SAPA

Sapa is a town in Lao Cai province, 400km Northwest of Hanoi. With a sub-temperate and sub-tropical climate, Sapa is pretty cool in summer with a temperature of 13-15^oC at night and of 20-25^oC during the day. In winter, being covered with fog, Sapa is very cold with the temperature sometimes dropping below 0^oC. Snow sometimes falls in Sapa. The town is famous for Tinh market (Love market) of mountainous ethnic people, nearly 100-year-old architectural works on the mountainside, mountain foods and many unique tourist spots such as Hoang Lien Son National Park, a 3,143m-high Fansipan Peak, which is branded “the roof the nation”, Ham Rong Mountain (Dragon’s jaw) with the climbing route with flowers blooming all year around, May Bridge, Bac Waterfall, Truc Forest (bamboo forest), Ta Phin cave and Cat Cat village…

DIEN BIEN

Dien Bien is a mountainous province in Northwestern border, about 500 km from Hanoi. It has a mountainous tropical monsoon climate. Dien Bien is always associated with Dien Bien Phu victory, in which Vietnam’s army and people defeated French colonialists in 1954. At present, in Dien Bien there are still vestiges of a thousand-kilo explosive charge blowing up on A1 hill, relics of Command Post of Vietnam’s army and people in Muong Thanh valley, Dien Bien Phu Museum (displaying 274 objects and 122 pictures depicting Dien Bien Phu victory), and so on. Besides historical sites, Dien Bien also has many tourist spots such as Muong Luan tower, Hua Pe hot mineral stream with a regular temperature of 60^oC, and a man-made Pe Luong lake which is windy all year round and is a resort for ecological tourism and convalescence…

HA NOI

Hanoi is the capital of Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and is the headquarters of national politics, and administration, the large center for culture, education, economy and international transaction of the whole country. In 2000, Hanoi was recognized as City for Peace by UNESCO. The city is also regarded as one of the most beautiful cities of Asia. Hanoi has many lakes and green trees. Located near Hoan Kiem Lake (Sword Lake) are Hanoi Opera House, many French architecture villas and the 36-street old quarter where the old architectural style is preserved and souvenirs are sold. Coming to Hanoi, tourists can visit President Ho’s Mausoleum and Ho Chi Minh’s Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Temple of Literature, and so on. Besides, Hanoi also has many traditional handicraft villages such as Hang Bac Street with jewelry/silver making, Cot Village with paper making, Ngoc Ha flower village, Bat Trang Ceramic Village, and so on. Hanoi is also rich in culinary arts with the most famous dishes include Hanoi Pho (Hanoi noodle), La Vong grill fish, Vong village green rice flakes

HA LONG

Halong is the capital city of Quang Ninh province, which is 160km Northeast of Hanoi. Ha Long has a coastal tropical monsoon climate. Coming to Halong, tourists can have a chance to visit the World Heritage Halong Bay with a long coast line of nearly 20km. The total square of Halong Bay is 1,553 km². The bay consists of 1,969 islands of different size (The world-recognized region has an area of 434 km² with 775 islands and looks like a three-pointed triangle) Halong has many beautiful grottos including Me Cung, Tam Cung, Bo Nong, Dau Go, Hanh, Ham, Trinh Nu (Virgin), and so on. Among these, the most impressive one is grotto Sung Sot (Surprise), which Halong is endowed by Nature.

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Potential of Quangninh Province and Halong Bay

Potential for tourism development

Ha Long Bay has many favorable conditions for tourism development and currently offers various kinds of tourism, such as sightseeing, bathing, research and water sports. In the future Quang Ninh Tourism will develop new and attractive types of tourism and new resorts. It is forecast that Quang Ninh will become the biggest tourist destination in Vietnam by 2010.

Ha Long is a young city where urbanization and development in all socio-economic areas are occurring rapidly. These provide a solid basis for tourism development. At present, the City has 300 hotels between one and five star standard. These provide 4,500 rooms, which basically meet current tourist demands. However, recent years have seen an enormous growth in tourism and the growth of visitor volume to Ha Long Bay has been assessed as the fastest in Vietnam. In 1996, Ha Long Bay received only 236,000 arrivals but in 2003 the figure reached 1,306,919. It is forecast that Ha Long Bay will receive between 1.5 - 1.8 million visitors by 2005 and 2.5 - 3 million by 2010.

Potential for marine port and transport development

Ha Long is a protected bay, with smooth waters and light winds. In addition, it has a wide range of natural sea routes and low sedimentation, enabling the creation of large sea-ports such as Cai Lan (in Ha Long) and Cua Ong (in Cam Pha), Mui Chua, Van Gia and Nam Cau Trang. Cai Lan, the largest of these, is a deep-sea port, lying close to the Bai Chay ferry and National High Way No.18A, thus providing favorable conditions for the loading and transporting of commodities. Cai Lan is targeted for completion by 2010, and will be have 7 wharves with a carrying capacity of over 14 million tons, able to receive ships of up to 50,000tons.

Potential for marine resource development

The sea around Quang Ninh has a rich ecosystem with high bio-diversity value and has enormous potential for the exploitation of marine products. It has favorable natural conditions for both fishing and aqua-culture, such as: a good climate, a large tidal area, clean water, rich marine resources in both onshore and offshore fishing grounds, and a diverse species composition, for example grouper, shell, and all kinds of shrimps. The topography also makes aqua-culture by floating cape in Ha Long Bay highly effective.

Seven “Secrets” to SEO Success

This week’s SEO Tip is more than a tip, it is strategic overview on SEO. I recently spoke with a potential client interested acquiring our SEO services and when I said that SEO really isn’t that complicated he raised an eyebrow. I followed by saying that search engine optimization doesn’t have any big secrets or tricks that only we SEO consultants know. It common sense applied with industry knowledge – knowledge that can be with due diligence and research. So with that in mind, I am revealing the “Seven Secrets of SEO Success” and I’m doing it all for free.

1. Research Your Keyword Phrases.
   Invest the time and do your research. What do users type in the search engines when looking for services or products on your site. We use a few tools such as WordTracker, Keyword Discovery and Overture’s Keyword Selector tool among others to find out what keyword phrases are best to target. Never assume you know which keywords to target until you do the research. I guarantee you will learn something about your business and your target audience when you do. Finding a keyword you didn’t realize was being searched on can add visitors and increase conversions.
2. Design an SEO-Friendly Website.
   I cringe every time I see an all Flash site and I’m asked to achieve high rankings for said site. As much as Flash can hurt a site for rankings there are other things to be aware of, such as: sparse text, poorly written code, javascript on your pages, 404 errors, using graphics instead of text, javascript navigation, deeply nested pages and pages that can’t be found by clicking a link are just a few. Make sure a someone with SEO knowledge with the site design and build. While later is better than never, ideally you want the SEO consultant to work with the designers and programmers.
3. Write Unique Page Titles.
   I wrote about this earlier so take a look at my post on How Important Are Website Titles. It is critical that every web page on your site have a different and unique title. It is the most important part of your web page when search engines are determining your web page message and ranking. This is easy, so be sure to do it.
4. Write Focused Content.
   This may appear to be simple common sense, but too often a web page will try to be too many things and dilute its true message. Each thought, theme or topic should have its own web page. If you sell dog products, then a page for each category would be needed. Dog toys would be a major category with its own page, but chew toys would be a new page and so on. You wouldn’t mix chew toys and dog bedding. The search engines want to see a focus so they know what to rank your web page for as well as where to rank your web page.
5. Insert Keywords.
   If you have written a descriptive and keyword-rich title it follows suit that your page content is also going to have keywords throughout. Write for humans, but keep in mind the search engines. You don’t want to overdue it, but you do want your page theme to be evident. List your keyword phrase in your titles, headers and content and the search engines will know reward you with higher visibility.
6. Build Keyword-Rich Links.
   There is nothing more important for the high ranking success of your site than strategic link building. And with that said, there is nothing more important than choosing the right text to link to your site. If your company name is “Big Oak Studios” and you are an SEO company then you better be sure to request any links pointing to your site have similar terms such as SEO, company, firm, search engine optimization, marketing, Internet somewhere in the links. Let the link state your business, not your web address or company name.
7. Find Quality Links.
   Since acquiring links is the most important off-site task you can do, then it would reason you should do it right. While having a large number of links is important, making sure they are quality is tantamount to your site’s success. This is especially true in high competition areas. Quality links from sites with authority (popular and trusted sites) carry more weight. One link from an authority site can be worth a hundred or more low-quality sites.

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Site Maps and SEO

Most Web designers, usability experts, and search marketers agree every Web site should have several significant pages. These include, but aren't limited to, a home page, an about us page, a contact us page, and a site map. The first three are common site design fundamentals, but a debate about what constitutes a good site map rages on. At its core, a site map is an alternative, hierarchical navigational structure that puts visitors one click away from where they want to be.

The SEO (define) argument for a site map is that having one placed at a site's second-level hierarchy ensures all pages linked throughout a site will be crawled and indexed by the search engines, including the bots and spiders that limit the depth of site searches.

And some folks remind us Google's Webmaster Guidelines include multiple references to sites maps; consequently, site maps must be important.

Site maps are a great way to be found by the search engines. A site map provides a number of text-based links to key pages for contextual exploration and eventual indexing. Since text links are more readily optimized than graphical links, no matter how well alternative text and image names are leveraged, a properly constructed site map provides relevant anchor text links to pertinent pages throughout a Web site.

Size Matters

Site maps are very important for Web sites, large and small. Not only do site maps make it easier for search engine spiders to discover and crawl every page, they also provide critical details about different topics nestled throughout similar themes.

For a small site, the site map could contain text links to single every page. A site map needn't follow the site's folder structure. Categories of different topics can be presented in a directory-like format or even a table of contents to build particular themes. This sort of simple site map organization usually works well for a site of 100 pages or less.

When a site grows beyond several hundred pages, it's not a good idea to link to every single page in a site map. It's not visitor friendly to do so. Even Google advises the maximum be about 100 links per page.

A site map for a 10,000-page or fewer Web site should emphasize links to core pages throughout the site. Frequently, these categorical core pages are hubs of information that directly reflect the original topics presented in a simple site map. (Categorical core pages can also be strong landing pages for SEM (define) campaigns.)

One way to optimize up to a dozen different content categories in a larger site is to include a brief description of each core page. If you add a single link to each core page and a descriptive paragraph about the page's content, then link deeper into the site from these core pages, both visitors and spiders can readily navigate the varying themes of a larger site.

This type of site map organization works well for diversifying different products and services as well as for different business divisions. It can be leveraged to highlight new content on a larger site that may take some time for search engine spiders to discover.

Extremely large sites, such as vast corporate sites in the range of 100,000 pages or more, can organize site map content in a similar manner to create multiple layers of core hierarchal content with links to different products, services, or business divisions. Again, contextual themes play an important role toward optimizing the content throughout a diverse, large Web site.

Frequently, this type of contextual top-level site map is accompanied by a different type of mapping that consists of a series of links to different sites (rather than pages within a single site) that works to build up and bind together a network of geographically dispersed Web sites.

Location-based site maps provider visitors with quick access to stores and hotels nearest them. They also provide state or provincial contact to local groups within a larger organization. For larger international and global organizations, location-based site maps often provide access to country-specific links that must be developed to address different language needs and regulatory restrictions.

These extremely large sites are typically built on more complex content management systems. They'd do well to employ Google Sitemaps (in beta) to encourage indexing the entire site, especially when dynamic URLs are in play, at least in Google. A rewrite module might be required to provide the same type of indexing lift in different search engines.

Seeing Is Believing

Implementing a site map is not a be-all end-all optimization solution. Yet a site map remains a primary way to provide search engine spiders with a clear conduit for crawling a site's content.

Getting your site indexed is fundamental to being visible on the Web. There are a multitude of free and for-a-fee site map creation tools available. Search for a tool that suits your site or build a site map from scratch. Either way, categorically optimize the site map and be prepared to track its impact on how well your site is indexed by the search engines. Seeing a site map's statistical impact on search engine referrals will make you a believer.

clickz.com

Top 10 Ways To Increase Your Alexa Ranking!

In order to increase your Alexa ranking you must be proactive in your strategies and plan your steps carefully to succeed. With the right Alexa ranking you can demand higher prices from current advertisers and attract new advertisers just the same. If you want to increase your Alexa ranking, there are a few things you can do right now to get there. Remember in order to move up in your alexa rank, you have to bump someone out. You are competing for someone else's ranking and you better be willing to do what it takes to achieve a higher ranking.

1. Sign up for an Alexa traffic exchange program such as http://www.upmyrank.com , the large numbers of users can boost your alexa ranking dramatically.

2. Be sure to install the Alexa toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Additionally be sure to set your website as the default homepage for both browsers. Be sure to use each browser when you are online as each will have a different toolbar id and may be seen as 2 different users.

3. Put up the Alexa rank widget on your website. While the exact effects are unknown, it seems to help give the site a slight boost.

4. Encourage others to use the Alexa toolbar. This includes friends, fellow webmasters as well as site visitors. Be sure to link to Alexa’s full explanation of their toolbar and tracking system so your readers know what installing the toolbar or extension entails. Additionally you may want to ask your close relatives to install the toolbar and set your homepage as their main site.

5. Have co-workers or own a company? Get the Alexa toolbar and SS Firefox extension installed on all computers and set your website as the homepage for all browsers. Perhaps it will be useful to note that this may work only when dynamic or different IPs are used.

6. Write or host content about Alexa. Webmaster and bloggers love to hear about ways to increase their Alexa rank. They’ll link to you and send you targeted traffic (i.e. visitors with the toolbar already installed). This gradually has effects on your Alexa ranking.

7. Flaunt your URL in webmaster forums. Webmasters usually have the toolbar installed. You’ll get webmasters to visit your website and offer useful feedback. It’s also a good way to give back to the community if you have useful articles to share with others. Be careful not to spam boards as you could be banned from the forum or worse ahve your site terminated by your host.

8. Write content that is related to webmasters. This can fall in the category of domaining and SEO, two fields in which most webmasters will have the Alexa toolbar installed. Promote your content on social networking websites and webmaster forums. Feel free to place the article on your website!

9. Use Alexa redirects on your website URL. Try this: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.upmyrank.com . Replace upmyrank.com with the URL for your website. Leave this redirected URL in blog comments as well as forum signatures. This redirect will count a unique IP address once a day so clicking it multiple times won’t help. There is no official proof that redirects positively benefit your Alexa Rank, so use with caution.

10. Create a webmaster tools section on your website. This is a magnet for webmasters who will often revisit your website to gain access to the tools. Aaron Wall’s webpage on SEOTools is a very good example.


You may use this content on your website to help attract potential Alexa Toolbar visitors to your website through SEO listings. All we ask is that you provide a link back to us on the page you are including this content.

upmyrank.com