recent advertising industry numbers. Look around you, we marketers have pasted, injected and/or overlaid marketing messages (read advertising) in any possible place imaginable!

Marketing messages and processes must be condensed, hard-hitting and presented in formats that are easy to understand and digest — not MBA-speak or techno-jargon. Long mission statements with flowery prose simply don't cut it in today's “distracted economy” — customers/clients/partners want to understand what products and services you're selling, at what price, and how they are supported.

Lee Traupel

It's no secret that Search Engine marketing can drive significant amounts of very qualified traffic to a web site as 85% of Internet users utilize search engines to find/research for goods and services.

The problem for many companies is the difficulty they face sifting through conflicting information and hyperbole! Here is the top five list of myths that need to be run to ground.

Lee Traupel

Do you wonder why every time you talk to someone he or she seems to be in such a hurry that they don't really have time to talk with you? But, if you want to work with them you have to try and converse on the phone as a first step, or even worse, setup some type of a face-to-face meeting.

What's going on — why aren't we all slowing the pace down so we can focus on business processes that are based upon viable models?

Lee Traupel

Against corporate tunnel vision: it's digital warfare and the fog of war is obscuring the battle lines. What you can (and should) do to secure the precise metrics of your online marketing success (or failure).

Lee Traupel

Recently, we've all heard enough bad news to last us several lifetimes! Our mantra for clients is “get over it” — cut your losses where you can and focus on the basic building blocks to grow your business.

Here are some fundamentals we recommend to any company that wants to survive and grow in this chaotic market.

Lee Traupel

Creating and building effective Search Engine marketing campaigns is like trying to nail jello to the wall for many companies as it typically involves deploying very specialized processes and melding them with technology. Here is some insight gained from years of experience providing these services to our own clients.

Lee Traupel

Some directories are far better traffic generators than any tread of the mill search engine. Here are some cutting edge tips garnered from years of providing directory registration services to clients.

Lee Traupel

A hard hitting, real life view of the true issues involved in Internet marketing.

Lee Traupel

Don't expect warp speed, just because you're branding on the Net. And for goodness's sake — get efficient for a change!

Lee Traupel

A check list you won't want to work without.

Lee Traupel

Getting your branding act together.

Lee Traupel

Debunking the culture of empty promises. Facts, figures, real life costs.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Don't get conned by bad ideas turning sour.

Ralph Tegtmeier

Search engines: “Play them right, and they will feed you. Play them wrong, and they will eat you.”

Ralph Tegtmeier

Did you know? The same kinds of barriers that stop the blind also stop Web crawlers.

Ralph Tegtmeier