Top 10 JavaScript Best Practices for newer

1. Use === Instead of ==

JavaScript utilizes two different kinds of equality operators: === | !== and == | != It is considered best practice to always use the former set when comparing.

"If two operands are of the same type and value, then === produces true and !== produces false." - JavaScript: The Good Parts

However, when working with == and !=, you'll run into issues when working with different types. In these cases, they'll try to coerce the values, unsuccessfully.

2. Eval = Bad

For those unfamiliar, the "eval" function gives us access to JavaScript's compiler. Essentially, we can execute a string's result by passing it as a parameter of "eval".

Not only will this decrease your script's performance substantially, but it also poses a huge security risk because it grants far too much power to the passed in text. Avoid it!

3. Don't Use Short-Hand

Technically, you can get away with omitting most curly braces and semi-colons. Most browsers will correctly interpret the following:

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1. if(someVariableExists) 
2.    x = false

if(someVariableExists)
x = false

However, consider this:

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1. if(someVariableExists) 
2.    x = false
3.    anotherFunctionCall(); 

if(someVariableExists)
x = false
anotherFunctionCall();

One might think that the code above would be equivalent to:

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1. if(someVariableExists) { 
2.    x = false; 
3.    anotherFunctionCall(); 
4. } 

if(someVariableExists) {
x = false;
anotherFunctionCall();
}

Unfortunately, he'd be wrong. In reality, it means:

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1. if(someVariableExists) { 
2.    x = false; 
3. } 
4. anotherFunctionCall(); 

if(someVariableExists) {
x = false;
}
anotherFunctionCall();

As you'll notice, the indentation mimics the functionality of the curly brace. Needless to say, this is a terrible practice that should be avoided at all costs. The only time that curly braces should be omitted is with one-liners, and even this is a highly debated topic.

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1. if(2 + 2 === 4) return 'nicely done'; 

if(2 + 2 === 4) return 'nicely done';

Always Consider the Future

What if, at a later date, you need to add more commands to this if statement. In order to do so, you would need to rewrite this block of code. Bottom line - tread with caution when omitting.

4. Utilize JS Lint

JSLint is a debugger written by Douglas Crockford. Simply paste in your script, and it'll quickly scan for any noticeable issues and errors in your code.

"JSLint takes a JavaScript source and scans it. If it finds a problem, it returns a message describing the problem and an approximate location within the source. The problem is not necessarily a syntax error, although it often is. JSLint looks at some style conventions as well as structural problems. It does not prove that your program is correct. It just provides another set of eyes to help spot problems."
- JSLint Documentation

Before signing off on a script, run it through JSLint just to be sure that you haven't made any mindless mistakes.

5. Place Scripts at the Bottom of Your Page

This tip has already been recommended in the previous article in this series. As it's highly appropriate though, I'll paste in the information.

Remember -- the primary goal is to make the page load as quickly as possible for the user. When loading a script, the browser can't continue on until the entire file has been loaded. Thus, the user will have to wait longer before noticing any progress.

If you have JS files whose only purpose is to add functionality -- for example, after a button is clicked -- go ahead and place those files at the bottom, just before the closing body tag. This is absolutely a best practice.

Better

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1. <p>And now you know my favorite kinds of corn. </p>
2. <script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/file.js"></script>
3. <script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/anotherFile.js"></script>
4. </body>
5. </html>

<p>And now you know my favorite kinds of corn. </p>
<script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/file.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/anotherFile.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

6. Declare Variables Outside of the For Statement

When executing lengthy "for" statements, don't make the engine work any harder than it must. For example:

Bad

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1. for(var i = 0; i < someArray.length; i++) { 
2. var container = document.getElementById('container'); 
3.    container.innerHtml += 'my number: ' + i; 
4.    console.log(i); 
5. } 

for(var i = 0; i < someArray.length; i++) {
var container = document.getElementById('container');
container.innerHtml += 'my number: ' + i;
console.log(i);
}

Notice how we must determine the length of the array for each iteration, and how we traverse the dom to find the "container" element each time -- highly inefficient!

Better

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1. var container = document.getElementById('container'); 
2. for(var i = 0, len = someArray.length; i < len;  i++) { 
3.    container.innerHtml += 'my number: ' + i; 
4.    console.log(i); 
5. } 

var container = document.getElementById('container');
for(var i = 0, len = someArray.length; i < len;i++) {
container.innerHtml += 'my number: ' + i;
console.log(i);
}

Bonus points to the person who leaves a comment showing us how we can further improve the code block above.

7. The Fastest Way to Build a String

Don't always reach for your handy-dandy "for" statement when you need to loop through an array or object. Be creative and find the quickest solution for the job at hand.

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1. var arr = ['item 1', 'item 2', 'item 3', ...]; 
2. var list = '<ul><li>' + arr.join('</li><li>') + '</li></ul>'; 

var arr = ['item 1', 'item 2', 'item 3', ...];
var list = '<ul><li>' + arr.join('</li><li>') + '</li></ul>';

I won’t bore you with benchmarks; you’ll just have to believe me (or test for yourself) - this is by far the fastest method!

Using native methods (like join()), regardless of what’s going on behind the abstraction layer, is usually much faster than any non-native alternative.
- James Padolsey, james.padolsey.com

8. Reduce Globals

"By reducing your global footprint to a single name, you significantly reduce the chance of bad interactions with other applications, widgets, or libraries."
- Douglas Crockford

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1. var name = 'Jeffrey'; 
2. var lastName = 'Way'; 
4. function doSomething() {...} 
6. console.log(name); // Jeffrey -- or window.name

var name = 'Jeffrey';
var lastName = 'Way';

function doSomething() {...}

console.log(name); // Jeffrey -- or window.name

Better

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1. var DudeNameSpace = { 
2.    name : 'Jeffrey', 
3.    lastName : 'Way', 
4.    doSomething : function() {...} 
5. } 
6. console.log(DudeNameSpace.name); // Jeffrey

var DudeNameSpace = {
name : 'Jeffrey',
lastName : 'Way',
doSomething : function() {...}
}
console.log(DudeNameSpace.name); // Jeffrey

Notice how we've "reduced our footprint" to just the ridiculously named "DudeNameSpace" object.

9. Comment Your Code

It might seem unnecessary at first, but trust me, you WANT to comment your code as best as possible. What happens when you return to the project months later, only to find that you can't easily remember what your line of thinking was. Or, what if one of your colleagues needs to revise your code? Always, always comment important sections of your code.

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1. // Cycle through array and echo out each name.
2. for(var i = 0, len = array.length; i < len; i++) { 
3.    console.log(array[i]); 
4. } 

// Cycle through array and echo out each name. 
for(var i = 0, len = array.length; i < len; i++) {
console.log(array[i]);
}

10. Embrace Progressive Enhancement

Always compensate for when JavaScript is disabled. It might be tempting to think, "The majority of my viewers have JavaScript enabled, so I won't worry about it." However, this would be a huge mistake.

Have you taken a moment to view your beautiful slider with JavaScript turned off? (Download the Web Developer Toolbar for an easy way to do so.) It might break your site completely. As a rule of thumb, design your site assuming that JavaScript will be disabled. Then, once you've done so, begin to progressively enhance your layout!

Posted in: SEO-Webmaster| Tags: Type Javascript Best Pracitce Eval js Function value quot blockquote practice coerce equality

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Something You’d Better NOT To Do With Your Business Blog

This morning, and I mean really early morning, I went about my weekly perusal of about 50 or so SEO and SEM blogs. For the most part this is a very informative and satisfying experience. However, there are a few barriers to blog reader experience that I feel especially obligated to point out. These observations are relevant for any business blog:

    * Don’t make readers register or login to make a comment. What, you’re too lazy to manage all the comment spam? Or install a better spam filter? You’re lucky to get people to your blog in the first place. Why make it inconvenient to interact?

    * Please don’t publish content in PDF of MS Word format that would be just as fine as a web page. I hear you saying, what? Yes, there are a few blogs out there that post using a blog content management system, but publish longer articles, white papers, etc in other formats. At least warn readers before they click on the link.

    * Why oh why must so many blogs make it difficult to subscribe? Get an RSS button up above the fold. Add your RSS url to an auto discovery tag in the head template. If you really want to capture extra readers, add an RSS to email option like the one offered at Feedblitz.

    * Putting a lot of contextual ads (especially un-customized ads) on top or within the posts is just plain ugly and inconvenient for the reader. Seeing those ads instantly drops credibility for the blog and makes it look desperate.

    * If you are gracious enough to allow readers to make comments, perhaps responding to a few might be a thought? For those blogs that get a lot of comments, this can be difficult. Especially if you’re busy doing your regular job and don’t have a lot of time to spend on the blog all day. However, getting comments is one of the best signals of how well your content is resonating with readers. Most blog software will ping you an email when comments are made, so there’s no excuse not to make an appearance.

    * Who the hell are you? I can see if someone’s posting about their sexual exploits or trials and tribulations of pschosis being anonymous, but why does a SEO blog need to be written by Mr or Ms “X”? OK, in-house SEOs for monster corporations and some black hats have somewhat of an excuse. But at least present a persona. Otherwise, there’s no context for where the content is coming from. It might be getting scraped for all your readers know.

    * Not publishing the date or the name of the author of the blog post is one of my pet peeves. I like to know the post is current and I always like to know who (real or persona) has written the post. Otherwise, it looks like a trick to make the blog seem updated when it’s not.

    * You have such great content, why is it so difficult to find? Biggest offenses in this area are: No archives, no categories, no tags and no site search. C’mon people, this is easy stuff to implement and if you’re making it difficult for users to find your previous posts, chances are search engines aren’t having an easy time of it either. Just because it’s a blog doesn’t mean people are reading you every day and don’t need to see past posts. Show archives chronologically and by category. Offer related posts and recent posts. Give users multiple ways to find past content and you’ll increase repeat visitors as well as new visitors via search.

    * Along with being an anonymous personality, an anonymous and bland looking blog is about as memorable as a paper bag. Copycat minimalism and tempaltes may have worked in the early days of blogging, but with over 92 million blogs tracked by Technorati, it helps to stand out. You can do that easiest with the name, header and tagline of the blog. Clever blog names are great, but be literal in your tagline. Also the URL. This one, I am very guilty of because our url is toprankblog.com, yet we call it “Online Marketing Blog”. Early on this discrepancy caused a lot of confusion for readers and potential linkers to the blog.

Posted in: SEO-Webmaster| Tags: Business Business Blog NOT To Do Suggestion something

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6 Tips for Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is a free service that provides a wealth of information directly from Google. Once you have verified a site with Google, they’ll give you access to all sorts of information.

Here are just a few features of Google Webmaster Tools:

1. Errors
Google Webmaster Tools will show all sorts of errors with a site. Not only does it show broken links on the site, but also links that are driving traffic to the site for which there is no valid page. Google even tells you pages it knows about but has been restricted from crawling. That’s good to know incase someone accidently blocks to much.
Google Webmaster Tools Error Report

Google Webmaster Tools Error Report

2. Set Site Defaults
Tell Google to show your page with the www or without, set a geographic target and select if you want the images show up in Google’s enhanced image search; aka Google Image Labeler.
Google Webmaster Tools Site Defaults

Google Webmaster Tools Site Defaults

3. Analyze Meta Descriptions and Title Tags
Google will provide a list of URLs that have duplicate title tags or duplicate meta descriptions as well as if there are pages with to short, or to long, meta descriptions or titles.
Google Webmaster Tools Analyzing Meta Data

Google Webmaster Tools Analyzing Meta Data

4. Top Search Queries
Ever wondered what people search for that your show up for? Outside of the obvious of course. This type of information is available in Google Webmaster Tools. It shows what a site is showing up for and what people are clicking though on along with your ranking. It can even be filtered by type of search (web, image, mobile) and by country.
Google Webmaster Tools Top Search Queries

Google Webmaster Tools Top Search Queries

5. Manage Sitelinks
If a site is lucky enough to get an additional block of links under their listing in Google, these can be managed in Google Webmaster Tools. You can’t tell Google what pages to add, but you can tell Google not to show a sitelink it has created.
Google Sitelinks

Google Sitelinks

6. Enhance 404 Error Pages
Google can provide a bit of JavaScript that can be embed on a 404 error page so that when it loads, Google will try to guess what the user was looking for based on what Google has indexed. It also comes with a handy Google site search box.
Google Webmaster Tools Enhanced 404 Error Pages

Google Webmaster Tools Enhanced 404 Error Pages

These are just a few of the features of Google Webmaster Tools. Google continues to add additional features and functionality and we can only hope other search engines follow suit.

Posted in: SEO-Webmaster| Tags: SEO Webmaster Internet Tip Google Google Webmaster Tools

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Hire a webmaster? Follow these rules:

A common frustration they tell me is they don’t have a handle on their website in part because they have a difficult time getting in touch with their webmaster, and have no idea how to update their sites on their own. Does this sound familiar to you?
First, make sure you have the keys to your website. You have to be in complete control of your website, even if you hire someone to do the design and upkeep.

This means you have to be the one that registers the domain name and establishes a hosting account.

Why?

Because that way you can fire your webmaster and hire somebody different without the pain and frustration of trying to pry your website files, usernames and passwords out of the fingers of the person you just fired. Transferring a website is not overly difficult, but there are typically downtimes and room for errors that you shouldn’t have to deal with.

I suggest that you register your domain name at my service, which is a private label of GoDaddy. But you should host your website somewhere else for cost/security/peace-of-mind reasons we don’t need to get into here.

I recommend Kiosk hosting for script-intensive websites, and Hostgator for basic blog and brochure type sites or mini-sites (be sure to snag their coupon code on the homepage). The simplest plan of either service is fine to start with, and scale up as your needs grow. If you need visual help in doing this step, check out my free First Website Tutorial site.

Second, you should get an understanding of the basics of website management. This means learning how to upload files, how to go in and make simple changes, and how to set up certain features of a website (like 404 error pages, email accounts, or simple file & folder name redirects).

You can learn how to do this in a couple hours from the videos Chris Morris and I made at DiscovercPanel.com for less money than 1 hour of your webmaster’s design and update time. You’ll be amazed at how simple these website management skills are, and how much you will likely be overcharged for them by a webmaster!

Third, you should make your first website a blog. Even if you don’t plan on doing any real ongoing updates, using the WordPress platform for your website makesit even easier to update the way your website looks without going to Geek School.

Personally, I prefer to use the blogging service Blogi360 to run my blog (think WordPress on steroids) because of it’s publishing power for extra traffic, tech support team already in place, and they fiddle with all the plugins and theme installs so I don’t have to. Whether you use basic WordPress or Blogi360, though, if you can use yourmouse and keyboard, you can update your website pretty easily. (See the free audio training at UnstoppableBlogging.com for strategies in this area).

Fourth, if you do hire a webmaster and/or designer, don’t hire someone solely based on cost. Check out their portfolio, communicate with their references, and be very specific about what your needs are and your timeline for completion. Remember, the phrase “You get what you pay for” is typically true when it comes to webmasters, although it’s also easy for you to be overcharged if you don’t have a clue about what you’re asking about.

Ultimately, you should spend your time doing what you do best - that’s where the real money is made in any business. But by knowing a few of the basics of website management, you can avoid being held hostage and feel confident that your website will be working for you and not against you.

Posted in: SEO-Webmaster| Tags: Webmaster Website Hire Tip time part service name frustration domain touch

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Promote: Top 10 Firefox Extensions for SEO

Firefox is an excellent tool for SEO. I can't imagine working without it. Here are the top 10 Firefox SEO extensions that I use every day:
Web Developer Toolbar

The Web Developer Toolbar has many indispensable features for both Web development and SEO. It allows you to easily manage cache, cookies, referrers, JavaScript, CSS, and much more. For example, you can disable CSS on a page with Ctrl-Shift-s. You can quickly disable cookies to see how a site changes with cookies off. You can show alt attribute text on the page. And much more... The Firefox Web Developer Toolbar is an essential tool.
User Agent Switcher

The User Agent Switcher Firefox extension allows you to visit Web sites as Googlebot. This is a great way to check for search engine cloaking
Search Status Firefox Extension

The Search Status Firefox extension shows you Google PageRank in the status bar. It also allows you to view rel=nofollow links on pages, like on the Wikipedia page shown in the image below.

Search Status and rel=nofollow

The following image shows the PageRank displayed in the status bar, as well as the many menu options available.

Search Status options
HTML Validator Extension (with HTML Tidy)

The HTML Validator extension shows you HTML errors when you view the source of a page, allowing you to quickly spot areas in the source that might present difficulties to search engines.

The following image shows the HTML validation errors on the Google home page. The highlighted lines indicate HTML errors or warnings. The bottom left box lists all of the problems, and the bottom right box offers documentation related to the HTML error.

HTML Validator extension for Firefox
Show IP Firefox Extension

The Show IP Firefox extension displays the IP address of Web sites in your Firefox status bar as shown in the image below. This is useful for checking to see if Web sites are being hosted on the same IP or same C-block.

Show IP Firefox Extension
Live HTTP Headers

The Live HTTP Headers extension lets you see the HTTP headers scroll by as pages load. Just use Alt-l to open and close the extension in the sidebar. This extension is essential.
X-Ray

The X-Ray extension displays HTML tags superimposed on top of Web pages while you are viewing them. It's an easy way to check for HTML headers and other elements as shown in the image below.

Firefox X-Ray extension
NoScript

The NoScript Firefox extension turns off JavaScript for all sites by default and lets your override that setting on a site-by-site basis. Since search engines generally don't surf with JavaScript, you can get a better idea of how sites look to search engines if you have JavaScript off. This extension is highly recommended. The image below shows JavaScript being blocked on a spam page that is probably about to use JavaScript to redirect.

NoScript Firefox Extension
Customize Google

The Customize Google extension puts links to other search engines on the Google SERPs so that you can quickly search Yahoo and MSN right from the Google SERPs. Screenshot below:

Customize Google Firefox extension
ScreenGrab

To take a screenshot of Web pages (e.g., for client reports), use the Screengrab extension. It allows you to capture an entire Web page even if it goes below the fold:

Take a screenshot of Web pages

If you are on GNU/Linux, there are many ways to take a screenshot.
Firefox Profiles

Firefox profiles are a great way to manage different extension profiles on one computer. You can set up Firefox so that you have one profile with one set of extensions (e.g., with NoScript and User Agent Switcher so that you can browse as Googlebot), and another profile for general browsing.

For more Firefox extensions, check out the article Best Firefox Extensions Revisited. For more about SEO, check out the Intro to Search Engine Optimization resource.

Posted in: SEO-Webmaster| Tags: SEO Webmaster Firefox Firefox Extension

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Back links: Article marketing's backbone

Article marketing can be an effective way to build your company's online presence. But to maximize its potential, remember to use Back links. Back links are also known as incoming links, inbound links or IBLs. Think of them as the reverse of hyper links: Hyper links take users from your site to another. Back links take users from another site back to yours.

Back links are links received by web directories and websites from other directories and websites. Search engines use them to determine a website's ranking. That is, when you enter a keyword into your favorite search engine, one way the search engine decides which site is at the top of its list is by the number of Back links it has.

Back links build on quality. If your website is a good one, people will start linking their sites to it. This of course builds traffic to your website and thereby builds your business. The trick is to build Back links to get the ball rolling.

There are good and bad ways to build Back links into your website. The best way is to get quality Back links from websites similar to yours. For example, if you are a financial advisor, ideally you'v like to get a Back links from another financial site. But how do you do that?

The most important factor to remember is that no one will back links to your site if it isn't any good. Spend the effort to make your efforts really shine.

One obvious way is to find a website that you like in a related field. Ask someone at that site to review your article and consider posting it. If it is quality work, it should be no problem for it to get posted when there is space available. After all, the webmaster there wants quality work on that site too.

One way is to get your article posted in an article directory or to a content exchange program that syndicates material. If your article is syndicated, such as in an RSS feed, your article is summarized on another site, with a Back links to your site. Visitors will then go to your site to get the full article.

Another technique to use is to publish a press release that happens to have a link to your website. When the press release is published, visitors will then use the Back links. However, be aware that press releases are intended to publish newsworthy events. If theres nothing newsworthy it will be ignored.

When you write a free article for web content, be sure to put a link to both the article itself and in the box at the end of it. This gives users two opportunities to link to your site, thereby creating a Back links opportunity.

It is important to note that when someone does back links to your site, make sure it is to something directly related to the subject discussed in the link article. For example, if the subject is banking, make sure the Back links goes to one of your articles on banking and not just your website. This will be of greater interest to the visitor.

If possible, offer a newsletter or another offer which will require the Back links user to register his or her email address with you. The whole point of article marketing and Back links is to drive visitors to your company and website. Don't lose a contact (and potential customer).

Remember that like anything worthwhile, building Back links will take time. It could take several months to get the word out about your article and your website. It sounds like a long time but in article marketing, as with any marketing, the time spent is worth it.

In each of these efforts, remember to refer to sites and directories that have high search engine rankings themselves. What better way to improve your ranking than to link yourself with another high-quality site?

While Back links are important to build interest in your article and website, it's important to use them correctly. Search engines have become quite adepts at scoping out poor Back links usage.

One of these involves link farms? Link farms are groups of several websites that have links to each other, solely with the intent of building their search engine rankings. Search engines frown on these because they do not offer the user real information.

In a nutshell, the best way to get quality Back links in article marketing or for your website is to use quality content and update it regularly. It may take extra effort but it is indeed worth it.

Posted in: SEO-Webmaster| Tags: SEO Webmaster Website Backlinks

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The importance of Backlinks, part 2/2

For example, if a webmaster has a website about how to rescue orphaned kittens, and received a backlink from another website about kittens, then that would be more relevant in a search engine's assessment than say a link from a site about car racing. The more relevant the site is that is linking back to your website, the better the quality of the backlink.

Search engines want websites to have a level playing field, and look for natural links built slowly over time. While it is fairly easy to manipulate links on a web page to try to achieve a higher ranking, it is a lot harder to influence a search engine with external backlinks from other websites. This is also a reason why backlinks factor in so highly into a search engine's algorithm. Lately, however, a search engine's criteria for quality inbound links has gotten even tougher, thanks to unscrupulous webmasters trying to achieve these inbound links by deceptive or sneaky techniques, such as with hidden links, or automatically generated pages whose sole purpose is to provide inbound links to websites. These pages are called link farms, and they are not only disregarded by search engines, but linking to a link farm could get your site banned entirely.

Another reason to achieve quality backlinks is to entice visitors to come to your website. You can't build a website, and then expect that people will find your website without pointing the way. You will probably have to get the word out there about your site. One way webmasters got the word out used to be through reciprocal linking. Let's talk about reciprocal linking for a moment.

There is much discussion in these last few months about reciprocal linking. In the last Google update, reciprocal links were one of the targets of the search engine's latest filter. Many webmasters had agreed upon reciprocal link exchanges, in order to boost their site's rankings with the sheer number of inbound links. In a link exchange, one webmaster places a link on his website that points to another webmasters website, and vice versa. Many of these links were simply not relevant, and were just discounted. So while the irrelevant inbound link was ignored, the outbound links still got counted, diluting the relevancy score of many websites. This caused a great many websites to drop off the Google map.

We must be careful with our reciprocal links. There is a Google patent in the works that will deal with not only the popularity of the sites being linked to, but also how trustworthy a site is that you link to from your own website. This will mean that you could get into trouble with the search engine just for linking to a bad apple. We could begin preparing for this future change in the search engine algorithm by being choosier with which we exchange links right now. By choosing only relevant sites to link with, and sites that don't have tons of outbound links on a page, or sites that don't practice black-hat SEO techniques, we will have a better chance that our reciprocal links won't be discounted.

Many webmasters have more than one website. Sometimes these websites are related, sometimes they are not. You have to also be careful about interlinking multiple websites on the same IP. If you own seven related websites, then a link to each of those websites on a page could hurt you, as it may look like to a search engine that you are trying to do something fishy. Many webmasters have tried to manipulate backlinks in this way; and too many links to sites with the same IP address is referred to as backlink bombing.

One thing is certain: interlinking sites doesn't help you from a search engine standpoint. The only reason you may want to interlink your sites in the first place might be to provide your visitors with extra resources to visit. In this case, it would probably be okay to provide visitors with a link to another of your websites, but try to keep many instances of linking to the same IP address to a bare minimum. One or two links on a page here and there probably won't hurt you.

Posted in: SEO-Webmaster| Tags: SEO Webmaster Backlinks Importance

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The Importance of Backlinks, Part 1/2

If you've read anything about or studied Search Engine Optimization, you've come across the term "backlink" at least once. For those of you new to SEO, you may be wondering what a backlink is, and why they are important. Backlinks have become so important to the scope of Search Engine Optimization, that they have become some of the main building blocks to good SEO. In this article, we will explain to you what a backlink is, why they are important, and what you can do to help gain them while avoiding getting into trouble with the Search Engines.

Getting more traffic to a website or blog at little or no cost is something everyone wants. Adding natural incoming links without having to reciprocate provides a major boost to your site’s Google PageRank and search engine rankings. I'm sure those are goals of yours. It is also a fact that people surf the Internet looking for information.

By combining those two ideas, you can increase your visitor traffic to your site, and gain additional new backlinks at the same time. One proven way to achieve that traffic is to write articles in your area of expertise. You not only gain potential new visitor traffic, to convert into paying customers, but you also become recognized as an expert in your field. Through archiving, the articles can also serve as added valuable content, on your own website.

There are literally hundreds of Internet magazines, called "e-zines" and Internet newsletters, who would love your article. They have literally millions of information hungry subscribers, waiting to read about your ideas. There are also many webmasters seeking fresh, keyword rich content to add to their websites. It's not as hard as you think.
What are "backlinks"? Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. Also knows as Inbound links (IBL's). The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or importance of that website. Backlinks are important for SEO because some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks, and consider those websites more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query.

When search engines calculate the relevance of a site to a keyword, they consider the number of QUALITY inbound links to that site. So we should not be satisfied with merely getting inbound links, it is the quality of the inbound link that matters.
A search engine considers the content of the sites to determine the QUALITY of a link. When inbound links to your site come from other sites, and those sites have content related to your site, these inbound links are considered more relevant to your site. If inbound links are found on sites with unrelated content, they are considered less relevant. The higher the relevance of inbound links, the greater their quality.

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