If you use Google Analytics you will be able to identify those bounce pages and rethink your search engine optimization strategies for those pages.

A bounce page is a page that a visitor arrives on and for whatever reasons, immediately leaves. Using Google analytics you can identify these pages quickly. To find which pages bounce, go to your Google Analytics area and The Google Analytics Landing Pages report (Content Section).

You can find more information through the Google Web Site Optimizer blog. To quote from the blog:

That’s why it’s so important to find, and fix, high-traffic landing pages that lose a high percentage of visitors. Look at the “Top Landing Pages” report within the Content section of Google Analytics. Pages that have both a high Bounce Rate (the percentage of visits that resulted in the visitor immediately leaving the site) and large number of Entrances need to be redesigned.

It can often be a simple matter of redefining your keywords. The Google blog provded an example where a searcher was looking for a ‘faucet’. When clicking on the number one result he landed on a page full of sinks - no faucets. So they left (bounced) straight away. This is effectively a waste of keyword use. If the search was through a paid Adsense link, it would have been a waste of money.

Checking on your bounce pages can help you refine your search engine optimization strategies to get the best results for your site.

(Source) At BlogWorld, an audience member asked me to share my #1 SEO recommendation for bloggers. Tough question, right? I told the audience that every blogger should sign up for Google Webmaster Tools.

Andy Beal’s advice is stellar. GoDaddy is one of the best web hosts online and no blogger should go one day without Google Webmaster Tools. The information you get as a part of Google Webmaster Tools is unquestionably the best you can get anywhere. You can manage your Google AdWords account, read the Google blog, add your sitemaps, report spam and paid links, check your gmail messages, and they have a host of other features as well.

And GoDaddy? What do they have to offer? That’s easy:

• Hosting plans starting at $3.99 per month
• 24/7 monitoring
• Firewalls
• Dedicated servers
• Up to 2,000 GB data transfer
• Up to 200 GB disk space

When it comes to webmaster tools for you small online business, Google and GoDaddy make a good team.

There are a lot of sites that make search engine optimization tools available to web owners. I often wonder how many of these tools are really needed and how many of them distract you away from what needs to be done.

I have seen web owners caught in a time loop, spending hours going through each and every tool that these sites offer, and one site I know of has 120+ search engine optimization tools. The problem is, you can be so caught up in checking on your web site, you don’t spend enough time working on it or promoting it.

Some tools do come in handy. However there needs to some commonsense in place when using these tools. Search engine optimization tools are really only useful if they provide information that you can directly work on.

Tools such as PageRank check, whilst the information may be handy, is not something that you can change (besides you can use a browser toolbar anyway). However, there are areas of your web site that affect PageRank. Any search engine optimization tools that help you improve those areas may be helpful.

Keyword position checks can be an important tool. If your keywords are not ranking well then you can work a little harder in that area. Another tool that is handy to use occasionally is a spider simulator. This tool will show you what the search spiders see. You can see whether or not your page breaks down at any point. If you have a piece of code that stops the spider seeing all of your page, then all your search engine optimization work will be for nothing.

There are so many search engine optimization tools available it would be hard to go through them all. There are keyword density checkers, link analyzers, page comparison checkers, and these are just a couple of them.

If you use search engine optimization tools then use them wisely, use them sparingly, most of all, use them as a guide to improving your web site. If they have no value for site improvement, don’t waste your valuable time chasing them.

Most webmasters will inadvertently break one of the search engines’ guidelines at some point. What should you do if you receive a notice that you have violated one of Google’s webmaster guidelines?

First, you should know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure. Be familiar with the guidelines before you start building your website. You don’t have to memorize them. That’s why they’re posted online for all to see. But as you are building your website, make a point from time to time to go back and visit the guidelines. Read them about once or twice a year to stay current.

Google’s webmaster guidelines are broken down into three key areas:

• Design and content
• Technical
• Quality

If you get a notice that you’ve violated any of Google’s guidelines, it will likely be in one of these three key areas. Google will be very specific about what it is you’ve done to violate their guidelines so pay attention to what your notice says and address that issue.

Your best bet is to fix what Google has said is wrong with your website right away. Do this as soon as possible. You don’t want lingering issues and the longer you allow a violation to sit the harder it will be to gain any rankings you might lose. If you address them soon enough you might not see any loss in rankings, PageRank, or other loss of benefits. Wait too long and you could lose ground against your competition that you’ll have to fight hard to get back.

After fixing the problem, log into your Google webmaster account and click on Request Reconsideration under the Tools tab. Google will re-evaluate your website to see that it meets the guidelines and if you’ve managed to do that then they will re-include you in the search listings and you can continue with your Search Engine Optimization efforts.