MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

Boring Stuff!

Checked out http://www.mklink.com/getstarted/ Yet?

Your best marketing that NEVER gets the limelight…

You already know your main areas to improve upon :
Traffic, Conversion, Retention.

1 - Traffic is vanity. (It’s the expensive bit - usually)
2 - Conversion is sanity. (Where you cover marketing costs)
3 - Retention is profitability.(Where you actually make MONEY)

Of course, the goal with your web marketing is to get to step 3, as fast as possible.

Yet most people stop at step 1 - hence their costs are high but their returns are low.

A FEW people optimise their marketing and get to step 2.

…but then they forget to do the “boring stuff”…

That’s things like sending their prospects & clients emails, personalised cards, follow up calls.

Or surveying their clients about what they actually WANT.

Or asking clients for referrals, testimonials or feedback.

Or sending regular news, tips & helpful stuff.

You know the “stuff” I mean!

It ain’t rocket science and it ain’t hard.

Yet when was the last time you got a birthday card from your accountant?

Or when was the last time your lawyer called you up and asked if you were HAPPY with their service?

Or when was the last time your IT company sent you a box of chocolates for using their computers or referring someone to them?

When was the last time YOU did any of this stuff???

This low-cost form of marketing really does mean the difference between struggling for business and getting loads of business.

Well, don’t worry about it any more because you can now automate most of this “boring” but essential marketing and get the profits you deserve !!!

MKLINK now offer loyalty marketing as a service to all our clients.

In a nutshell, by doing your “chores” for you, they will actually get done!

The difference between success and failure very often isn’t complicated - it’s simply getting round to doing the stuff that you know you should be doing anyway: regularly, efficiently and not giving up on it.

So now you can dramatically improve your conversion and retention rates, thereby increasing not only profits & customer loyalty but also your testimonials, referrals, order values and goodwill simply by getting us to do the follow-up marketing so that you can concentrate on the more interesting parts of your business!

Want more details? If you’re NOT yet an existing client then we’ll need to have an introductory consultation and to do that,
register now at : http://www.mklink.com/getstarted

’till next time,

Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

Some Copy Writing Tips

Checked out http://www.mklink.com/getstarted/ Yet?

Some Quick Things to Note About Copywriting.
For some reason, people seem to take on a completely different personality when writing copy for their websites or company literature.

I’ve already explained the need for writing about the prospect and talking in terms of benefits, rather than writing the typical corporate self-obsessed boring rubbish.

But here, I’d like to make a quick point about readability.

The purpose of writing great copy is selling, not passing an english exam.

OK, so if you’re tendering for the MOD to supply nuclear submarines then perhaps you might want to have a more formal style than normal.

But if you’re selling washing machines or trying to get people to pick up the phone and book an appointment for your double glazing company then your copywriting style needs to be a lot more relaxed and friendly.

Like mine for example.

The good news, is that there are tools available to help you with how “readable” your copy is.

In fact Microsoft Word - probably the most ubiquitous word processing application around, has a handy tool built right into it.

Go into tools/options/spelling & grammar or (options - depending which version you have) and checkout the readability statistics function.

I have been told by a copywriting colleague of mine that you should aim to make the copy readable by a grade level 8 (I think that means about a 14 year old).

You need to keep to 1 idea per sentence. Try and keep sentences relatively short (15 words per sentence is about right).

You also need to aim to have the “Reading Ease” over 60.

In general, your copy needs to pass the “bar stool test”.

i.e. if you were sat next to someone in a pub and they wouldn’t immediately understand what you were saying without any difficulty then there is something wrong with your copy.

The usual problem is that people try and show off and use unnecessary words which just alienates people.

For example, why do people use the word “utilise” instead of “use” ?
Pomposity costs you money!

A quick note by the way on a slightly different tack (legibility rather than readability) , use a “sans-serif” font online - such as Arial or Verdana and a “serif” font for print - such as Times New Roman.

I say this because the default font on many wysiwyg editors is Times New Roman but the screen resolution online isn’t as good as print and therefore the twirly bits(called serifs!) can become blurred.

Want some more help with your web marketing?

Register at http://www.mklink.com/getstarted

’till next time,

Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

Building Online Applications - Free

Checkout http://www.mklink.com/getstarted/

Build a Website - Quick, Easy, Free!
If you haven ‘t used Google Sites, then you might want to consider having at least a look at it because it’s really good!

(And for the “snobs” out there, I suggest you re-think)

Now, it’s not the most powerful website editor in the world but it’s not trying to be. But it’s simple to use and because it’s simple to use it means that it’s more likely to get used by you and your team.

In terms of effectiveness, give me a website that is simple but used over a flash one that doesn’t get updated any day.

Why do you want a Google Site?
Well, you already know my views on getting more than one website i.e.microsites. And I also explained the benefits of having a wiki

Well, Google sites essentially lets you do both in one go.

So, you can use it as a collaborative tool and just use it as an intranet that your team can see and edit or you can let the whole world see it and get the benefits of additional visitor traffic.

Google sites is of course a subset of Google Docs, which is an array of products that you can use - for free - that can help your business, communications and workflow

Personally, I’ve recently been warming up to the whole array of products that Google is offering. Whilst I don’t think Microsoft products like Sharepoint are dead just yet, I think that Google are certainly looking to be a major player in this space.

As I collaborate with staff all round the country, I really like the sharing facility of the Google spreadsheet. it enables me to update a spreadsheet at the same time that other people are using it and it even emails me if some data has been changed.

I can literally “see” what they’re doing whilst I’m doing my stuff.

Of course all the other collaborative tools - such as email, calendar sharing, word processors and the like are great, free and getting better.

I dare say some people could run their entire business directly from Google Docs.

But I’m digressing. I just want you to think about the marketing possibilities of enabling many people to update a website.

Not only do many hands make light work but also many hands may well have different areas of expertise that they can add value to a shared website, quickly, easily and with little or no training or cost.

I’m talking about embedding PDF’s, images, video in fact all the stuff you should be adding regularly to your main website.

But again, a lot of people don’t because they simply don’t know how to do it and so it never gets done - and so the opportunity is missed.

For example - did you know you can create a live poll using Google Docs and spreadsheets? So now you can email you clients - for free - and survey them - for free.

All I’m saying is that it’s quick and easy and free and can get you more business. I love it.

Meantime, if you think you’d benefit from some straight internet marketing advice, just go to http://mklink.com/getstarted and
we’ll have a chat.

’till next time,

Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

A Killer Backlink For Your Website Checkout http://www.mklink.com/getstarted for more internet marketing tips. How to get the best Backlinks for Your Google Ranking. Ok, so you know by now how important inbound links are to your website’s search engine ranking. And hopefully by now, you’ll have made sure that your site is linked on the appropriate directories and sites for your industry. Even better, you’ll be creating fresh content and getting articles written. Either you’re doing the articles yourself or you’re getting someone else to do them for you…but either way, they’re getting done right? But that’s not my point today. The point I’m making is that people very often ask me how to get links from other, relevant websites without going to link farms or paying people directly. Well, here’s an idea to try. Most people engaged in article marketing are hell bent on getting their articles into the article directories so that they benefit from all the back links on the sites that they are syndicated on. Great - nothing wrong with that. But - what if you want to get a great back link from a specific high page-rank site? Well, why not write an article , specifically for them! It’s not as daft as it sounds..let me explain why. Let’s say that you sell a herbal product that cures smelly feet. I don’t know if one exists - I’m just making this up. So, you’ve got a nice, niche little business and you need some good back links. Well, what about some of the bigger “fish” out there, with their big websites, lots of traffic and hopefully a decent page rank that’d be worth linking from? Here’s what you do : You approach them, tell them that you’ll add some great value to their website in the form of great help, advice and tips, in return for a link back to your specific product. Of course this works for service businesses as well - there’s almost always synergy to be found. Caveat: It is IMPERATIVE that your articles are professional, useful and NOT BLATANT ADVERTS. Otherwise, even if you are allowed the first article, you won’t be invited back. You could do worse that write some sample articles, using the prospect’s name dropped into the article a couple of times. Psychologically, they’ll be more likely to take “ownership” of the idea when they see that the article makes them look good and has their name associated with it. Send off the samples and see what comes home to roost. At this stage, you haven’t agreed any kind of exclusivity so you can effectively mail the same article to several prospects and simply change the name within the article. If one of them sees the value in you adding content to their site for zero cost(you might even consider amortizing them for any traffic they send because this can be measured without affecting the link value by NOT using a direct affiliate link) then you’ve scored ….possibly big time. Plus - if no-one takes the article from you(i.e. Clarke’s Shoes or Hush Puppies don’t play ball for example) then just stick it on your website and you’ll at least get the search engine optimization benefit from it, so you’ve recouped your “time investment”. By the way, I’ll be running another teleseminar about article marketing soon. Until then, visit http://www.mklink.com/getstarted/ ’till Next Time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

Ok, so this isn’t technically about internet marketing but seeing as I’m in the training business
and you’re never too old or too young to learn, I thought I’d share an idea that occured to me whilst
in John Lewis today.

My son at 14 months old has a mobile above his cot to help him sleep. I was thinking about
ways of putting a laptop or something next to it so that I could make up Powerpoint
presentations with music in the background, so that whilst he was going to sleep, he
could see pictures of people and everyday objects and hear the sounds as well
as having the text appear on the screen.(I’m convinced some of it will go
in…even if he’s not yet able to understand it all.)

Then the idea came to me - digital photoframes! Of course!.

After some quick checking around I bought a John Lewis own brand
one that plays multimedia files(mpeg) and has sound. It was cheap enough.

The next step was to download loads of video of nursery rhymes
and early learning stuff from YouTube - et voila! An inexpensive
way to educate Victor(my  nipper) and get him to sleep.

I use AVC(any video converter) to convert the youtube clips to Mpeg
for the digital picture frame and job - done. Vic’s happy as Larry.

Checkout :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vShWH6g23z0

At this rate, he’ll be the next Einstein… or a couch potato!

mk

Check this out :

http://mklink.com/traintogain.php

Cheers,
mk

Drawings and Doodles. (And Pics of Women) Checked out http://www.mklink.com/getstarted/ yet? Adding Illustrations, photographs & “doodles” to your site. By now, you’ll know just how important it is that you do whatever you can to improve your website’s conversion rate and that you are constantly looking to improve it. One thing that all serious marketers know - but not a lot of website owners(or even website designers) is that adding “human” components to a web page can greatly increase the response rate. To demonstrate what I mean, let’s look at an offline example. Let’s say that you receive a letter through the post. If the envelope is printed and has a logo on it, you’ll know that it almost certainly comes from a company and consequently, you’re less likely to open it with any great speed or enthusiasm. You might even have it opened by someone else. But when you receive a letter with a handwritten envelope and a good old fashioned stamp, you know it’s been written personally and with any luck there might just be a cheque in there! So you open it…and read it. Job done. So use this knowledge on your website! Studies have shown that having photographs of people on the site will increase response. Unsurprisingly, images of attractive women on a website can increase response from men…and women too! I can vouch for this personally when I setup a call-to-action button on a client years ago who sold industrial castors - the response almost doubled! But when I said “humanising” your web pages, I didn’t mean turning into a semi-porno website… I meant things like adding cartoons, illustrations and even handwriting font (but judiciously as handwriting’s harder to read than say Times New Roman). So, if you have a web page advertising handbags, you could do worse than show an image not only of the handbag, but add an image on a lady using it and write(you’ll need handwriting font) next to it - in say lipstick red for example, that the price has been slashed - or something like that. Or add an image of a handwritten post-it note. The opportunities for making your website less “advert-like” and more “hand-written message ” are endless. In exactly the same way (although it’s a little dated now) when you see an advert in the classified ads with a hand-drawn circle around it, your eye is naturally drawn to it. The whole point is that the site contains handwritten messages or an image of the owner, or a little cartoon or something that not only makes it less boring but add personality to it. Remember - people buy from people. My own website contains illustrations and they helped my conversion rate. The ultimate way to humanise a web page is to add a video clip on it, with someone demonstrating, endorsing or explaining the product or service on that particular page. As always, test & measure & tweak for maximum response. I know it’s a pain in the proverbial but this is the stuff that saves you money and can mean the difference between success and failure. Meantime, if you think you’d benefit from some straight advice, just go to http://www.mklink.com/getstarted ’till next time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

Is Your stuff being Nicked? A Very Quick Note About Plagiarism. I was going to write about the basics of article writing. You know by now that its important to have regular fresh and original content on your website. It benefits your Google Rankings, attracts inbound links, boosts customer loyalty and generally adds credibility to your site. But I stopped because I realised that a lot of people don’t even know that their stuff may well be nicked from their website. But worse than that, if someone else takes your content and copies it blatantly on their website, then it can actually harm your Google rankings because you may be penalised by Google for “duplicate content”. The upshot? It’s important to check if your content is getting ripped off. Conversely, it goes without saying that you should never copy content without getting permission and crediting the author. Getting sued for breach of copyright is becoming increasingly commonplace and very likely a simple “cease and desist” order won’t be enough anymore to placate the aggrieved party. How to Check? Of course, a quicky and dirty way of doing it is to highlight/select some random text on your site (which you believe is unique to you) and then paste it into Google’s search bar. Put a “double quote” on either side of the text to force the search to yield only ‘exact’ matches and if any are returned, they should only come from your website… This can get a bit repetitive and of course you have to remember to do it regularly. The scary thing is when you have other people writing content for you. Staff, outsourced content writers or even your web designer. It’s important to make sure that you’re not copying anyone and that no-one is copying you. I wrote my own php script to automate this (with a cron job) but if you’re not comfortable doing that then something like Copyscape would probably be a good investment (http://www.copyscape.com/ )to free up your time and put your mind at rest. More in depth stuff about article writing soon… If you would like some training with your internet marketing, please visit http://www.mklink.com/getstarted today. ’till next time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips

 

1. Keywords and Keyword Research

Keywords

 

-                 Keywords  / key phrases in this case refers to those particular words and phrases that people would like their web pages, blogs etc to rank highly in, and be found for via the search engines.

 

Importance of keywords / key phrases to SEO

-                 Most web page visitors reach web pages using search engines e.g. Google.

-                 Including certain keywords / key phrases in web pages / blogs etc help them to be found by search engine users when they use those particular keywords / key phrases in a web search.

-                 Where and how keywords and key phrases are used within pages, and within the web itself affects the search engine result rankings / positions (SERPS).

-                 Higher positions in search engine rankings can mean more enquiries, and more business.

-                 Higher positions in the ‘natural’ as opposed to the ‘paid for’ (PPC) search engine results are generally preferable e.g. cost savings, greater visibility, more visitors.

 

Why Keyword Research?

 

-                 To establish which particular keywords and key phrases are likely to bring the largest numbers of most relevant visitors.

-                 To discover which keywords and key phrases have the most or least competition.

-                 To discover new niches and potential business opportunities.

 

 

2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Links

 

Search Engine Optimisation

 

-                 Search Engine Optimisation / SEO is the process of bringing more traffic / better quality traffic, or both to a web page via the search engines.

-                 SEO activities typically involve the tactical and strategic use of keywords, key phrases, and links.

-                 Successful SEO often depends on how well a web page conforms to the guidelines of, and performs within the search engines, Google being the most important.

-                 Why? - Google refers the vast majority of visitors to the vast majority of web pages.

-                 Successful SEO can improve the position of web pages in the search engine rankings (natural listings).

 

Links

 

-                 Links refers to the ‘hyperlinks’ that make up part of the structure of the web, and allow navigation between e.g. web pages and web objects.

-                 A link can be inserted into e.g. text, objects (pictures / graphic elements).

-                 There are 2 types of link – outgoing links, and incoming links.

-                 An outgoing links typically refers to a link OUT FROM a web page TO a web page in another web site (at another domain).

-                 Incoming links are also referred to as inlinks and backlinks.  Incoming links typically refers to links INTO a web page FROM in another web page (at other another domain).  N.B. Links between pages in the same website / at the same domain (sometimes called the ‘link architecture’) are often shown as incoming links when checked using a search engine’s link checking facility e.g. Yahoo.

 

Incoming Links and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

 

-                 Google takes approximately 200 factors into consideration when ‘deciding’ how to categorise, index, and ultimately rank a web page in response to a search engine query, although some factors have a greater influence on the likely position in the search engine rankings than others.

-                 Broadly speaking, pages that are relevant, important (to and for certain key phrases), and trustworthy / reliable are more likely to achieve high search engine rankings.

-                 There is a strong correlation between the relevance of a web page to certain keywords and key phrases, and the inclusion of those (and related) keywords and key phrases mainly in the text elements of that web page.

-                 It is possible for several web pages to achieve a similar level of ‘relevance’ to the same / similar key phrases, but the search engines still need to have a method one page above another in the search engine results in response to a search engine user who has searched using those key phrases.

-                 In addition to relevance to a query (and adherence to guidelines), and trustworthiness of a web page (how unlikely it is to have the characteristics of a ‘Spam’ page), Google for example uses IMPORTANCE as well as ‘relevance’ to help decide which pages should rank higher in the natural search engine listings / results.

-                 The underlying assumption with incoming links = if web pages have been linked to from other web pages, they must have something of interest / must be important, and could therefore provide search engine users with a good and rewarding experience if directed to those web pages. Continued and consistent ‘good experiences’ for users of  a specific search engine e.g. Google, will retain them as users / customers (primarily) of that search engine.

-                 The greater the number of HIGH QUALITY incoming links that a web page has, the more IMPORTANT it is (e.g. to Google).  The more IMPORTANT it is, the more likely it is to achieve higher positions in the search engine results for relevant keywords and key phrases.

-                 The quality of incoming links are more important than the quantity.

-                 The Google PageRank™ is a numerical value – a number from 0 to 10 – that is applied (algorithmically) to a web page.  PageRank™ is essentially a ‘vote’ or ‘poll’ of how popular (IMPORTANT) a web page is.

-                 There is a strong correlation between higher PageRank™, and greater IMPORTANCE of a web page.

-                 PageRank™ is therefore an indicator of the level of QUALITY that one, some or all of the incoming links to a web page has/have.

-                 A link’s ‘QUALITY’ depends on how many of these 4 main characteristics it has:

 

1.             The link comes from a page that has relevant / related text on it in terms of subject matter and keywords / key phrases.

2.             The actual (incoming) text hyperlink is made up of keyword / key phrase that has a high degree of relevance to the main subject of the page it is linking to.

3.             The page that is providing the incoming link has a reasonable / high Google PageRank™ itself.

4.             The web page providing the incoming link doesn’t have a ‘large’ number of other outgoing links from it – especially ones that lack relevance.

 

3. Article Writing

 

How can article writing contribute to better Search Engine Optimisation, and higher search engine result positions for web pages?

 

-                 By providing a source of high quality incoming links to web pages.

 

How does this actually work?

 

-                 There are many (Free) Article websites / article directories that collect articles on a wide range of subjects to syndicate them / for them to be used as content for other websites.

-                 By registering with these websites, you are able to submit original articles to them that you have written.

-                 If the article meets the article website / directory’s criteria, it will be published on that website.

-                 Each published article provides an opportunity within, or below an article to insert links to your chosen website using your chosen text. These could count as incoming links for the web pages you choose to link to.

-                 Often, these submitted articles conform to the 4 main criteria mentioned above.  This means that your articles can therefore provide HIGH QUALITY incoming links to web pages.

-                 In general, more high quality incoming links for a web page (from article directories) = greater importance for pages = higher Google PageRank™ = higher search engine rankings = greater numbers of (relevant) visitors = higher conversion rates = more business.

 

 

How to write articles

 

Tips for Keyword Research and Selection

 

-                 Since the quality of an incoming link and the link context are of uppermost importance, selecting the right key phrases to use in the page content and the text hyperlink itself is essential.  The key phrases used should be highly relevant, and should be checked for likely visitor numbers and competition.

-                 Use keyword selector tools, and / or the key phrases suggested by the end client.

-                 Once selected, the key phrases should be included in the article text, and preferably used as link text within / below the article, depending on the guidelines of the article website / article directory.

 

Tips for Conducting Research for Articles

 

-                 Use popular search engines e.g. Google.

-                 Use (and collect URLs for) websites to be used as general reference for ‘factual’ information on a variety of subjects e.g. Wikipedia.

 

Tips for Writing the Articles

 

-                 Look at other popular articles featured on article websites.

-                 Aim to produce 300 to 400 words.

-                 It is often easier to read from a printed page than from a screen. Consider printing out your research material, and use a highlighter pen or a similar method to underline the main points.

-                 Plan to split the article into related paragraphs, perhaps based around the separate points.

Inserting links (hyperlinks) into the article.

Using blogs and article websites.

 

 

20 tips working from home using the Internet

Website template.

Moving Web Pages - The Risks Checkout http://www.mklink.com/getstarted for more internet marketing tips. Precautions to take when moving and changing web pages – 301 Redirects. Most webmasters / website owners put a lot of time, effort, money and worry into making sure their web pages feature as highly as possible in the search engine results for their main keywords and key phrases in the natural listings of Google i.e. the not paid-for results on the left hand side. This is understandable since Google is going to deliver the vast majority of all your search engine referrals, and not having to pay for clicks and not having the worry of no clicks at all when you stop paying is surely the best situation. If and when you do manage to get a good position in the search engine results, and assuming the conversion rate is good, the thought of moving pages, changing page names, and therefore ‘fixing what isn’t necessarily broke’ can bring a good deal of anxiety. There are risks involved with moving and changing pages i.e. combining pages into one, changing page names, removing some pages altogether and moving a whole website to different domains. The risks exist because of the interconnected nature of the web, and the way the search engines compile and store information about web pages. Potential risks include: • Losing the value of the incoming links to pages that have been moved / removed / had the URL changed i.e. losing the positive effects of Google PageRank™. • Losing search engine positioning for certain important key phrases and therefore losing visitors, enquirers and customers. • Dropping out of the search engines effectively i.e. losing page 1 and page 2 positions. Minimising the Risks What steps should you take when making changes to the structures (rather than the content) of your web pages website? i.e. changing page names / directory structures, combining pages and removing pages… Save a copy, make a map, record your vital stats Before making any major changes to web pages it’s always worth downloading and saving a backup copy of the web site. Also, you need to get a good idea of the structure of the website, and find out exactly what the size and scope of the job is. Using a site mapping / link checking software can help you achieve this quickly and accurately e.g. Xenu’s Link Sleuth, Electrum’s PowerMapper. If you’re worried about losing valuable incoming links and search engine positions for specific key phrases, you won’t know how big the effects on these will be unless you have a record of you site’s stats at the moment. Your website’s stats package should keep track of things anyway, but at the very least check your rankings (e.g. using IBP’s Ranking Report), check your Google PageRank™, and check your incoming links e.g. use the link: command in the search field at the top of the Yahoo home page followed by your full (http://www…) URL. Have a Clear Plan Study the information shown above, study your web pages, and have a good idea of exactly how you want to change things. Expect a possible 1 to 3 months of lower rankings while the search engines re-crawl the incoming links. Use 301 Re-Directs The web works using certain protocols that are understood by software like search engines and browsers. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) uses a series of response status codes which mean that more action of some sort is required (by a user agent) to complete a specific request. These status codes are shown as numbers, each of which represents a specific type of problem / specific action required – there are 5 classes of responses that a HTTP client should recognise. For example, you may have clicked on a link i.e. looked for page, and found a ‘404’ error page – file not found. This code means that a client could find the server, but couldn’t find the file you were looking for on it. A 301 Redirect means that a file e.g. a web page has ‘Moved Permanently’ (the URL or page name has been changed or the page has been removed). The “3″ component of the number makes the browser go to another location (identified by you). There are different ways to implement a redirect e.g. server side scripting, using mod_rewrite (e.g. with Apache), JavaScript or Meta Tag redirects. JavaScript and Meta Tag Redirects This refers to either using JavaScript in a page, or placing code in the Meta tags of a web page to redirect to another page. These methods are the least search engine friendly, i.e. the least friendly to page visitors (because they waste time), and are unlikely to allow you to retain your valuable PageRank™. Using this method means that the headers and the pages have to load before the re-direct takes place (using just a HTTP header method means that the re-direct happens straight after the HTTP headers load). Wherever there’s a loading, then a refresh / redirect, there will at least be a flickering of the browser while the redirect takes place – this doesn’t look good. Also, some browsers may have Javascript or META Refresh disabled, which is another reason not to use them. It is still commonplace to see JavaScript / META Refresh on websites e.g. where a message appears on page saying that the page has moved and you’ll be transferred there within a certain time – or click a certain link if this doesn’t happen automatically. The Meta Refresh code actually goes in the head of a web page could look like this e.g. <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV=”refresh” content+”0;URL=http://www.thenewpage.com/yournewpage.htm”> <META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”> <TITLE>The page has been moved to a new location<TITLE> </HEAD> N.B. In this particular example the search engine robots have been told not to read the page (to avoid the search engine ‘slap’). JavaScript and Meta Tag Redirects have a history of being used by spammers, and therefore the search engines are very wary of them. Pages can easily optimised for certain key phrases and therefore attract visitors to click on them, only to be redirected to a page they didn’t want to visit. For these and more reasons, it’s worth avoiding these methods of re-directing if at all possible. Server Side Scripting Whenever a search engine spider or web page visitor requests a page, the web server checks the .htaccess file for any particular instructions e.g. how to deal with errors, security issues etc. Search engine spiders follow the instructions that they find in this file, and will recognise as valid a response from the server in this way. Therfore the .htaccess file is a much safer and much more preferable place to put a 301 redirect i.e. a response that lets the search engine know that the page has moved permanently, and gives instructions of where the search engine can find the new / intended page. So how is this actually achieved? .htaccess file redirect – example for ‘static’ pages (e.g. html) For example, download the .htaccess file (that’s generally stored in the root directory of your web pages), scroll down past the existing code (leaving a line space) then write a line of code like the following: Redirect 301 /old/directory/youroldpage.htm http://www.yoursite/thenewpage.htm The first half of the code gives the old page location (and doesn’t need the http://www part) and the second half gives the new page location. N.B. If there is no .htaccess file you will need to create one using soemthing like notepad. By saving this, uploading it to the web, and typing the old URL into the browser you’ll be able to see if it’s worked. Redirect example for ‘dynamic’ pages A dynamic page could be database generated e.g. a forum, ecommerce-shop etc. This will have a query string on the end of it e.g. http://www.yourdynamicsite/page?id=15 The following code could provide a 301 redirect in the case of these dynamic pages: RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=15$ RewriteRule ^/thepage.php$ http://www.yourdynamicsite.com/thenewpagename.htm? [L,R=301]. Using mod_rewrite Apache web servers have a mod_rewrite engine (which should first be made active on the web server) that allows all manner of URL manipulation e.g. for the server (httpd.conf) and in directories (using a .htaccess file). This is powerful and flexible way for administrators to e.g. to provide 301 re-directs. The Reality Although the server side .htaccess file method is the safest and generally best way to use 301 redirects and ensure that your website doesn’t lose precious ranking, momentum and PageRank™, it’s only natural to expect some temporary disruption bearing in mind the complicated and interconnected nature of the web. As mentioned earlier in this article, it may even take a couple of months in many cases for the search engine robots to get a full picture of the site and its incoming links after the introduction of the 301 redirects. This is infinitely better however than losing all PageRank™ and getting on the wrong side of the search engines which could result from other methods. Want more Tips? Visit http://www.mklink.com/getstarted/ ’till Next Time, Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips Comment: Hi Mike It didn’t work but I discovered why.  You said add this ‘Redirect 301 /old/directory/youroldpage.htm http://www.yoursite/thenewpage.htm’ which didn’t work but I found another site that said add this ‘Redirect 301 /youroldpage.htm http://www.yoursite/thenewpage.htm’ which does work…at least for mine.  It seems it does not need the directory if the files are on the root, just the file name. Hope this is helpful Sally