This add on will allow you to search your keywords and see the number of searches performed for that specific key word or phrase. IT will also keep track of the number of times you have used a specific keyword in your post. This is a great keyword research tool that will allow you to perform a real time keyword analysis while you are writing.

To use the add on just open the extension from your Firefox browser. You can now perform a keyword search and get immediate results displayed about real time searches for your keywords. It will display a list of suggested keywords and phrases that you can then add to your list. It will then automatically track the use of your keywords and phrases as you type.

In addition, the Wordtracker Academy on their website has many articles related to optimizing your content for the search engines. It is a great source of information for you to get your site ranking higher in search results and getting a boost in traffic.

Check it out and give their free tool a try. Keep in mind that this is a Firefox browser Add-on, so you will need to use Firefox as your browser.

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This is my solution.

Here’s a working example to check out: Contact PIR Tactical

To make this work we will be modifying the contacts.xml layout file to get the static block and then creating the static block under cms – static blocks in the admin.

Edit Magento Layout XML File

First, open the contacts.xml file located in app/design/frontend/default/YourTheme/layout/contacts.xml I have been adding a cms static block named “contact-info” to the contact page layout so it appears above the contact form.

<reference name="content">
   <block type="cms/block" name="contact-info">
      <action method="setBlockId"><block_id>contact-info</block_id></action>
   </block>
</reference>

Save the new contacts.xml file and upload to your server.

Add CMS Static Block

Now log into your Magento Admin and go to CMS – Static Blocks. Choose “Add New Block” Name the block “Contact Info” and set the identifier to “contact-info” and then enable the block. You can now enter any html you wish to your contact page above the contact form. No reason you can’t add more information below the form using the same technique.

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Typically, the earlier a site is listed in search results, or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit the site. SEO can also target different kinds of searches, including an image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

How does it work?

SEO employs a variety of techniques, mostly geared towards determining how search algorithms work and the type of searches being conducted. Site attributes like coding, content, and structure all play a role in impacting SEO.

What does SEO involve?

The first concept one needs to understand is that Google is capable of closely monitoring the SEO activity of millions of websites, and the framework and rules set forth by Google can both help and hurt a site.

Put simply, Google is remarkably intelligent, and as a result there are no shortcuts in content-based, non-pay-per-click SEO. There are no quick and underhanded ways to instantly make a site leap to the first listing on the front page of a search overnight. There are no loopholes or exceptions, and even if by chance you’ve found one and take advantage of it, it’s only a matter of time before Google finds out and your site may be blacklisted.

Your Content is Important.

Unique and original content that is optimized and enhanced for SEO purposes is one of the most reliable and surefire ways to ensure that search engine robots will notice your site.

Factors such as structure of language, choice of copy, and even presentation are all taken into consideration. Thankfully, these qualities can be tweaked for your benefit while also making your site more generally appealing to users in the process.

Content Optimization

Over are the days when SEO was simply about loading up code with META tags. Now every facet of a site from title tags and images, to copy placement and text formatting have an impact on not just SEO, but also how you wish your site to be presented to both Google and web users.

Using heading tags to present your information will make your content easier to read for your visitors as well as the search engine spiders. This post is a good example of how to use them. It is a very good practice to get into while writing new content for your site.

Making sure your images have alt and title tags will not only allow image disabled browsers to read all of your content but will also allow search engines to read what the image is about, giving you an incremental boost to your search rankings.

Phrase and Keyword Optimization

A large portion of optimizing your content involves choosing the right keywords and phrases for your site. Keywords are essentially any words or phrases that user may search for that would draw them to your site. Due to the shear volume of available information and more internet users being familiar with search, the average length of search queries has become longer, increasing the importance of key phrases.

Keep in mind that keyword “stuffing”, or blatant overuse of keywords is easily recognized by the search engines and can end up penalizing your site. It is much better to write content that is for people to read and not the search engines. What will really make your site prosper in the long run is satisfied visitors. That should always be foremost in all considerations for your site.

Web pages should have at least 300 words of quality content, enriched with your keywords. Also try to include keywords in your title tags without making it look overly blatant.

Code Optimization

Google visits millions of sites when conducting its indexing process, and as such can overlook sites that take longer to load due to poorly coded pages that make your site a cluncker.

Standard HTML has a reputation for being dense and heavy, so a website’s code needs to be as light as possible since long loading times for the user translates to long loading times for Google.

The code of your website must also present the content in your pages to the search engines in a manner that helps them determine what is actually on your site. You can provide the search engines with a sitemap that gives them directions through your pages and instructions of how to read them. You can also tell the search engines that you have a sitemap and where to find it.

Your code should also be pulling page titles and descriptions for your meta tags directly from your page content or allow you to easily customize them if you choose. You can get an idea of what information is being presented to the web by opening your browser and clicking on “View Source”. You should be able to find your site title, description and keywords with no trouble on every page.

External SEO

Your ranking may increase in Yahoo and MSN with the techniques already outlined, but for Google, you will need links on your site, and as many of them as you possibly can. This is called external SEO, and it can make a huge difference for your online presence.

One way to do it is to write articles and arrange for them to be posted on other websites with a link back to you. Blogging is another example of how you can garner attention, both from the search engines and from potential customers.

This leads us to the toughest part of the Google SEO process — back links. Back links are websites that link directly to your website. The general principal is the more back links you have, the higher your pages will be ranked, as the consensus is your page is more important if so many links are pointing to it.

Submitting your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo! and other directories can increase the number of sites linking back to yours; however, one issue is that setting up back links takes time. One technique of getting other sites to link to yours is to write “linkbait” types of posts.

Linkbait is generally a compilation of gathered information that allows a reader to find in one location something that they would normally have to surf to many websites to get. They tend to link to these types of posts as a resource for their own website visitors.

Do It Right

There’s no room for slackers and cheats when it comes to Google. There is no easy way out, and no foolproof method for getting to the top ranking instantly.

Though many sites may try resorting to shady tactics such as “black hat SEO,” “spamdexing,” or keyword and link stuffing, these can actually harm search engine results, and Google may remove them from their indexes altogether. The bottom line is that Google wants quality websites where the appropriate amount of work has been devoted to SEO.

Give Google its fair due of credit for being an intelligent, well-crafted search engine tool and it will reward you with a higher ranking. There are rules and guidelines that have been set forth for achieving strong results, some of which can be bent, but ultimately sites looking for more traffic want to adhere to these mandates.

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The Benefits of Using RSS Feeds

RSS saves time. It’s as simple as that. The amount of information that I am able to follow using RSS feeds is astonishing. Suppose you have 50 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each website and blog everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to a website or blog, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 50 sites and blogs in one place, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours. Once I discovered using RSS feeds to follow content it quickly replaced my old way of bookmarking a site in my browser. Now all the new content from my bookmarks is automatically updated in one place for me to see every time I open my browser.

So What is it Exactly?

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Many people describe it as a ‘news feed’ that you subscribe to. There are many things you can do with RSS to make searching and organizing information easier. you can research specific information about a particular topic, keep up with your kid’s homework, track packages, find cheap airfares or follow e-Bay auctions and sales. You can search for jobs, get software updates and keep up with other people’s schedules. You subscribe to the feeds of sites that you want to appear in your reader. If you no longer want to follow a particular feed you simply remove it from your reader.

How to Use RSS

There are many feed readers available with a variety of approaches and features – however a good place to start is with a couple of free and easy to use web based ones like Google Reader and Bloglines. For heavier users, there are desktop, application-based readers that offer more features.

My current preference is to view my RSS feed subscriptions on my Google home page. You can do this with Yahoo, MSN and many others as well. Also most browsers allow you to choose a default feed reader for your subscriptions.

By far the easiest way to learn how to use your feed reader is to start subscribing to RSS feeds and viewing them in your reader.

Subscribing to RSS feeds

Look for the RSS Feed icon. There are many variations. Click it. You are subscribed to that feed.

There are a few places to look for an RSS Feed icon. If there is a feed available from the site you are currently viewing your browser will show an RSS icon in the address bar. You can subscribe by clicking that icon. Also many websites promote their feeds with icons and text links throughout their site and make them easy to find and subscribe to.

You now have fresh new content that you have chosen in your reader every time you open it. You can be subscribed to as many feeds as you like and can organize them into folders of related content as well. I have been subscribed to over 50 feeds at a time and continuously add and remove subscriptions to suit my needs.

Additional Resources

Lots of good info in the News Gator RSS Learning Center

Get the low down at Wikipedia

Still not sure? You can ask your questions by submitting a comment.

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Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF)

This is a very helpful guide for configuring the settings of your site. When making changes to your site, I would follow Google”s recommendations to the T. All the info in this guide is easy to understand and implement. Also make sure you start your SEO practices early on in the development of your site. It will save you lots of time in the long run.

If for any reason you feel like you would like help in the implementation of SEO best practices for your site I would be happy to assist you with the development of your content. Just get in touch.

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Bluehost.com.

I use Bluehost for many of my sites and they have been a very good provider and I am completely satisfied with their services. They currently have a “one click installation” script to get your Magento site running automatically. They have very affordable packages and lots of unlimited features that are standard. I highly recommend this hosting provider.

Hostmonster.com

300 Gigabytes of Hosting Space – Host UNLIMITED Domains on 1 account for no extra cost – 5000 Pop/Imap Email Accounts – SSH Access (Secure Shell) – 3,000 Gigs of Transfer – SSL, FTP, Stats, CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MYSQL, Front Page Extensions, Free Domain Forever, Free Site Builder, Free Search Engine Submission – Best Support in the Industry

Dreamhost.com

Dreamhost is an employee owned hosting company that has very competitive hosting services. You can run your Magento installation here.

NEXCESS.NET Web Hosting

NEXCESS.NET specializes in hosting Magento-driven websites on its shared and dedicated web hosting plans, and has now become a .Platinum Partner. with Magento, as of April 15th. NEXCESS.NET currently hosts more than fifty Magento installations on their shared and dedicated hosting service.

System Requirements

At the base level, Magento will require the following software:

• Supported Operating Systems:
  • Linux x86, x86-64
• Supported Web Servers:
  • Apache 1.3.x
  • Apache 2.0.x
  • Apache 2.2.x
• Supported Browsers:
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and above
  • Mozilla Firefox 2.0 and above
  • Apple Safari 2.x
  • Adobe Flash browser plug-in should be installed
• PHP Compatibility:
  • 5.2.0 and above
  • Required extensions:
    • PDO_MySQL
    • simplexml
    • mcrypt
    • hash
    • GD
    • DOM
    • iconv
  • Safe_mode off
  • Memory_limit 32M or more
• MySQL:
  • 4.1.20 or newer
  • InnoDB storage engine
• SSL:
  • If HTTPS is used to work in the admin, SSL certificate should be valid. Self-signed SSL certificates are not supported
• Server – hosting – setup:
  • Ability to run scheduled jobs (crontab) with PHP 5
  • Ability to override options in .htaccess files

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The features are so extensive I will not begin to try and list them here. The easiest way to learn about Magento is to visit their site.

What I see in the future is several Magento themes that I am developing as my learning process that will be available for download in a Magento store. I also plan on making myself available to develop your online storefront. Make sure to check back and get the latest update on my Magento status.

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I am a passionate photographer, nature lover, wild mushroom hunter, drummer, and love to learn and create. It is these passions that have led me to design and build web sites.

I currently use open source software for developing websites and have gravitated towards Wordpress as a Content Management System and Magento E Commerce for developing online retail stores. Both of these programs can deliver almost any type of website that you desire. My reasons for choosing these are many but at the top of the list are ease of use for my clients and the ability for myself to rapidly develop a great site.

I want to personally thank you for your visit to my corner of the web and taking the time to look around. This site has been a journey of learning, creativity, frustration and joy and is in continuous development. I hope someday I can look back and see that I have made a place that has served others, contains useful information and possibly share a bit of what I have learned about the online world.

Be well.

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