Concerned about your online privacy? Here are some tips for protecting your privacy online:

Use Browser Settings

In Internet Explorer, it is very easy to increase or decrease your privacy settings. Click on TOOLS, then INTERNET OPTIONS. Click on the PRIVACY tab. Under this tab, you’ll find a little tab that you can move up and down from ACCEPT ALL COOKIES to REJECT ALL COOKIES with several options in between. It is recommended to use the Medium-High setting. This allows you a robust browsing experience, while maintaining a very high amount of privacy.

In addition, still in the INTERNET OPTIONS window, click on the GENERAL tab and you’ll see a button under BROWSING HISTORY that will delete all your cookies, history, temporary internet files, saved passwords and auto complete information from your computer. Use this button often, especially if you are using a computer in a public place such as an Internet cafe, library or someone else’s house.

Email Tips

Try to use several email addresses for different correspondence. For example, create a separate email address for family and friends, another for business contacts and another for registering for websites, social networks and forums.

Another handy email tip is to use a disposable email address when you sign up for different websites, shopping and forums. A disposable email address works by creating a different identity/email address for each situation. Then when you start to receive unwanted email to a particular address, you can easily shut off or cancel that email address.

Use Anti-Virus and Spyware Programs Regularly

A crucial tip for anyone using the Internet and especially for anyone concerned about privacy is to use anti-virus and spyware programs daily. These programs will protect you from viruses that will affect your computer performance but also protect you from malicious code that may be sending your private information across the web to a hacker. Do yourself a favor and download AVG Anti-Virus, Ad-Aware SE and Spyware Blaster, all available from Download.com. Each is completely free as well. Download these programs, install them and make sure they are scheduled to update and run daily. You can even have then run when you are away from your computer in the middle of the night or early in the morning. These programs, used on a regular basis and kept updated, will protect your computer from many possible privacy and security problems.

Review Privacy Policies

Most websites have a privacy policy link at the bottom of their homepage. Do yourself a favor and click this link and read up on what your favorite website plans to do with your personal information. If a website says that they sell, share or give your information to third parties for marketing purposes, then you’ve just signed up for more junk mail. Re-consider use of websites that either don’t have a privacy policy or that don’t promise not to share your personal information.

Browse Anonymously

Use proxy servers to surf the web. A proxy server will all you to surf the web anonymously. A proxy server works by sending your request through another server and then sending the web page back to you. Using a proxy is one of the few ways to surf anonymously on the web.

The process of website submission notifies the search engines that your website has been created and is ready to be visited by a search engine spider. This notification typically speeds up the indexing process.

Website submission of your business or commercial home page is a great way to speed up the process of getting your products and services noticed on the internet. Obviously the more visitors that come to your web site, the more opportunities you have to convince them that your product line is just what they need. Indexing, which is done by the search engines is much like obtaining a GPS address for a new home site. Indexing tells the search engine where you are and what type of business you operate at that particular site. The search engines then can direct a specific audience to your site.

How the Process Works

A good starting place for effective website submission is gathering a list of important keywords from your industry. What are the words that come to mind when you think of horses for example? Tack, Gait, Saddle, Feed, Horseshoes… and the list goes on. Next you will redesign your website as needed to use many of the keywords in ways that make sense and add to the information and interest of the visitor to your site. You will also make sure you have links to and from other industry locations to add to the effectiveness of your site.

Get Your Website Noticed

The best way to get your website noticed is by website submission to all of the major search engines. You prepare your website to take advantage of the search engine optimization techniques and then complete the notification to the search engine. Your site will be visited by a spider to gather the needed information to rank the site correctly. The index will be dependent upon many factors, including the backlog of site submissions for a specific search engine, the quality of the keywords and the backlinks and various other factors depending upon the particular search engine’s algorithm.

Maximize Your Advertising Resources

If you have done everything possible to improve your web site to follow the guidelines for search engine optimization techniques, website submission to the search engine or engines of your choice is a great way to increase your web exposure without spending a lot of your advertising dollars. When the pages are indexed at a search engine, which means that the keywords and other information shows up on search engine results pages in response to visitor queries. This is a most effective form of advertising, since your website information goes to searchers who are interested in the products or services you provide.

Improve Your Page Ranking

Search engine optimization techniques help to improve your page ranking so that your website submission is even more effective as an advertising method. The page ranking is developed using the number and quality of your keywords, the number and quality of the links to your web page and on various other quantifiable factors. When you have more links of a higher quality, you will see your page ranking go up accordingly. You attract these links through the search engine spiders viewing your site and indexing them appropriately.