One of the three major pillars of Search Engine Optimization is a website’s content, and onsite content optimization. All of the major search engine ranking algorithms have components that relate to the content that is contained on the website. Typically these components relate to Keyword Densities, number of words, content location, and sometimes age of content. In regards to the code that the content is contained in that falls under the topic of structure and not content, and will not be discussed in this article.
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) is an advanced web development method which can be used to create more responsive and interactive dynamic websites. AJAX accomplishes this by making object request calls back to the web server without having to refresh your browser, these object calls are then processed and are typically used to update the content of the page on your website that is currently being viewed. For the sake of this Article I’m going to ignore the XML component of AJAX as the search engines never view any of the XML data. Websites that use Javascript to manipulate content without using AJAX will also suffer from the issues described.
When a search engine sends out a robot / spider to visit your website with the goal of indexing your content it is only looking at what is being presented in the Markup Language. Generally a search engine does not behave like a user when indexing your website, it doesn’t click buttons or links it simply makes note of URLs associated with each page then individually then visits these pages to index them. This largely goes against the goal of AJAX which is to have as few pages as possible by interacting with the web server in a smarter method as the users interact with the website.
To put the last paragraph simply any content that is changed via AJAX or Javascript on a webpage that is not hardcoded in a page won’t be cached by the search engines. This essentially means that if you have great content that the search engines may love but you’re using AJAX you may be missing out on traffic. There are two approaches to rectifying these which may even give you an advantage over sites that don’t utilize Javascript / AJAX.
The first approach:
Is to make sure that your website degrades to normal flat markup language for non javascript capable browsers and search engines. Essentially every time you would have used an AJAX call make sure you have a page with the same content. Unfortunately for a lot of people this could mean a lot of work, for those individual using a database with PHP or ASP it is not too hard to build a site that builds itself with some effective web programming.
The second approach:
Is to use AJAX in a more minimalist fashion. The goal here is to present the search engines with your optimized content while making sure that any AJAX calls a user would do has no bearing on what you want the search engines to see. In fact this can be used to remove content from your website which may negatively affect your rankings such as testimonials. I’ve seen very few testimonials that actually do good things for a sites keyword density, I’ve even been known to optimize testimonials on client’s websites. With Javascript / AJAX you could insert a random testimonial into a page and therefore not affecting that pages keyword density. The only downside to this approach is that some offsite keyword density tools actually use Web Browser rendering engines so they may get false results as it takes the Javascript into account.
Now you may think that I’m anti AJAX from everything that I’ve said, but there are times and places for AJAX, provided it doesn’t affect how the search engines see your beautiful relevant content your trying to rank. AJAX is great to use for Member sections of your website, interactive forms, slideshows, and a lot more it just needs to be leveraged correctly to avoid missing out on search engine visitors. The final thing to keep in mind is that most search engines like to see more than a single page website which many AJAX website appear to be, always strive for at least 5 or more indexable pages as internal links and anchor text can have a lot of value.
May 30, 2010
May 26, 2010
SEO Importance
More and more people are investing in SEO. Big companies are investing more and more into SEO. But, average everyday people are also putting their investment dollars into SEO. SEO is a market that is continuously experiencing significant growth. As more and more people realize the potential of SEO, they are increasingly putting their investment dollars into this surefire method of guaranteed gain.
A study conducted in the United Kingdom in early 2009 showed that 55% of 800 companies that responded to a survey said they plan to increase their SEO budgets this year. 45% plan to increase their spending that is paid out for paid search. This is all being done in an effort to increase return on investment, or ROI in the current economy and recession. Paid search is becoming a more and more popular way to increase yearly returns for companies.
Based on this study, we can see that more and more companies are switching to paid search and search engine optimization to increase their returns on investments. They are finding that they can make more money and have increased revenue by implementing these new investments. Investments are much better suited and becoming much more productive in SEO areas. With the steady increase in SEO implementation, people are becoming more and more aware of it.
This same study found that about 48% of the companies that were surveyed reported that they had better results with organic optimization campaigns in 2008. A mere 6% reported a decrease in the effectiveness of these SEO campaigns. This can tell us that there is definitely a lot higher satisfaction than there is dissatisfaction with companies that are using SEO in their businesses.
It is not only big companies that are benefiting from the SEO craze that is sweeping the nation. Normal, average, everyday people are putting the power of SEO to work for them. They are also investing more and more into the SEO market. Some people are even dropping their old investments in favor of replacing them with SEO. They are having a much greater return on their investments with SEO and are coming out much farther ahead.
There have been studies conducted all over the world on the use of SEO and investing in it. The majority of the studies have shown that people are turning to SEO more and more for their business and personal needs. They are also investing more and more of their money into SEO. SEO has been around since the 1990's when the first search engines started making their mark on the internet. It has grown so rapidly and so steadily that it has gotten more and more interest from many different kinds of people. Everyone wants to have a piece of the SEO pie.
A study conducted in the United Kingdom in early 2009 showed that 55% of 800 companies that responded to a survey said they plan to increase their SEO budgets this year. 45% plan to increase their spending that is paid out for paid search. This is all being done in an effort to increase return on investment, or ROI in the current economy and recession. Paid search is becoming a more and more popular way to increase yearly returns for companies.
Based on this study, we can see that more and more companies are switching to paid search and search engine optimization to increase their returns on investments. They are finding that they can make more money and have increased revenue by implementing these new investments. Investments are much better suited and becoming much more productive in SEO areas. With the steady increase in SEO implementation, people are becoming more and more aware of it.
This same study found that about 48% of the companies that were surveyed reported that they had better results with organic optimization campaigns in 2008. A mere 6% reported a decrease in the effectiveness of these SEO campaigns. This can tell us that there is definitely a lot higher satisfaction than there is dissatisfaction with companies that are using SEO in their businesses.
It is not only big companies that are benefiting from the SEO craze that is sweeping the nation. Normal, average, everyday people are putting the power of SEO to work for them. They are also investing more and more into the SEO market. Some people are even dropping their old investments in favor of replacing them with SEO. They are having a much greater return on their investments with SEO and are coming out much farther ahead.
There have been studies conducted all over the world on the use of SEO and investing in it. The majority of the studies have shown that people are turning to SEO more and more for their business and personal needs. They are also investing more and more of their money into SEO. SEO has been around since the 1990's when the first search engines started making their mark on the internet. It has grown so rapidly and so steadily that it has gotten more and more interest from many different kinds of people. Everyone wants to have a piece of the SEO pie.
Youtube Keywords Research Tool for Video SEO
The Youtube online keyword research tools that specifically focused on keyword suggestions for online video marketing. Trust me, I’ve asked everyone I know… I have even put in requests to some of the popular online keyword research companies with no indication that such a tool was being developed.
About a month ago, Youtube released its YouTube Suggest enhanced search functionality which doubles as an excellent video marketing keyword suggestion tool for doing keyword research on Youtube. Essentially, this feature uses predictive text to display popular query suggestions (in order of search volume) in the Youtube search box.
The functionality is turned on by default but you can enable it and disable it via the Youtube advanced search settings link:
Here is a screenshot of the suggestion functionality in action:
By using Youtube Suggest, you can gain insight into how users are searching on Youtube and which queries are most often performed. These keyword suggestions can then be used to add to your video in order to increase the chances of targeting the largest possible relevant audience.
You will notice that this feature is very much the same thing that you see when using Google Suggest, which has been available on Google Labs for some time. In fact, Youtube is using the Google Suggest functionality to power the Youtube Suggestions. Because this is the case, you can also get these same suggestions by using the following JSON call, where q=the term being searched:
http://suggestqueries.google.com/complete/search? hl=en&ds=yt&json=t&jsonp=callbackfunction&q=orange+county+ca
So, go for now and try the youtube keywords suggestions tool in order to determine the top query categories in youtube.
About a month ago, Youtube released its YouTube Suggest enhanced search functionality which doubles as an excellent video marketing keyword suggestion tool for doing keyword research on Youtube. Essentially, this feature uses predictive text to display popular query suggestions (in order of search volume) in the Youtube search box.
The functionality is turned on by default but you can enable it and disable it via the Youtube advanced search settings link:
Here is a screenshot of the suggestion functionality in action:
By using Youtube Suggest, you can gain insight into how users are searching on Youtube and which queries are most often performed. These keyword suggestions can then be used to add to your video in order to increase the chances of targeting the largest possible relevant audience.
You will notice that this feature is very much the same thing that you see when using Google Suggest, which has been available on Google Labs for some time. In fact, Youtube is using the Google Suggest functionality to power the Youtube Suggestions. Because this is the case, you can also get these same suggestions by using the following JSON call, where q=the term being searched:
http://suggestqueries.google.com/complete/search? hl=en&ds=yt&json=t&jsonp=callbackfunction&q=orange+county+ca
So, go for now and try the youtube keywords suggestions tool in order to determine the top query categories in youtube.
May 23, 2010
Link Building With Articles
A many different ways for link building. One of the huge rewards is writing and submitting articles. The article submission is one of the best of the link building methods is that it not only functions as a link building exercise but also a traffic source. Honestly, can you think of a better use of your online marketing time than a tactic that provides for traffic and which can help improve your search engine visibility? Neither can I.
That being said, simply whipping off an article and putting it up on your site is not going to do it. There are a few crucial steps to making the most of your efforts. It may take a bit longer to do it right but the rewards will be much higher as well. Here are the basic steps to writing an effective article that gets well picked up and can provide you with some solid traffic and links.
Pick A Topic
Picking a topic for your article can often be harder than it sounds. When you're selecting a topic you can't simply write about the first thing that pops into your head. There are two questions you need to ask yourself when you're selecting your topic:
1.Will the editors care? If the editors of related websites aren't going to care about your topic then it's not going to get published. If it's not going to get published then you can probably find better uses for your time – like golf or shopping for blue widgets online.
2.Will bloggers care? The second questions is whether other online publishers will be interested in the content. If an editor publishes your content and other link to it, that makes the like to you on the publisher site all the stronger.
Something I've found handy is reading through your FAQ's. If clients and site visitors regularly ask you the same questions, these are likely good topics for your article (though an article on your shipping policies probably won't get picked up too widely). Another great place to start when thinking of a topic to write about is your own brain. Are there questions you've asked that took a ton of time or research to answer? If so – answer the question for others and cover the research and you're likely to get well picked-up.
Write The Article
While picking a topic can be hard, constructing the article can be all the more difficult. An article needs to have a specific point and must provide the reader with a means to understanding why you're making that point.
Let's take this article for example; once I knew I wanted to write an article on how to use article writing as a link building method I knew what the tone would be: instructional. After that it was a matter of deciding what I wanted to cover in the article (picking a topic, writing the article, testing the article and article syndication). After I'm done writing this article I'll have it proof-read by a couple people who aren't involved with our site and then I'll syndicate it in hopes of developing some solid, highly-relevant links and secure some equally relevant traffic.
Testing
I don't have a ton to say on this topic. Get people to proof-read your article. Ideally you'll find people from inside and outside your industry to proof the article.
Also, watch the pickup rates on your different articles by searching for it after submission. Pay attention to the types that get picked up and where and focus future articles for the best outcome (whether that's links or traffic or both – you'll have to decide based on the statistics generated by each articles)
Article Syndication
And now for the entire purpose of the article – the syndication. There are two main avenues you can look down (and should) when looking to syndicate your articles. You can find an article syndication service for submissions (very good for a large number of article directories) and you can seek topic-specific sites that will accept your articles.
As I am affiliated with an article syndication company I won't list your options there for fear of a conflict of interest and thus diminish the article. Instead I'll focus on finding specific sites to submit your article to and will assume you will select your own large distribution options.
To find sites to submit your articles to you may need to think outside the box. You'll need to run a number of searches for related phrases that will yield the best results. For example, if I worked for a web design company I might search for places that accept articles that are related to web design, hosting, SEO, small businesses and anything else I could think of. For example, I would begin my search on Google with “web design article submit” and extend it from there.
If you list your results in sets of 100 you can order them by PageRank or Backlinks and go for the higher valued sites first.
Once you've got a solid list you can complete your submissions to it. Don't forget to document your submissions as well as any account information for future reference as you'll likely want to submit another article down the road. Also, you'll want to add a few sites each submission so you've got a constantly evolving list with more and more backlinking domains.
That being said, simply whipping off an article and putting it up on your site is not going to do it. There are a few crucial steps to making the most of your efforts. It may take a bit longer to do it right but the rewards will be much higher as well. Here are the basic steps to writing an effective article that gets well picked up and can provide you with some solid traffic and links.
Pick A Topic
Picking a topic for your article can often be harder than it sounds. When you're selecting a topic you can't simply write about the first thing that pops into your head. There are two questions you need to ask yourself when you're selecting your topic:
1.Will the editors care? If the editors of related websites aren't going to care about your topic then it's not going to get published. If it's not going to get published then you can probably find better uses for your time – like golf or shopping for blue widgets online.
2.Will bloggers care? The second questions is whether other online publishers will be interested in the content. If an editor publishes your content and other link to it, that makes the like to you on the publisher site all the stronger.
Something I've found handy is reading through your FAQ's. If clients and site visitors regularly ask you the same questions, these are likely good topics for your article (though an article on your shipping policies probably won't get picked up too widely). Another great place to start when thinking of a topic to write about is your own brain. Are there questions you've asked that took a ton of time or research to answer? If so – answer the question for others and cover the research and you're likely to get well picked-up.
Write The Article
While picking a topic can be hard, constructing the article can be all the more difficult. An article needs to have a specific point and must provide the reader with a means to understanding why you're making that point.
Let's take this article for example; once I knew I wanted to write an article on how to use article writing as a link building method I knew what the tone would be: instructional. After that it was a matter of deciding what I wanted to cover in the article (picking a topic, writing the article, testing the article and article syndication). After I'm done writing this article I'll have it proof-read by a couple people who aren't involved with our site and then I'll syndicate it in hopes of developing some solid, highly-relevant links and secure some equally relevant traffic.
Testing
I don't have a ton to say on this topic. Get people to proof-read your article. Ideally you'll find people from inside and outside your industry to proof the article.
Also, watch the pickup rates on your different articles by searching for it after submission. Pay attention to the types that get picked up and where and focus future articles for the best outcome (whether that's links or traffic or both – you'll have to decide based on the statistics generated by each articles)
Article Syndication
And now for the entire purpose of the article – the syndication. There are two main avenues you can look down (and should) when looking to syndicate your articles. You can find an article syndication service for submissions (very good for a large number of article directories) and you can seek topic-specific sites that will accept your articles.
As I am affiliated with an article syndication company I won't list your options there for fear of a conflict of interest and thus diminish the article. Instead I'll focus on finding specific sites to submit your article to and will assume you will select your own large distribution options.
To find sites to submit your articles to you may need to think outside the box. You'll need to run a number of searches for related phrases that will yield the best results. For example, if I worked for a web design company I might search for places that accept articles that are related to web design, hosting, SEO, small businesses and anything else I could think of. For example, I would begin my search on Google with “web design article submit” and extend it from there.
If you list your results in sets of 100 you can order them by PageRank or Backlinks and go for the higher valued sites first.
Once you've got a solid list you can complete your submissions to it. Don't forget to document your submissions as well as any account information for future reference as you'll likely want to submit another article down the road. Also, you'll want to add a few sites each submission so you've got a constantly evolving list with more and more backlinking domains.
May 21, 2010
SEO For Google
Virtually every webmaster and website owner is primarily concerned about attaining Google rankings due to the significantly higher number of searchers using it. Provided that you are building your website following the best practices of SEO (i.e. unique content, a sizable amount of content, and a good number of incoming links) then your rankings are sure to follow, however due to their aging delay it will likely take longer than on MSN or Yahoo! Google considers the age of your links, your domain and even the individual page to be a factor and the longer your page has been online the better.
Essentially, ranking a site on Google requires that you take the same actions as for Yahoo! and MSN, continue your link building efforts on an ongoing basis to insure that you end up with more-and-more links, and that you update your content and add content on a fairly regular basis (though the addition of a blog for example).
Essentially, ranking a site on Google requires that you take the same actions as for Yahoo! and MSN, continue your link building efforts on an ongoing basis to insure that you end up with more-and-more links, and that you update your content and add content on a fairly regular basis (though the addition of a blog for example).
SEO For Yahoo!
Until recently Yahoo! acted very much like MSN, now it's leaning a bit more towards Google. Ranking a website well on Yahoo! requires a solid-sized site with unique content and a very good number of links.
While PageRank is a Google factor, Yahoo! does have some type of page value factor at play. Many moons ago Yahoo! was playing with a PageRank-like calculation called WebRank. They even went so far as to put out a beta toolbar testing it. This indicates that there is a factor at play in the Yahoo! algorithm similar to Google's PageRank – they just don't advertise what a specific page's value is.
Yahoo! is placing a large amount of emphasis on the age of links though not in the same way that Google is. We will get to Google shortly however to understand what to expect from Yahoo! one must understand that when you get a link to your website it won't hold it's full value for a number of months. While the exact number of months in unknown it appears to be around 8 before it hold it's full weight though it will hold some from day one and this weight will increase as time passes.
To rank well on Yahoo! you much optimize your site similar to what you would do for MSN and you must build a large number of inbound links and have patience as these links age. You will not see a sudden spike 2 weeks after a large link-building campaign, you will likely have to wait 3-4 months to notice any significant effect.
While PageRank is a Google factor, Yahoo! does have some type of page value factor at play. Many moons ago Yahoo! was playing with a PageRank-like calculation called WebRank. They even went so far as to put out a beta toolbar testing it. This indicates that there is a factor at play in the Yahoo! algorithm similar to Google's PageRank – they just don't advertise what a specific page's value is.
Yahoo! is placing a large amount of emphasis on the age of links though not in the same way that Google is. We will get to Google shortly however to understand what to expect from Yahoo! one must understand that when you get a link to your website it won't hold it's full value for a number of months. While the exact number of months in unknown it appears to be around 8 before it hold it's full weight though it will hold some from day one and this weight will increase as time passes.
To rank well on Yahoo! you much optimize your site similar to what you would do for MSN and you must build a large number of inbound links and have patience as these links age. You will not see a sudden spike 2 weeks after a large link-building campaign, you will likely have to wait 3-4 months to notice any significant effect.
SEO For MSN
Proper SEO for MSN requires that a site be structured well with a distinct theme throughout and many inbound links. The advantage an SEO has while optimizing a site for MSN is that MSN tends to pick up and credit new content and inbound links very quickly. That means that with the right tactics in place one can rank a website relatively quickly on this important engine.
While MSN has the lowest number of searches performed on it, ComScore's report back in July revealed that MSN searchers were also 48% more likely to purchase a product or service online than the average Internet user. A very important statistic for website owners that sell online.
To rank highly on MSN one needs to build a solid sized site (exactly how large will depend on your industry – look at the size of your competitor's sites for an idea), a relevant theme throughout the site that focuses on your primary keywords and a good number of links. MSN doesn't (at this time) employ an aging delay on links such as the one employed by both Google and Yahoo! so the effects of the site and inbound links can be picked up very quickly and with good SEO efforts one can rank well within a few months on MSN for competitive phrases.
While MSN has the lowest number of searches performed on it, ComScore's report back in July revealed that MSN searchers were also 48% more likely to purchase a product or service online than the average Internet user. A very important statistic for website owners that sell online.
To rank highly on MSN one needs to build a solid sized site (exactly how large will depend on your industry – look at the size of your competitor's sites for an idea), a relevant theme throughout the site that focuses on your primary keywords and a good number of links. MSN doesn't (at this time) employ an aging delay on links such as the one employed by both Google and Yahoo! so the effects of the site and inbound links can be picked up very quickly and with good SEO efforts one can rank well within a few months on MSN for competitive phrases.
May 18, 2010
How to use Meta name "robots" tag
How do you explain a spider of a search engine you only want him to index just the first page of your website or he is allowed to index the whole website. You use the so called ROBOTS tag.
The robots meta tag is not the same as the file called robots.txt You should use these two together. Both are used by the seach engines like Yahoo and Google. If you use this meta tag the wrong way you might shut the search engines out. So the influence of this meta tag is significant.
<meta content="selection" name="robots">
Example meta tag robots
Add the following meta tag in the HTML source of your page:
<meta content="index, follow" name="robots">
The spider will now index your whole website.
The spider will not only index the first webpage of your website but also all your other webpages.
you are also allowed to type it like this:
<meta content="INDEX, FOLLOW" name="robots">
<meta content="INDEX, FOLLOW" name="robots">
<meta content="index follow" name="robots">
By changing the index to no-index and the follow to no-follow your are able to influence the behaviour of the spider. If you don't want the search engine spider to crawl through your whole website you use the following meta tag :
<meta content="index, nofollow" name="robots">
The spider will now only look at this page and stops there.
<meta content="noindex, follow" name="robots">
The spider will not look at this page but will crawl through the rest of the pages on your website.
<meta content="noindex, nofollow" name="robots">
The spider will not look at this page and will NOT crawl through the rest of your webpages.
This metatag can also be typed with the / in the end of the tag:
<meta content="index, nofollow" name="robots">
<meta content="noindex, follow" name="robots">
<meta content="noindex, nofollow" name="robots">
Where do you add this robot tag?
You add this robot tag on the first index page and you tell the spider if you want your whole website to be crawled or not.
Make sure that on every page relevant meta tags are added. Add keywords and phrases that are relevant and correspond to the text and the language on that specific page. It might be a lot of work to add specific meta tags to each page but you will notice in time that it works!
Meta tags Summary - Important SEO things to remember
We suggest that you use the Meta tags in your index.htm or index.html page. Than in all other important pages and last but not least in all the pages of your website. Make sure to put some extra effort in it, it will attract extra visitors to your webpage. Create relevant different meta tags for each and every page.
The robots meta tag is not the same as the file called robots.txt You should use these two together. Both are used by the seach engines like Yahoo and Google. If you use this meta tag the wrong way you might shut the search engines out. So the influence of this meta tag is significant.
<meta content="selection" name="robots">
Example meta tag robots
Add the following meta tag in the HTML source of your page:
<meta content="index, follow" name="robots">
The spider will now index your whole website.
The spider will not only index the first webpage of your website but also all your other webpages.
you are also allowed to type it like this:
<meta content="INDEX, FOLLOW" name="robots">
<meta content="INDEX, FOLLOW" name="robots">
<meta content="index follow" name="robots">
By changing the index to no-index and the follow to no-follow your are able to influence the behaviour of the spider. If you don't want the search engine spider to crawl through your whole website you use the following meta tag :
<meta content="index, nofollow" name="robots">
The spider will now only look at this page and stops there.
<meta content="noindex, follow" name="robots">
The spider will not look at this page but will crawl through the rest of the pages on your website.
<meta content="noindex, nofollow" name="robots">
The spider will not look at this page and will NOT crawl through the rest of your webpages.
This metatag can also be typed with the / in the end of the tag:
<meta content="index, nofollow" name="robots">
<meta content="noindex, follow" name="robots">
<meta content="noindex, nofollow" name="robots">
Where do you add this robot tag?
You add this robot tag on the first index page and you tell the spider if you want your whole website to be crawled or not.
Make sure that on every page relevant meta tags are added. Add keywords and phrases that are relevant and correspond to the text and the language on that specific page. It might be a lot of work to add specific meta tags to each page but you will notice in time that it works!
Meta tags Summary - Important SEO things to remember
We suggest that you use the Meta tags in your index.htm or index.html page. Than in all other important pages and last but not least in all the pages of your website. Make sure to put some extra effort in it, it will attract extra visitors to your webpage. Create relevant different meta tags for each and every page.
May 17, 2010
What a Search Engines Spider Does?
The first thing that you need to understand is what a search engine "spider" is, and how it works. A "spider" (also known as a "robot" or "crawler") is a software program that search engines use to find what’s out there on the ever-changing web.
There are many types of spider in use, but for now, we’re only interested in the one that actually "crawls" the web finding pages. This is a somewhat oversimplified picture, but basically this program starts at a website, loads the pages, and follows the hyperlinks on each page. In this way, the theory goes, everything on the web will eventually be found, as the spider crawls from one website to another. Search engines may run thousands of instances of their web-crawling spider programs simultaneously, on multiple servers.
When a "crawler" visits one of your web pages, it loads the page’s contents into a database. Once a page has been fetched, the text of your page is loaded into the search engine’s index, which is a massive database of words, and where they occur on different web pages.
So there are really three steps. It starts with crawling (fetching pages), then indexing (breaking them down into words for the index), and a final step where the links (web page addresses / URLs) that are found get fed back into the crawling program to be retrieved.
When the spider (some of them will check later to verify that a page really is offline) doesn't find a page, it will eventually be deleted from the index. This is one reason why it’s important to use a reliable web hosting provider.
There are many types of spider in use, but for now, we’re only interested in the one that actually "crawls" the web finding pages. This is a somewhat oversimplified picture, but basically this program starts at a website, loads the pages, and follows the hyperlinks on each page. In this way, the theory goes, everything on the web will eventually be found, as the spider crawls from one website to another. Search engines may run thousands of instances of their web-crawling spider programs simultaneously, on multiple servers.
When a "crawler" visits one of your web pages, it loads the page’s contents into a database. Once a page has been fetched, the text of your page is loaded into the search engine’s index, which is a massive database of words, and where they occur on different web pages.
So there are really three steps. It starts with crawling (fetching pages), then indexing (breaking them down into words for the index), and a final step where the links (web page addresses / URLs) that are found get fed back into the crawling program to be retrieved.
When the spider (some of them will check later to verify that a page really is offline) doesn't find a page, it will eventually be deleted from the index. This is one reason why it’s important to use a reliable web hosting provider.
May 16, 2010
Keyword Phrases Technique Basics For SEO
This is the important step in SEO process. One could make a compelling argument for link building or for architecture or for copywriting but at the end of the day – ranking highly for keywords that either don't convert or which you close up shop waiting to rank for isn't going to help too terribly much so in my opinion – I'd put keyword research higher in importance. In fact, when I'm building affiliate sites first step is to look up keywords and competition levels – then I look into products and websites and this method has worked very well indeed. It insures that I choose keywords that with both convert and that I can rank for in a period of time and with an effort level that matches the return.
So – if you're doing keyword research, where should you begin? Unless you're an affiliate marketer you already have a product and since you're the target audience of this article – I'm going to assume that's the case. For the purpose of this article I'm going to pick a hobby of mine and also an area where I don't have a client and imagine I'm doing keyword research for the imaginary online downhill mountain biking store DH Mountain Bikes.
So Where To Begin ...
The first thing one needs to do is try to think up all the possible phrases that might apply. I call this my seed list … it's the list of phrases that my research starts with and is generally based on brainstorming. In this case the list would be:
downhill mountain bike
dh mountain bike
mountain bike
The keyword tool I generally use first is Google's keyword suggestion tool. There are other great tools which I'll discuss below but I've found Google's tool to be as accurate as any other, the price is definitely right (free), and they're very good about providing the information required to know just how wrong the data is if you know where to look. So let's do just that.
Before we begin you'll need to head over to Google's keyword tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. In the top left (for now) you'll see a link to a beta version of the tool. Click on the link and you'll be at the new version of the tool which will provide you easy access to much more information – as long as you know what to look for. So let's begin with our three seed phrases.
When you see the list you'll first have to know what the numbers are. This tool is a tool designed for AdWords and the default number is the Broad match which means it includes every phrase with the term. For example, the term "mountain bike" has a broad match total of 2,740,000 which will include "downhill mountain bike", "mountain bike parts", "kona mountain bike", etc. etc. What we want to know is how many searches are for “mountain bike”. Down the left-hand side you'll see a set of check boxes. Deselect “Broad” and select “Exact” and you'll get the Exact match numbers – the number of searches for the exact phrase. You'll quickly see that 2,740,000 drop to 450,000. This is how many people searches the GOOGLE SEARCH NETWORK for “mountain bike”. Why is this in caps – because it's so commonly misunderstood that I definitely want your attention brought to it. This isn't the number of searches on Google.com – it's the number of searches on all sites who's search is powered by Google. From YouTube to Beanstalk's blog search – it's all in there so the data starts to get skewed from the start. Then let's add in all the automated queries from rank-checking tools and just manual searches from you and your competitors can further skew the data. This skewing will exist in all data – the thing I like about using Google is that at least we know more about what's skewing the data.
OK – so from there we need to organize the data into a more useful set of information. To do this one needs to understand the columns of data. The first column is the keyword, the second you'll see is a link to the term on Google Insights. We'll get into this later. The next is Global Monthly Searches – this is the average number of searches/mth worldwide. This can be helpful in some industries but in ours – I'm only concerned with the US market which is where my imaginary store ships to so I'm more interested in the next column Local Monthly Searches which is the number of searches in the US (or whatever region I've specified when entering my keyword phrases). This is the data I'm interested in. The last column is the search trend. This is extremely important but often overlooked. It is a column that wasn't visible by default in the old/current version.
OK – let's organize our data by search volume. Click on the “Local Monthly Searches” and you'll see the keywords order by descending search volume. With this data in front of me I then typically look over to the Trend data to see what I can find there. In our case we're going to see an increase in search volume in the spring and summer. This make sense of course. Think of your industry and see if the trends reflect what makes sense.
I'm also looking for anomalies. Often I'll see phrases that jump for a single month. One has to know that unless there was a news story or other event that would spark interest in a single term or brand – a tool or some other such incident is likely falsifying the data. You need to look at these trends and see if they make sense. If not – you need to either test the phrases with PPC or jus skip over them and select different phrases. There's little worse as an SEO than focusing energies on a phrase only to find that the search volume is not what was expected based on the estimates delivered.
So now what?
So what do you do once you've filtered your data down to just what you're interested in looking into competition levels on. Well – the first thing I do is to look to the trends to see if there are any phrases that obviously need to be filtered out. In this case there really aren't any high in the search volume column. So the only thing left is to look at the competition levels to see what makes sense. For our purposes we'll be dividing the list and research into two categories:
Major phrases – We need to decide what the long-term goals are going to be and the targets for the main pages. These will be the totally generic phrases such as “mountain bike” and “downhill mountain bike” as well as brand or type specific phrases such as “specialized mountain bike” and “full suspension mountain bike”.
Longtail phrases – We also need to look into the types of longtail phrases we're going to want to target. In this case I know I'll want to target specific parts which will require new research. I will spare you the details there but I'll end up with specific models of components such as "hayes mx2". You don't need to know what that is – you need to know the makes and models in your industry (or other longatil opportunities such as "new york hotel with jacuzzi", etc.)
I generally would gather together a list of 15 or 20 major phrases and 50 or 60 longtail phrases and would then head into the competition analysis to determine which phrases to move forward with.
So – if you're doing keyword research, where should you begin? Unless you're an affiliate marketer you already have a product and since you're the target audience of this article – I'm going to assume that's the case. For the purpose of this article I'm going to pick a hobby of mine and also an area where I don't have a client and imagine I'm doing keyword research for the imaginary online downhill mountain biking store DH Mountain Bikes.
So Where To Begin ...
The first thing one needs to do is try to think up all the possible phrases that might apply. I call this my seed list … it's the list of phrases that my research starts with and is generally based on brainstorming. In this case the list would be:
downhill mountain bike
dh mountain bike
mountain bike
The keyword tool I generally use first is Google's keyword suggestion tool. There are other great tools which I'll discuss below but I've found Google's tool to be as accurate as any other, the price is definitely right (free), and they're very good about providing the information required to know just how wrong the data is if you know where to look. So let's do just that.
Before we begin you'll need to head over to Google's keyword tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. In the top left (for now) you'll see a link to a beta version of the tool. Click on the link and you'll be at the new version of the tool which will provide you easy access to much more information – as long as you know what to look for. So let's begin with our three seed phrases.
When you see the list you'll first have to know what the numbers are. This tool is a tool designed for AdWords and the default number is the Broad match which means it includes every phrase with the term. For example, the term "mountain bike" has a broad match total of 2,740,000 which will include "downhill mountain bike", "mountain bike parts", "kona mountain bike", etc. etc. What we want to know is how many searches are for “mountain bike”. Down the left-hand side you'll see a set of check boxes. Deselect “Broad” and select “Exact” and you'll get the Exact match numbers – the number of searches for the exact phrase. You'll quickly see that 2,740,000 drop to 450,000. This is how many people searches the GOOGLE SEARCH NETWORK for “mountain bike”. Why is this in caps – because it's so commonly misunderstood that I definitely want your attention brought to it. This isn't the number of searches on Google.com – it's the number of searches on all sites who's search is powered by Google. From YouTube to Beanstalk's blog search – it's all in there so the data starts to get skewed from the start. Then let's add in all the automated queries from rank-checking tools and just manual searches from you and your competitors can further skew the data. This skewing will exist in all data – the thing I like about using Google is that at least we know more about what's skewing the data.
OK – so from there we need to organize the data into a more useful set of information. To do this one needs to understand the columns of data. The first column is the keyword, the second you'll see is a link to the term on Google Insights. We'll get into this later. The next is Global Monthly Searches – this is the average number of searches/mth worldwide. This can be helpful in some industries but in ours – I'm only concerned with the US market which is where my imaginary store ships to so I'm more interested in the next column Local Monthly Searches which is the number of searches in the US (or whatever region I've specified when entering my keyword phrases). This is the data I'm interested in. The last column is the search trend. This is extremely important but often overlooked. It is a column that wasn't visible by default in the old/current version.
OK – let's organize our data by search volume. Click on the “Local Monthly Searches” and you'll see the keywords order by descending search volume. With this data in front of me I then typically look over to the Trend data to see what I can find there. In our case we're going to see an increase in search volume in the spring and summer. This make sense of course. Think of your industry and see if the trends reflect what makes sense.
I'm also looking for anomalies. Often I'll see phrases that jump for a single month. One has to know that unless there was a news story or other event that would spark interest in a single term or brand – a tool or some other such incident is likely falsifying the data. You need to look at these trends and see if they make sense. If not – you need to either test the phrases with PPC or jus skip over them and select different phrases. There's little worse as an SEO than focusing energies on a phrase only to find that the search volume is not what was expected based on the estimates delivered.
So now what?
So what do you do once you've filtered your data down to just what you're interested in looking into competition levels on. Well – the first thing I do is to look to the trends to see if there are any phrases that obviously need to be filtered out. In this case there really aren't any high in the search volume column. So the only thing left is to look at the competition levels to see what makes sense. For our purposes we'll be dividing the list and research into two categories:
Major phrases – We need to decide what the long-term goals are going to be and the targets for the main pages. These will be the totally generic phrases such as “mountain bike” and “downhill mountain bike” as well as brand or type specific phrases such as “specialized mountain bike” and “full suspension mountain bike”.
Longtail phrases – We also need to look into the types of longtail phrases we're going to want to target. In this case I know I'll want to target specific parts which will require new research. I will spare you the details there but I'll end up with specific models of components such as "hayes mx2". You don't need to know what that is – you need to know the makes and models in your industry (or other longatil opportunities such as "new york hotel with jacuzzi", etc.)
I generally would gather together a list of 15 or 20 major phrases and 50 or 60 longtail phrases and would then head into the competition analysis to determine which phrases to move forward with.
May 14, 2010
The Best Top Ten Tips for SEO To Improved Search Engine Placement
Read Website Optimization in Ten Easy Steps
1.Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to.
Due to Google's aging delay for all new domains, your best bet is to use your existing domain/website if at all possible. If you're redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.
2.Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines.
This may sound counterintuitive, but hear me out. The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box. If those "someones" are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. You need to optimize your site to meet target audience needs. If you don't know who your target audience is, then you need to find out one way or another. Look for studies online that might provide demographic information, and visit other sites, communities, or forums where your target audience might hang out and listen to what they discuss. This information will be crucial to your resulting website design, keyword research, and copywriting.
3.Research your keyword phrases extensively.
The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as our Keyword Search tool, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page. Never shoot for general keywords such as "travel" or "vacation," as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.
4.Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research.
Your research may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site. For instance, let's say your site sells toys. There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they're looking for. Are people looking for toys to fit their child's stage of development? (Look for keyword phrases such as "preschool toys.") Or are they more likely to be seeking specific brands of toys? Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways. Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching. Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.
5.Program your site to be "crawler-friendly."
The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn't mean that you can't use these things on your site; you most certainly can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. If you have only a drop-down sequence of menus to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will never find those resulting pages. You'll need to make sure that you always have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site. From those pages, you'll need to have further HTML links to the individual product/service pages. (Please note that HTML links do NOT have to be text-only links. There's nothing wrong with graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard tags, as the search engines can follow image links just fine.)
6.Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes as clearly and descriptively as possible.
Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Don't make them guess what's at the other end with links that say "click here" or other non-descriptive words. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.
7.Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see."
This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn't be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!) Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly.
8.Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag.
Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines. Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it's on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your stuff.
9.Make sure your site is "link-worthy."
Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.
10.Don't be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings.
If you've done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site fairly quickly. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions. It certainly won't hurt to add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don't simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something.
1.Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to.
Due to Google's aging delay for all new domains, your best bet is to use your existing domain/website if at all possible. If you're redesigning or starting from scratch and you have to use a brand-new domain for some reason, you can expect to wait a good 9-12 months before your site will show up in Google for any keyword phrases that are important to you.
2.Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines.
This may sound counterintuitive, but hear me out. The search engines are looking for pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types into their little search box. If those "someones" are typing in search words that relate to what your site offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. You need to optimize your site to meet target audience needs. If you don't know who your target audience is, then you need to find out one way or another. Look for studies online that might provide demographic information, and visit other sites, communities, or forums where your target audience might hang out and listen to what they discuss. This information will be crucial to your resulting website design, keyword research, and copywriting.
3.Research your keyword phrases extensively.
The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as our Keyword Search tool, Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant phrases for your site, and choose a few different ones for every page. Never shoot for general keywords such as "travel" or "vacation," as they are rarely (if ever) indicative of what your site is really about.
4.Design and categorize your site architecture and navigation based on your keyword research.
Your research may uncover undiscovered areas of interest or ways of categorizing your products/services that you may wish to add to your site. For instance, let's say your site sells toys. There are numerous ways you could categorize and lay out your site so that people will find the toys they're looking for. Are people looking for toys to fit their child's stage of development? (Look for keyword phrases such as "preschool toys.") Or are they more likely to be seeking specific brands of toys? Most likely, your keyword research will show you that people are looking for toys in many different ways. Your job is to make sure that your site's navigation showcases the various ways of searching. Make sure you have links to specific-brand pages as well as specific age ranges, specific types of toys, etc.
5.Program your site to be "crawler-friendly."
The search engines can't fill out forms, can't search your site, can't read JavaScript links and menus, and can't interpret graphics and Flash. This doesn't mean that you can't use these things on your site; you most certainly can! However, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. If you have only a drop-down sequence of menus to choose a category or a brand of something, the search engine crawlers will never find those resulting pages. You'll need to make sure that you always have some form of HTML links in the main navigation on every page which link to the top-level pages of your site. From those pages, you'll need to have further HTML links to the individual product/service pages. (Please note that HTML links do NOT have to be text-only links. There's nothing wrong with graphical image navigation that is wrapped in standard tags, as the search engines can follow image links just fine.)
6.Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes as clearly and descriptively as possible.
Your site visitors and the search engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Don't make them guess what's at the other end with links that say "click here" or other non-descriptive words. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.
7.Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the search engines can "see."
This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The search engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn't be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!) Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly.
8.Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag.
Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with every search engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the search engines. Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it's on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a search engine to find your stuff.
9.Make sure your site is "link-worthy."
Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the search engines.
10.Don't be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings.
If you've done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted search engine visitors to your site fairly quickly. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions. It certainly won't hurt to add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don't simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something.
It really is okay to have a business site that is just a business site and not a diatribe on the history of your products. Neither your site visitors nor the engines really give a hoot!
How To Submit Your Site To Search Engines
Nowadays, it's not absolutely necessary to submit your sites to search engines, mostly because once your site is up and running, it will (usually) be found by search engines regardless of whether you went through the submission process or not. However, submitting your site to Web directories is still recommended. It's not difficult, but does take a bit of time. Here are the very basics of what you need to do to submit your site to a Web directory.
- Pick the directory that you're interested in, and find out their guidelines for submission. Examples of Web directories are Google Directory, Yahoo Directory, and the Open Directory Project.
- Are there any rules or regulations that affect your site content? If so, adjust accordingly.
- If there are limitations that you need to adhere to, find out what they are and stick to them. These could be a limited number of categories, or a limited number of times you can submit your site in a 24-hour period.
- Find out how much money, if any, they are charging. This is when you'll have to decide if you want to pay-for-inclusion, or submit it for free (this will depend on the needs of your site).
- Locate the most appropriate category for your site, and see what other people are doing. You might get some ideas for better design or content.
- Write a brief (200 words or less) description of your site. Be as precise as possible. Don't use "sales" language; instead, use keywords and phrases that appear throughout your site and present your site in such a way that users will want to visit it.
- After submitting your site, check back about once a week to make sure it's there. It can take a while for your site to initially show up, so be patient.
- Rules are there for a reason. Find out what these directories want from you, and follow those rules to the letter.
- Use the nifty spell check option on your computer before submitting anything. It really does make a difference.
- Make your description as precise, compelling, and keyword-rich as possible.
Black Hat SEO
Black Hat SEO search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:
Black Hat SEO Techniques To Avoid
- Keyword stuffing: Packing long lists of keywords and nothing else onto your site will get you penalized eventually by search engines. Learn how to find and place keywords and phrases the right way on your Web site with my article titled Learn Where And How To Put Keywords In Your Site Pages.
- Invisible text: This is putting lists of keywords in white text on a white background in hopes of attracting more search engine spiders. Again, not a good way to attract searchers or search engine crawlers.
- Doorway Pages: A doorway page is basically a “fake” page that the user will never see. It is purely for search engine spiders, and attempts to trick them into indexing the site higher. Read more about doorway pages.
Black Hat SEO is tempting; after all, these tricks actually do work, temporarily. They do end up getting sites higher search rankings; that is, until these same sites get banned for using unethical practices. It’s just not worth the risk. Use efficient search engine optimization techniques to get your site ranked higher, and stay away from anything that even looks like Black Hat SEO.
- Breaks search engine rules and regulations
- Creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site
- Unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.
Black Hat SEO Techniques To Avoid
- Keyword stuffing: Packing long lists of keywords and nothing else onto your site will get you penalized eventually by search engines. Learn how to find and place keywords and phrases the right way on your Web site with my article titled Learn Where And How To Put Keywords In Your Site Pages.
- Invisible text: This is putting lists of keywords in white text on a white background in hopes of attracting more search engine spiders. Again, not a good way to attract searchers or search engine crawlers.
- Doorway Pages: A doorway page is basically a “fake” page that the user will never see. It is purely for search engine spiders, and attempts to trick them into indexing the site higher. Read more about doorway pages.
Black Hat SEO is tempting; after all, these tricks actually do work, temporarily. They do end up getting sites higher search rankings; that is, until these same sites get banned for using unethical practices. It’s just not worth the risk. Use efficient search engine optimization techniques to get your site ranked higher, and stay away from anything that even looks like Black Hat SEO.
May 13, 2010
Measuring Relevance and Popularity
Modern commercial search engines rely on the science of information retrieval (IR). That science has existed since the middle of the 20th century, when retrieval systems powered computers in libraries, research facilities, and government labs. Early in the development of search systems, IR scientists realized that two critical components made up the majority of search functionality:
Relevance - the degree to which the content of the documents returned in a search matched the user's query intention and terms. The relevance of a document increases if the terms or phrase queried by the user occurs multiple times and shows up in the title of the work or in important headlines or subheaders.
Popularity - the relative importance, measured via citation (the act of one work referencing another, as often occurs in academic and business documents) of a given document that matches the user's query. The popularity of a given document increases with every other document that references it.
These two items were translated to web search 40 years later and manifest themselves in the form of document analysis and link analysis.
In document analysis, search engines look at whether the search terms are found in important areas of the document - the title, the meta data, the heading tags, and the body of text content. They also attempt to automatically measure the quality of the document (through complex systems beyond the scope of this guide).
In link analysis, search engines measure not only who is linking to a site or page, but what they are saying about that page/site. They also have a good grasp on who is affiliated with whom (through historical link data, the site's registration records, and other sources), who is worthy of being trusted (links from .edu and .gov pages are generally more valuable for this reason), and contextual data about the site the page is hosted on (who links to that site, what they say about the site, etc.).
Link and document analysis combine and overlap hundreds of factors that can be individually measured and filtered through the search engine algorithms (the set of instructions that tells the engines what importance to assign to each factor). The algorithm then determines scoring for the documents and (ideally) lists results in decreasing order of importance (rankings).
Relevance - the degree to which the content of the documents returned in a search matched the user's query intention and terms. The relevance of a document increases if the terms or phrase queried by the user occurs multiple times and shows up in the title of the work or in important headlines or subheaders.
Popularity - the relative importance, measured via citation (the act of one work referencing another, as often occurs in academic and business documents) of a given document that matches the user's query. The popularity of a given document increases with every other document that references it.
These two items were translated to web search 40 years later and manifest themselves in the form of document analysis and link analysis.
In document analysis, search engines look at whether the search terms are found in important areas of the document - the title, the meta data, the heading tags, and the body of text content. They also attempt to automatically measure the quality of the document (through complex systems beyond the scope of this guide).
In link analysis, search engines measure not only who is linking to a site or page, but what they are saying about that page/site. They also have a good grasp on who is affiliated with whom (through historical link data, the site's registration records, and other sources), who is worthy of being trusted (links from .edu and .gov pages are generally more valuable for this reason), and contextual data about the site the page is hosted on (who links to that site, what they say about the site, etc.).
Link and document analysis combine and overlap hundreds of factors that can be individually measured and filtered through the search engine algorithms (the set of instructions that tells the engines what importance to assign to each factor). The algorithm then determines scoring for the documents and (ideally) lists results in decreasing order of importance (rankings).
Why does my company/organization/website need SEO?
The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines - Yahoo!, MSN, Google & AskJeeves (although AOL gets nearly 10% of searches, their engine is powered by Google's results). If your site cannot be found by search engines or your content cannot be put into their databases, you miss out on the incredible opportunities available to websites provided via search - people who want what you have visiting your site. Whether your site provides content, services, products, or information, search engines are a primary method of navigation for almost all Internet users.
Search queries, the words that users type into the search box which contain terms and phrases best suited to your site, carry extraordinary value. Experience has shown that search engine traffic can make (or break) an organization's success. Targeted visitors to a website can provide publicity, revenue, and exposure like no other. Investing in SEO, whether through time or finances, can have an exceptional rate of return.
Why can't the search engines figure out my site without SEO help?
Search engines are always working towards improving their technology to crawl the web more deeply and return increasingly relevant results to users. However, there is and will always be a limit to how search engines can operate. Whereas the right moves can net you thousands of visitors and attention, the wrong moves can hide or bury your site deep in the search results where visibility is minimal. In addition to making content available to search engines, SEO can also help boost rankings so that content that has been found will be placed where searchers will more readily see it. The online environment is becoming increasingly competitive, and those companies who perform SEO will have a decided advantage in visitors and customers.
Search queries, the words that users type into the search box which contain terms and phrases best suited to your site, carry extraordinary value. Experience has shown that search engine traffic can make (or break) an organization's success. Targeted visitors to a website can provide publicity, revenue, and exposure like no other. Investing in SEO, whether through time or finances, can have an exceptional rate of return.
Why can't the search engines figure out my site without SEO help?
Search engines are always working towards improving their technology to crawl the web more deeply and return increasingly relevant results to users. However, there is and will always be a limit to how search engines can operate. Whereas the right moves can net you thousands of visitors and attention, the wrong moves can hide or bury your site deep in the search results where visibility is minimal. In addition to making content available to search engines, SEO can also help boost rankings so that content that has been found will be placed where searchers will more readily see it. The online environment is becoming increasingly competitive, and those companies who perform SEO will have a decided advantage in visitors and customers.
Google Filter: Minus 30 penalty
Google is harder to manipulate compared to other search engines because of various filters it incorporates in its algorithm to prevent spam. Minus 30 penalty is one such filter for handling spam in Google algorithm.
So, what is this minus 30 penalty? If your site was previously ranking high in Google search results, and suddenly its ranking drops by 30 positions, there is a chance that the minus 30 penalty is applied to your site. Normally, if you do a search on your domain name, you would expect to see your site at the first position; but if you see your site at 31st position, it is very likely that the minus 30 penalty is in force.
Most likely candidates to experience this penalty are affiliate sites which do not add much value for the site visitors. However, many non-affiliate sites also have reported this penalty. Though there is no proven theory which can identify sites which are likely to face this penalty, sites with excessive low quality inbound or outbound links and lots of non-unique content may have a minus 30 ranking penalty applied.
The only solution to avoid this penalty is to have unique content on your site, to get links from well trusted sites and to link to high quality sites. For detailed information, please refer to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
So, what is this minus 30 penalty? If your site was previously ranking high in Google search results, and suddenly its ranking drops by 30 positions, there is a chance that the minus 30 penalty is applied to your site. Normally, if you do a search on your domain name, you would expect to see your site at the first position; but if you see your site at 31st position, it is very likely that the minus 30 penalty is in force.
Most likely candidates to experience this penalty are affiliate sites which do not add much value for the site visitors. However, many non-affiliate sites also have reported this penalty. Though there is no proven theory which can identify sites which are likely to face this penalty, sites with excessive low quality inbound or outbound links and lots of non-unique content may have a minus 30 ranking penalty applied.
The only solution to avoid this penalty is to have unique content on your site, to get links from well trusted sites and to link to high quality sites. For detailed information, please refer to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Improved Flash indexing For SEO By Google
Written by Ron Adler, Janis Stipins, and Maile Ohye - From Google Blog
We've received numerous requests to improve our indexing of Adobe Flash files. Today, Ron Adler and Janis Stipins—software engineers on our indexing team—will provide us with more in-depth information about our recent announcement that we've greatly improved our ability to index Flash.
Q: Which Flash files can Google better index now?
We've improved our ability to index textual content in SWF files of all kinds. This includes Flash "gadgets" such as buttons or menus, self-contained Flash websites, and everything in between.
Q: What content can Google better index from these Flash files?
All of the text that users can see as they interact with your Flash file. If your website contains Flash, the textual content in your Flash files can be used when Google generates a snippet for your website. Also, the words that appear in your Flash files can be used to match query terms in Google searches.
In addition to finding and indexing the textual content in Flash files, we're also discovering URLs that appear in Flash files, and feeding them into our crawling pipeline—just like we do with URLs that appear in non-Flash webpages. For example, if your Flash application contains links to pages inside your website, Google may now be better able to discover and crawl more of your website.
Q: What about non-textual content, such as images?
At present, we are only discovering and indexing textual content in Flash files. If your Flash files only include images, we will not recognize or index any text that may appear in those images. Similarly, we do not generate any anchor text for Flash buttons which target some URL, but which have no associated text.
Also note that we do not index FLV files, such as the videos that play on YouTube, because these files contain no text elements.
Q: How does Google "see" the contents of a Flash file?
We've developed an algorithm that explores Flash files in the same way that a person would, by clicking buttons, entering input, and so on. Our algorithm remembers all of the text that it encounters along the way, and that content is then available to be indexed. We can't tell you all of the proprietary details, but we can tell you that the algorithm's effectiveness was improved by utilizing Adobe's new Searchable SWF library.
Q: What do I need to do to get Google to index the text in my Flash files?
Basically, you don't need to do anything. The improvements that we have made do not require any special action on the part of web designers or webmasters. If you have Flash content on your website, we will automatically begin to index it, up to the limits of our current technical ability (see next question).
That said, you should be aware that Google is now able to see the text that appears to visitors of your website. If you prefer Google to ignore your less informative content, such as a "copyright" or "loading" message, consider replacing the text within an image, which will make it effectively invisible to us.
Q: What are the current technical limitations of Google's ability to index Flash?
There are three main limitations at present, and we are already working on resolving them:
1. Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed.
2. We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file.
3. While we are able to index Flash in almost all of the languages found on the web, currently there are difficulties with Flash content written in bidirectional languages. Until this is fixed, we will be unable to index Hebrew language or Arabic language content from Flash files.
We're already making progress on these issues, so stay tuned!
We've received numerous requests to improve our indexing of Adobe Flash files. Today, Ron Adler and Janis Stipins—software engineers on our indexing team—will provide us with more in-depth information about our recent announcement that we've greatly improved our ability to index Flash.
Q: Which Flash files can Google better index now?
We've improved our ability to index textual content in SWF files of all kinds. This includes Flash "gadgets" such as buttons or menus, self-contained Flash websites, and everything in between.
Q: What content can Google better index from these Flash files?
All of the text that users can see as they interact with your Flash file. If your website contains Flash, the textual content in your Flash files can be used when Google generates a snippet for your website. Also, the words that appear in your Flash files can be used to match query terms in Google searches.
In addition to finding and indexing the textual content in Flash files, we're also discovering URLs that appear in Flash files, and feeding them into our crawling pipeline—just like we do with URLs that appear in non-Flash webpages. For example, if your Flash application contains links to pages inside your website, Google may now be better able to discover and crawl more of your website.
Q: What about non-textual content, such as images?
At present, we are only discovering and indexing textual content in Flash files. If your Flash files only include images, we will not recognize or index any text that may appear in those images. Similarly, we do not generate any anchor text for Flash buttons which target some URL, but which have no associated text.
Also note that we do not index FLV files, such as the videos that play on YouTube, because these files contain no text elements.
Q: How does Google "see" the contents of a Flash file?
We've developed an algorithm that explores Flash files in the same way that a person would, by clicking buttons, entering input, and so on. Our algorithm remembers all of the text that it encounters along the way, and that content is then available to be indexed. We can't tell you all of the proprietary details, but we can tell you that the algorithm's effectiveness was improved by utilizing Adobe's new Searchable SWF library.
Q: What do I need to do to get Google to index the text in my Flash files?
Basically, you don't need to do anything. The improvements that we have made do not require any special action on the part of web designers or webmasters. If you have Flash content on your website, we will automatically begin to index it, up to the limits of our current technical ability (see next question).
That said, you should be aware that Google is now able to see the text that appears to visitors of your website. If you prefer Google to ignore your less informative content, such as a "copyright" or "loading" message, consider replacing the text within an image, which will make it effectively invisible to us.
Q: What are the current technical limitations of Google's ability to index Flash?
There are three main limitations at present, and we are already working on resolving them:
1. Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed.
2. We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file.
3. While we are able to index Flash in almost all of the languages found on the web, currently there are difficulties with Flash content written in bidirectional languages. Until this is fixed, we will be unable to index Hebrew language or Arabic language content from Flash files.
We're already making progress on these issues, so stay tuned!
May 12, 2010
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion. The theory is that the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
The acronym "SEO" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.
Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, uses methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
The acronym "SEO" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.
Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, uses methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.
Difference Between AdSense and AdWords
AdSense
Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads on their website's content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your visitors are looking for on your site, or matched to the characteristics and interests of the visitors your content attracts, you'll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages.
It's also a way for website publishers to provide Google web and site search to their visitors, and to earn money by displaying Google ads on the search results pages.
AdWords
Google's CPC (Cost Per Click) based text advertising. AdWords takes clickthrough rate into consideration in addition to advertiser's bid to determine the ad?s relative position within the paid search results. Google applies such a weighting factor in order to feature those paid search results that more popular and thus presumably more relevant and useful. Google has also started taking into account the quality of the landing page and applying a quality score to the landing pages. [edit]
Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads on their website's content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your visitors are looking for on your site, or matched to the characteristics and interests of the visitors your content attracts, you'll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages.
It's also a way for website publishers to provide Google web and site search to their visitors, and to earn money by displaying Google ads on the search results pages.
AdWords
Google's CPC (Cost Per Click) based text advertising. AdWords takes clickthrough rate into consideration in addition to advertiser's bid to determine the ad?s relative position within the paid search results. Google applies such a weighting factor in order to feature those paid search results that more popular and thus presumably more relevant and useful. Google has also started taking into account the quality of the landing page and applying a quality score to the landing pages. [edit]
Why SEO
First of all, SEO provides you with targeted traffic, not just any visitors. That means visitors that are looking specifically to buy what you are selling.
Common traffic methods like traffic exchanges, safelists, popup or popunder traffic, buying traffic and other methods provide visitors, however these visitors are not always looking for what you sell. In other words most of the time they are looking for something else. It means they will not buy from you.
There are many other reliable traffic generation methods, it is not just SEO. However SEO is one of the best methods and here are some reasons.
First of all you can get a ton of traffic, not little but a lot. You may require some time if your website is brand new to get rankings and start getting traffic. But once you get that first keyword ranked on top, you start getting rankings much faster and much easier.
It is because you get more link exchange requests. Search engines prefer old sites, instead of those brand new. Once you start making money you can invest to automate SEO completely.
So if it takes you two months to get that first keyword ranked on top, it will then take you a month to get three or four more at once. The experience alone and results motivate you to do more. There is another advantage.
If you just got the top position for a keyword such as free mouse traps it will be easier to get on top position the keyword mouse traps or cheap mouse traps. It is because you already have several backlinks with the anchor text mouse traps. If you have the top position for free mouse traps, you should have backlinks with that anchor text.
That is another benefit of choosing long tail keywords, which means keywords with multiple words.
The more backlinks you have the better. So after you get that first keyword ranked on top, while optimizing your site for the new keywords you already have a ton of backlinks. Your site is already established, not brand new. This all makes it easier to get high rankings again and again for new keywords.
So do not believe into what you hear that SEO takes long time, like six months or a year to get results. It all depends on how well you know SEO and how properly you follow SEO strategies. You need to learn SEO from a proven source, someone who can show you results. On the Internet there are many so called SEO experts and firms, who guarantee too good to be true results.
You should get on page one within two months, not a single day more. If it takes you three months you are doing something wrong or you can do something much better, or you are not applying some method correctly enough.. SEO can be fully automated and it can be your traffic generation machine day in day out. SEO alone is enough to give you enough traffic to make four, five or six figures income assuming your website copy and other elements are properly set as well.
There are keywords you can target once you get that experience and you have that extra more investment which can give you fifteen thousand visitors or more a day. Just from one keyword.
That alone should be a good reason to think about implementing SEO in your business as one of the main methods to get targeted traffic.
Common traffic methods like traffic exchanges, safelists, popup or popunder traffic, buying traffic and other methods provide visitors, however these visitors are not always looking for what you sell. In other words most of the time they are looking for something else. It means they will not buy from you.
There are many other reliable traffic generation methods, it is not just SEO. However SEO is one of the best methods and here are some reasons.
First of all you can get a ton of traffic, not little but a lot. You may require some time if your website is brand new to get rankings and start getting traffic. But once you get that first keyword ranked on top, you start getting rankings much faster and much easier.
It is because you get more link exchange requests. Search engines prefer old sites, instead of those brand new. Once you start making money you can invest to automate SEO completely.
So if it takes you two months to get that first keyword ranked on top, it will then take you a month to get three or four more at once. The experience alone and results motivate you to do more. There is another advantage.
If you just got the top position for a keyword such as free mouse traps it will be easier to get on top position the keyword mouse traps or cheap mouse traps. It is because you already have several backlinks with the anchor text mouse traps. If you have the top position for free mouse traps, you should have backlinks with that anchor text.
That is another benefit of choosing long tail keywords, which means keywords with multiple words.
The more backlinks you have the better. So after you get that first keyword ranked on top, while optimizing your site for the new keywords you already have a ton of backlinks. Your site is already established, not brand new. This all makes it easier to get high rankings again and again for new keywords.
So do not believe into what you hear that SEO takes long time, like six months or a year to get results. It all depends on how well you know SEO and how properly you follow SEO strategies. You need to learn SEO from a proven source, someone who can show you results. On the Internet there are many so called SEO experts and firms, who guarantee too good to be true results.
You should get on page one within two months, not a single day more. If it takes you three months you are doing something wrong or you can do something much better, or you are not applying some method correctly enough.. SEO can be fully automated and it can be your traffic generation machine day in day out. SEO alone is enough to give you enough traffic to make four, five or six figures income assuming your website copy and other elements are properly set as well.
There are keywords you can target once you get that experience and you have that extra more investment which can give you fifteen thousand visitors or more a day. Just from one keyword.
That alone should be a good reason to think about implementing SEO in your business as one of the main methods to get targeted traffic.
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