SEO is not just a career to those in the business; it is literally a part of every trip through the Internet. A search for anything online frequently has me observing the listings and the sites that rank on the first page results. It can be very interesting to investigate these sites to find clues that could possibly become useful in business. After all, the best way to learn how to rank a website is to observe sites that already rank.
One of things I look at, actually we all look at, are the titles in the search listings. The words and phrases that are displayed in the search listings are pulled from the Meta Title tag in the header of all web page documents. It is this simple Meta tag that many website owners never get right. Below I have listed three of the more common mistakes website owners make with this very important Meta element.
1. Your title Meta tag should never be longer than 62 characters. Google will only display the first 62 characters of any title tag no matter how long you make it. This number varies for other search engines but Google will send over 80% of all traffic to the vast majority of all websites so meeting Google's requirements is most important.
2. Your title Meta tag should NEVER say "homepage" or your website name or address. Unless you are trying to sell homepages, the words "homepage" should never describe your website in the title. The same is true with your web address. Putting your web address in the title tag as a website title waste valuable space that could best be used to target a search word or phrase that can send searchers to your website. Besides, Google already knows your web address, if your site has been indexed.
3. Your title tag should include key words that reflect the theme or topic of that page. Obviously this would include key words you hope to rank for. Using this logic, should you find that you are ranking good for a variation of your desired key words you can greatly improve your rankings for that word or phrase by changing your title tag to include that phrase. This can be desirable if that traffic converts on your website or it could simply be a source for extra traffic that does nothing for your website's profitability.
The title tag is like a name plate pinned to your shirt. It immediately tells those who see it who or what you are. It is the first opportunity to get the searcher to click on your listing. Tying a web page's theme to key words that people search for and then putting those words into your title tag is the most efficient way to get new visitors to your site. After all, that is why we are on the net.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Meta Title Mistakes
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Need for SEO
Search engines are no longer just a mere tool of the Internet consumer. Search engines are now an indispensable part of the infrastructure of the world wide web. Search engines are the primary means of navigating the web. When a consumer wants to find web hosting, they search for it. When a consumer wants to know the stance of a presidebtial candidate on an issue, they google it.
Search engines, and Google in particular, wield a frighteningly huge influence over how people, political parties, businesses and issues are seen.
A first page listing on Google for "web hosting" is considered to be worth more than $30,000 per month. A listing on the 3rd or 4th page for that same term is worth hardly anything.
The reason for this is, search engines drive traffic. "Traffic" being consumers, with credit cards and money. Consumers do not tend to drill down through the search results. They do a search and more often than not spend their money on web sites listed on the first page of the search results.
Search engine optimization is about getting your web site to appear in the first page, and preferably at the top, of those search results.
Keyword Research
Before you jump into a car, you need to know where you're going. In SEO, you need to know what keywords you are going to optimize for before you start optimizing. Spending a few hours researching keywords can make all the difference in the world.
The First Step
First, let's say that your website was www.ibeehosting. It's a web hosting related site, so let's search for web hosting on Google and see who the competition is. FortuneCity.com comes up in the first place, so take note of that and go to Google's Keyword Tool.
Click on "Site-Related Keywords" and then insert the URL of the competition. In this case, fortunecity.com. Wait a few seconds, and Google shows you over one hundred keywords for that site. You are now officially off to a good start!
The Criteria
The criteria for determining which keywords to go after and what keywords to discard is this: The keyword is must be able to produce positive return on investment. Keywords take time and money to get ranking on. Consider those resources. Will a top placement for that keyword produce positive ROI?
Broad is Bad, Specific is Good
The more specific the keyword, the better it will convert. For example, a close friend of mine sells plasma screens. The keyword "plasma screen" drives a lot of traffic, but not so much in the way of actual sales. The keyword "42 inch plasma" drives more sales, but still doesn't convert as good as "Pioneer PDP-507CMX". Consumers who have made up their mind to purchase an item usually use much more specific keywords than consumers who are simply window shopping.
On-page elements
The Title tag
This is second of the two most important elements for good rankings. Make sure that the page's search term is contained in this tag, and place it as near to the front as is reasonable, whilst ensuring that it reads well. There's nothing wrong with placing the search term up front on its own, followed by a period; e.g. "Pagerank. Google's PageRank and how to make the most of it". The target search term is, of course, "PageRank". Obviously each page's Title tag should be different to the Title tags on the site's other pages.
Link Building SEO
Search engines, and Google in particular, wield a frighteningly huge influence over how people, political parties, businesses and issues are seen.
A first page listing on Google for "web hosting" is considered to be worth more than $30,000 per month. A listing on the 3rd or 4th page for that same term is worth hardly anything.
The reason for this is, search engines drive traffic. "Traffic" being consumers, with credit cards and money. Consumers do not tend to drill down through the search results. They do a search and more often than not spend their money on web sites listed on the first page of the search results.
Search engine optimization is about getting your web site to appear in the first page, and preferably at the top, of those search results.
Keyword Research
Before you jump into a car, you need to know where you're going. In SEO, you need to know what keywords you are going to optimize for before you start optimizing. Spending a few hours researching keywords can make all the difference in the world.
The First Step
First, let's say that your website was www.ibeehosting. It's a web hosting related site, so let's search for web hosting on Google and see who the competition is. FortuneCity.com comes up in the first place, so take note of that and go to Google's Keyword Tool.
Click on "Site-Related Keywords" and then insert the URL of the competition. In this case, fortunecity.com. Wait a few seconds, and Google shows you over one hundred keywords for that site. You are now officially off to a good start!
The Criteria
The criteria for determining which keywords to go after and what keywords to discard is this: The keyword is must be able to produce positive return on investment. Keywords take time and money to get ranking on. Consider those resources. Will a top placement for that keyword produce positive ROI?
Broad is Bad, Specific is Good
The more specific the keyword, the better it will convert. For example, a close friend of mine sells plasma screens. The keyword "plasma screen" drives a lot of traffic, but not so much in the way of actual sales. The keyword "42 inch plasma" drives more sales, but still doesn't convert as good as "Pioneer PDP-507CMX". Consumers who have made up their mind to purchase an item usually use much more specific keywords than consumers who are simply window shopping.
On-page elements
The Title tag
This is second of the two most important elements for good rankings. Make sure that the page's search term is contained in this tag, and place it as near to the front as is reasonable, whilst ensuring that it reads well. There's nothing wrong with placing the search term up front on its own, followed by a period; e.g. "Pagerank. Google's PageRank and how to make the most of it". The target search term is, of course, "PageRank". Obviously each page's Title tag should be different to the Title tags on the site's other pages.
Some search engines, such as Google, don't display the Description like they used to do but, even so, it should still be included in each page for those engines that do, and for the odd times when even Google displays it. Write an appealing description for the page and incorporate the page's search term into it at least once and, preferably, twice. Place one instance of it at the start or as near to the start as is reasonably possible.
The words in the Keywords tag were never treated as keywords by the search engines; they were treated as text on the page. The tag isn't as effective as it used to be but there is no reason to leave it out. So put plenty of relevant keywords into the tag and include the search term once at the front, and a second time further along the line. There is no need to seperate keywords and keyphrases with commas, as is often done, since the engines ignore commas.
"n" is a number from 1 to 6; the biggest heading size being 1. H tags are given more weight than ordinary text and, the bigger the H size, the more weight it receives. So include the target search term in H tags at least once on the page, and two or three times if possible. Also, place the first H tag as near to the top of the page as possible.
Bold text is given more weight than ordinary text but not as much as H tags. As much as is reasonable, enclose the search term in bold tags when it appears on the page.
Use the search term as often as you can on the page whilst not detracting from the page's readability. Make sure that you use the term once or twice very early in the page's body text and as often as possible throughout. Reword small parts, and even add sentences, to make sure that the search term is well represented in the text.
Include the search term in the alt text of all images on the page. Keep in mind that some systems such as Braille readers and speach synthesisers use the alt text, so you might want to make them usable whilst including the search term.
Link Building SEO
In the old days before Google, search engines based their rankings on the text found on the webpages and meta tags. An article on bobsledding by the inventor of bobsledding could easily be outranked by an article on bobsledding by a webmaster who had never even seen a bobsled, simply by repeating the keyword "bobsled" over and over. Search engines weren't pretty back then.
Then Google came along with its links based ranking algorithm, and links became the deciding factor in most SERPs. There are many places to get links, but how you get links does have an impact on how those links will impact your search engine rankings. Google has developed extremely advanced algorithms to evaluate links.
Web Directories
First order of the day is to submit to quality web directories.
1. Yahoo! Web Directory
URL: http://dir.yahoo.com
Links: 86,967
Alexa Rank: #1
Comments: Oldest web directory on the web and one of the few that Google recommends you submit your site to.
How to add: Find the most appropriate category and click on the Suggest a Site link in the upper right. Adult sites are $600 non-refundable, recurring annual fee; non-adult sites are $300 non-refundable, recurring annual fee.
2. DMOZ
URL: http://dmoz.org
Links: 9,789,433
Alexa Rank: #313
Comments: An older, well established web directory. Google recommends submission to this web directory, but acceptance rates are low.
How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the suggest URL link in the top right. Review time could be a year or more, but it is worth trying. No fee to submit.
3. Umdum
URL: http://www.umdum.com
Links: 125,918
Alexa Rank: #95,685
Comments: Umdum is a newer web directory, just a year or so old. It is owned by industry expert Loren Baker, a known and respected personality and operator of Search Engine Journal. Not exactly high traffic but the link juice is strong and the directory is not over-crowded.
How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the Submit URL Here button in the upper right.
4. Aviva Directory
URL: http://www.avivadirectory.com/
Links: 332,245
Alexa Rank: #8,279
Comments: AvivaDirectory is one of the highest promoted web directories on the Internet, and consequently a very high traffic directory.
How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the Add Link button top left. Cost is $49.95 per year.
5. RubberStamped
URL: http://www.rubberstamped.org/
Links: 15,378
Alexa Rank: #128,000
Comments: RubberStamped is the web directory of Peter Da Vanzo, a veteran SEO industry commentator. Clean directory, not over-crowded.
How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the Add URL link at the bottom of the page. Cost is $29.95.
Free Directories
One of the nicer things on the Internet is a free submission web directory. There are hundreds of these web directories, usually generating revenue by displaying Adsense ads. Go submit. Now. You can read the rest of this later.
Topical Directories
One of the better quality links that may give you targeted traffic is a listing in a topical web directory. If you sell widgets, go over to widget-world.com and get listing.
Related Sites
Do a search on your favorite search engine. Note the top ten websites ranking for your search term. Report these sites to Google for spamming. Then offer these website owners a small annual fee to have your link appear on the index pages of their websites.
Reciprocal Linking
Exchange links with a few of the better quality sites which deal with the same topics as your website.
Press Releases
New product line? Company going public? Acquired another company? Any newsworthy event you may have, do a press release and submit it through PRweb.com.
Link Conducive Content
Create useful informational pages which attract links. Offer a free tool, or advice. Forums often attract free links.
Free Stuff in Exchange for Links
Ever wonder how phpBB.com got a PageRank of ten? They gave away a script for free, with a link back to phpBB on every page. We gave away free hosting and saw some sweet PR, too.
Paid Stuff in Exchange for Links
The vast majority of vBulletin’s backlinks come from paying customers using their software. Ask your customers, politely, for a link.
It doesn’t have to be web related, either. Even if you sell lumber, you can ask your contractor/customers to link back to your website from theirs.
Writing Articles
Write articles. Include a link in your byline. Offer articles to related websites. Voila. Linkage.
Writing Testimonials
One great way to get links and make people happy is to give other webmasters testimonials. Do you like your web host? Neither do I, but it doesn’t stop me from offering a testimonial to my web host which includes a link back to my website.
Supporting Good Causes
A few of the better links we’ve acquired for v7n were acquired by donating to good causes, such as MozDev and Evolt.org
Blogs & Forums
Contribute intelligently to blog or forum discussions. Include a link to your website in your signature.
Interviews
Interview people who have friends. Their friends will link to the interview you place on your website. Or, if people like you, give interviews and make sure the interviewer includes a link to your website on the interview page.
Professional Organizations
Do you belong to the AMA, the MRI or the BBQ? Most professional organizations have websites. They may already include your name and address - ask them to include a link to your website.
Free Hosted Doorway Pages
Create a two or three page doorway site on Geocities. Include your keywords in the page titles. Include several links to your real website with your keywords in the anchor text. Provide doorway pages with limited number of links from dubious sources.
Awards
Selling widgets? Have a Best Widget Resource Site Award. Give the award to every widget resource site on the Internet. Get them all to link to you. Schweeet!
Contests
Have a contest. Create publicity. Get links. Even better if you can tick off a pompous windbag. More publicity.
Friends
Seventeenth-century English author John Donne said, “No man is an island”. I really have no idea how that ties into this discussion, but I am sure you know people. Friends, family, people who think you are friends - these folks may have websites, and you may be able to force them into linking to your website. Who knows; it’s worth a try.
Organic Links – Link Worthy Content
Organic means natural. In SEO, an organic link is a free link. In this article, organic is used in reference to links which are not paid for.
Each website is different, one effective strategy is to create link-worthy content such as an original and legitimately insightful article, and then promote that article via Pay Per Click services such as Adwords. If the article is genuinely useful, the chances are that you will reap a wealth of links after just a few weeks of pay per click promotion.
Then Google came along with its links based ranking algorithm, and links became the deciding factor in most SERPs. There are many places to get links, but how you get links does have an impact on how those links will impact your search engine rankings. Google has developed extremely advanced algorithms to evaluate links.
Web Directories
First order of the day is to submit to quality web directories.
1. Yahoo! Web Directory
URL: http://dir.yahoo.com
Links: 86,967
Alexa Rank: #1
Comments: Oldest web directory on the web and one of the few that Google recommends you submit your site to.
How to add: Find the most appropriate category and click on the Suggest a Site link in the upper right. Adult sites are $600 non-refundable, recurring annual fee; non-adult sites are $300 non-refundable, recurring annual fee.
2. DMOZ
URL: http://dmoz.org
Links: 9,789,433
Alexa Rank: #313
Comments: An older, well established web directory. Google recommends submission to this web directory, but acceptance rates are low.
How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the suggest URL link in the top right. Review time could be a year or more, but it is worth trying. No fee to submit.
3. Umdum
URL: http://www.umdum.com
Links: 125,918
Alexa Rank: #95,685
Comments: Umdum is a newer web directory, just a year or so old. It is owned by industry expert Loren Baker, a known and respected personality and operator of Search Engine Journal. Not exactly high traffic but the link juice is strong and the directory is not over-crowded.
How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the Submit URL Here button in the upper right.
4. Aviva Directory
URL: http://www.avivadirectory.com/
Links: 332,245
Alexa Rank: #8,279
Comments: AvivaDirectory is one of the highest promoted web directories on the Internet, and consequently a very high traffic directory.
How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the Add Link button top left. Cost is $49.95 per year.
5. RubberStamped
URL: http://www.rubberstamped.org/
Links: 15,378
Alexa Rank: #128,000
Comments: RubberStamped is the web directory of Peter Da Vanzo, a veteran SEO industry commentator. Clean directory, not over-crowded.
How to add: Find the most relevant category and click on the Add URL link at the bottom of the page. Cost is $29.95.
Free Directories
One of the nicer things on the Internet is a free submission web directory. There are hundreds of these web directories, usually generating revenue by displaying Adsense ads. Go submit. Now. You can read the rest of this later.
Topical Directories
One of the better quality links that may give you targeted traffic is a listing in a topical web directory. If you sell widgets, go over to widget-world.com and get listing.
Related Sites
Do a search on your favorite search engine. Note the top ten websites ranking for your search term. Report these sites to Google for spamming. Then offer these website owners a small annual fee to have your link appear on the index pages of their websites.
Reciprocal Linking
Exchange links with a few of the better quality sites which deal with the same topics as your website.
Press Releases
New product line? Company going public? Acquired another company? Any newsworthy event you may have, do a press release and submit it through PRweb.com.
Link Conducive Content
Create useful informational pages which attract links. Offer a free tool, or advice. Forums often attract free links.
Free Stuff in Exchange for Links
Ever wonder how phpBB.com got a PageRank of ten? They gave away a script for free, with a link back to phpBB on every page. We gave away free hosting and saw some sweet PR, too.
Paid Stuff in Exchange for Links
The vast majority of vBulletin’s backlinks come from paying customers using their software. Ask your customers, politely, for a link.
It doesn’t have to be web related, either. Even if you sell lumber, you can ask your contractor/customers to link back to your website from theirs.
Writing Articles
Write articles. Include a link in your byline. Offer articles to related websites. Voila. Linkage.
Writing Testimonials
One great way to get links and make people happy is to give other webmasters testimonials. Do you like your web host? Neither do I, but it doesn’t stop me from offering a testimonial to my web host which includes a link back to my website.
Supporting Good Causes
A few of the better links we’ve acquired for v7n were acquired by donating to good causes, such as MozDev and Evolt.org
Blogs & Forums
Contribute intelligently to blog or forum discussions. Include a link to your website in your signature.
Interviews
Interview people who have friends. Their friends will link to the interview you place on your website. Or, if people like you, give interviews and make sure the interviewer includes a link to your website on the interview page.
Professional Organizations
Do you belong to the AMA, the MRI or the BBQ? Most professional organizations have websites. They may already include your name and address - ask them to include a link to your website.
Free Hosted Doorway Pages
Create a two or three page doorway site on Geocities. Include your keywords in the page titles. Include several links to your real website with your keywords in the anchor text. Provide doorway pages with limited number of links from dubious sources.
Awards
Selling widgets? Have a Best Widget Resource Site Award. Give the award to every widget resource site on the Internet. Get them all to link to you. Schweeet!
Contests
Have a contest. Create publicity. Get links. Even better if you can tick off a pompous windbag. More publicity.
Friends
Seventeenth-century English author John Donne said, “No man is an island”. I really have no idea how that ties into this discussion, but I am sure you know people. Friends, family, people who think you are friends - these folks may have websites, and you may be able to force them into linking to your website. Who knows; it’s worth a try.
Organic Links – Link Worthy Content
Organic means natural. In SEO, an organic link is a free link. In this article, organic is used in reference to links which are not paid for.
Each website is different, one effective strategy is to create link-worthy content such as an original and legitimately insightful article, and then promote that article via Pay Per Click services such as Adwords. If the article is genuinely useful, the chances are that you will reap a wealth of links after just a few weeks of pay per click promotion.
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