The latest round of mutual fund reforms that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has announced has generally been welcomed in the media and by investment analysts. The new rules could re-vitalise the mutual fund industry and create an incentive for fund management outfits to expand to smaller cities and towns. However, there's no doubt that the price of all these will have to be paid by investors. Funds are going to be more expensive than they used to be by a margin ranging from 0.1% to 0.3% a year. Apart from this, investors will also have to bear service tax on at least some part of the expenses that are charged from them. This is undoubtedly a negative. It hardly needs to be pointed out that higher expenses are never a good thing for investors.
However, I have no hesitation in saying that on balance, the current round of reforms are a positive force and the higher expenses are a justifiable side-effect of achieving some desirable outcomes. The main point here is that higher expenses are contingent upon fund management companies successfully expanding their reach to a greater proportion of the country's population. It does mean that if a fund so expands its reach, then its existing investors will have to pay some of the cost of expansion to smaller cities.
On the face of it, this looks like a sort of a subsidy charged to investors from larger cities. This is not different from similar cross-contributions in other areas. For instance, banks' agricultural and other priority sector business is subsidised by more affluent customers. In life insurance, longer-lived customers implicitly pay for less healthy ones. There are many more examples like this. No financial service, probably no business, runs on the basis of charging from each customer precisely what that particular customer costs.
Having said that, there is now greater responsibility on Sebi for ensuring that fund companies live up to the task that they are charged with. The better economics of the business must contribute to a genuine broad-basing of the business. This will mean that AMCs, specially the larger ones, will have to spend more on business development in the real sense of the word; and Sebi will have to make sure that they do.
Another way in which costs can be kept under control is by making sure that Sebi's new direct plan initiative meets with a broad response. The idea is: AMCs should launch separate plans under various funds which can only be bought directly by investors without going through distributors. Since distribution costs get greatly reduced, these plans should have lower expenses. They will thus have a different (higher) NAV than the distributor-sold plans and thus higher returns.
According to what Sebi has said so far, it appears that AMCs are under no obligation to launch direct plans for every single fund. On the other hand, it's very likely that AMCs will be under pressure from distributors, especially large and powerful ones like the banks, to not launch direct plans. This is something that the regulator and even the media will have to guard against. AMCs must launch direct plans for their equity and hybrid funds and the expense levels of these funds must genuinely reflect the absence of distributor remuneration.
Sebi's new regulations begin a new phase for Indian mutual funds. The regulator has made clear its intentions of treating higher expenses as an incentive to create a new kind of fund industry, which will ultimately benefit the investor. As in all new regulations, there will be weak points that no one could have visualised beforehand. However, it would be good if all stakeholders can appreciate the underlying spirit of the changes and work towards genuinely expanding funds. It would conversely be very bad if the usual suspects set about to figure out loopholes and ways to game the system.
This is one of the most important places to have a keyword because what is written inside the <title> tag shows in search results as your page title. The title tag must be short (6 or 7 words at most) and the the keyword must be near the beginning.
Keywords in URL
Keywords in URLs help a lot - e.g. - http://domainname.com/seo-services.html, where “SEO services” is the keyword phrase you attempt to rank well for. But if you don't have the keywords in other parts of the document, don't rely on having them in the URL.
Keyword density in document text
Another very important factor you need to check. 3-7 % for major keywords is best, 1-2 for minor. Keyword density of over 10% is suspicious and looks more like keyword stuffing, than a naturally written text.
Keywords in anchor text
Also very important, especially for the anchor text of inbound links, because if you have the keyword in the anchor text in a link from another site, this is regarded as getting a vote from this site not only about your site in general, but about the keyword in particular.
Keywords in headings (<H1>, <H2>, etc. tags)
One more place where keywords count a lot. But beware that your page has actual text about the particular keyword.
Keywords in the beginning of a document
Also counts, though not as much as anchor text, title tag or headings. However, have in mind that the beginning of a document does not necessarily mean the first paragraph – for instance if you use tables, the first paragraph of text might be in the second half of the table.
Keywords in <alt> tags
Spiders don't read images but they do read their textual descriptions in the <alt> tag, so if you have images on your page, fill in the <alt> tag with some keywords about them.
Keywords in metatags
Less and less important, especially for Google. Yahoo! and Bing still rely on them, so if you are optimizing for Yahoo! or Bing, fill these tags properly. In any case, filling these tags properly will not hurt, so do it.
Keyword proximity
Keyword proximity measures how close in the text the keywords are. It is best if they are immediately one after the other (e.g. “dog food”), with no other words between them. For instance, if you have “dog” in the first paragraph and “food” in the third paragraph, this also counts but not as much as having the phrase “dog food” without any other words in between. Keyword proximity is applicable for keyword phrases that consist of 2 or more words.
Keyword phrases
In addition to keywords, you can optimize for keyword phrases that consist of several words – e.g. “SEO services”. It is best when the keyword phrases you optimize for are popular ones, so you can get a lot of exact matches of the search string but sometimes it makes sense to optimize for 2 or 3 separate keywords (“SEO” and “services”) than for one phrase that might occasionally get an exact match.
Secondary keywords
Optimizing for secondary keywords can be a golden mine because when everybody else is optimizing for the most popular keywords, there will be less competition (and probably more hits) for pages that are optimized for the minor words. For instance, “real estate new jersey” might have thousand times less hits than “real estate” only but if you are operating in New Jersey, you will get less but considerably better targeted traffic.
Keyword stemming
For English this is not so much of a factor because words that stem from the same root (e.g. dog, dogs, doggy, etc.) are considered related and if you have “dog” on your page, you will get hits for “dogs” and “doggy” as well, but for other languages keywords stemming could be an issue because different words that stem from the same root are considered as not related and you might need to optimize for all of them.
Synonyms
Optimizing for synonyms of the target keywords, in addition to the main keywords. This is good for sites in English, for which search engines are smart enough to use synonyms as well, when ranking sites but for many other languages synonyms are not taken into account, when calculating rankings and relevancy.
Keyword Mistypes
Spelling errors are very frequent and if you know that your target keywords have popular misspellings or alternative spellings (i.e. Christmas and Xmas), you might be tempted to optimize for them. Yes, this might get you some more traffic but having spelling mistakes on your site does not make a good impression, so you'd better don't do it, or do it only in the metatags.
Keyword dilution
When you are optimizing for an excessive amount of keywords, especially unrelated ones, this will affect the performance of all your keywords and even the major ones will be lost (diluted) in the text.
Keyword stuffing
Any artificially inflated keyword density (10% and over) is keyword stuffing and you risk getting banned from search engines.
Links - internal, inbound, outbound
Anchor text of inbound links
As discussed in the Keywords section, this is one of the most important factors for good rankings. It is best if you have a keyword in the anchor text but even if you don't, it is still OK. However, don't use the same anchor text all the time because this is also penalized by Google. Try to use synonyms, keyword stemming, or simply the name of your site instead
Origin of inbound links
Besides the anchor text, it is important if the site that links to you is a reputable one or not. Generally sites with greater Google PR are considered reputable. Links from poor sites and link farms can do real harm to you, so avoid them at all costs.
Links from similar sites
Generally the more, the better. But the reputation of the sites that link to you is more important than their number. Also important is their anchor text (and its diversity), the lack/presence of keyword(s) in it, the link age, etc.
Links from .edu and .gov sites
These links are precious because .edu and .gov sites are more reputable than .com. .biz, .info, etc. domains. Additionally, such links are hard to obtain.
Number of backlinks
Generally the more, the better. But the reputation of the sites that link to you is more important than their number. Also important is their anchor text, is there a keyword in it, how old are they, etc.
Anchor text of internal links
This also matters, though not as much as the anchor text of inbound links.
Around-the-anchor text
The text that is immediately before and after the anchor text also matters because it further indicates the relevance of the link – i.e. if the link is artificial or it naturally flows in the text.
Age of inbound links
The older, the better. Getting many new links in a short time suggests buying them.
Links from directories
Could work, though it strongly depends on which directories. Being listed in DMOZ, Yahoo Directory and similar directories is a great boost for your ranking but having tons of links from PR0 directories is useless or even harmful because it can even be regarded as link spamming, if you have hundreds or thousands of such links.
Number of outgoing links on the page that links to you
The fewer, the better for you because this way your link looks more important.
Named anchors
Named anchors (the target place of internal links) are useful for internal navigation but are also useful for SEO because you stress additionally that a particular page, paragraph or text is important. In the code, named anchors look like this: <A href= “#dogs”>Read about dogs</A> and “#dogs” is the named anchor.
IP address of inbound link
Google denies that they discriminate against links that come from the same IP address or C class of addresses, so for Google the IP address can be considered neutral to the weight of inbound links. However, Bing and Yahoo! may discard links from the same IPs or IP classes, so it is always better to get links from different IPs.
Inbound links from link farms and other suspicious sites
Presumably, this does not affect you, provided the links are not reciprocal. The idea is that it is beyond your control to define what a link farm links to, so you don't get penalized when such sites link to you because this is not your fault. However, some recent changes to the Google algorithm suggest the opposite. This is why, you must always stay away from link farms and other suspicious sites or if you see they link to you, contact their webmaster and ask the link to be removed.
Many outgoing links
Google does not like pages that consists mainly of links, so you'd better keep them under 100 per page. Having many outgoing links does not get you any benefits in terms of ranking and could even make your situation worse.
Excessive linking, link spamming
It is bad for your rankings, when you have many links to/from the same sites (even if it is not a cross- linking scheme or links to bad neighbors) because it suggests link buying or at least spamming. In the best case only some of the links are taken into account for SEO rankings.
Outbound links to link farms and other suspicious sites
Unlike inbound links from link farms and other suspicious sites, outbound links to bad neighbors can drown you. You need periodically to check the status of the sites you link to because sometimes good sites become bad neighbors and vice versa.
Cross-linking
Cross-linking occurs when site A links to site B, site B links to site C and site C links back to site A. This is the simplest example but more complex schemes are possible. Cross-linking looks like disguised reciprocal link trading and is penalized.
Single pixel links
when you have a link that is a pixel or so wide it is invisible for humans, so nobody will click on it and it is obvious that this link is an attempt to manipulate search engines.
Metatags
<Description> metatag
Metatags are becoming less and less important but if there are metatags that still matter, these are the <description> and <keywords> ones. Use the <Description> metatag to write the description of your site. Besides the fact that metatags still rock on Bing and Yahoo!, the <Description> metatag has one more advantage – it sometimes pops in the description of your site in search results.
<Keywords> metatag
The <Keywords> metatag also matters, though as all metatags it gets almost no attention from Google and some attention from Bing and Yahoo! Keep the metatag reasonably long – 10 to 20 keywords at most. Don't stuff the <Keywords> tag with keywords that you don't have on the page, this is bad for your rankings.
<Language> metatag
If your site is language-specific, don't leave this tag empty. Search engines have more sophisticated ways of determining the language of a page than relying on the <language>metatag but they still consider it.
<Refresh> metatag
The <Refresh> metatag is one way to redirect visitors from your site to another. Only do it if you have recently migrated your site to a new domain and you need to temporarily redirect visitors. When used for a long time, the <refresh> metatag is regarded as unethical practice and this can hurt your ratings. In any case, redirecting through 301 is much better.
Content
Unique content
Having more content (relevant content, which is different from the content on other sites both in wording and topics) is a real boost for your site's rankings.
Frequency of content change
Frequent changes are favored. It is great when you constantly add new content but it is not so great when you only make small updates to existing content.
Keywords font size
When a keyword in the document text is in a larger font size in comparison to other on-page text, this makes it more noticeable, so therefore it is more important than the rest of the text. The same applies to headings (<h1>, <h2>, etc.), which generally are in larger font size than the rest of the text.
Keywords formatting
Bold and italic are another way to emphasize important words and phrases. However, use bold, italic and larger font sizes within reason because otherwise you might achieve just the opposite effect.
Age of document
Recent documents (or at least regularly updated ones) are favored.
File size
Generally long pages (i.e. 1,500-2,000 words or more) are not favored, or at least you can achieve better rankings if you have 3 short (500-1,000 words) rather than 1 long page on a given topic, so split long pages into multiple smaller ones. On the other hand, pages with 100-200 words of text or less are also disliked by Google.
Content separation
From a marketing point of view content separation (based on IP, browser type, etc.) might be great but for SEO it is bad because when you have one URL and differing content, search engines get confused what the actual content of the page is.
Poor coding and design
Search engines say that they do not want poorly designed and coded sites, though there are hardly sites that are banned because of messy code or ugly images but when the design and/or coding of a site is poor, the site might not be indexable at all, so in this sense poor code and design can harm you a lot.
Illegal Content
Using other people's copyrighted content without their permission or using content that promotes legal violations can get you kicked out of search engines.
Invisible text
This is a black hat SEO practice and when spiders discover that you have text specially for them but not for humans, don't be surprised by the penalty.
Cloaking
Cloaking is another illegal technique, which partially involves content separation because spiders see one page (highly-optimized, of course), and everybody else is presented with another version of the same page.
Doorway pages
Creating pages that aim to trick spiders that your site is a highly-relevant one when it is not, is another way to get the kick from search engines.
Duplicate content
When you have the same content on several pages on the site, this will not make your site look larger because the duplicate content penalty kicks in. To a lesser degree duplicate content applies to pages that reside on other sites but obviously these cases are not always banned – i.e. article directories or mirror sites do exist and prosper.
Visual Extras and SEO
JavaScript
If used wisely, it will not hurt. But if your main content is displayed through JavaScript, this makes it more difficult for spiders to follow and if JavaScript code is a mess and spiders can't follow it, this will definitely hurt your ratings.
Images in text
Having a text-only site is so boring but having many images and no text is a SEO sin. Always provide in the <alt> tag a meaningful description of an image but don't stuff it with keywords or irrelevant information.
Podcasts and videos
Podcasts and videos are becoming more and more popular but as with all non-textual goodies, search engines can't read them, so if you don't have the tapescript of the podcast or the video, it is as if the podcast or movie is not there because it will not be indexed by search engines.
Images instead of text links
Using images instead of text links is bad, especially when you don't fill in the <alt> tag. But even if you fill in the <alt> tag, it is not the same as having a bold, underlined, 16-pt. link, so use images for navigation only if this is really vital for the graphic layout of your site.
Frames
Frames are very, very bad for SEO. Avoid using them unless really necessary.
Flash
Spiders don't index the content of Flash movies, so if you use Flash on your site, don't forget to give it an alternative textual description.
A Flash home page
Fortunately this epidemic disease seems to have come to an end. Having a Flash home page (and sometimes whole sections of your site) and no HTML version, is a SEO suicide.
Domains, URLs, Web Mastery
Keyword-rich URLs and filenames
A very important factor, especially for Yahoo! and Bing.
Site Accessibility
Another fundamental issue, which that is often neglected. If the site (or separate pages) is unaccessible because of broken links, 404 errors, password-protected areas and other similar reasons, then the site simply can't be indexed.
Sitemap
It is great to have a complete and up-to-date sitemap, spiders love it, no matter if it is a plain old HTML sitemap or the special Google sitemap format.
Site size
Spiders love large sites, so generally it is the bigger, the better. However, big sites become user-unfriendly and difficult to navigate, so sometimes it makes sense to separate a big site into a couple of smaller ones. On the other hand, there are hardly sites that are penalized because they are 10,000+ pages, so don't split your size in pieces only because it is getting larger and larger.
Site age
Similarly to wine, older sites are respected more. The idea is that an old, established site is more trustworthy (they have been around and are here to stay) than a new site that has just poped up and might soon disappear.
Site theme
It is not only keywords in URLs and on page that matter. The site theme is even more important for good ranking because when the site fits into one theme, this boosts the rankings of all its pages that are related to this theme.
File Location on Site
File location is important and files that are located in the root directory or near it tend to rank better than files that are buried 5 or more levels below.
Domains versus subdomains, separate domains
Having a separate domain is better – i.e. instead of having blablabla.blogspot.com, register a separate blablabla.com domain.
Top-level domains (TLDs)
Not all TLDs are equal. There are TLDs that are better than others. For instance, the most popular TLD – .com – is much better than .ws, .biz, or .info domains but (all equal) nothing beats an old .edu or .org domain.
Hyphens in URLs
Hyphens between the words in an URL increase readability and help with SEO rankings. This applies both to hyphens in domain names and in the rest of the URL.
URL length
Generally doesn't matter but if it is a very long URL-s, this starts to look spammy, so avoid having more than 10 words in the URL (3 or 4 for the domain name itself and 6 or 7 for the rest of address is acceptable).
IP address
Could matter only for shared hosting or when a site is hosted with a free hosting provider, when the IP or the whole C-class of IP addresses is blacklisted due to spamming or other illegal practices.
Adsense will boost your ranking
Adsense is not related in any way to SEO ranking. Google will definitely not give you a ranking bonus because of hosting Adsense ads. Adsense might boost your income but this has nothing to do with your search rankings.
Adwords will boost your ranking
Similarly to Adsense, Adwords has nothing to do with your search rankings. Adwords will bring more traffic to your site but this will not affect your rankings in whatsoever way.
Hosting downtime
Hosting downtime is directly related to accessibility because if a site is frequently down, it can't be indexed. But in practice this is a factor only if your hosting provider is really unreliable and has less than 97-98% uptime.
Dynamic URLs
Spiders prefer static URLs, though you will see many dynamic pages on top positions. Long dynamic URLs (over 100 characters) are really bad and in any case you'd better use a tool to rewrite dynamic URLs in something more human- and SEO-friendly.
Session IDs
This is even worse than dynamic URLs. Don't use session IDs for information that you'd like to be indexed by spiders.
Bans in robots.txt
If indexing of a considerable portion of the site is banned, this is likely to affect the nonbanned part as well because spiders will come less frequently to a “noindex” site.
Redirects (301 and 302)
When not applied properly, redirects can hurt a lot – the target page might not open, or worse – a redirect can be regarded as a black hat technique, when the visitor is immediately taken to a different page.
Websites that utilize databases which can insert content into a webpage by way of a dynamic script like PHP or JavaScript are increasingly popular. This type of site is considered dynamic. Many websites choose dynamic content over static content. This is because if a website has thousands of products or pages, writing or updating each static by hand is a monumental task.
There are two types of URLs: dynamic and static. A dynamic URL is a page address that results from the search of a database-driven web site or the URL of a web site that runs a script. In contrast to static URLs, in which the contents of the web page stay the same unless the changes are hard-coded into the HTML, dynamic URLs are generated from specific queries to a site's database. The dynamic page is basically only a template in which to display the results of the database query. Instead of changing information in the HTML code, the data is changed in the database.
But there is a risk when using dynamic URLs: search engines don't like them. For those at most risk of losing search engine positioning due to dynamic URLs are e-commerce stores, forums, sites utilizing content management systems and blogs like Mambo or WordPress, or any other database-driven website. Many times the URL that is generated for the content in a dynamic site looks something like this:
Static URLs are typically ranked better in search engine results pages, and they are indexed more quickly than dynamic URLs, if dynamic URLs get indexed at all. Static URLs are also easier for the end-user to view and understand what the page is about. If a user sees a URL in a search engine query that matches the title and description, they are more likely to click on that URL than one that doesn't make sense to them.
Lufthansa is one of the world's leading carriers and a proud member of the Star Alliance network. As an internationally-operating Aviation Group Lufthansa is active in five business fields: Passenger transportation, Logistics, Technology, IT-Services, and Catering. A further 400 subsidiaries and holding companies also belong to the Group. The airline offers 207 destinations in 81 countries using around 264 aircraft. More than 60 million passengers worldwide place their trust in us each year. The dedication, skills and excellent service of our employees is one of our greatest strengths.
Company portrait
Business activities Deutsche Lufthansa AG is a global aviation group. The Group operates in five business segments, each dedicated to high quality standards. The five units – the passenger airline business, logistics, MRO, catering and IT services – all play a leading role in the industry in which they operate. The Lufthansa Group includes a total of more than 400 subsidiaries and associated companies.
Organisation
Deutsche Lufthansa AG acts as the parent company with an Executive Board consisting of four members. The Executive Board is responsible for managing the Group, determining its strategy and ensuring a sustainable increase in its ´value. The Supervisory Board appoints and advises the Executive Board and monitors its activities. The Lufthansa passenger airlines as well as the individual business segments are each accountable for their business results. They are monitored by their own supervisory boards, on which members of the Group Executive Board and top management are represented.
Corporate structure
Strategy Foremost at Lufthansa are such attributes as quality and innovation, safety and reliability. We are well positioned strategically, operationally and financially to negotiate ups-and-downs in the economy. Our corporate strategy is geared to sustainable value creation and is expressed in our commitment to shareholder value. We attach priority to profitability over size.
Group strategy
The Lufthansa Group employed some 120,000 personnel at the end of 2011, and achieved total operating revenue of EUR 28.7 billion for the year.
Airlines to customers: You can't wear that NBCNews.com Jump to video Airline employees love their jobs, and tattoos. video ...Airlines don't publish dress codes. There are no rules that spell out the highest hemline or the lowest neckline allowed. That can leave passengers guessing how far to push fashion ... See all stories on this topic »
Gulf Air, the flag carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the airline with the biggest network in the Middle East is also a people organisation. Our Focus is on building up an effective pool of human resources tuned to the airline business. Our Objective is to create one of the best working environments amongst the major companies in the Middle East and become an employer of choice. Our Strategy is to train and equip our staff with management, leadership and other essential skills so that they can contribute effectively to the success of the company and enjoy a long-term developing career.
The following details will assist you in completing the online application form and understanding our recruitment process. The information provided is for our general recruitment process. Certain recruitment areas such as Direct Entry Pilots, Flight Attendants, Sky Chefs, and the National Programme, have additional information concerning their specific selection process. Therefore, we have a dedicated section for each of these areas to include the supplementary information.
Applying online
Take a look at the vacancies listed on our Careers website.
Choose the position that matches your qualifications and experience.
Read the selected position requirements carefully.
When you decide on the position click on APPLY
Choose a user name and a password. Make sure you save your password somewhere safe in case you can’t remember it when you want to log onto the site again.
Complete the online application form with your personal details. Make sure you give a valid address and contact number.
Be precise with your qualifications and experience.
Attach your Curriculum Vitae (CV). Make sure it is understandable, well organised and up to date.
Make sure you make a note of the title of the position you’ve applied for.
If you want to amend or update your CV you can do so by logging onto the Careers website using your user name and password.
Shortlisted candidates
If you are shortlisted for a position, you will be contacted by a member of the Recruitment Team to attend an interview. You will be informed by email or telephone of the time and location and what to expect on the day of the interview.
Preparing for your interview
If you have been scheduled and confirmed to attend an interview, make sure you prepare yourself well for the day. The following tips could be helpful:
Have a comprehensive idea about the position you will be interviewed for.
Anticipate the kind of questions that could be asked on that day and prepare sufficient and reasonable answers.
Visit our web homepage (www.gulfair.com), to get more information about Gulf Air.
Review your CV.
Selection
If you are selected, you will be contacted by the Recruitment Team and provided with your offer. If you accept, you will be given advice regarding the recruitment formalities that need to occur prior to employment.
If you are unsuccessful, you will receive a regret letter from the Recruitment Team. Your CV will remain in our database for up to six months and you may be considered for another vacant position if your qualifications and experience meet the criteria of the vacancy. You may also apply for other positions at any time.
Employment
After completing the recruitment formalities, you will be contacted by the Recruitment Team regarding your start date. Upon joining you will be taken through the induction process by a member of the HR Team.
With a legacy of more than 55 years, Gulf Air is committed to recruiting the best possible staff while offering nationals of the Kingdom of Bahrain the opportunity to work with one of the region's most experienced airlines.
A crucial part of the human resources function at Gulf Air is the implementation of programmes that will accelerate the employment and career progress of nationals of the Kingdom of Bahrain. It is our aim to be the employer of choice for the broad base of diversely skilled and educated young people in Bahrain. Gulf Air is committed to providing a nurturing and supportive environment in which these individuals are recruited, trained and empowered to take up positions of leadership in the airline while fulfilling their personal aspirations.
The Graduate Entry Management (GEM), Cadet and Ab-Initio Pilot programmes, Apprentice Engineer and Summer Training/Internship programmes have been developed to fulfill this commitment.
These programmes aim to create meaningful and rewarding employment for qualified nationals in accordance with the nationalisation policy, and are designed to allow young people to gain exposure to the diverse disciplines within the airline, while simultaneously ensuring that qualified and competent individuals are inducted into Gulf Air at the grass-roots level to be developed to a high quality management
Ab-Initio Pilots
The programme covers type rating training for Bahraini nationals who already have a Pilot's licence. When the course is complete the Pilots enter employment as Second Officers.
