Blink Source

Google PageRank and Alexa Traffic Rank are seen as two separate measures of your website success. Basically, the PageRank determines the number and quality of sites linking back to you, while the Traffic Rank measures the amount of traffic your website receives. But the question that many are concerned about is, “Is there a correlation between the two?”

Let us use two websites as our example: CSS Zen Garden and Mail.ru. The first site focus on CSS programming, it has a PR of 8 and a traffic rank of 13,000+. Meanwhile, the Mail.ru site is an incredibly popular portal for Russians. It has a PR of 6 but it ranked 23rd in Alexa. Can traffic affect the popularity of your links?

Although Mail.ru is a very famous portal, the CSS Zen Garden was given a higher PR because it has more quality links. Take a closer look at the CSS Zen Garden site; because it is geared toward a specific niche, the niche is more likely to provide direct links. The Mail.ru site, while being more popular, is geared towards users who want to get free videos, email, news, chat, etc. so they are less likely to give links.

The difference between the real popularity of the portal and the number of relevant links pointing to it needs statistical data to prove the correlation. It would be an “abnormal” situation if a site that has millions of visitors has a PR of 0. Interest in this correlation may be stemmed from Google’s decision to drop major blog’s PR by 2. By looking at how Alexa ranks websites, you will know what it is all about.

Google PR
The range of PR can be from PR0 to PR10. Google explains that “PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web”. Basically, Google interprets the site’s link structure to determine PR. More relevant votes come from major websites.

Alexa Traffic Rank
It can range from no rank – 10,000,000, 1,000,000, etc.
Alexa computes the ranking by looking at the usage of Alexa Toolbar users. The information is sifted, counted, and computed until the traffic rankings show. The process is quite complex but it generally determines your rankings based on traffic count.

Conclusion
Both metrics have its faults. PR, for example is dependent on Google’s decisions while the Alexa traffic rank is giving you the “whole” picture based on people that use its toolbars only. But there is definitely a strong relationship between the two simply because there is a great statistical chance that a percentage of visitors will link to a website they know about. Likewise, the number of links will increase your traffic count and increase your Alexa traffic ranking.

As any web owner knows, SEO is an essential part in running an online business. Web masters go to great lengths to improve their search engine rankings and attract traffic. Unfortunately, the resources available over the internet are not always accurate. And many times, the tips and tricks behind SEO have been rehashed many times over. If you’re sick of reading the same thing every time you search for the latest trends, read on. We listed the top 5 advanced SEO tactics for you:

1. Article Syndication
   It’s no secret that distributing content to major article directories is not only a good SEO technique, it is a good way to get quality traffic as well. The backlinks pointing to your website are relevant and can increase your conversion rate. EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, and ArticleCity.com are some of the best out there.
2. SpyFu
   Spying on the competitors is a popular offline business tactic but it can be applied online as well. SpyFu enables you to get in-depth knowledge about competing websites for free. Don’t take this tool for granted because it lets you “cheat” your way to success.
3. Link Internally
   Internal linking is essential for SEO. Use relevant keywords in your link structure, it will give your ranking a boost. This tactic will also increase the link popularity of some web pages. Remember that search engines don’t rank by website, it ranks by web page.
4. ROR Sitemaps
   Sitemaps get your site indexed properly. However, search engines have highly specific sitemaps so there are Google, Yahoo, and Ask sitemaps all over the internet. There is great alternative, the ROR sitemap. It uses XML feeds to describe your website and it is readable by major search engines.
5. Content and More Content
   Content definitely still reigns supreme when it comes to SEO. It brings the bread and butter for a lot of webmasters. Even if you discover a lot of effective SEO techniques, never turn your back on content creation.

The popularity of the internet has completely changed the business landscape. Small and medium scale businesses now have a chance to compete effectively against large corporations. However, this opportunity cannot be explored if a web master does not know how to properly market his online business. After you have registered your domain name and selected a host, the next step towards building a highly marketable website is conceptualizing the right design.

This is probably the most important aspect in your online business because your web design will have a large impact on the visitor’s impression of you. Remember that for the majority of customers, your website is their first point of contact with your business. First impression lasts. And in the highly competitive field of online businesses, this saying couldn’t be truer. Your visitors have the option of selecting another product/service provider in an instant if your design doesn’t look professional.

In order to give your visitors a positive experience, look into the following aspects:

• Graphic Design – your website should look attractive. It should be aesthetically pleasing with the customer’s viewpoint in mind.
• Color Scheme – understand the power of color. Your website’s color scheme can make or break your business. Colors should blend together in harmonious synchrony. It should have a subtle balance that gives the viewer a sense of order and professionalism.
• Simplicity – while grabbing the visitor’s attention is important, simplicity is even more essential. It is important for viewers not to feel overwhelmed when they initially look at your website. If you fill it up with scrolling texts, flash animations, and trendy images, it will lessen your chance to communicate your real message.
• Consistency – site layout and design needs to be consistent all throughout the web pages. Inconsistencies will force visitors to spend extra time figuring out how your website is structured. Make your visitors comfortable and you will earn their loyalty.
• Harmony – a unified web design fosters a sense of belonging. Everything from the color, text, graphics, and layout should correlate with one another.
• Balance – each item on your web page has a certain visual “weight”. Because of this, every item on the site should be arranged in a balanced and pleasing manner. Otherwise, it will give the visitor a sense of apprehension and you certainly don’t want that to happen.

No one can deny the popularity of social networking sites. There are countless ones out there from general sites such as Facebook to small niche networks that specifically focus on businesses and professionals. These sites can help you gain the necessary exposure by helping you network with employers and other like-minded individuals. Below are some of the top networking sites you should consider if you run a small business:

LinkedIn
This is apparently the leading social networking site for professionals. Many members put their resumes on their profile to outline their qualifications. The popularity of LinkedIn is further enhanced because recruiters are starting to use this tool to find qualified professionals.

PartnerUp
This site is created to help small businesses find venture partners, board members, and co-founders. You can post the type of opportunity you offer or search the offerings from other businessmen. PartnerUp also has Ask a Question and forum features to make communication easier.

Ryze
Although Ryze has been around for some time, it is not as popular as LinkedIn or PartnerUp. But in this site, you can get a profile that is easily customized, join groups, leave messages, and find like-minded individuals.

Konnects
This social networking site is geared for professionals. They have a profile page, you can join communities, and generally network with other members on the site.

Biznik
With the tagline “Business networking that doesn’t suck”, Biznik will definitely grab a person’s attention. The site is aimed at small business owners and start-up entrepreneurs. There are several communities for major cities within the United States.

Cofoundr
A private social community for small business owners, Cofoundr aims to help its members find business partners and build teams.

Fast Pitch
This is one of the fastest growing networking sites aimed at professionals. You can easily set up a profile and start networking.

Upspring
The main aim of this site is to increase business exposure. Members can get their profile page, join communities, and network in this site for free. Premium options are likewise available to help you attract more customers.

StartupNation
Mainly a community site, StartupNation also has networking capabilities. The forums here are very active with different topics being discussed simultaneously.

Xing
Its database has a large number of professionals. The features of Xing are basically the same as that of other social networking sites.

Do your homework.

The first step towards hiring a web design team is for you to know what features for the site you want created. Remember that the best websites are usually centered on providing quality products, services, and information. The best websites don’t rely on technologically advanced features to get their point across. There is no need to employ flash animations, glittering fonts, or blinking images to attract relevant customers. In fact, using these over-the-top tactics might just turn them off.

To encourage people to visit your site a second time, make them feel as if you understand their needs. The main purpose of a website is to present your business in a highly efficient and attractive manner. So before you hire a web designer, identify which site you want to create. You can even build more than a single website to keep each one of them relevant:

• Informational – similar to a good marketing brochure, this type of site should offer solutions to client’s problems. You can cite the features and benefits your business can offer to the clients.
• Interactive websites – static websites are a mainstay in today’s online environment. But creating a more interactive website will prove to have some benefits. Interactivity should be straightforward and simple while letting your visitors have fun at the same time.
• Up-to-Date news website – if you’re in a business industry where having the latest information is important, use the upper portion of your website as the “featured news” area. It should provide invaluable news and knowledge to your customers.
• “Cyber mirror” – if you already have an established offline business, you most likely already have relevant marketing materials. Translating this resource to an online interface is probably one of the easiest tasks in web design. You should only be careful about the site layout and additional items that might be integrated on the web page.

I have always been a huge fan of blogs and using them as a business tool. After today, I love them even more. Yesterday I created a blog post titled “5 Quick Tips to Improve Your Search Rankings“. Less than 30 minutes after posting, I happened to come across the post in Google already. Wow, Google is fast when it comes to blogs and indexing pages.

Lesson learned from the #4 tip in the previous post of keeping your site updated. Get yourself a blog and make sure you use it!

UPDATE: After writing this post, it was indexed in Google within 13 minutes of publishing.

Today I was working on a site that has been around for years and hasn’t had much luck with ranking well in the search engines. The company hadn’t spent any time optimizing there site for the best chance to get decent rankings, and as a result, they were getting very little traffic from Google, MSN, or Yahoo.

This got me thinking of how often I see this and how spending a little time improving your site for SEO can bring you a lot of new traffic. Here are 5 quick tips to help make sure your site is ready for search engines.

1. Title Tags
Make sure that the keywords you are targeting are in your title tags (but not every keyword as it will decrease click through rates and search engines only show a few words) I’ve seen too many page titles with just the company name which isn’t helping. Every page should have a unique title.

2. Have Good Content
Search engines love good content just as much as visitors do. Make sure your keywords are written in your content and that it is readable to the human eye as well.

3. Make Your Internal Links Count
When linking to your pages, make sure your internal links are using descriptive words. Instead of saying “click here” to read more. Make the link be descriptive such as “Vancouver web design“, etc.

4. Keep it Updated
Always be adding new and interesting content to your website. Fresh content will help improve your search rankings.

5. Get QUALITY Links
Links from other relevant sites play a huge role in your search rankings. Be careful though as links are all about quality over quantity. You need to get links from relevant sites linking to you. The more trustworthy the site, the higher quality the link is. Don’t bother signing up for those services that offer to give you 1000+ links in a month. They don’t work and could harm you as it tends to look like spam.

Welcome to the Blink Source blog. Our goal is to provide you and your business, sound advice, resources, and thoughts to help you in your web, graphics, and online marketing needs.

Please feel free to engage in the discussions by leaving comments, questions, or suggestions. We appreciate all feedback about our blog and hope that you will find it valuable.