meta http-equiv="refresh"… is highly frowned on by search engines and is commonly used by spammers. As such, THIS SHOULD BE AVOIDED.

A 301 Redirect as it is commonly referred to will allow you to make these changes without compromising your hard earned SEO results.

Using the Apache web server, fortunately this is a simply task.

There are a few different places you can set various 'Redirect' directives such as your servers main configuration file (typically httpd.conf) or within a 'Virtual Host' container inside one of your server configuration files. The final method and the one we will be discussing here is using your servers directory Auth file (AKA: .htaccess).

The first thing you do is create a file named .htaccess

There are a couple different way to approach this but in it most simple form you can just issue a 'Redirect' request in your .htaccess file like so:

Redirect /foo http://foobar.com/foo

In this example if the client requests
http://myserver.com/foo/foobar.txt,

it will be told to access
http://foobar.com/foo/foobar.txt instead.

Now this is not quite complete yet, since we need to specifically send a 301 status code. Without the status argument "Redirect" will send a temporary redirect status (302). So we simply take the above example and change it to:

Redirect 301 /foo http://foobar.com/foo

OR

Redirect permanent /foo http://foobar.com/foo

And there is also a specific 'RedirectPermanent' directive as well so you could just as easily say:

RedirectPermanent /foo http://foobar.com/foo

So far so good? Excellent. So now you ask what if I want to change ALL my .htm files to .html. Introducing 'RedirectMatch' which makes use of standard regular expression syntax.

RedirectMatch (.*)\.htm$ http://myserver.com$1.html

Going into an in depth explanation of regular expression if beyond the scope of this tutorial but a quick Google search for "Perl compatible regular expression syntax" should set you on your way.

What the above example does is match any character '.' any number of times '*', i.e., that is it will match everything. (.*) the parenthesis group the result into a variable which we will use with a back-reference ($1) later in the directive. Next, '\' simply escapes the following '.'. Since '.' has special meaning in regular expression syntax we need to escape it if we want to use it in the literal sense, '\' provides the escape sequence. Next is the '.htm' which we know is a static part of the search string we're looking for followed by '$' which simply marks the end of the pattern in a regular expression (regex). So the above example takes any file with an .htm extension and redirects the client to the same file at the location specified, i.e., http://myserver.com$1.html

But wait, what's that '$1'? Well remember we said we were going to store a variable for use in a back reference later, well here it is. The '$1' simply says that whatever was in (.*) is now represented by $1

So, the client request for example foobar.htm, the above directive matches this and redirects the client to http://myserver.com/foobar.html because 'foobar' is stored in '$1'. Just as with 'Redirect', 'RedirectMatch' takes a status argument so to issue a 301 (permanent) redirect we do this:

RedirectMatch 301 (.*)\.htm$ http://myserver.com$1.html

Another method we can use is via mod_rewrite. This requires that the mod_rewrite module is active on your webserver. It usually is and is done by the system administrators when they installed the webserver. mod_rewrite is a very powerful URL re-writing engine and we will only by scratching a hair on its head here.

Again, in your .htaccess file

RewriteEngine ON
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://mynewdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

The above example will re-map your old domain to a new one and issue a 301 status code (permanent redirect). So a request for

http://olddomain.com/foobar.html will go to

http://mynewdomain.com/foobar.html

If you simply want to redirect all requests regardless of the page requested to the new domain you could use:

RewriteRule /.* http://mynewdomain.com/ [R=301,L]

In this case no matter what file or directory is requested they will all go to

http://mynewdomain.com/ i.e., http://myolddomain.com/foobar.html

will go to http://mynewdomain.com/

The [R=301,L] means redirect the client and send a 301 status code (R=301) and make this the last rule (L).

Whichever method you decide on, once completed upload the resulting file to your

Search engine optimization is the best way to increase web site traffic and increase your position on the search engine results pages. Getting into a higher place on the search engine results pages means more hits to your website and more customers.

In order to get your site high up on that search engine results page and increase web site traffic you need to use search engine optimization on your website. Search engine optimization can often be more effective than web advertising for increasing website traffic. Now you’re probably wondering how you can practically implement search engine optimization on your site to increase web site traffic.

There are two ways that you increase the search engine optimization on your site.If you have an existing site that has a lot of good content on it already you can have that content rewritten to add in some search engine optimized keywords and key phrases or you can write all new content and completely change the content that you have on the site.

Even if you already have a lot of content on the site sometimes it’s a good idea to put in all new search engine optimized content just to freshen up the site a little and draw new visitor. You can write the search engine optimized content yourself or you can hire writers that are experienced in creating search engine marketing and search engine optimized content to increase web site traffic. Hiring a professional SEO copy writer is a good idea if you want to see an immediate increase in web site traffic because a professional copy writer will be able to create content for your site very quickly.

When you’re trying to build a website that is competitive in your market and will draw a lot of web traffic from the very beginning it’s a good idea to hire professional SEO writers who can make sure that the content on your site will get it listed on the high in search engine. If your site doesn’t make it on the first page of the SERP chances are good that you won’t see any increase in web traffic. Your site needs to be on the first page of the SERP in order to increase web site traffic.

The first objective that you need to do is to switch unseen and visible to the user and to make sure that major search engine specially Google that your new created pages must get the same quality signals as the pages on your own website. Every time you move your website to different domain, darned 404 File Not Found can hurt the user experience and negatively force your site's performance in major search engine specially Google search results.

Let's take an example moving your domain to another one. (www.seodubai.com to www.seodubai.org ) and this is different when you moving your IP's. 

• Test the move process by moving the contents of one directory or subdomain first. Then use a 301 Redirect to permanently redirect those pages on your old site to your new site. This tells Google and other search engines that your site has permanently moved.

• Once this is complete, check to see that the pages on your new site are appearing in Google's search results. When you're satisfied that the move is working correctly, you can move your entire site. Don't do a blanket redirect directing all traffic from your old site to your new home page. This will avoid 404 errors, but it's not a good user experience. A page-to-page redirect (where each page on the old site gets redirected to the corresponding page on the new site) is more work, but gives your users a consistent and transparent experience. If there won't be a 1:1 match between pages on your old and new site, try to make sure that every page on your old site is at least redirected to a new page with similar content.

• If you're changing your domain because of site rebranding or redesign, you might want to think about doing this in two phases: first, move your site; and second, launch your redesign. This manages the amount of change your users see at any stage in the process, and can make the process seem smoother. Keeping the variables to a minimum also makes it easier to troubleshoot unexpected behavior.

• Check both external and internal links to pages on your site. Ideally, you should contact the webmaster of each site that links to yours and ask them to update the links to point to the page on your new domain. If this isn't practical, make sure that all pages with incoming links are redirected to your new site. You should also check internal links within your old site, and update them to point to your new domain. Once your content is in place on your new server, use a link checker like Xenu to make sure you don't have broken legacy links on your site. This is especially important if your original content included absolute links (like www.example.com/cooking/recipes/chocolatecake.html) instead of relative links (like …/recipes/chocolatecake.html).

• To prevent confusion, it's best to make sure you retain control of your old site domain for at least 180 days.

• Finally, keep both your new and old site verified in Webmaster Tools, and review crawl errors regularly to make sure that the 301s from the old site are working properly, and that the new site isn't showing unwanted 404 errors.

We'll admit it, moving is never easy - but these steps should help ensure that none of your good web reputation falls off the truck in the process.

The bottom line is that you cannot afford to miss such opportunities — and today — we’ll discuss how you as a small business owner can use search to drive more business from people who have never even heard of you before.

It really is a beautiful thing.

Why You Need SEO

As a small business owner, you probably have a tiny marketing budget if one actually exists at all. The beauty of search engine optimization though is that it’s completely free for you to take advantage of assuming that you have the courage to edit some web pages.

There are literally hundreds of tools available to use that will allow you to download, edit and even research some simple elements of search engine optimization.

Beyond that, search engine optimization will provide your business with a long history of leads without any recurring costs. For example, if you optimize your site effectively as a Florist in Menlo Park — visitors can find you years from now. If you were to actually spend money advertising the same message — your newspaper, magazine ads and radio commercials would’ve all been out of print or in the trash by that same time.

So, to recap here — we’re talking about free traffic, from qualified leads, who are interested in your service. And all that’s required from you is a little bit of passion and patience.

Ultimately, you should consult with a professional search engine optimization service provider to make the most of your plans. Out of the box though, there are a number of things that you can do to help market your business on the Internet.

Quick Tips to Get You Started

There’s no excuses left for your brick and mortar business to be left on the outside of Google Local. If you have a Google Account, you can quickly submit your business profile to the industry giant and receive free promotion.

To add or edit your business on Google Local, head on over to:
http://www.google.com/local/add

Better still, you have the opportunity to have your customers’ rate your business using the same Google Local features — so if you’re proud of what you bring to the table, encourage your clients to get involved!

Now, head on over and do the same exact thing on…

• local.yahoo.com local.live.com
• www.citysearch.com

Now that you have informed the biggest search providers in the world with information on your business — start researching the basics of on site optimization or hire a professional to assist you with a solid plan to follow through on!

Sujan Patel is Director of Search at Single Grain, which specializes in Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing

Below are the simple steps to learn search engine optimization.

Prep work and begin building content. Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a 100 page site. That’s just for openers. That’s 100 pages of real content, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright/tos…etc eg: fluff pages.

Domain name:
Easily brandable. You want “google.com” and not “mykeyword.com”. Keyword domains are out - branding and name recognition are in - big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to se’s. Learn the lesson of “goto.com” becomes “Overture.com” and why they did it. It’s one of the most powerful gut check calls I’ve ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding. (that is a whole ‘nother article, but learn the lesson as it applies to all of us).

Site Design:
The simpler the better. Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. eg: keep it close to html 3.2 if you can. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring. Stay away from heavy: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them - there is little reason to have them that I can see - they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don’t appreciate (search engines distaste for js is just one of them).
Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.
You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root (this is rather controversial, but it’s been producing good long term results across many engines).
Don’t clutter and don’t spam your site with frivolous links like “best viewed” or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Learn the lesson of Google itself - simple is retro cool - simple is what surfers want.

Speed isn’t everything, it’s almost the only thing. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until “something happens” in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request. Longer than that, and you’ll lose 10% of your audience for every second. That 10% could be the difference between success and not.

The pages:

Page Size:
The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can - I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Ya - that bites - it’s tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines, and it works for surfers. Remember, 80% of your surfers will be at 56k or even less.

Content:
Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren’t sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword suggester and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

Density, position, yada…
Simple old fashioned seo from the ground up.
Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don’t fret about it). Use good sentences and speel check it Spell checking is becoming important as se’s are moving to auto correction during searches. There is no longer a reason to look like you can’t spell (unless you really are phonetically challenged).

Outbound Links:
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future).

Insite Cross links.
(cross links in this context are links WITHIN the same site)
Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with Google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your pr value across your site. You do NOT want an “all star” page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with Google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It’s the old share the wealth thing.

Put it Online.
Don’t go with virtual hosting - go with a stand alone ip.
Make sure the site is “crawlable” by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main “topic index” pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content).
Don’t put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It’s worse to put a “nothing” site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start.

Go for a listing in the ODP. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don’t have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo (don’t hold your breath).

Submit
Submit the root to: Google, Fast, Altavista, WiseNut, (write Teoma), DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part - forget about submissions for the next six months. That’s right - submit and forget.

 Logging and Tracking:
Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files (don’t use a lame graphic counter - you need the real deal). If your host doesn’t support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can’t run a modern site without full referrals available 24×7x365 in real time.

Spiderlings:
Watch for spiders from se’s. Make sure those that are crawling the full site, can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system (use standard hrefs) to make sure the spider found it’s way throughout the site. Don’t fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by Google or Fast. Other se’s are pot luck and doubtful that you will be added at all if not within 6 months.

Topic directories.
Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it’s topic. Go submit within the guidelines.

Links
Look around your keyword sector in Googles version of the ODP. (this is best done AFTER getting an odp listing - or two). Find sites that have links pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on topic, in context links up your self as a collection spot.
Don’t freak if you can’t get people to swap links - move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don’t worry if site Z won’t link with you - they will - eventually they will.

Content.
One page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much “bloggin” type personal stuff and look more for “article” topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of “web speak” that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd.

Lots of text breaks - short sentences - lots of dashes - something that reads quickly.

Most web users don’t actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page by random, and a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They’ve got better things to do that waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whiz bang flash menu system. Because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don’t have the pull factor they do.

Use headers, and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

Gimmicks.
Stay far away from any “fades of the day” or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

Link backs
When YOU receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through Google and their pr value. Look for directory listings. Don’t link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic.

Rounding out the offerings:
Use options such as Email-a-friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your sites offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt you read so much.
Stay away from “affiliate fades” that insert content on to your site.

Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome
If you have an ecom site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don’t work at all. Think about what people want. They aren’t coming to your site to view “your content”, they are coming to your site looking for “their content”. Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (raise eyebrows…yes, I know).

Build one page of content per day.
Head back to the Overture suggestion tool to get ideas for fresh pages.

Study those logs.
After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you’ve gotten listed. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine what it wants.
If your site is about “oranges”, but your referrals are all about “orange citrus fruit”, then you can get busy building articles around “citrus” and “fruit” instead of the generic “oranges”.
The search engines will tell you exactly what they want to be fed - listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it’s just a matter of panning for it.

Timely Topics
Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site “Z” is coming out with product “A” at the end of the year, then build a page and have it ready in October so that search engines get it by December. eg: go look at all the Xbox and XP sites in Google right now - those are sites that were on the ball last summer.

Friends and Family
Networking is critical to the success of a site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. pssst: Here’s the catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long term by the interaction - not by just reading.
Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you “in the loop” of your keyword sector.

Notes, Notes, Notes
If you build one page per day, you will find that brain storm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! 10 minutes of work later, you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it’s a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

Submission check at six months
Walk back through your submissions and see if you got listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months. If not, then resubmit and forget again. Try those freebie directories again too.

Build one page of quality content per day.
Starting to see a theme here? Google loves content, lots of quality content. Broad based over a wide range of keywords. At the end of a years time, you should have around 400 pages of content. That will get you good placement under a wide range of keywords, generate recip links, and overall position your site to stand on it’s own two feet.

Do those 26 things, and I guarantee you that in ones years time you will call your site a success. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines. If you build a good site with an average of 4 to 5 pages per user, you should be in the 10-15k page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to “do something” with.

I just wanted to tell you all how excited I am to be the moderator for this group. Right now we have a small group but I hope through the help of word of mouth, we hope to bring our community members up to massive numbers! SEO and SEM can be highly addictive, and pair that with the advertising aspect of it (PPC, affiliate marketing, etc.), it can be highly PROFITABLE.