This is a follow-up to “Link-Juice And Pagerank“, posted at the start of last month.

Some ClubBloggers have gotten a little excited about geography.  And understandably so.

Why and how does the main Google site serve-up particular results for one user in the UK, one user in the US and one user in Italy?

Most of those who spend a lot of time on SEO will get this.  Others who don’t may struggle.  Those in the last bracket who have done a little work on the topic, and particularly those who’ve used AdWords, will get a little caught-up in obsessing about IP addresses.

However, whilst the IP address (which most of you know is one of the vertebrae in the backbone of the ‘net) does play a part, here (particularly with country-specific domains such as .co.uk), it is by far from being the only element. And you really do need to know more than that to properly optimize your blog/page.

Before we get to those other elements, let’s dwell a while longer on the top-level domain. In particularly, on “.com” domains.

Above, we mention the UK and Italy as geographic areas aside from the US. Well, quite a lot of people don’t realise that a “.com” domain hosted in the UK will typically be seen by Google as a UK site. Yes, you guessed it, a “.com” in Italy, an Italian site. This is despite the “.com” universal domain extension.

So, lesson number one here is that, depending on what geographical audience you wish to target, and this really is at the heart of top-level targeted traffic, then look to host locally to your audience.

Lesson number two is that the location of your inbound links (yes, we all know how much Google loves those) is also very important to the issue of geographical audience.  In a similar manner to “get hosted in the jurisdiction you wish to target”, you should get your link juice from the target geographical area.  Yes, it really does matter.

So, you say:  ”c’mon CB, my site’s international, not linked to UK, USA, Italy, Luxembourg”.  Well, fine.  A lot are (you’re not unusual:) ).  In that case, your links should be balanced, geographically.  Yes, it’s all about relevance, at least in the eyes of Google.  Is your site relevant to that Italian searcher?  Or that guy in London?

There are other lessons to learn whilst on the topic of geography, but we won’t obsess about those in detail, here.  They do, however, deserve a passing mention…..  We have seen some poor SEO operators advise on translation of a site into another language (e.g., you started in the US, you now want to target Turkey, too, and want a language-friendly Turkish site) but they forget translation of important elements like meta titles in the code, for example.  C’mon guys.  Get a grip.

We’ll come back to this overall topic again, as we’ve been asked to (and of course we always do what we’re told) but also mainly because it’s objectively really important.

Before dashing, we can’t over-estimate the importance of using Google’s Webmaster Tools properly.  Have a look and let us have your comments, thoughts, moanings if you have any.

The first rule of making a free business is, open source software: The open source community has been around for as long as closed source development and open source products are comparable, if not better quality in some cases. Name a bit of software your business needs and it’s very likely that an open source version is available, in some cases making a choice to use open source software can save you thousands of dollars in licensing for single programs.

The second rule to free business on the net is: Cheap web hosting! There is simply no need to maintain or buy dedicated or virtual hosting if no one knows your website is there. Open a cheap account with a high quality service provider like godaddy and they will be very glad to quickly and painlessly upgrade your hosting as and when you need additional power, storage and bandwidth. There is simply no need to pay for a vastly overpowered service before it’s needed. A few adverts will bring in enough revenue to pay for your website hosting, making it free!

The final step to free business on the net is: Free promotion! Google the term ‘SEO’ and check our SEO blog category on the left. There is a wealth of free information available on this topic, which will teach you exactly how to configure and write your website to be search engine optimized. Custom SEO services are expensive because they usually come with guaranteed results, but these results are within your reach given enough time and understanding of the topic.

If you follow these three simple rules, you’ll get your business online for almost zero cost. Website builders and promotions agencies might try to sell your expensive packages and hosting services, but remember these basic rules and you’ll be fine.

Make sure that you choose a good, quality web host. Web hosting companies are not all created equal neither do they all offer you the same benefits. When considering web hosting companies, you will want to take a close look at the following things: Affordability, their billing schedule, whether or not it is WordPress friendly, control panel ease-of-use, customer service and available bonuses.

Affordability is very important. You don’t want to have a lot of overhead costs. One of the advantages of doing business online is that you tend to have far less costs then you would, if you attempted start a brick and mortar business. You can generally find a good web host for between $4-$9 a month. Unless you are getting a great deal of traffic or you need a lot of space, you will not need to pay more than that.

Also, be sure to consider how many domain names a hosting company will allow you to have. Some web hosting companies will allow you to host unlimited domain names. This means that you can purchase a domain name somewhere else and point it to your webhost. This allows you to host a large number of web sites, all with different domain names, for one low-price. Typically, web hosting companies that allow this, charge more for domain names. Therefore, you may want to go somewhere else to purchase your domain names.

Consider the payment terms. If you don’t have an unlimited budget, you may want to choose a wet host that allows you to pay monthly. You will end up paying a little bit more over the long haul, however, it will allow you to host your website quicker because you won’t have to save up the money for an annual fee. .If money is not an issue, you may want to pay for your hosting annually. However, if you have cash flow issues, you may want to go with a web hosting company that allows you to pay monthly.

For individuals that use WordPress a great deal, they will want to choose a host that makes working with WordPress easy. Several hosts offer this.

You will be required to use a control panel. Most web hosting companies will allow you to look at their control panel before you join them. Make sure that you take advantage of this because you want to make sure that you are comfortable with the control panel.

Next, consider what bonuses are offered. Some web hosting companies will offer you things like a free press release from PR web or free Google and Yahoo advertisement credits. Make sure that you compare these because they can offer you a lot of value.

Lastly, make sure that any company that you do business with has excellent customer service. You should be able to contact them either by phone, e-mail or instant message and get a response in an appropriate amount of time. Before you agree to work with a company, try the customer service out. Call them on the phone, IM them or email them and see how fast their response is.

You also may find website template and then pay someone to add the text for you. You will need to write the articles and have all the text prepared. Then simply pay someone to make the changes for you. This will be a lot cheaper than having them build it from scratch.

You want to make sure that any web site template that you purchase or design is very clean looking. You don’t want it cluttered with tons of advertisements, texts and links. People will simply leave. They have a lot of other options. While it’s great to advertise, make sure that you do so strategically and in a way that doesn’t come across like you are simply trying to sell products. People want value. They don’t want to be bombarded with advertising and sales pitches.

Also insure that your site is easy to navigate and that your page links are clearly marked and hyperlinked. It is important that your website design is interesting visually. Use splashes of color, add videos, pictures and a nice header. You want it to look attractive and appealing, but again, not crowded.

Do not use automated content. I know some people create websites that consist solely of auto-generated content in hopes that someone will click on their Adsense links or purchase an affiliate product. This may have worked 3 years ago but not any longer. Consumers are much more savvy now. They are not going to spend time at a page with information that doesn’t make sense. They will simply press the back button. Therefore, take some time to either write articles yourself, pay someone to write them for you or use articles from article directories. However, do note that there is a chance that you could be penalized for duplicate content. You also run the risk people leaving your web site and going to the web site listed in the resource box of article that you use. This is because you are required to keep the resource box intact. Keep this in mind when you are considering what type of content to use.

1. Create your own backups for your websites and databases:

A lot of online business owners over look this point. They don’t find it necessary to take backups. They think that it is the job of the web hosting company to provide back up services and that it is their duty to be able to restore files with ease. Well, it is partly right to think in that way. However, what happens if on a particular day, if something goes wrong from the web hosting companies end?

What if due to some major server issues, the web hosting companies may not be in a position to restore your file? Who is to be blamed in such a situation? Are they truly accountable for this unwanted event? What if you would have your own back up, whereby you could have solved this issue from your end? It is important to also have your own website backups for tackling emergency issues. Also, databases are considered to be key components to keep many types of sites running. For example: blogs, forums, ecommerce, software etc.

Backups can also be done on a periodic basis from within your control panel or by using low cost software that makes the entire process automated. You can simply download the concerned backups to your hard drive. You can also create many copies and keep those backups in a place which is safe enough.

1. Use a multiple web hosting service:

We are all aware of the famous saying; “Never put all your eggs in one basket” This above statement is applicable to your online business. It is unsafe to use just one web hosting company for your web hosting, domain register or other services that are a critical piece of your business, you will then mess your business in return. I don’t think you want to take that chance, isn’t it? You must be aware of the consequences which can take place in case something happen to that one website service which you are entirely depending upon. Just check if it’s the right option to have one or more web hosting plans for your online business.

1. Have your business documented :

It is wise to document every aspect of your business. If something unfortunate happens to you, then you can get your business rolling through some other person who can refer the documented business method and run the business smoothly in your absence.

1. Entrust your outsourced work to multiple outsourced workers:

If you outsource your entire business work to just one vendor, then there is danger of providing too much information about how your business operates. Avoid having just one outsourced worker. Always, compartmentalize the entire portion of your business work and distribute it to multiple outsourced workers. By using the strategy, you are preventing a particular person to know exactly how your entire business works.

Following are the generic features of image hosting sites:

1. There is a limit to the size of each image that one can upload.

2. Often there are options of multiple uploads upload at one time when the image hosting site uses a FTP server.

3. Most image hosting websites give options to edit images and view those in slideshows.

4. The user can add descriptions to the images and personalize those. The description may include keywords that can be optimized by search engines.

5. Image hosting websites also provide you with options to link your images to other websites using HTML codes, BBcode etc.

6. There are also options where one can directly upload images from camera and camera phones to the website.

How does image hosting generate revenue?

Since most of the image-hosting websites are for free, one may wonder how does it run? These websites run on advertisements displayed at the top of the page. Showing advertisement to the users help the website owner generate revenue to help buy better and bigger server space to host more images. Many websites offer specialized services like password-protected images, customizable skins and subdomains for which they may charge minimal yearly subscription fees. However mostly the cost of buying and maintaining a web space is generally is generally quite less and can be easily generated through advertisements.

Often image hosting websites also connect the users to stock photography sites where amateur or professional photographers are paid for their images if their photographs get published.

With various online business options being available, image hosting is something that many are opting for – mainly because it is easy to manage and hardly requires any technical expertise or initial investment. The demand for a web space where people can upload and share their images will always be there. So image hosting will probably never go out of business as digital revolution takes over the world. If the host can generate enough users for their image hosting website then relevant advertisements for digital cameras, scanners will also be readily available. Advertisements will ensure a steady source of income.

Know about Web Hosting:

Web hosting functions the same way as image hosting websites. Again revenue is mostly generated through online advertisements. The trick is getting enough users to sign up for your web space. Some web space ideas could be opening some portal like Facebook, news portal or blogs.