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September 16th, 2010 623 Comments
Google Adds Alternate & Hreflang Attributes
Google introduced new SEO specific attributes for handling multi-lingual pages and content. The new attributes are rel=”alternate” and hreflang=”x”. It looks something like this when used in the source code of your files:
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Local Offline Businesses Can Beat the Recession
Lakeland, FL September 5, 2010 – Marketing System Blueprints, Lakelands premier small business Internet marketing firm, announces its Search Engine Optimization SEO guarantee; removing the risk for small businesses that find themselves buried in the search engines results. Talking to small business owners in Lakeland, Marketing System Blueprints has realized that most small business owners want…
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Top Tips for Search Engine Marketing in Germany, Part 1
These five tips, and a lot of patience, will help your SEM/SEO efforts in the difficult German market. …
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September 12th, 2010 27 Comments
Jeff Johnson’s www.UndergroundConfessions.com Affiliate Marketing and Product Creation Part 1 of 13 Related to internet marketing jeff johnson affiliate marketing super affiliate SEO search engine optimization affiliate internet affiliate marketing underground confessions internet…
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September 2nd, 2010 24 Comments
www.makecashnow.biz Article Review of Search Engine Optimization Strategies (SEO)Part 2. Article covers Page Content, Tags, and Keywords. Everything on search engine optimization of pages by using optimized page title tags, description tags, meta tags, keywords, key word tools, increasing page rank, and content. Also how to properly use and create tags and keywords, and increase your website page rank on search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Dogpile. Includes SEO Tips and Strategies as well.
In this video interview, SEO specialist Stephan Spencer outlines the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) for the do-it-yourselfer. In part 1, he covers both keyword research and content optimization.
The importance of user generated content in search engine optimization is much more than it is often believed. In order to increase the organic search performance of the website, it is essential to understand the nuances of user generated content. In India, SEO is majorly driven by user generated content and to know more about this, it is advisable to avail of the best . Search engine marketing is a growing trend among the businesses and for effective results; companies should try to build great SEO strategies in order to achieve higher profits. In today’s time, user generated content is a key to successful search engine optimization and if ignored it can drag the business to losses. If the companies are looking forward to earn higher ROI, then it becomes crucial to include user generated content in evaluating the actual performance of various metrics used in search engine marketing plan.
The value of UGC reviews
Of late, most of the retailers have accepted this new trend of user generated content to strengthen search engine marketing efforts. User generated product reviews are used as an effective tool of social media marketing also which further helps in increasing the conversion rate of the website. While talking about SEO, India, it has been observed that marketers prefer user generated content in order to popularize a particular product or service through user experiences. It is crucial to understand the benefits of user generated content which can be used to get maximum profits from search engine optimization. The marketers will get unbiased opinion of the customers which will be further helpful in selling products to prospective customers. When consumers share the experience, it becomes easy for the marketers to understand the consumer’s mind and this helps in strengthening other SEO strategies. After making use of user generated content, marketers can also modify the search engine optimization plan and implement it accordingly.
Usually, marketers feel that user generated product review affects the visibility on the website on various search engines. Consumers add descriptive phrases through user generated content and this increases the long-tail organic search which is beneficial in getting maximum results from search engine marketing. Dozens of user generated product reviews can actually strengthen the process of . In India, SEO is highly benefited by user generated content and there is an ongoing debate on its benefits on SEO results across the globe as the technology relies on AJAX which is not readily available. For any kind of SEO, it is important to calculate page keyword density and theme dilution which can be easily preserved through this new approach.
Emerging as the first ‘dedicated’ search engine optimization or in India, Convonix has always stood apart for its expertise and quality in . Be it search engine optimization services for websites, pay per click campaign management, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, search engine placement, web analytics or website usability consultancy, Convonix specializes in all these areas to cater to the varied requirements of its esteemed clientele.
Part 3 – Road Blocks to Search Engines In the first part of this series , we examined the players in the search engine optimization game. Understanding the industry helps us to see through the hype and separate the actual workings of the search engines from the mythology popularized by those looking to make a quick buck off of SEO services.
In the second part of the series , we looked at how the search engines see your web site. We went through ranking, indexing and the rules to follow to get the best results for excellent natural search engine results.
In this, the third article in this series I will explain how search engines can be prevented from ever getting to your site and how they can be restricted from parts of your web site through bad web development practices. This results in poor search engine ranking and low natural search traffic levels.
Meta Tags There are ways that the informed webmaster can intentionally instruct search engine robots not to index a web site. There are some good reasons to do this. For example, we have a client who only serves the government on construction projects and only uses his web site as an addendum to his bids. He does not want the general public finding his site since answering calls from the public would be a nuisance.
We added this Meta tag to the code of his site: <META NAME=\”ROBOTS\” CONTENT=\”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW\”> It does what it looks like it does; it instructs the search engine \”robots\” not to index this page or follow the links from it.
Now before you get paranoid – I have never seen this done maliciously, but if you have a robots meta tag on your site it should say: <META NAME=\”ROBOTS\” CONTENT=\”INDEX, FOLLOW\”> Since search engines assume this to be the default setting, it is not really necessary to have this tag on your site.
There are also meta tags that can tell the search engines what kind of content to expect on this web site. This may reduce traffic intentionally, for instance: < META NAME =\”AUDIENCE\” CONTENT=\”ADULT\”> This tag is used by search engines to filter search results for people who set their search preferences to exclude explicit content.
You can see the META tags that have been used on your web site by looking at the source code of the site through your browser. For example, with Internet Explorer choose \”Source\” from the \”View\” menu. The meta tags will be in the top part of the file between the <head> tags – if you hit the <body> tag you\’ve gone too far.
Frame Sets A frame set is a set of web pages coded so that parts of your screen show content from different files. This used to be an easy way for an amateur to place a navigation bar on all of the pages of a site. Frame sets are not used by professional webmasters anymore due to the negative impact they have with search engines. Since frame sets first came out in the mid-1990\’s, coding has evolved to the point where webmasters can develop web sites faster and more easily without the need for frame sets.
The first page of the site is the most heavily weighted page by search engines. Weighting is done according to various factors, including the amount of relevant text on the page. Since the first page of a frame set is just a set of code instructions to the browser on how to find and use the files for the next page, what a frame set does is to \”demote\” all of the pages in a site to one level down in the page hierarchy. Search engines use the page hierarchy to determine the importance of the page within your web site. If your first page has no content on it, it will rank poorly, and if all other pages are secondary to the first page they will be ranked even lower.
A typical frame set page looks something like this in the code view: <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>A simple frameset document</TITLE> </HEAD> <FRAMESET cols=\”20%, 80%\”> <FRAMESET rows=\”100, 200\”> <FRAME src=\”frame1.html\”> <FRAME src=\”frame2.jpg\”> </FRAMESET> <FRAME src=\”frame3.html\”> </FRAMESET> </HTML>
As you can see there is absolutely nothing in the way of actual words in the page that may be indexed by the search engines. You can understand now why utilizing a frame set would depress your search engine rankings.
In addition, search engines like to follow a nice set of hierarchical links in order to index the content of the site. While your menu with all of your links may be contained in frame1.html in the code view above, you are making the search engine go that extra step to find that menu. As we already mentioned, this is effectively how the frame set knocks everything down one level and makes the search engine jump through an extra hoop to get to your content. Search engines expect us as site owners to jump through extra hoops to appease them – they don\’t like it at all when the tables are turned and will rank your site accordingly.
Media-Rich Home Pages Media-rich home pages contain Flash, images, video and other multimedia files as the primary content. If you only remember one thing about search engines, remember this: search engines can only read text.
Search engines cannot read images or text written on images. They cannot read text inside of Flash movies or understand voiceover commentary from a video. Pdfs are often encoded as jpeg images and cannot be read by search engines when saved in this format. Search engines can only read text contained in HTML and in meta tags (which are specifically written for search engines).
One common misuse of Flash is the \”Splash\” or \”Landing\” page. This is a page that is just a picture or movie with only an \”Enter Here\” link on it. Since search engines cannot read the content of an image or Flash movie, this page looks blank to them. If the \”Enter Here\” link is also coded inside the Flash movie the search engines cannot see the link and will not be able to get to any of the pages inside your site regardless of whether they employ Flash or HTML.
Some web sites are written entirely in Flash and are not accessible to search engines as is. There are a few ways around the Flash barrier, like creating an HTML version of the site with meta tags and using additional navigation links in HTML. But why place a barrier to search engines on your site in the first place? We recommend using Flash for decorative purposes. We recommend that it only be used in such a way that if it were removed, search engines would still have everything necessary to index the site correctly.
To test your site\’s accessibility to search engines check if you can copy and paste the text from the web browser to your text editor. If the text is written in HTML you will be able to do this. If you can\’t, it is likely that search engines will not be able to read this text. A site done entirely in Flash or with images is usually the result of a company web development effort driven primarily by graphic design personnel with little or no input from web development professionals. If you are developing a website for business rather than for a movie, an event, or an art exhibit, you are better off listening to the advice of web development professionals who are trained in SEO concepts for maximum ROI through better search engine placement.
Other Landing Pages A landing page may not be media rich, but may have very little content on it in order to \”direct\” users to a specific location on the site. In Canada we often see landing pages directing users to click on links for either French or English versions of the site. This can be avoided by using scripts that detect the default language of the browser and direct the user to their preferred language without the need for them to click a link. Using language specific web site addresses is another good practice. Alternatively put the link to the choice of language on every page of the site in the navigation. This allows users to switch languages from any page on the site. This is important once you realize that search engines often display internal pages rather than the home page of a site on their search result pages. Well optimized web sites avoid low content landing pages. Dynamic Content and Menus Search engines cannot read text that is dynamically created when a visitor asks for it. A search engine will follow all of the links it can see on a web site. But a search engine will not type in search terms in a \”search box\” to see what other content you have in your database. If you have a database driven web site you must have \”hard coded\” links to the data that the search engine can follow, or much of your web site will be not be indexed.
Search engines cannot read text embedded in JavaScript or any other scripting language that requires the user to do something (like choose from a drop down list of options) to get to new content. Therefore, most of the drop-down type navigation bars you see at the top of web sites are actually barriers to search engines. Unless a search engine spider sees an actual coded link you will lose them. This is actually the most common barrier we will see on a website because inexperienced web design personnel are unaware of the fact that search engines cannot read scripted menus.
As an aside, javascript drop down menus are usually also less human user-friendly due to the fact that they difficult to manually operate, and they provide no navigational reference point since the drop down \’snaps back up\’ disappearing as soon as it is clicked. While there are again various methods to \”get around\” this obstacle, these are stop-gap measures that can and should be avoided.
Remove the road blocks! As we have seen, there are many web site design practices commonly in use today that put up barriers to search engines. The more experience your webmaster has in SEO the less likely they are to engage in practices that can confuse or mislead search engine spiders. But you, as a web site owner, must make it clear to the developer of your site that SEO is important to you. SEO is time consuming and requires training. Unless you request a search engine friendly web site – and pay for one – you are not likely to get one. If you have any of the above barriers in place on your site, we encourage you to give us a call today to find out how we can get you out of the search engine quagmire that you are likely in.
By Candace Carter, Back2Front – The Web Site People. December 2009
www.back2front.ca
Candace Carter is an artist, web designer, computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, and public speaker. Candace was educated in Fine Art and Agriculture at the University of Guelph and in Computer Programming at the University of Ryerson. She worked in web development for high-tech firms Sun Microsystems, MCI-WorldCom, and Tucows until the high-tech meltdown in 2001.
Candace launched Back2Front – The Web Site People with a partner in 2002. Leveraging the power of the Internet, Back2Front’s growing team of web designers and developers work on-line, reducing environmental impact by eliminating the need for a daily commute. Back2Front is one of the most successful web site management companies in the GTA, providing long-term, fully managed web site services for a large roster of business clientele. Candace credits Back2Front?s success to an innovative business model of providing unlimited service for a flat, per-page fee.
Candace is an accomplished public speaker, with a friendly and knowledgeable style. Candace is a passionate crusader for excellence and value and it shows in her lively presentations. Candace is an expert in human/computer user interface, web design, and search engine optimization. The Back2Front team continuously conducts research, testing, and development that keep the company and Candace at the top of their field.
Search engine marketing is by far the most efficient and effective way to advertise your business. With over 86% of internet users using Google as their search engine, the need for your business to show on the first page of Google has never been greater.
Many people are unaware of search engine marketing and just take for granted the results that appear when they search for something on a search engine such as Google.
However, search engine marketing seems to defy to current doom and gloom of the recession. Think about this:
“The average Britain spends 164 minutes online everyday, compared with 148 minutes watching TV”
Over half the world’s population now has access to the web and nearly 90% of them find what they’re looking for using search engines. 36% of people think that the result at the top of the first page is the market leader and 80% of people make their choice from first page listings alone. With over 21 billion web pages wanting a first page position how can you get your website on the first page.
This is called search engine marketing and I have listed a few techniques and tips to get you started with optimising your website to rank well on a search engine. Remember that this is a basic guide to help to you on your way.
Link building
First we have to look at how search engines rank a website and decide which order to list them. The simple (very very very simple) version is, Google changed everything the way many search engine rank. The initial creators of Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) wanted to create a search engine that could rank a website for quality and list them in order of quality to the user. The way they decided to rank a website was to count how many other websites link to it. If other websites link to it then it must be good. So, essentially links mean votes. Like I said, this is the very simple version and there is so much more to it than this but it is a great place to start as it holds the most importance.
See who links to you and then see who links to your competitors and try to muscle in on some of their action. Simply go to yahoo.co.uk, then in the search box type “link:yourcompetitor.com”. This will bring up a list of websites linking to your competitors website. Then contact them and ask them to link to you too. Don’t be stingy. Make sure you have links going out from your website. Important though that you link to high quality websites, i.e. If your website is a property website, have links to the relevant governing bodies, Wikipedia or the largest property portals. Search engines will see your site as being a good place to get good content. Submit your website to online directories. This can be very boring and takes hours. But once you have had your site accepted in to a directory. You’ll have a link back to your website. Remember. The more the better. Subscribe to forums in your niche. You can include a link in your signature straight to your website. Remember though. Do not spam on a forum. Forum users will not like it and the moderator will probably kick you off. If you use a forum properly though you will find it quite engaging. Read blogs relating to you niche market. This is very educational as well as beneficial for link building. Read the blog then leave a comment about that blog. Don’t forget to include a link to your website though. Just don’t make it too obvious.
Social Media (web2.0)
“Facebook”, “YouTube”, “Flickr”, “Myspace” – These are all social media websites. They provide a means for people from all over the world to join online and share information. The way in which people communicate vary though. “Flickr” allow people to upload photos and share them with other users or even comment on pictures uploaded. “Youtube” allow people to upload videos etc. The number of people visiting these websites to share information is in the millions. So maybe you could use these social communities to spread the word about your website. Social media is a great way to connect with hard to reach people that share the same interests. There are a number of ways to do this.
Make your content interesting enough for people to want to view it. Then,unlike search engine optimisation, change the content often, This will make people want to keep visiting you. Make it easy for people to tag or bookmark your new content. Bookmarking is very fashionable at the moment. The most popular way of doing this is by getting an “addthis” button due to its ease of use, however, there are many buttons available. Use more than just text in your site. Create a video and submit it to a video sharing website like “youtube”, Create a PDF version of your content and create an audio version too. Submit it to appropriate websites. Don’t forget the link back to your site. Blog.Blog.Blog then blog some more. The simple truth is that the majority of internet users love blogs. So do search engines. Create a blog and use it. A lot. Submit it to sites like “technorati.com”. If it is good enough people will link to you and then share and tell others about your writings. Make friends. The social media community, are very social and friendly. They will want to talk to you and ask you questions. Make sure you are polite and take time to answer any messages. Negative feedback spreads faster than positive feedback.
Pay Per Click
This is a method in which you pay to get people to your website. Have you ever done a search on Google and found there are two columns. The Colum on the right is called sponsored links. They are adverts from businesses. They do not pay anything for appearing there but they do pay when you click on the advert (pay per click). This is a very fast way to get people to your website but you do have to pay. I would recommend getting a pay per click company to help here. It will save you a lot of money. However, if you must have ago your self here are some very basic tips.
Budget. Make sure you create a sensible budget and stick to it. Don’t get in to a bidding war. Don’t just rely on pay per click as the be all and end all for your business marketing. PPC is great for promoting specific products and services very quickly but you always have to pay for the result. Analyze your cost per click and cost per acquisition closely. Then compare it to your other marketing activities. See which one works best. Remember that sites such as Google take into account the quality of your website content being marketed more than how much you are bidding. PPC is my favorite part of search engine marketing due mainly to the sheer speed of return on investment BUT make sure it is done properly other wise it can be devastating. Always have two ads running at the same time for each product but with different ad text. Google will use the most successful advert for you and show that advert more often, helping you gain more traffic. Change to poorest performing advert and see if it improves. Keep repeating. This will eventually lead to you having the best possible advert showing.
Search engine optimisation
Remember the two columns we just mentioned. Search engine optimization is the are of optimizing your website enough for Google to rank it on the left hand column. This list is ordered on how relevant your website is. And you don’t have to pay for these listings. Ever noticed how all the big companies appear at the top of the first page. Now we should as “which came first – The chicken or the egg?”. Search engine optimisation is generally split into two categories onsite optimisation and off site optimisation. The first, when done property is very important but it will only get you to the starting line. Offsite optimization is the race itself. A good search engine optimisation campaign should include all the search engine marketing techniques mentioned and when you really get into it you can learn the more advanced techniques. Below are a few basics.
Include your keywords in your domain, title, meta tags. The first thing a search engine spider will read is your domain name. i.e www.yourdomain.com. This doesn’t mean anything to a search engine so ideally use www.yourdomain.com/your-key-words, or even better www.your-key-words.com . Then the next part is your title. Don’t just have “home Page” or “Front Page”. I would have “your domain – your key words”. This also matches the domain name. Then repeat the same in your meta data. And sprinkle it throughout your web page. Keep it readable though. Make each page different. This helps search engines differentiate them and should lead to them indexing each of your pages separately. Get a site map and submit it to major search engines. Don’t pay for this service though. It amazes me that people actually charge for this. Just type into Google “sitemap” and you should be presented with website that will generate you a sitemap for free. Keep going. Older sites generally rank better than new sites. It is believed that older websites must be more reliable. As there is nothing we can do about this just focus your time on other offsite optimisation such as link building, social media optimization and if you just can’t wait, Pay per click. Search engine optimisation is a long term solution but boy is it worth waiting for. Validate your HTML code. Visit “validator.w3.org/ “.This will ensure that web browsers show your website correctly and helps search engine to index your site. There is no point in optimising your website if it doesn’t work properly.
Other useful tips
Get Google analytics. It is one thing having a website but you need to know what people are doing when they are on it. Google analytics is very comprehensive and FREE but it does not report in real time. Woopra however does report in real time. The choice is yours. Before doing anything else you should get one of these other wise how will you know your efforts are paying off. If you decide to use a company to undertake your search engine marketing campaign (recommended) make sure you choose your search engine marketing company wisely. Don’t just go on recommendation. It is going to be a long working relationship so the important thing is that you get on with them. Do your own research on the industry. Think twice about search engine marketing firms that say they can guarantee a first page listing in a short time, the methods they use WILL end up in your website being banned. BMW found this out the hard way.
Search engine marketing is not an easy option but when done properly will bring untold rewards.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but it will give people new to the concept a few things to get on with and research. Look out for more articles that will start to break the subjects down into more detail.
Wayne Grant (info@midasem.com) is the Author of “A simple guide to search engine marketing” blogs and articles.
Also
Managing Director of On Demand Resourcing Ltd and Owner of
Many people think that getting a website on the internet is an automatic ticket to fame, increased traffic and three-fold increase in sales figures. Alas, if they only knew that they are only at the bottom rung of a rather long ladder. Getting your business online is different from creating a website. To get your business online, you have to market it appropriately. You have to take certain definite steps towards attracting dedicated traffic which will in turn get converted into a huge customer base. Then you can truly say that you have arrived!
The first step in online website marketing is to get the word out. People must know that your website exists. If you already have a brick and mortar shop, then the best way to start publicizing your website is to let your regular customers know that they can simply shop online. Your regular customers will be delighted, particularly if you give them an added incentive like a free gift or a small discount. You may enhance your online presence through ads in your local papers, word of mouth and yellow page listings.
However, if your goal is to reach out to a global customer base, then, you have to get into in a more serious manner. One of the options is to make use of the services of online marketing firms. These firms have the expertise to provide complete business solutions to small businesses. They are experts in Search Engine Optimization techniques. Thus, they will incorporate code into your website that will help you claw your way up in search engine rankings. These firms will also go a step further and link your website with the important search engines, so your web presence will become conspicuous. In short, they will place you somewhere at the top of search engine listings. But they are pricey.
If you do not want to use the services of a firm, you could do a large part of website marketing by yourself. The first thing to remember is to let your viewers know what your business is about. A well laid out website is the best way to do this. Good design, cutting edge technology and helpful tools will help you attract customers.
The next step is to woo search engines so they peg you on top of their listings. There are many ways you can do this, but each of these steps requires persistence. Do not expect online website marketing to yield immediate results.
To attract search engines, your code must be search engine optimized:
* Include title and meta tags in your pages.
* Link your pages well.
* Use descriptions when you insert images.
* Use a sitemap because search engines love sitemaps.
* Update your content every few days because fresh content attracts search engines.
The next important tool in your kit is social media networking. This is nothing but logging on to Blogs and discussion forums related to your website, and posting on them. This way, you attract the notice of prospective customers, who will follow your link back to your website. Also, build and maintain relationships with products and companies that are associated with your products. They will link to you and you can return the favor. Use video and audio effectively on sites like YouTube where millions of people come. Do everything to build your network online.
Making money through your website is possible when you get involved in effective online website marketing. Just check out your best competitors and find out what they are doing. Duplicate it with some extra effort and you could easily become #1 in your niche!
– With OnlyBusiness.com you can get both a high-quality, professional business website design which sits as a stand-alone web entity, and also become part of a greater, business-focused network, where their businesses and brands enjoy ongoing promotion and exposure.
Of all the areas of Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization is the most misunderstood, and potentially the most important to your marketing efforts. There are millions upon millions of pages of web content out there — you can work hard, build a great site, and then be totally lost in the shuffle. SEO is important. It’s also a very complex process that requires patience, careful planning and a long-term approach.
If you’re just getting started with:
Selecting an SEO firm
Trying to start a search engine campaign on your own
Reviewing your current SEO efforts
…read on. This article should provide you with a high-level review of the SEO process, dispel a few SEO myths, and help you understand legitimate optimization strategies.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, defies easy definition. But here’s a short version:
Search Engine Optimization Using keyword analysis and other legitimate practices to gain the highest possible search engine and directory rankings, under a given key phrase, for a given URL.
Every SEO professional in the world just cringed, so I’ll break this definition down a bit and hopefully prevent a hail of angry e-mails:
Keyword Analysis is the process of mining keyword search data to find the best balance between the keywords you need and the best potential search niche. More on this later.
Search Engine means an automated search engine. ‘Search Engines’ include Google, AlltheWeb.com, Yahoo (powered by Google plus their own directory information), AOL Search, Ask Jeeves and MSN Search. A search engine obtains its results from ‘spiders’ or ‘bots’ — small programs that come to your web site read it in much the same way you would: By reading the content on a page, and then moving from page to page via links. A directory, on the other hand, is built at least in part by human beings reading sites and other information and deciding where each site fits into the directory structure. Yahoo’s directory area and Open Directory are both examples of directories.
Ranking is the numeric rank reflecting your position in the results list when someone performs a search on a particular set of keywords.
Highest Possible means getting as close to number one as you can. Sometimes you just can’t get that number one spot. Maybe someone else has a 400-page web site solely dedicated to the key phrase for which you’re attempting to optimize. Or maybe they’re paying a fortune in advertising. That’s life, sometimes…
Key Phrase is the keyword or set of keywords someone types into the little ‘search’ field in Google or Alta Vista or any other search engine.
A URL is the address of one page on your site. Most search engines display keyword search results and provide a link directly to the page most relevant to those results, rather than your home page. It’s very, very important to keep that in mind when you build and optimize your site.
Legitimate Practices is a pet peeve of mine. A true search engine optimization campaign will not use practices such as page or content cloaking, redirects, or lists of links (so-called ‘link farms’) but relies on good coding practices, well-written content, steady link popularity work and site features that will be every bit as valuable for site visitors as for search engine ranking. Anything less is a short-term fix that will likely reduce your rankings more often than increase them.
So, the long version of the definition would be:
Search Engine Optimization Using keyword analysis, good coding practices, well-written copy, link popularity analysis and careful site organization to move a web page as close to the number one search results position as possible for a given key phrase, in both search engines and directories.
Hey, that’s not so bad after all. But how do you get started? First, you separate reality from myth…
SEO Urban Legends
There are quite a few SEO myths out there. Here are my favorites:
The Keywords META Tag Matters. Mostly wrong. Only Inktomi pays any attention to the keywords meta tag. You should do something basic, but don’t bother putting in keywords that aren’t supported by your page content.
Search Engines can read Flash, images and video. Sorry, and Ford isn’t selling a flying car yet, either. Search engines can read one thing: Text. Anything else, while perfectly legitimate as a design tool, will not help your ranking. And relying too heavily on Flash or images may reduce your site’s visibility. Google is one partial exception — they can read some links in Flash, but still have very limited ability to read Flash content.
Mirroring my site in multiple locations will improve ranking. Actually, just the opposite. Duplication of content will generally have no effect or, worse, reduce your ranking in major search engines. Most search engines now have rules against this form of ‘spam’ and may reduce your ranking or ban your site altogether.
‘Doorway’ pages improve ranking. Pages that have lots of keywords but then quickly redirect to the main site will not help you in major search engines, such as Google. And, if someone catches you and reports you to Google or the other search engine, you may be banned altogether. A ‘landing’ or ‘bridge’ page, though, that’s designed to be as useful for users as for search engines, and does not redirect the user, can help by providing keyword-rich content that’s genuinely worthwhile.
Firms promising to get me #1 rankings in 10,000 search engines for $99.95 can help. I alternate between tooth-grinding and hysterical laughter when I see these ads. First, there aren’t 10,000 search engines. Actually, there are probably 10-20 you should really worry about. Getting listed in the other thousand or so is largely a waste of time. Second, no one can guarantee any ranking in any search engine for a specific keyword. Period. And finally, the price is less than half the cost to get an express submission in a single directory (Yahoo). Chances are anyone trying to get you to spend the $99.95 is operating a ‘link farm’ where they list dozens, or hundreds, of sites. While they won’t hurt your ranking, they won’t help, either. To learn more about how to choose an SEO firm, check out Google’s article: .
Firms charging me more money and guaranteeing a #1 ranking on Google can help. This is the latest SEO scam. I can get you a number one ranking on Google, too, as long as I get to pick the keyword or can get you ranked under a fairly unique company name. But no one, and I mean no one can guarantee a #1 rank under a specific keyword. Even Google says so.
Forget the myths — if an offer seems too good to be true, it is. The truth is that search engines are now almost savvy enough to read your pages like a human being would, so anything that will drive away a typical site visitor will also probably reduce your ranking. Things that will increase your search engine ranking include:
Well-written content
Good, clean HTML code
Useful, relevant TITLE tags
Useful, relevant DESCRIPTION tags
Relevant, appropriate links from other web sites
There are some basic steps that, well executed, will do more to increase your page rank than an ocean of snake oil. The SEO Campaign Process
A typical SEO campaign starts with keyword analysis, and then emphasizes insuring your site doesn’t impede search engine bots and follows up with ongoing link and traffic analysis. If you like pretty pictures, here’s one:
What’s a Bot? A ‘bot’ is a program used by a search engine to read the content of your site into a directory. I mentioned this briefly in ‘What is Search Engine Optimization?’ above. Keep up, now….
Step 1: Keyword Analysis. Ah, keywords. If you say the right word enough times on your site, you’ll get that coveted #1 spot, right? Wrong. Choosing the right keywords starts with you making a list of the keywords or phrases under which you’d like to be found, and typically ends up somewhere completely different. Typically, selecting the best keywords is a four-step process:
List the keywords and phrases under which you’d like to be found.
Find out whether anyone searches on those keywords, and whether they’re searching for relevant items.
Find out how many other sites are struggling for rankings under those keywords.
Pick keywords with the same meaning but a better search-to-competition ratio.
Maybe I want to rank #1 under ‘Search Engine Optimization’. Guess what? There are 686,000 other URLs in Google trying for that spot. Hmmm. But wait! Under ‘Seattle Search Engine Optimization’ there are only 19,000. So, I targeted that key phrase, instead. And guess what? We got a #3 ranking.
Don’t forget about relevance, either. If you want a high ranking under ‘tires’, you’re going to have your work cut out for you. And in the end you’ll likely end up getting found for ‘bicycle tires’, ‘automobile tires’, ‘spare tires’ and who knows what else. Is it worth it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But you have to do your homework to find out.
Data Mining and Keywords If you’re doing a campaign for a large site, you may end up testing and comparing thousands of keywords and phrases. Having a good data-mining tool (even Excel will do) on hand is important when you’re doing keyword analysis. We use S-Plus, by Insightful Software. It’s saved our lives, and clicker fingers, several times.
There are several tools that help you research the number of searches and competitors for keywords. Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) is a good one — don’t depend on their results from Overture, though, unless you’re specifically preparing an Overture campaign. Metacrawler’s MetaSpy tool is worth a look, too. Ideally, look at results from a few different sources.
Keyword analysis is the hardest part of a campaign, in number-crunching terms. It requires a lot of work and may not tell you what you want to hear. But in my experience it’s critical to a successful campaign.
Step 2: Search Engine Readiness. Almost every web site we review has one or more problems that will prevent search engine bots from properly reading all content. Typical showstoppers include:
An all-Flash or all-images home page
A home page that automatically redirects to another page
Pop-up ads (does anyone really read these things?)
A site full of pages with fewer than 400 words on a page
Broken links
Navigation that is generated by JavaScript
No TITLE or DESCRIPTION tags
A major step in any SEO campaign is making sure that the site will present the friendliest profile to search engines. Happily, the investment in optimizing will also pay off in a faster, more universally compatible site.
Step 3. Content and Site Preparation. You’ve done your research: You know which keywords match your message, and your site’s HTML code is one big search engine welcome mat. Now it’s time to make sure that your site contains those keywords. This is where I most often see folks get confused — should you rewrite your web content to emphasize keywords? Yes, but with extreme caution. Should you make small, appropriate changes? Yes. Here are my guidelines for content preparation.
Don’t write for keywords (much). This almost always leads to stilted, hard-to-read prose. Writing keyword-rich content that really works for users is an art form. Be careful.
Do a little careful editing. If you use the word ‘car’ but ‘auto’ is the keyword you need, chances are you can do a few replacements without marring your carefully crafted copy.
Spend time on the titles and description tags. Make sure every page in your site has a unique, relevant TITLE and DESCRIPTION tag.
Never use an automatic page generator. Tools like WebPosition Gold offer to generate optimized pages for you. Don’t. They tend to hurt your ranking as much as help, and they generate ugly, ugly pages.
Write more stuff. More content is almost always better. If your site is just missing a specific keyword or phrase, but you think it’s important, then your potential customers probably do too. By adding a few more pages, or a white paper, or some other content focusing on those absent keywords, you’ll likely help visitors and improve your keyword ranking at the same time. And, the more text-rich your site is, the better the odds that you’ll catch longer, stranger but really important key phrases that you can’t anticipate.
Step 4. Link Analysis. Quite a few major search engines (Google, most importantly) weigh your ‘link popularity’ when ranking your site. A more accurate term, though, is ‘link analysis’, because these engines don’t just count up the number of links to your site. They look for links near and containing relevant text. So a page full of links, one of which happens to be yours, won’t help very much. But a link from a related site, near a short paragraph that contains relevant keywords, will probably give you a boost. Having keywords in the link itself is even better. A quick example:
doesn’t help much.
For search engine optimization, visit http://www.portentinteractive.com is much better.
For search engine optimization, visit Portent Interactive where ‘search engine optimization’ is the link to Portent, is the absolute best case.
There are a few ways to build your link popularity:
Contact sites that relate to yours and request a link exchange. This works really well, but obviously takes a long time.
Syndicate your content. If you can provide an easy way for interested webmasters to link directly to relevant stories on your site, you provide an instant link popularity boost, and get your message out to boot.
Start an affiliate program. If you sell a product, consider setting up an affiliate sales program.
Google’s ‘One Site, One Vote’ Rule Google awards a lot less weight to a link to your site if that link is on a page with lots of other links. That’s why so-called ‘link farming’ doesn’t work. Ideally, you want a link to your site from a page that includes relevant content and not that many other outgoing links.
Step 5. Submit your site. Many search engines, Google included, allow you to submit your site for free. Generally you can submit your home page and let the search engine crawl the rest of your site. Some directories and engines offer paid ‘express’ services, and some, like Teoma, require that you pay for URL submission. Which engines you choose depends on your budget and campaign.
Step 6. Review, Revise, and Keep Going. Think you’re done? Wrong — search engine optimization is an ongoing project. At least once per month, review your rankings, site traffic reports and link popularity and tweak your site as necessary. The tools you need to measure results are:
Site traffic reports. Any web hosting company should provide you with a web site traffic report, and almost all of the reporting tools in use today provide a ‘referrals from search engines’ section. Take a look at this section for a good measure of campaign results.
Link counts. Use the link: command on Google (see above) to determine your link popularity.
Your keyword list. Search on the relevant search engines to see if your ranking has improved.
Your brain. You have to interpret what you see, and decide whether changes are warranted. There’s no hard and fast rule for this, and no magic formula. Sorry about that…
So now you’ll get instant results, right? Well, not quite…
A Word About Expectations
Search engine optimization can take time. Even Google only refreshes its entire index once a month, so don’t expect instant results.
If your first registration run doesn’t generate increased rankings within a month or two, don’t panic. Look at your site traffic and search on the keywords you chose. Make sure that the search engine you’re checking actually includes your site, too — most likely the bots just haven’t gotten around to ‘crawling’ your site.
Still stumped? Find a professional. Sure, we cost money. But you may have missed something about your site that’s preventing a good keyword rank, and a second set of eyes can help.
A Solid Marketing Strategy
Obviously, Search Engine Optimization is a big job. But nothing can send more traffic to your site, for lower per-click cost. If you follow the basic steps, and keep at it, you will definitely get results. What’s really, really important is to make sure you don’t award too much weight to one step (such as link popularity) at the expense of the others. A well-rounded campaign will provide solid, long-term results.
What about pay per click? Pay-per-click services, such as Overture and Google Adwords, are very different animals. If you’ve done your keyword analysis you’re halfway there, but there are other tasks. I’ve not talked about them in this article because, well, they need an article of their own. Check back soon…
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