Monday, August 6, 2012

Business Focused Analytics – The Starting Point

Having been a Business Intelligence practitioner for the last 13 years, there has never been a more exciting time to practice this art, as organizations increasingly realize that a well implemented BI & Analytics system can provide great competitive advantage for them. This leads us to the question of – ‘What is a well implemented BI system?’ Let us follow the Q&A below.

Q: What is a well implemented BI system?

A: A well implemented BI system is one that is completely business focused.

Q: Well, that doesn’t make it any easier. How can we have BI that is completely business focused?

A: BI & Analytics becomes completely business focused when they have ‘business decisions’ as the cornerstone of their implementation. The starting point to build / re-engineer a BI system is to identify the business decisions taken by business stakeholders in their sphere of operations. Business decisions can be operational in nature (taken on a daily basis) and/or strategic (taken more infrequently but they tend to have a longer term impact). To reiterate, the starting point for BI is to catalog the business decisions taken by business stakeholders and collect the artifacts that are currently used to take those decisions.

Q: The starting point is fine – What are the other pieces?

A: The next step is to identify the metrics and key performance indicators that support decision making. In other words, any metric identified should be unambiguously correlated to the decision taken with the help of that metric and by whom. Next we need to identify the core datasets in the organization. Please refer to my earlier blog post titled ‘Thinking by Datasets’  on this subject.

Q: What about the operational systems in the landscape? Aren’t they important?

A: Once we have documented the relationship between Business Decisions to Metrics to Datasets, we need to focus on the transactional applications. The key focus items are:

  • Inventory of all Transactional Applications
  • Identify the business process catered by these applications
  • Identify the datasets generated as part of each of business process
  • Next step is to drill-down into individual entities that make up each of the datasets
  • Once the Facts & Dimensions are identified from the entities, sketch out the classic ‘Bus Matrix’ which would form the basis for dimensional data modeling

 

Q: All this is good if we are building a BI system from scratch – How about existing BI systems?

A: For existing BI applications, the above mentioned process could be carried out as a health-check on the BI landscape. The bottomline is that every single report / dashboard / any other analytical component should have traceability into the metrics shown which should then link to the decisions taken by business users. BI & Analytics exist to help organizations take better business decisions and that defines its purpose & role in an enterprise IT landscape.

The answers mentioned above provide the high-level view of Hexaware’s approach to Business Intelligence projects. We have worked with many organizations across industries and a business focused analytical approach has provided good value for our customers.

Thanks for reading. Please do share your thoughts.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Earnings Conference Call on Tuesday, July 31st 2012 at 4.00 pm IST

The Board of Directors of Hexaware Technologies is scheduled to meet on July 31st, 2012 to consider the audited results for the quarter ended June 30th, 2012 (Q2 2012).

The company is hosting an earnings conference call for investors and analysts on the same day to discuss the results.

Details of the conference call are as follows:

DateJuly 31st, 2012
DayTuesday
Time4:00 PM IST
Dial-in Access Numbers
MumbaiPrimary Access:+91 22 3065 0539
Secondary Access:+91 22 6629 0539
Hexaware ParticipantsAtul Nishar– Chairman
P. R. Chandrasekar
 – Vice Chairman & CEO
R. V. Ramanan
 – Executive Director & Head – Global Delivery
Prateek Aggarwal
 – Chief Financial Officer
Deependra Chumble
– Chief People Officer
Sreenivas V– Chief Strategy Officer

Replay Facility*

Playback number: +91 22 3065 1212

When prompted, please enter the Conference ID 32580 followed by #

*The replay facility of the conference call will be available 60 minutes after the call ends and for three days from July 31st to August 02nd 2012.

Participants are requested to kindly dial-in 10 minutes in advance.

Thank you!

For further information: please contact – Sreenivas V
[e-mail: sreenivasv@hexaware.com; phone: +91 99401 90091]

More: http://hexaware.com/news/earnings-conference-call-on-tuesday-july-31st-2012-at-4-00-pm-ist-2/



Earnings Conference Call on Tuesday, July 31st 2012 at 4.00 pm IST

The Board of Directors of Hexaware Technologies is scheduled to meet on July 31st, 2012 to consider the audited results for the quarter ended June 30th, 2012 (Q2 2012).

The company is hosting an earnings conference call for investors and analysts on the same day to discuss the results.

Details of the conference call are as follows:

DateJuly 31st, 2012
DayTuesday
Time4:00 PM IST
Dial-in Access Numbers
MumbaiPrimary Access:+91 22 3065 0539
Secondary Access:+91 22 6629 0539
Hexaware ParticipantsAtul Nishar– Chairman
P. R. Chandrasekar
 – Vice Chairman & CEO
R. V. Ramanan
 – Executive Director & Head – Global Delivery
Prateek Aggarwal
 – Chief Financial Officer
Deependra Chumble
– Chief People Officer
Sreenivas V– Chief Strategy Officer

Replay Facility*

Playback number: +91 22 3065 1212

When prompted, please enter the Conference ID 32580 followed by #

*The replay facility of the conference call will be available 60 minutes after the call ends and for three days from July 31st to August 02nd 2012.

Participants are requested to kindly dial-in 10 minutes in advance.

Thank you!

For further information: please contact – Sreenivas V
[e-mail: sreenivasv@hexaware.com; phone: +91 99401 90091]

More: http://hexaware.com/news/earnings-conference-call-on-tuesday-july-31st-2012-at-4-00-pm-ist-2/



Friday, June 8, 2012

Quality Assurance and Testing Services: Strategy of Oracle BI Testing

This Document gives an overview of OBIEE Testing and commonly used in BI Components while doing validation.

1. Testing in Levels: In a typical OBIEE project, it is advisable to test in multiple areas rather than attempting to test everything at once.

a) The first set of tests can verify the accuracy of the column to column transport of the data between the source and target. This verification is typically done using SQL statements on the source and target databases.

b) The next step is to verify the accuracy of the repository (the .RPD file.) These tests will include testing with appropriate dimensional filters on the metrics and the formula used to compute those metrics. Testers can build two sets of comparable queries within the repository interface.

c) The next step in testing will be to verify the dashboard / reports against comparable queries on repository metrics. In these tests, testers verify dashboard charts / reports against corresponding results from queries they execute on metrics of the repository.

d) Finally, the functional interface tests will cover tests to verify the lookups, performance, ease of use, look and feel etc.

The first three types of tests are performed by testers who can create simple SQL statements.

Structure and organization of test cases:

The choices on test cases naming convention and structure can help organize the test artifacts better and aid a great deal in implementing the overall testing strategy.

For example: If the test cases are grouped based on the nature of the tests, like, source to target verification, RPD metrics tests, functional, security, performance and usability, it would be easier to pick and choose the tests based on the testing context and tester capabilities.

1. User acceptance criteria:
Users typically have an existing legacy mechanism to verify if what is displayed in the new solution makes sense. Testers should dig into this and understand how the end users built the project acceptance criteria. Testers should challenge the assumptions made by the business community in deriving the acceptance criteria. This activity helps get an end user perspective built into the testing efforts from early on.

2. Validating Master Detail Report: 
Master Details linking of views allows you to establish a relationship between two or more views such that one view, called the master view, will drive data changes in one or more other views, called detail views.

3. Time series functions validation: Time series functions provide the ability to compare business performance with previous time periods, allowing you to analyze data that spans multiple time periods.

Time series functions enable comparisons between current sales and sales a year ago, a month ago, and so on.

a. Ago: With ago function we can compare period to period
b. To date: Time series functions enable comparisons between current sales and sales a year ago, a month ago, and so on.
c. Period rolling: The PERIODROLLING function does not have a time series grain; instead, you specify a start and end period in the function.

4. Oracle bi-publisher validation: Oracle BI Publisher known as XML Publisher offers efficient scalable reporting solution available for complex, distributed environments. It provides a central architecture for generation and delivering information to employees', customer and business partners both security and in the right format.



Thursday, June 7, 2012

Quality Assurance And Testing Services: OBIEE Validations


Hexaware has developed a variety of accelerators that combine Oracle’s technology with Hexaware’s functional and technical expertise to effectively meet your business needs. Oracle E-business suite range consists of financials, supply chain, manufacturing, HRMS & CRM.
Source to target validation: Here source is represented by metadata repository and Target represents OBIEE Reports & Dashboards, BI Publishers.
1. Presentation layer object validation:
This is the layer of the logical business model that is accessible for the client through the structure query Language better known as the logical SQL. The presentation is the appropriate layer to set user permissions and to validate user permissions to reports.
2. Categorizing the metrics:
It is important to classify the metrics from multiple perspectives such as, their frequency of use, potential performance impacts, and complexity of calculations involved. Such a classification helps drive priority of testing
3. Dashboard charts and filters criteria:
User interface testing should encompass tests with multiple options in the available filter criteria. OBIEE gives enough drilldown features to verify the underlying data on the clickable components of the charts. Test cases written should be detailed enough to verify data aggregated at various layers.
4. Filter Validation
. Validate the entire filters which are available on report. Example refers below report and its filter
. Example: For Performance Measure filter- Validate filter contents against report requirement and database
Filter types:
Local filters: Filtering the records in the report level.
Global filters: Filtering the records based on user selection in Dashboard.
Dashboard Validation:
When a user selects certain request that need to display the exact results in the dashboard.
5. Data level security:
Data level security validation means user will be able to see only particular data for the given permission
Example: Both the Eastern and Western region Sales Managers will be seeing the same reports but the Data visible to them in the reports will be Eastern and Western region Sales data respectively.
Object Level security: Need to validate whether the particular user is able to access the particular dashboard or folder etc.
Example: For example, users in a particular department can view only the subject areas that belong to their department.
6. Bursting the reports:
Bursting the reports means distributing the reports based on the regions. 
Example: If there are 4 regional reports, validate to burst the reports (based on East, West, South, North regions).
7. Buzz Matrix validation: 
Need to validate the alerts in the Dashboard.
Example: We are running stock market and CEO is very much interested to know today’s business weather, has it reached a certain level that which he expects compared to the last week. If the level has reached to a certain level in Dashboard Buzz (Alert), it should raise an alert saying that it has reached the level in such a way the buzz matrix validates.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Healthcare Services - Saving Lives On A Daily Basis

At the end of the day no matter how large your home is, how many cars you own, or what clothes you wear you will not be satisfied if your health is not at ease. Taking care of your body is what allows you to happily partake in your daily adventures and enjoy the materials you have worked so hard for. To ensure a healthy standard of living, healthcare facilities offer their patients comprehensive holistic healthcare services that promise to find a natural cure for your body.

Unlike your neighborhood clinic, comprehensive holistic healthcare services will diagnose and cure your problem through natural remediation. Stuffing another antibiotic in to your body is not their technique, yet striving for health through completing one of their many hands on services. When you report to the office with a never ending back pain, they will use their chiropractic service to fix the stressed area. They are determined to find the actual source of your problem, not just quick relief. For instance, sometimes back problems can cause so much stress to the body that headaches and migraines arise.

Although antibiotics are not part of their cure, they do provide a healthcare solutionthat offers deep analysis of your lifestyle to begin the process of freeing you of any previous malnutrition your body may be used to. Between evaluation and the use of their laboratory testing service, they are able to target the exact nutrition your body is lacking. Whether your problems are due to your metabolism, diet choice, hormones, or any related factor they are able to isolate the cause and provide you with a cure for the long run.

Once these deficiencies are targeted they will undoubtedly inform you, but it is not always easy to leave the building and begin an entirely different lifestyle. For this reason, they have created a service that allows the professionals to do a full mind and body analysis of the patient to be able to target the inner problem and heal the body from deep within.


Visit @ http://www.amazines.com/article_detail.cfm/4364215?articleid=4364215



Healthcare Service Companies - Saving Lives On A Daily Basis

The healthcare services that you decide upon must be equipped with positive reviews and references. To gather knowledge about the same, you can visit certain websites that offer this information. You can also ask around in your circle of friends regarding the reputation and standing of the concerned agency. If someone has had a personal experience with the agency that is highly positive, you should definitely consider going in for it.

The number of hours that you need a professional to be present in your home must be clearly communicated to the agency in advance so that your needs are adequately met. If you need someone to stay overnight in your house, this should also be communicated to the healthcare services agency so that you can be sure that they have staff to fulfill these requirements.

It is a great proposition to visit the agency and interact with their staff to gather an idea about their policies and the way the staff works. You should go in for a healthcare service that has an amiable, cheerful and friendly staff equipped with the ability to induce an atmosphere of ease with regard to the person to be cared for. If you encounter rude and unhelpful staff, you should consider going somewhere else.

The staff that you invite into your home must be verified thoroughly for credentials and background so that you can safely and securely leave your house without worrying about possible thefts or any other such crime. You should ask to see proof of certification and other qualifications before allowing any such professional into your house.


More: http://www.articleconsortium.info/article.php?id=22231



Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)

The primary focus of DW/BI testing is to ensure competent and perfect database structures, ETL processes, front-end access and that BI reports generation processes completely support the client requirements.

What is OBIEE?
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) is a comprehensive business intelligence platform that delivers a full range of analytic and reporting capabilities. Designed for scalability, reliability, and performance, Oracle Business Intelligence EnterpriseEdition delivers contextual, relevant and actionable insight to everyone in an organization, resulting in improved decision-making, better-informed actions, and more efficient business processes. In our project, we are doing OBIEE Report testing:

. Understanding Sub Queries
. Understanding Table Manipulation
. XML in SQL Server

Prerequisites:

Before go through the below documents we must have basic knowledge of OBIEE and its components

Like . . .

Oracle Bi Server
Oracle Business Intelligence Dashboards
Oracle Business Intelligence Answers/Analysis
Oracle Business Intelligence Delivers
Oracle Business Intelligence Briefing books
Oracle Business intelligence Publisher

1. Sample report and Navigation steps:
. Oracle Interactive Dashboard page is displayed as designed for project
. Click on Customer Subject area (Note: Generally set of reports may or may not come under specific subject area)

2. Checking the Source record count and Target record count:
. Checking the source record count and Target record count for matching
. While writing the queries we can validate the record count

Once the Report gets executed we need to validate query in database by finding the matching record count.

3. Checking the Naming Conventions:
During the Project setup and later during maintenance these conventions can help for communication about several possible entities: ETL, DWH and Repository. Using naming convention is only effective if they are used by everyone at the same level of details:

. Fact Table (W_xxx_F)
. Dimension Table (W_xxx_F)
. Dimension Hierarchy Table(W_XXX_DH)
. Aggregated Fact Table (w_xxx_AG)

4. Authentication:
Is the process used to verify the identity of a user who tries to access the system. This is implemented by BI Serverusing either the Internal Authentication or External Methods

Authorization: Is the process used to verify that a user has been granted sufficient privileges to perform the requested action on the special object.

5. Report Data Validation:
In BI testing world, generally we call it as End to End testing hence we need to perform report data validation against data warehouse(DB) and source system data (i.e. Test data which are created specific to report from Business team or Front office team)

Whenever the report is opened, one session log will be generated with Query which is used to identify the physical data source to which Oracle BI Server is connecting. Use this SQL to analyze the tables and fields while validation the data of the report.

6. Steps to follow to navigate to the Session log Query:
Step 1: Click Settings > Administration to open the Oracle BI Presentation Services Administration window
Step 2: In the Session Management window, under Cursor Cache, click the View Log link for the last entry


Read more: http://www.ideamarketers.com/?articleid=3290307&wherefrom=LOGIN&CFID=184837668&CFTOKEN=64001061



Thursday, January 12, 2012

Feel the Heaven with SEO Rank

The backbone of a web business has always been its website and why shouldn’t it be when there is no one to speak with the customer other than this website. Online marketing of the products is not easy as it appears and requires a lot of skill to do the same. You should be proficient enough and well versed with all the latest changes happening around. No one would ever want to go its hard work into waste and in order to achieve it the way you expect; you should follow the practices of SEO Rank in India. They have been into Search Engine optimization for so many years now with their ability to optimize the website content as per the standards of the Search Engine requirement. Each Search Engine demands something unique in the website so that it could help the customer for the ting they require. So you need to win the heart of Search Engine first in order to reach to the customer.

Starting from laying down the online marketing sample to implementing it to your site, all is done by SEO agency that would ultimately help you to achieve the business goals. The more a website is Search Engine friendly, more it will be positioned higher in the list and more will be its visibility to the customers. For the ones who are new to the online business, it becomes very important to follow the standard of Search Engine Optimization; the best would be to take the services of some experts to assist them in the same. From the web marketing to the website optimization, everything requires to be perfect in order to attain the key of success.

With the effective Search Engine Optimization technique, one can expect to have minimum number of links which are otherwise required to make the website visible more often in the Search Engine. You need to win the trust of your customers not just by making your site something which looks attractive but should enable the customer to trust on you with the products listed in the website. Usage of different keywords to make your site easily approachable to the customers will do wonders to your business and help the customer to quickly search for the products he is willing to purchase. All such attributes are offered by SEO Rank Agency approach and is advisable to avail their service no matter how small or big your business is.

As it is important for any website to be Search Engine friendly, it is as important for it to be customer friendly since it will be of no use if the customer halts at your site and left after few seconds or minutes with empty hands. So you need to make sure that with the effective usage of keywords to place your site in top list of Search Engines, you also make proper use of content writing. Effective content writing techniques of SEO India aims at making the content not only attractive but interesting to the customer. It will pull the customer towards your product and increase your sales.

One approach that has been giving successful results for online business over the years now is SEO Ranking and is quite effective in increasing your company’s brand value.

Monday, December 5, 2011

18 Free AdSense Blogging Platforms That Allow AdSense Ads

This is our list of free blog­ging plat­forms that allow AdSense ads. Some of these sites share the ad space with you and some of them allow you 100% of the rev­enue from the AdSense ads.

We decided to repub­lish this list because the orig­i­nal post at Build­ing an AdSense Busi­ness with Free Blogs and Web 2.0 Sites did not receive very much attention.

Some allow you to place other adverts and CPA offers on the blogs. This is the same list that we posted ear­lier but with­out Squidoo and Hub­Pages included since they are not blog­ging plat­forms. They are web 2.0 sites.

We did not include Word­Press because to place AdSense ads on Word­Press you have to pay for host­ing, so it is not really free.

You may want to read our short dis­course and tuto­r­ial on how these free AdSense Blog­ging Plat­forms work and how you can ben­e­fit from them.

Free blog­ging plat­forms that allow AdSense

http://www.blogger.com/

http://www.i.ph/

http://www.flixya.com/nav/register

http://www.blogsome.com/

http://www.paranormaltimes.co.uk/

http://www.20six.co.uk/

http://www.netcipia.com/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

http://www.blogdrive.com/

http://www.blogates.com/

http://www.weebly.com/

http://www.ebloggy.com/

http://bloghi.com/

http://www.blogr.com/

http://www.tblog.com/

http://www.blogtext.org/

http://freeflux.net/

http://inube.com/ (this site added on 2010/06/06 — rev­enue sharing)

http://blogreaction.com/ (added on 2010/08/30 — rev­enue shar­ing for both Adsense and Kontera)

Saturday, November 12, 2011

WordPress Automatic Facebook Page Update

This entry is the continuation to the entry I’ve posted last night. Here I’m going to share with you the 2nd suggestion on how to automatically update the Facebook Page every time you update your blog. However this second suggestion is ONLY suitable for those using WordPress self-hosted blogs. This method is also recommended for those who have not yet created any Facebook Page for their blogs.

2. Using the Simple Facebook Connect (SFC) WordPress plugin by Otto.

The first step is to go to your “Plugins” admin page in WordPress and click on the “Add New“ button.

Automatic Facebook update from WordPress

Then search for “simple facebook connect” and press the “Search Plugins“ button. Click the “Install Now” link. You can also do manual installation via ftp. The plugin can also be downloaded from the WordPress plugins directory.

Update Facebook automatically from WordPress

After installation there will be a lot of new “SFC blah blah blah” plugins in your plugins list. Look for “Simple Facebook Connect - Base” and activate it.

Wordpress auto-update Facebook Page

Then go to your WordPress admin “Settings > Simple Facebook Connect” to customize the plugin. This is where you will need to put your Facebook page’s information. SFC also offers various Facebook functions such as WordPress login using Facebook profile and page’s activity feeds. Most of this functions including the automatic Facebook Page update will require custom Facebook application which you have to create by yourself.

Connect WordPress to Facebook

To create a Facebook application you need to go to this link: http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php. After creating the App you will be displayed with your Apps information that will be needed by the plugin.

Creating Facebook application for WordPress

After you done setting up the base. Go to your “Plugins” page and activate the “SFC – Publish“.

Facebook Publish plugin for WordPress

Then go back to “Settings > Simple Facebook Connect“. Now you need to give permission for the newly created Apps to automatically access your Facebook data.

Setting up automatic Facebook update from WordPress

There are major differences between all 3 methods I’ve posted in this blog. I prefer this method because once somebody clicked on the Wall Post of the Facebook Page they will be redirected to your blog without any other medium in between. Give your opinion about this entry and share it with your friends.


Read more: WordPress Automatic Facebook Page Update | Ridhuan's Blog http://www.ridhuan.com/blog/2011/03/wordpress-automatic-facebook-page-update/#ixzz1dUlO3XqJ
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial

SEO New York Makes Promotion Understandable

SEO New York can make the content of your web pages more applicable, more beautiful, and more easily read by search engines and their swarming and indexing software. Search engines frequently make use of programs which are frequently called spiders, crawlers, or robots which follow the links from page to page and download a soft copy of each one it finds. The pages are scrutinized, indexed, and, (with luck and good SEO New York) added to the database of the search engine. The search engines commonly do this on a periodic basis visiting some sites more often than others. Some of the changes which are optional could include changes to the text content which is enclosed within individual pages.

Other types of changes will not consequence what is shown in the browser, but will help the search engine spiders to properly view and index a site. You have doubtless noticed that when searching for some topics, some of the results seem to have very little applicable to your search terms. Certain pages listed in those outcomes may even direct you to a completely different web site than the one listed. The traffic which arrives in from that website is pointing to the feeling of your post on that writer, who linked to your page which means that user may or may not like what it will find there so as an upshot the user may or may not come back to your site. Things are quite different with SEO New York because it helps you to build invariable growing traffic which also helps you to gain reliability and trust from your visitors.

Gaining trust is very central because is the one that helps you to make a real community so, as a consequence you will get RSS Readers, more Twitter followers and people who are involved in buying your products or just interested in the data or services you are offering. SEO New York articles are the ones that build integrity and trust so, as a sign of respect, the users will go after you on twitter, subscribe to your RSS feeds and they will know that on your website the required information can be found and start gaining social media power.

Minting money on the web can be frustrating or menacing to some. If this is the case you should learn some ways to ease your indecision because making money online has never been simpler and it can actually be a lot of fun if you take the right direction. Implementing the right direction through various SEO New York software programs is often the route that many people want to take with internet marketing. However, people have their own likes and different things work for diverse people. It is truly up to you to choose which route you would like to take to monetary freedom. It does bring about a great deal of fiscal achievement in the long term but it does not happen right away.


SEO New York is the best promotional step that tends to enhance the goodwill of a particular company that is willing to showcase some profit.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Google Instant Search Offers Challenges to SEO Content

Ranking well with the search engines is something all businesses try to be cognizant of. It is the reason why SEO material is created for the main pages of a website as well as in all of the rest of the content which is added later on. The idea is to make sure that no matter what someone is looking for on the internet, they will be able to find the sites which are the most helpful to what they are looking for. The challenge is in making content which is friendly to the reader and to the search engines at the same time.

The new instant search from Google has created a new caveat that web owners have to pay attention to. The service from Google makes it possible for the search engine to offer suggestions of websites which might fit your need as you are typing in the keywords into the search window. The list is constantly updated based on what is being typed in. An educated guess by the system can cause a problem for the many websites looking to be found. The problem is how to make sure that your website will always be found in instant search.

Understanding the New Service
The new product from Google is something which they hope will offer users an easier time of surfing the internet by offering even faster results. By offering lists based on even a few letters, it is possible that users will be able to find useful content within seconds of the time that they get started. The hope is that the users will be able to return to the search engine even more because they find the new service even more useful. You will be able to find something like internet VoIP service without having to enter a long string keyword. It is something which will save time for the user, but create a challenge for websites.

Deciding on Keywords
Many websites have started to take a look at the kinds of keywords they are using with the content that they have. They wonder how they will be able to utilize keywords which will give them better rankings even when only a fraction of the keyword is used. It is important to remember that you should not try to use fractions of keywords in content as it will be caught by the spiders and could even cause your website to be ignored altogether. Rather you should pay attention to which keywords are being searched most often as this will likely change now with the new feature from Google.

Focusing on Content
It is a good idea to take a good look at the kind of content you are offering on your website to make sure you have the kind of information which will allow for better results with the instant search option on Google. Your content is what the spiders are looking for when they crawl the web. They are tending to avoid the sites which are geared more towards the search engine rather than the search engine users. Focus more on the kind of content which provides useful information to those interested in your company and what you have to offer. Remember you can include content which has to do with the industry you are in as well. Adding industry news to your site will only help to lend to the idea that you are an authority within your industry.

Learning the New Algorithms
The new ideals being looked for with Google is that they want to only feature websites which are produced in an organic manner. They advise all websites to focus on the kind of content which will be useful once the visitor lands on the site. They are paying attention to the kinds of analytics which suggest whether or not those who visit the site have found what they are looking for or not. If there is a high bounce rate for certain keywords on your site, they tend to send you less traffic as a result. Focus your attention on the keywords which tend to make sure that people are spending the right amount of time on your site.

Defining Your Website
It is a good idea to take a look at exactly what kind of content your website should have on it so that you can further define your message and the direction of your website. By defining your website, it is possible for more people to grasp the concept and for you to get a higher ranking with the search engines. Things like website organization and content will play heavily in the usefulness of your website to those who visit. Paying attention to these factors will help your site to be highly successful with Google instant search.

Article Submission Trumps Ezine Ads and Google AdWords

You may have heard advice from Internet marketing gurus that ezine ads are one of the best forms of advertising. You may also have heard that Google AdWords and other pay per click search engines are one of the best advertising methods. But when it comes to marketing your web site, article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords anytime.

The advantage of article submission is trust. Suppose you subscribe to an ezine in the form of an email newsletter. You've just sat down at your PC, coffee in hand, to read your email. There in your inbox is a copy of one of your favorite ezines, the one you read every time. Clicking on the newsletter, you see that this edition starts with a sponsor ad and then has a couple of great sounding articles and a couple more ezine ads. Sipping your coffee, one of the articles catches your attention. You read the article, and you were right. It's a great article.

At the bottom of the article, there is a link to the author's web site and a short biography. You notice the author has a link to pick up a free report with more information about the article's topic. Then you notice that right below that there's a sponsor link in an ezine ad. The sponsor's link is for a different web site, but it also offers a free report about the same topic.


Now you might click both links. But if you could only click one, which would you choose: the one by the author of the great article you just read or the one in the ezine ad?

If you would click on the one from the author of the article you just read, you're not alone. Most people would, wouldn't they?

Now suppose you're surfing around on the web. You do a Google search on a topic you're interested in, and you follow a link to a great article with some excellent advice on the topic. Again, there is a link to the author's web site and a link to a free report with more information on the topic.

Right beside it are five Google AdWords ads on the same topic. As luck would have it, they are also each offering a free report on the same topic.

You would still be most likely to click on the author's link at the bottom of the article, though, wouldn't you?


A Article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords because you establish a relationship and build trust with your reader. You are obviously the expert. After all, you wrote the article. And the webmaster or ezine publisher wouldn't have published the article if they didn't think you knew what you were talking about, right?

Years ago, I used to do direct sales in people's homes. I learned that one of the first things you need to do is the "warm up." You've just entered someone's home, they don't know who you are as a person, and they know you're going to be trying to get money from them before you leave.

If you don't establish rapport quickly, it's difficult to overcome people's natural sales resistance. In direct sales in the home, you do that by talking a little with people before you begin your sales presentation. They get to know you as a person, and their resistance is lowered.


Most people can't do sales because they remain the "enemy," the horrible sales person who wants to sell something. Let's face it, people hate sales people!

But imagine if you could warm up to people easily - and not just one or two people, but thousands of people. Imagine if instead of selling them something, you could educate them about something that will solve a problem and be of great benefit to them. That's entirely different, isn't it?

Article submission allows you to do exactly this, and on a massive scale. If you submit many articles to article submission sites and article directories, many will be published on web sites and in ezines around the Internet. People will read your articles and warm up to you. Solve their problems and they'll want more.

It's hard to accomplish that with Google AdWords. You only have three lines and a few words to build interest and trust and to get the click. It's also hard to achieve that with ezine ads. Even with solo ezine ads, evéryone knows they are advertisements.

Article submission is the secret. Writing and submitting articles is relatively easy. Just write very helpful articles on your topic and link to your web site. Through article submission you will build your reputation. Through article submission you will gain trust. And through article submission you will get visitors to your web site that already like you, value your advice, and want to know more about what you can do to help them.

That's already an incredible benefit, but it gets even better. Article submission is usually free, or low cost if you use an article submission service. Ezine ads and Google AdWords can be very expensive, and it is unlikely you could ever get traffic coming to your site as open to listening to you and trusting you as they will be from an article submission.

This is why article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

SEO FAQ

What is a Search Engine?
A search engine is an online database of websites that allows Internet users to search for information contained on websites contained in the database by "Keywords".
Keywords are words that Internet searches are likely to use when looking for information on a specific topic. For example, the words "grad schools" would likely be used when looking for information on continuing post-secondary education.
Each search engine has slightly different behaviors and characteristics.

What is a Directory?
A directory is a search tool much like a search engine but with a few major differences. Directories tend to employ human editors to review and rank websites submitted to their database. Yahoo! is the most well known example of a directory. Most directories catalog websites based on a variety of topic categories such as Business and Economics, or Arts and Culture. Most directories demand payment before assigning a website review to one of their editors.

What is PPC or Pay Per Click?
Several Search tools are now offering Pay per Click rankings. Companies such as GoTo and iWon allow webmasters the chance to purchase placement in an auction system. StepForth has several plans for managing bidding accounts and finding the least expensive keywords to bid on.

Is there a simple solution to top placement?
There is no simple solution to attaining high search engine rankings. Search engine optimization is time consuming work and requires a healthy knowledge of how the Internet functions and how search engines operate.

Are not all search engines the same?
Each search tool has its own unique characteristics. As businesses, each search tool has found ways to make its service slightly different from other search tools.

Will my website stay at the #1 position once my website is placed there by StepForth?
Search Engine rankings fluctuate frequently, however, if your site is properly maintained by search engine specialists month to month then it is likely that the movement will be confined to within the top10 positions.

TIP: StepForth offers a monthly maintenance service which is designed to maintain optimal positioning for existing clientele.

My website did not get accepted last time I submitted to the search engines... why?
Search Engine listings are not guaranteed to everyone who posts a website to the Internet. Search engines are for-profit businesses and have the right to refuse to list any site for virtually any reason. At StepForth we specialize in getting sites listed on search engines. We ensure all bases are covered and all necessary elements are present before submitting the finalized site to the search engines or directories.

How long does it take to see results?
It can take between 2 - 12 weeks to see results, depending on each search engine. StepForth starts tracking your website's performance 14 days after submission. We will forward all results as they come in over time. Ask about our reporting services.

How does the Search Engine find websites?
There are two ways a search engine can find a website to add to its database. The first and most direct method is to accept submissions from website designers and optimizers. Most search engines have a "submit your URL" section inviting submissions from Internet users.
The second, and least obvious method of finding websites is to send a "spider" to follow each and every link on, off, and through a website. New URLs encountered by the spider will be added to the database. In this way, some search engines will grow very rapidly.

What is a "Spider"?
A "spider" is an electronic robot that travels the web examining websites in order to add them to a search engine database and rank them according to the specific ranking criteria for that search engine. Most search engines use spiders to quickly and efficiently canvass the web for information.

What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization is the process of making websites search engine friendly. The process often involves minor modifications to, or additions of, several standard elements of a website.

What do you mean by Search Engine Friendly?
We use this term to describe a website that has specific elements added or modified to attract and please search engine spiders or live directory editors. Here is a link to an article that will provide you with more information: "Is Your Web Site Search Engine Friendly? Your Personal Checklist"

Why might I need to have extra elements added to my website?
A search engine spider is an automated program that electronically probes every URL submitted to its database. As the spider is a computer program, it is designed to look for and rank very specific items on each page it probes. If those elements are present, the spider computes a higher ranking than it would if those elements were not present.

If these elements are so important, why didn't they get added when my site was originally designed?
Most website designers haven't learned the importance of search engine friendly design. In almost every case we've encountered, the site designer is a highly skilled and creative person whose job is to put your ideas on the web. More often than not, the designers have not received any training in search engine optimization and don't think about it while pursuing a cool looking design. Search engines are also constantly changing their ranking criteria. They do this to prevent gross manipulation of their search tools. Often, website designers are not fully up to date with changes at search engines. For an example, ask your website designers about Theme Engines. At StepForth, we spend a good portion of our time studying how search engines work and how any sudden changes might effect our clients.

Why don't I just do the work myself and save money?
You can do the work yourself. You will need to continuously update your knowledge of how the various search engines work and any changes made in the way they work. This shouldn't take you too much time. Once you get the hang of it, search engine optimization can be as simple as re-shoeing the brake pads on your car or replacing the motherboard and system bios in your computer.

You should know that if you make a mistake in optimization and submission, it can take months to find the mistake and fix it, resubmit the site and obtain the search engine ranking you desired. Our 10+ years of experience with search engine optimization helps us avoid most mistakes.

What is an Affiliate Program?
A mutually beneficial relationship between a website and a company. The company seeks to either generate more web traffic, sell more products, or seek out potential customers through leads. The website seeks to make a profit by selling ad revenue on the site. Affiliate programs come in many shapes and forms.

What is an Affiliate Network?
This is by far the quickest and easiest way to begin selling advertising on your website. A secondary company called an affiliate network acts as a liaison between the advertiser and your website. The affiliate network sells ad space on your site and then takes a cut of the profit generated from this advertising. This can be an especially good method for small sites or people just starting in the advertising market, because it is extremely difficult to find individual advertisers on your own. In addition, the hardware and software needed to run and track an advertising campaign is all taken care of by the affiliate network.

What is CPS (Cost Per Sale)?
The cost an advertiser pays per sale. This is a very common method of selling advertising. You receive a credit for a sale when a web surfer clicks on one of the ads on your site and ends up buying something from your advertiser's site. A sale does not always occur directly after the click as most advertisers will have a certain time during which both the sale and click through must occur in order to receive credit. This time period is often called the 'cookie duration'.

What is CPL (Cost Per Lead)?
The cost an advertiser pays per lead. This is a very common method of selling advertising. A lead can be anything from an email address for a newsletter to a complete survey that needs to be completely filled out and verified in order to get credit. CPL prices can range greatly depending on the program.

What is CPA (Cost Per Action)?
This term refers to pay per lead and pay per sale affiliate programs.

What is CPC (Cost Per Click)?
The cost an advertiser pays per click.

Does meta tags make your site rank better?
This is NOT true. The fact is that according to the W3C HTML coding standards it is good coding practice to make use of Meta tags. Meta tags are also used by some directories and Yahoo! also admited at looking at meta tags 2 years ago. It is also true that search engines like Google DO NOT care much for meta tags. Meta tags therefore does very little if any for your rankings. It is also good practice not to stuff a bunch of keywords in your meta tags but that the meta tags should be relevant to the theme and keywords targeted on the specific page it is located on.

Is page titles important?
Yes, a good page title assist the search engine in determining the targeted theme of the page. Each page must have it’s own unique title that are representative of the page content. Also just target a single keyword phrase per page title.

Should I target many keywords on a single page?
No, the best strategy is to target a single keyword phrase for every individual page. This can cause a single page to rank for several keywords relevant to the incoming backlinks and the keywords targeted by the page.


What is a reciprocal link?
Reciprocal linking is when you link to a site and they link to your site in return.

What is a triangular link?
This is a link strategy whereby you link to a site form your one domain and they link back to another of your domains.

What is Natural rank

This the rankings that you obtain without paying for position. In Google the paid rankings normally is located on the right hand side of their search results and the natural rankings are the results listed on the entire left hand side of the search results.

What is hidden text?
This is text that is visible to a search engine spider as it views the HTML source code but it is not visually visible to a human visitor. Webmasters usually make use of style sheets and the class attribute to fool search engines. This will definitely end up with a removal and penalty by a search engine when detected.

What is a Doorway page?
These are normally single pages created with the sole purpose to target specific keywords. It usually do not reflect the rest of the site. A splash page can be mistaken as a doorway page and should be avoided as search engines can penalize a domain for the use of doorway pages.

My web design company submitted my site to 1000’s of search engines, do I still need to do SEO?
Submission software is to a large degree a selling mechanism that means nothing to the website. Only a handful of search engines being submitted to are actually useful and those will focus on other factors to determine your site’s rankings. It is a well known fact that Google uses more than 200 factors to rank a website. The only thing that submission software does is letting search engines know that your site is out there. Obtaining backlinks from sites already being indexed however has the same result.

What is SEO?
It is the process that enable search engines to access and understand the content of a site with the end result of improved positioning on the SERPS of relevant search engines in order to obtain relevant targeted referrals with improved conversion ratios, from search engines.

What is Cloaking?
In short cloaking means to determine who visits the website and then presenting the applicable visitor with the site content relevant to their needs. In other words serving Google bot with a different page than for example the Yahoo! spider is cloaking. This will definitely result in a banning of the relevant site in a search engine, if discovered. Enabling actual human visitors to view only information relevant to their needs is not considdered cloaking. Cloaking's main objective is fooling search engines.

What is an Algo?
The abbreviation for algorithm. This is a mathematical formula that determines the ranking of pages in the relevant search engines search results.

SEO Tools

SEO Tools


Seo Administrator is an integrated suite of web promotion utilities that cover all aspects of website optimization and promotion. Professionals and newcomers alike have successfully used Seo Administrator to enhance their websites and have found it to be simple and intuitive to operate.

Here is an overview of the powerful utilities that are included in the Seo Administrator package:

The
"Ranking Monitor" utility. This seo tool uses your website keywords to obtain the ranking position of your website from a wide range of search engines. The list of over thirty major international search engines includes: Google, Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, AllTheweb, Lycos, HotBot and so on.

The
"Link popularity checker" seo tool. The number of inbound links to your website is a major factor in successful search engine promotion and this tool analyzes these links. The Seo Administrator package enables you to create a comprehensive list of links to your web project and follow their dynamics by revealing new and out-dated links. The module can also analyze your competitor's websites and search for potential link exchange resources.

The
"Site indexation tool" utility. This seo tool checks for website page indexing. Before being included in keyword-based search results, a web page needs to be indexed by the search engines. Seo Administrator reveals the pages of your site that have been indexed by various search engines. The program supports all major international search engines

The
"Log analyzer" program is designed for analysis of your website log-files. It provides comprehensive estimates of resource usage, numbers of visitors, search queries that were used to find your site, site referrers, visitors' countries and much more.

The
"Page Rank analyzer" seo tool automatically obtains the Google PageRank value for your list of URLs. The number of inbound links is also obtained. It also checks for the presence of each URL in the DMOZ and Yahoo catalogues.

The
"Keyword suggestion tool". Choosing the right keywords and keyphrases to target in your pages is extremely important to help people find your website. This seo tool uses a variety of sources to suggest keywords relevant to each page. The program also provides the competition number of the keywords. Less competition means that you may get higher ranking in search engines.

The
"HTML analyzer" module is a seo program that analyzes html page content. The program provides a full report on the weight and density of keywords and keyphrases in your web pages. As well as providing a preliminary analysis of your own site, it can be used to analyze your competitors' sites.

The
"Google Data Centers" program. This seo program is a tool that allows you to query all of Google's Data Centers from one convenient interface

The
"Snippets viewer" seo program. The brief, automated descriptions (snippets) of your resource displayed by search engines are also very important. An attractive description will make visitors to choose your link among all the others suggested by a search engine. This seo program analyses your snippets and compiles a database of them.

Seo Administrator automates site promotion allowing you to utilize your time spent on the project more effectively, efficiently and productively.



SEO tools collection

Hey fellows, recently written an article Ultimate SEO tools collection based on some SEO tools. Hope it helps.

Page Rank

Rank Checker - Get a overview of your website's ranking
PageRank Lookup - check the PageRank for a website
Google PageRank Prediction - check predicted PR of a site
Multi-Rank Checker - View your Google PageRank and Alexa Ranking in bulk
PageRank Checker - View your Google PageRank on differnet Google servers

Links related


Bookmark & Blog Search Check
- Find your backlinks in the major bookmarking sites and blog search engines
Reciprocal Link Check - check whether your link partners are linking back to your website
Link Popularity Checker - a popularity score given to a website based on inbound links
LinkPrice Lookup - check the price of your link
Link Price Calculator - another tool for checking the price of links
Link Checker - check your links to see if it's still valid or not
Link Popularity - checks the total number of web pages which link to a website
Link Price Calculator - help to determine the approximate amount you should be paying (or charging) per month for a text link (ad) from each and every page of the specified website
Site Link Analyzer - analyze a given web page and return a table of data containing columns of outbound links and their associated anchor text
URL Rewriting - convert dynamic URLs into static looking HTML URLs
Link Extractor - Extract links from a specific web page
Link Shortener - shorten a web address
Back Links Finder - Build relevant website back links
Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer - check link text used by your backlinks to Link to your wesbite

Keyword related

Keyword Verification - checks to see if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword
Keyword Density Analyser - another SEO tools for keywords
Keyword Cloud - a visual representation of keywords used on a website
Keyword Density - another SEO tool for checking keyword density
Keyword Difficulty Check - see how difficult it would be to rank for specific keywords or phrases
Keyword Optimizer - optimizer your keywords with this tool
Keyword Typo Generator - generate a list of suggestions for likely human misspellings and typos
Keyword Suggestion - Find related keywords matching your search
Free Keyword Research Tool - analyze the meta keywords of your competition

Sitemap

XML-Sitemaps - Build your Site Map online (XML, ROR, Text, HTML)
Gsitecrawler - Google (and Yahoo!) Sitemap Generator for Windows
Validate XML Sitemap - Search Engine Optimizion Tool for validating your xml sitemaps

Search Engines

Google Analytics - tells you everything about your visitors
Google Backlinks Check - Check Google and 9 data centers for backward link updates
Google Banned Checker - check whether a site is banned by Google or not
Search Engine Bot Simulator - SEO Tool to simulate search engine parsing of webpages and display discovered links.
Indexed pages - check the no. of indexed pages for your blog
Spider Simulator - simulates a search engine by displaying the contents of a web page
Search Engine Friendly Redirect Checker - checks the exact HTTP headers that a web server is sending with an HTTP response.
Search Engine Position - Locate your search listings on Google and Yahoo!
Search Listings Preview - Preview your website on Google, MSN and Yahoo! Search

HTML related

HTML Encrypt - Hide your HTML source code
HTML Optimizer - Optimize and clean your HTML source code
HTTP Headers - Extract the HTTP Headers of a web page
HTTP Headers Viewer - check HTTP headers for any specific URL
Meta-tags Extractor - Extract meta-tags information from a web page
Meta-tags Generator - Generate and configure your meta-tags
META Analyzer - analyze a website's meta tags
Meta Tag Generator - help you to generate meta tags
Meta Tag Optimization - Check your Title and Meta Tags for keyword optimization
Source Code Viewer - View the source code of a page

Domain related

Alexa Traffic Rank - View and compare Alexa Ranking graphs
Domain Age Tool - find out the age of your competitor's domains
Domain Stats Tool - get all kind of statistics of your competitor's domains
Domain Availability - Check the availability of domains
Domain Look-up - Retrieve a range of information about a domain
Domain Whois - Retrieve domain whois information
Instant Domain Checker - Check the availability of domains instantly
Ping Test - Check the presence of an active connection
Reverse IP/Look-up - Resolve a host to an IP address
Server Status - Check if your website is online or offline
Website Speed Test - Find out how fast your website loads
What Is My IP Address - shows your ip address
Class C Checker - check if some sites are hosted on the same Class C IP Range
IP to City - determine the Country, City, Latitude and Longitude of an IP Address
Website to Country - determine the Country in which the specified website is Hosted

Web stats

Statcounter - famous free web tracker
HiStats - Free, real time updated web stats service
Addfreestats - provide free website statistics

Miscellaneous

FEED Validator - for Atom and RSS
W3C Markup Validation Service - check for conformance to W3C Recommendations and other standards
Kontera Ads Preview - preview Kontera Ads on your website
Online spell checker - simple online spell checking tools
Browser Screen Resolution Checker - shows what your site looks like with different screen resolutions
Your Browser Details - View your IP address and your browser details
Anonymous Emailer - Send e-mails to users anonymously
md5 Encrypt - Encrypt text to MD5
Online Calculator - A simple online calculator


http://moneybloggers.net/2007/03/25/ultimate-seo-tools-collection/