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INTRODUCTION

The history of wine making and drinking goes back several thousands of years. Early civilizations discovered the process of fermentation. The exact date remains unknown. It is known, however, that by 7,000 B.C. cultivated vines were growing in the region of Mount Ararat and in Asia Minor. Successive civilizations continued to develop on the process of growing and making and storing wine. Irrigation systems created by the Sumerians around 3500 B.C. helped water the vineyards of Mesopotamia and other arid lands. The Assyrians, The Babylonians and the Egyptians continued the trend.

Although the Egyptians preferred beer, the upper echelons drank wine. The pyramidal tombs in both the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Nobles contain wall hieroglyphics depicting the growing and the harvesting of grapes as well as the making of wine. The Egyptians were also the first to label the wine vats, sealed against the negative effects of air.

The Greeks were the first to begin categorizing the different types of grapes. Authors recorded such things as techniques and tools. In fact, the Greeks invented the pruning knife. They also developed wine containers – amphorae, of clay to act as storage vessels. The Romans took the Greek’s inventions and techniques developing them further.

Between 750 and 450 B. C., the Romans refined wine growing techniques and processes. Pruning, fertilization and reduction of acidity owe much to the Romans. Pliny the Elder recorded much of the Roman farmers’ practices in this field of agriculture. He classified grapes and recorded the terminology for future generations. The Romans are also responsible for spreading wine culture throughout their empire. Soon, the “provinces” of Hispania (Spain), Gaul (France) and Germania (Germany) – to name a few, were growing grapes for wine making. Even England was learning about wine making. The Roman legions stationed there would trade wine for woolen cloaks and cloth.

Between 500 A.D. and 1400 A.D., the Christian Church began to seriously cultivate land for their own purposes. They needed sacramental wine. Monasteries oversaw large segments of land devoted to growing grapes. Monks made basic vintages, but they also began to experiment, improving upon a basic product. They recorded their work for posterity.

During this period, wine and other spirits were common beverages. Water was not always potable. Wine usually was. Some countries, however, could not grow grapes or produce wine. As a result, trade increased between the haves and the have-nots. The result was a lucrative trade around the European world. Wars arose, some based on cornering and/or controlling the market on the wine-trade.

The Italian Renaissance (15th century) introduced further developments. Wine was refined. It was becoming a culture unto itself. Vineyards flourished and new techniques continued to grow in proportion to the expansion of area devoted to this crop. The wine trade continued to be lucrative. In Elizabethan times (16th century), the Lord who had the rights to the wine trade was indeed a wealthy man. Dom Perignon, a 17th century Benedictine Monk, refined the art of wine making. He did not discover champagne, but he made it his own.

The colonization of the New World and other countries such as Africa, Australia, spread the concepts of wine making and growing still further. Regions throughout the world began to experiment in growing grapes. Some met with greater success than others did. During the periods following the Industrial Revolution and the First Great War, the New World Wines began to make inroads. The concepts of cheap wine and the need to classify, label and authenticate wine began to evolve.

Today, quality wine growing and cheaper wines both flourish. Each has their own market. Some wines are only for those who truly know their product. The current situation embraces all levels of quality. There are wines for connoisseurs as well as jug wine. You can purchase wine in a bag or in a bottle. The label may bear the name of an ancient and respected vintner. The bottle could also be labeled with a cute little animal. Wine may be fashionable, international and still be unpalatable. It can be local and delectable. Sometimes, this is a matter of taste; sometimes, it is simply a question of education.

This book will act as a guide to help you exchange your Newbie status for that of a more refined one. It will not make you an expert and certainly not an oenophile. That is something that requires years of tasting and practice. Yet, even the experts had to start somewhere on what can be a very pleasurable journey. In this book, we will start with the basics, including the answer to that oh so important questions, “what is wine?”

1 THE BASICS THE BASICS THE BASICS – WINE 101 WINE 101 WINE 101

Before you can decide what wine to serve with what or attend a tasting, you really need to understand some of the very basics on the subject. You should understand what wine is. You also could do with understanding the basic process of wine making. This includes understanding the major varieties of grapes used in the process.

Wine 101 also includes comprehension of the major types of Wine. This process involves understanding the various approaches to defining or classifying wine. They range from color to taste. This chapter will begin at the beginning with a definition of wine.

WHAT IS WINE?

The simplest way to define wine is this. Wine is the fermented juice of wine grapes. Fermentation is when the sugar present in grape juice becomes, through the actions of yeast alcohol. In this totally natural process, the grape juice becomes wine.

Fermentation can and does occur naturally without human intervention. The weight of grapes in a barrel can crush the fruit into juice, ferment and create wine. Yet, over the 8,000 years or so wine making has been around, humans have become involved in the process. The viticulturists have worked to create the right or ideal type of grapes for producing the best varieties of wine.

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Introduction

There’s no doubt about it. Optimizing pages to satisfy search engines can be a tedious and demanding task. Not just initially, but throughout the duration of any website being live on the web.

Basically, your search engine optimization never ends.

You strive for high page rank. That can mean an actual score like the one Google assigns to individual web pages or merely a conceptual rating that provides your website with more search engine recognition and stature than other sites in your area of interest.

Either way, the goal is to make your website more popular, more visible, more important than all the competition.

You might not reach the top of the heap, but that’s where you have to aim in orderto land anywhere near the top.

Not that you can’t reach the very top. You can. It’s just not necessary in order to reap all the benefits -at least, from a strictly search engine perspective.

Let’s face it. If you land in the top three positions (or even on the first page) of search results, you’ll most likely capture the same amount of traffic that the number one website enjoys. Maybe even more.

It all depends on your description. Or should we say, the description that a search engine displays in your listing -since meta description tags are rarely used anymore.

If your description more closely matches what a viewer is searching for, they’ll go to your website first. Regardless of what results position you happen to be in.

And even if they don’t go there first, they’ll most likely get there eventually. Unless, of course, one of the other websites has totally and completely satisfied their needs and they don’t feel compelled to continue their search.

The point is, it’s not entirely about what positionyou gain in search engine results. It’s about targeting a specific keyword (search term) and then making certain you accomplish these two things…

1. Your website ranks high for that keyword.
2. Your website can deliver viewer expectation for that keyword.

Of course, delivering the viewer’s expectation is fairly straightforward.

If the search term is “improve golf swing”, it’s a pretty safe bet the viewer is looking for something to improve their golf swing. As long as you provide information or a product (or both) that can
satisfy that need, you’re in excellent striking distance.

Covering the first accomplishment -getting a high rank for your website -is a whole lot more involved.

It’s not just about satisfying a specific viewer need. Instead, it’s all about convincing a search engine that your website is superior with regard to satisfying a specific viewer need. For example…

There are over two million web pages associated with improving one’s golf swing. Some contain information, some contain products. Some contain nothing more valuable than a brief mention of the search term.

Regardless, there are millions of pages that show up in the search results total when a viewer types in “improve golf swing” (approximately 50,000 results if you put quotes around it, which the majority of searchers don‘t include).

All you have to do is dive into that vast ocean of search results and somehow manage to dog-paddle your web page past all the other possibilities and onto the sandy beach. Where only a few top ranked pages are currently basking in the sun.

The only question is, how do you accomplish that? How do you wind up in front of all those other web pages?

You start by analyzing each of those top ranked pages. You sift through their source code, their web content, their design techniques. Whatever it takes to find out exactly what they’re doing that placed them in the top results positions.

And then you do the same thing. Only better. And you keep doing it until you reach your ultimate goal.

That goal might just be the number one position. Or maybe it’s getting listed in the top three. Or maybe you’re willing to settle for any position on the first page of search results.

It doesn’t really matter.

Whatever goal you’ve set, whatever position you’re shooting for, you level your sights on the top ranked web pages and then do everything they’re doing and more.

Of course, if you’re targeting a less sought-after search term, you won’t have to work nearly as hard. And that’s why so many savvy webmasters do just that…

They deliberately seek out search terms that are valuable to their particular niche, but don’t have nearly the amount of competition associated with them.

That way, simply implementing the basic optimization techniques will most often ensure them a top position in search results for any one of those keywords.

Of course, you have to know which optimization techniques work for which search engines or directories. They’re all different. They all set their own criteria for what elements are most important.

Some put the greatest emphasis on link popularity. Others place a good deal more value on the count and density of a specific keyword on individual web pages. Still others are more interested in seeing a basic theme or topic carried throughout the entire website.

Fortunately, if you limit your optimization efforts to satisfying the top players -Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Open Directory (DMOZ) -you can cover the most important SEO bases simultaneously.

For example, even though having the keyword in yourpage title might not carry a great deal of weight with Yahoo, it’s an absolute must when it comes to satisfying Google. So put your keyword in the title.

Although DMOZ doesn’t care so much about links pointing to your page from other websites, Google, Yahoo, and MSN do place a considerable amount of value in how “popular” your page is.

And all of them want to see a fair amount of quality keyword-rich content and a solid topic or niche theme throughout.

By incorporating all of the most important optimization techniques -the ones that are unilaterally perceived as most valuable -you’ll find that you have automatically satisfied the top players.

And speaking of top players, Google is the one that you need to aim most of your time and energy toward. And to assist you in that regard, the majority of this particular report contains Google specific information.

Concentrate on rising to the top of Google’s results and everything else will naturally fall into place. It’s just that simple.

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Introduction

The first goal of any search engine optimization strategy is to get your web pages indexed. But even before that can happen, you need to get the search engine crawlers to visit your website.

Depending on the search engine or directory and the overall circumstances (how you invite and solicit crawlers), that first visit could take days, weeks, or even months.

And while it’s true that the initial crawler visits can be somewhat unpredictable (or takea long time in coming), once the ice is broken, future visits can be controlled to some degree…

Basically, the more frequently you update your pages, the more frequently the crawlers will show up on your website doorstep.

Of course, that’s only half thebattle. The other half is getting the search engines and directories to actually index your pages.

In order to do that, you need to start at the beginning. And the beginning in this particular instance is developing and enhancing pages in such a way thatthe search engine crawlers will be impressed.

The overall search process is simple…

All the text content that search engine crawlers gather is stored and indexed. People conduct searches based on certain phrases (keywords). Whatever content possesses the most relevancy with regard to any given keyword will be placed in the top positions of the search results.

And since the title of the page and the text content generally carry the most weight -at least with regard to what search engine crawlers deem most relevant during their visits -it stands to reason that improvement in page rank and/or search results listing can most often be attributed to having individual and specific keywords properly incorporated into those two prime areas.

Of course, if keywords were the only basis for which page rank and position in search results were determined, optimizing web pages would be pretty much cut and dried…

pick a keyword > use it in your title and throughout your content > achieve high page rank and top position in search engine results

The problem is, there are so many variables that not only come into play but change on a regular basis, it can seem as though achieving solid and effective search engine optimization might never be possible.
Fortunately, it’s not only possible, it can be relatively painless as well. All you have to do is satisfy the top three requirements of pretty much all major search engines…

•provide quality content

•update content on a regular basis

•get numerous top-ranking websites to link back to your site

And the search engines and directories you should be trying to impress the most are the top four contenders…

Google
https://www.google.com
Yahoo
https://www.yahoo.com
MSN Search
https://search.msn.com
DMOZ (Open Directory)
https://dmoz.org

Beyond that, there are countless other search engines and directories like AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, and AllTheWeb.

Should you optimize for those as well, or simply level your sites on the major players and bypass all the search engines and directories below them? Not necessarily. You still want your pages listed in as many locations as possible. You just shouldn’t try to satisfy every one of them with regard to optimization.

Satisfy the top four contenders. Then, if you have the time and ambition to broaden the scope of your SEO efforts, do it. If not, don’t worry about the hundreds (or even thousands) ofother search engines and directories that exist.

You’re only human. And just meeting the optimization criteria of the top four is going to be challenging and energetic enough.

Of course, unless you plan to make search engine optimization your life‘s work, it’s not likely you’ll invest most of your energy in that one single area (even when restricted to the top four players). But you do need to invest a fair amount of quality effort.

And that basically equates to these two missions…

1. Get your pages indexed by major search engines.
2. Improve your page rank and position in search results.

In order to accomplish both of those, you need to carefully balance the line between good optimization techniques and the urge to take things a bit too far.

In other words, you need to make certain you carry out your two missions without stepping over the line into what’s commonly referred to as “black hat” search engine tactics.

That dark and evil territory would include things like…