Monday, April 12, 2010

Understanding Alexa

For most casual internet users, Alexa probably isn't an interesting site to visit. After all, it looks like any other search engine on the net. However, for website administrators, SEOs and those who are simply wanting to know more about website rankings, it has become more than indispensable.

Because of this, the site has also become very important for web sites who want to reach higher in the rankings. In fact, this is the main feature that has made Alexa very popular. However, the newbie might feel a bit confused about the stats the the site churns out. And so, here's a quick guide in understanding how the whole thing works.

Probably the first question that would come to your mind is how Alexa ranks the pages. According to its homepage, Alexa ranks pages by determining how many people go through the site each day. The data for this one is gathered from that Alexa toolbar that users install on their browsers.

This data is then displayed as a traffic graph when requested on the site. The graph presents a period of your site's operation, showing your monthly performance. Note that the graph is periodic on a weekly basis, this is because internet traffic tends to change during weekdays and return to higher levels during the weekends. This mainly due to external things, like weekdays being allotted to work by internet users. However, by looking at the graph on a monthly basis, you will be able to see that trends that determine whether your site has increased in rankings or not.

Alexa also displays related information about the web site being monitored. Below the traffic graph, there is a table displaying the percent of use according to country. There is also a comparison between the site's overall global ranking and it's ranking on the country of origin. Also, Alexa provides internal rankings of the site's individual pages, so you can determine the most frequented sections. Commonly used keywords for the site is also provided, along with percentage of users. Finally, you will also notice that it also gives a quick overview of the site's average loading time, which is useful in determining how the site will load.

One main problem with Alexa, however, is that it uses an add on toolbar for data collection. This means that the rankings will depended on the number of actual Alexa toolbar users. Thus, in some case, you will come up to a site with a high Alexa rank but is rater lower on other search engines. And since there are no currently available data on how many people have the Alexa toolbar installed, there is no way to determine the accuracy of the data it generates.

This has lead many internet observers to issue a caution against relying too much on Alexa for rankings. However, it is still quite useful as a gauge in determining your site's relative strength. And in order to have a better picture of your site's actual performance, it would be a good idea to use it alongside other ranking systems for better comparison.

Save Time And Money Parking In London

Car parking in London is the most expensive, stressful and time-consuming in the entire world. If you are a commuter who regularly drives into London, you will already know this to be true, and may wonder what you can do about it. Apart from moving house and moving closer to public transport links or leaving your job for one which does not require the daily commute, you may feel there are no other options.

This is not the case. In recent years, forward-thinking individuals who have realised that London suffered from a chronic shortage of useable parking spaces also stumbled across a few other facts and came upon a solution. They realised that there were many Londoners who had the good fortune to have a parking space that came with their house or flat upon purchasing and yet did not have a car '“ so the space was either left empty or was used by neighbours who took advantage of the owner's naivety relishing the good fortune of not having to pay for car parking in London.

These entrepreneurs also realised that there were businesses, such as hotels, which had large car parks that were often not fully utilised and that these businesses might be open to generating a new revenue stream from the unused parking spaces.

The solution was to set up parking companies that managed and let these parking spaces, in order to offer commuters the option of signing up to long term parking in London. The benefits were to the owners as well as to the commuters.

The owners benefited from the new revenue, while the drivers could relax in the knowledge that they did not have to anxiously hunt around looking for parking in London and that their car would be safe and secure, thus saving them time every day. Additionally, they also benefited from the discounted rates available from making the commitment to long term parking in London, which saved them money. If you are the owner of an unused parking space or a harassed commuter looking for cheap parking in London, contact 247 Parking for the solution that will save you time and money.

Designing An Effective Sitemap

Designers typically create sitemaps to either function as an outline or index of an entire web site. All sitemaps should be structured similar to the actual web site structure. You should begin with your home page and build out from there with all of the pages linking to it. Be sure to link all of the major subsections plus your About Us page and privacy policy page from the home page.

Each subsequent page should be placed and categorized under that subsection in your sitemap as well. It is suggested to name the sitemap either sitemap.html or sitemap.php. These two names help the search engines recognize that the file is indeed a sitemap.

Automatic sitemap generates are available. A popular generator is XML-Sitemaps.com. It helps automate the process of producing a sitemap. It is free and easy-to-use. XML Sitemaps generates an HTML sitemap that you can place on your web site.

Benefits of having a Sitemap

* Easier navigation for site visitors
* Potential advertising value
* Encourage greater traffic to your site
* No page would be left unturned

A sitemap gives visitors a place to find what they are looking for without getting lost in the navigation on the web site. No matter how organized and well designed your site is, some visitors may find it hard finding exactly what they are looking for.

As your web site grows and you add new pages, be sure to add those pages to your sitemap. Search engines normally reward web sites with new and up-to-date content.

Additional information can be found in Search Engine Optimization by Kristopher B. Jones.

Hometown Of China's Plastic Shoes - Zhanjiang, Guangdong

Plastic shoes are traditional features of Zhanjiang exports, enjoy "hometown of Chinese plastic shoes", "southern Shoes City" reputation Wuchuan in Zhanjiang City, the national production of plastic shoes, one of three bases, at present the city has a shoe company 400 more than 20000 people in employment, an annual output of one billion pairs of plastic shoes, accounting for one-third of domestic production.

In recent years, local governments and the inspection and quarantine and other functional departments of the strong support, will Wuchuan footwear industries have been expanding exports, export of footwear production and processing enterprises has increased to 11, shoes export volume has increased steadily year by year, last year's export volume has reached 42.99 million pairs, the value of 23.51 million U.S. dollars, the products are exported to Europe, America, Asia, Africa market, the new city building and peasant incomes in rural areas made a positive contribution.

This year, by the global financial crisis, trade protectionism, as well as health and safety of consumers in developed countries pay more attention to factors such as the impact of Europe and the United States and other countries and regions, the requirements on imported footwear products increasingly stringent, and constantly demanding introduction of "green bar . "

For example, the EU announced in May this year, all exports to the EU products, the content of dimethyl fumarate should not exceed 0.1 mg / kg, while the substance is widely used in footwear and other textile products sterilization and anti-mildew treatment, but also require the exporter to containers or gas shall not contain any pungent smell, restricted substances, including methyl bromide, three hydrogen phosphate, etc. If the container has been found inconsistent with the provisions must be implemented degassing treatment, degassing very expensive.

Italian Ministry of Health issued ministerial decree calling for the use of the substance as an antiseptic product with the confiscation and testing; American Apparel and Footwear Association, also announced restrictions on its global list of substances, restricted substances, including formaldehyde, heavy metals, flame retardants, asbestos and so on. Of these countries introduced harsh "green threshold" seriously troubled by the city's exports of footwear products, leather shoes, the city some of the production companies since March of this year have ceased to export and European markets. <


Europe and the United States and other countries against imports of footwear products increased the threshold for city footwear export enterprises should attach great importance to take active measures across the foreign "green threshold."

Industry experts suggest the following aspects related enterprises should actively explore foreign markets firmly:
First, stick to European markets.
Although analysts believe that demand will shrink this year, Europe and the United States footwear more than 20%, and the U.S. dollar, euro depreciation and appreciation of the RMB exchange rate risk resulting from a larger, but the large proportion of European and American markets, companies in expanding in emerging markets, we can not give up on Europe and the United States market exports, should be more then a short list, so as not to lose customers.

Second is to strengthen the quality and safety footwear control system to enhance antifungal agents, desiccant security investigation, to ensure the safety of products exported.

Third, speed up product renewal, the creation of independent brands, to enhance coordination, lack of change in innovation, low prices, quantitative expansion of the dominant development model.

The fourth is to strengthen scientific research and development and collaboration, looking for banned material safety limit of alternatives, and actively communicate with foreign customers pay close attention to foreign officials of information.

Fifth, foreign trade departments and industry associations should take the initiative, and lead exports of footwear enterprises to actively participate in international exhibition, the establishment of footwear exports European and American business platform. 6 is to continue to consolidate the African and Asian markets, while actively developing Russia, the Middle East, South America and other markets to reduce the risk of total exports.

Facebook Marketing Secrets

In the last few years there has been a rise in the number of social networking sites aimed at different groups of intent users. It is easy to keep in touch with your old friends as well as your relatives and you will also be able to make new friends as well as meet new people. Facebook is a social networking website where you will be able to interact with other people online. What started out as a friendship facility has quickly grown beyond this into something that businesses use in addition to internet marketers.

With Facebook, you will definitely be able to effectively market your website. The site today has over 60 million active subscribers and is continuing to grow every day. So, here are some tips that can help you use this phenomenal site to market your products and services for free.

The first tip is that you need to make a great profile because with a great profile, you will be able to attract more people to view it. You have to remember that this is a social networking website where you will need to make friends and build relationships. If you already know someone who uses Facebook, add them and try to get them to promote the products or services you offer. You can also join groups or create your own group. You can try joining groups for coaches, wealth building and marketing experts.

You can customize your profile in order to make it unique and attract your target audience and you can also post blogs and even syndicate your blog page using RSS. Also, you will be able to reach out to more people as well as get a niche market for your products and services. In internet marketing, getting targeted traffic is the key to success and on Facebook this becomes much easier. Through these tips, you will see that you will be able to increase traffic and get more businesses.