So what is local seo?
Local seo is basically the strategy of optimising your website to rank highly in local search results. For example if you are an seo company and you are targeting the whole of Google for the search term seo, or search engine optimization, you are going to struggle to get your site listed on the first page. These search terms are highly competetive and are usually only attained by larger companies, that have the budget needed to buy their way onto the first page. If you look at a more local scenario then you have a much better chance of getting onto the first page.
If you are a San Diego SEO expert for example, dont try to target the big keywords, go for the more local search results in and around the towns and villages of San Diego. Companies like to deal with a local provider for products and services, so you have a much better chance of securing more work if you are a local company targeting local search results. When companies or individuals are looking to hire a Link Building Expert they are more likely to look in their own city as a starting point, so if your company ranks highly for local search terms you are much more likely to get the work.
Although the example given is relating to an seo company in San Diego, this scenario works for any company offering products or services, in any area.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
High Page Rank Do Follow Blog List.
As a follow on from the last post, about the importance of comments on do follow blogs I have complied a list of 300 high page rank do follow blogs where you can post your comments.
The list comprises do follow blogs from page rank 3 right up to page rank 7. The list also includes some .edu and some .gov blogs too, and we know how Google loves links from authority sites like .edu and .gov.
Some of the blogs are auto approve and some of them are moderated.
The page ranks quoted are the pages on which your comment will appear, not the page rank of the site. So if you make a post on a page rank 7 page, you will be getting the pr juice from that page.
The list is of 300 high page rank pages is available in an excel spreadsheet format for only $99.00.
Just think how much you would pay for a link from 1 page rank 7 page. There are 9 page rank 7 pages in this list, plus over 20 page rank 6 pages and 60 page rank 5 pages, plus numerous page rank 4 and 3 pages. Over 300 pages in total.
Here is a sample of one of the pr7 pages in the list.
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2196
Please note that this list has been compiled from the recent Google page rank update. We cannot guarantee that the pages will retain their page rank after the next Google page rank update. Page rank updates take place every 3 to 6 months.
Please click on the buy now button to make your payment. The list will be sent as soon as we receive your payment.
The list comprises do follow blogs from page rank 3 right up to page rank 7. The list also includes some .edu and some .gov blogs too, and we know how Google loves links from authority sites like .edu and .gov.
Some of the blogs are auto approve and some of them are moderated.
The page ranks quoted are the pages on which your comment will appear, not the page rank of the site. So if you make a post on a page rank 7 page, you will be getting the pr juice from that page.
The list is of 300 high page rank pages is available in an excel spreadsheet format for only $99.00.
Just think how much you would pay for a link from 1 page rank 7 page. There are 9 page rank 7 pages in this list, plus over 20 page rank 6 pages and 60 page rank 5 pages, plus numerous page rank 4 and 3 pages. Over 300 pages in total.
Here is a sample of one of the pr7 pages in the list.
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2196
Please note that this list has been compiled from the recent Google page rank update. We cannot guarantee that the pages will retain their page rank after the next Google page rank update. Page rank updates take place every 3 to 6 months.
Please click on the buy now button to make your payment. The list will be sent as soon as we receive your payment.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Leave Comments And Drive Traffic To Your Blog
People say that to make an impression, you'll have to open your mouth. While that is physically impossible in the virtual world of the Internet, saying your piece is easy. Thanks to forums and discussion boards, you can leave a comment or start a discussion thread about virtually any topic from anywhere in the world. And yes, leaving comments on relevant blogs and forums can drive traffic to your blog and increase your readership.
Leaving effective comments.
You're probably old enough to know that not every comment that gets thrown into an opportunity for interaction creates the desired effect, much less become appreciated by those who hear or read it. If you don't use this technique carefully, you will either waste the opportunity or simply allow it to create the wrong impression.
Here are ways you can do it effectively:
Choose the sites you leave comments on carefully.
Ever wondered why Tiger Woods is so good? Because he chooses his battles well. You'll never find Tiger swinging his club at a lesser known tournament. Not because he's a snob but because he focuses on the games that truly matter, and being on equal ground with other greats. Keep this in mind before you leave comments on a website. Just because you have the burning need to drive traffic to your blog doesn't mean you can just drop by a site, any site, and write there. This is considered as spam, and the blog or forum owner will just delete your comment or post.
Choose the sites and blogs whose forums you participate with carefully. Find out if the site deals with a topic or subject related to your own blog. Practice only purposeful commenting. The kind where you leave only well-crafted comments on sites that will help build the buzz about your blog. If the site is completely irrelevant but you have the urge to leave a comment, do so only during your spare time. Otherwise, focus your energies only on more productive activities.
Know what you're saying.
Before you leave a comment with the purpose of driving traffic to your blog, at least write one that is useful. Your goal is to be noticed AND respected for your opinions so leaving useless and dead end comments such as 'Cool!' and 'Way to go!' just won't cut it. If this is the best you can do, forget about leaving comments right now and focus on other strategies to drive traffic to your blog. Better avoid this technique than be embarrassed or be viewed as lame or mediocre. But if you can write and have something meaningful to say, by all means, do so.
With every comment you post, make sure you keep it short, concise, to the point and useful. Talk about relevant topics and avoid those that will do nothing for your purpose. Avoid strong language. Of course, some sites will probably allow you to leave comments that are strongly worded or at least camouflaged as symbols such as !#$%.
The most important thing of all to remember when posting comments with the intention of driving traffic to your blog, is put yourself in the position of the blog or forum owner. If it was your blog, or forum, would you find this comment useful and would you allow it to be posted on your blog. Most quality forums and blog comments are all moderated so if its low quality, it will be deleted.
Always remember quality comments = quality traffic.
Leaving effective comments.
You're probably old enough to know that not every comment that gets thrown into an opportunity for interaction creates the desired effect, much less become appreciated by those who hear or read it. If you don't use this technique carefully, you will either waste the opportunity or simply allow it to create the wrong impression.
Here are ways you can do it effectively:
Choose the sites you leave comments on carefully.
Ever wondered why Tiger Woods is so good? Because he chooses his battles well. You'll never find Tiger swinging his club at a lesser known tournament. Not because he's a snob but because he focuses on the games that truly matter, and being on equal ground with other greats. Keep this in mind before you leave comments on a website. Just because you have the burning need to drive traffic to your blog doesn't mean you can just drop by a site, any site, and write there. This is considered as spam, and the blog or forum owner will just delete your comment or post.
Choose the sites and blogs whose forums you participate with carefully. Find out if the site deals with a topic or subject related to your own blog. Practice only purposeful commenting. The kind where you leave only well-crafted comments on sites that will help build the buzz about your blog. If the site is completely irrelevant but you have the urge to leave a comment, do so only during your spare time. Otherwise, focus your energies only on more productive activities.
Know what you're saying.
Before you leave a comment with the purpose of driving traffic to your blog, at least write one that is useful. Your goal is to be noticed AND respected for your opinions so leaving useless and dead end comments such as 'Cool!' and 'Way to go!' just won't cut it. If this is the best you can do, forget about leaving comments right now and focus on other strategies to drive traffic to your blog. Better avoid this technique than be embarrassed or be viewed as lame or mediocre. But if you can write and have something meaningful to say, by all means, do so.
With every comment you post, make sure you keep it short, concise, to the point and useful. Talk about relevant topics and avoid those that will do nothing for your purpose. Avoid strong language. Of course, some sites will probably allow you to leave comments that are strongly worded or at least camouflaged as symbols such as !#$%.
The most important thing of all to remember when posting comments with the intention of driving traffic to your blog, is put yourself in the position of the blog or forum owner. If it was your blog, or forum, would you find this comment useful and would you allow it to be posted on your blog. Most quality forums and blog comments are all moderated so if its low quality, it will be deleted.
Always remember quality comments = quality traffic.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Build Backlinks Via Google Alerts
What are Google Alerts?
Google Alerts is a free program run by Google that allows you to keep track of any topic on the web. You select your "keywords" or "urls" and Google will alert you via email whenever links/ content containing your selected topics appear anywhere on the web. It is an excellent way to keep informed about your domain or name. It is also perfect for keeping up-to-date on the latest information in your market niche or niches. It's also a great way to find out what other people are saying about you or your site.
For example: if you have a site on "search engine optimization" then you would create a Google Alert for those keywords. Google will alert you by email whenever a new link/content related to those keywords appears on the web. This is a great way to stay informed in your niche, but it is also a valuable source of potential linking partners. Many of those links are blogs that will allow comments with a link back to your site.
Google Alerts will probably send you 10-20 links each day, depending on the popularity of your chosen keywords. Just go to these blogs/links and see if you can leave a comment with some valuable additional information on what's been discussed.
Google Alerts is a free program run by Google that allows you to keep track of any topic on the web. You select your "keywords" or "urls" and Google will alert you via email whenever links/ content containing your selected topics appear anywhere on the web. It is an excellent way to keep informed about your domain or name. It is also perfect for keeping up-to-date on the latest information in your market niche or niches. It's also a great way to find out what other people are saying about you or your site.
For example: if you have a site on "search engine optimization" then you would create a Google Alert for those keywords. Google will alert you by email whenever a new link/content related to those keywords appears on the web. This is a great way to stay informed in your niche, but it is also a valuable source of potential linking partners. Many of those links are blogs that will allow comments with a link back to your site.
Google Alerts will probably send you 10-20 links each day, depending on the popularity of your chosen keywords. Just go to these blogs/links and see if you can leave a comment with some valuable additional information on what's been discussed.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Monitoring your search engine position.
Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor.
If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve. This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign.
Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.
Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the look out for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage. In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.
Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes (many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking) your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch "the market" closely.
Each search engine uses an algorithm or formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in anyway, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn't become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.
You must also deal with your competition (a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about). Your competitor's position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor's position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results. Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective.
Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month. This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users.
Check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a current list of website favorites. Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations (this is a neon red warning sign). It could mean a number of different things. If all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engine spiders have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website may come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search engines.
Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.
Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.
Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture, your long-term marketing campaign.
If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve. This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign.
Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.
Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the look out for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage. In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.
Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes (many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking) your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch "the market" closely.
Each search engine uses an algorithm or formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in anyway, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn't become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.
You must also deal with your competition (a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about). Your competitor's position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor's position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results. Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective.
Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month. This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users.
Check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a current list of website favorites. Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations (this is a neon red warning sign). It could mean a number of different things. If all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engine spiders have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website may come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search engines.
Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.
Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.
Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture, your long-term marketing campaign.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Special Tips For Search Engine Optimization For Google
In today's online world search engine rankings can make your business succeed, and while rankings in Yahoo and MSN are very valuable, their combined market value is still less than that of Google. This makes achieving top rankings in Google that much more important.
THE RIGHT KEYWORDS
This article is not about keyword research so I will not spend too much time on this topic, however, I felt it was important to at least brush on this slightly.
Make sure that your targets are achievable. If you select the wrong keywords it can make your entire optimisation experience essentially a waste or time. Choose keywords that are attainable but yet still offer a reasonable search frequency for your industry. Your phrase selection should also be targeted to bring qualified traffic to your site.
Using the travel industry as an example, targeting the word "travel" would make very little sense but by narrowing it down to "New York travel" for example, you now have less competition, and a more qualified audience. Keep your targets in perspective and go after the obtainable rankings.
WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION
There are many on-site factors that play a role in your search engine rankings. Here are a number of those factors, and what you can do to increase your chances of success.
Title Tag
The title tag plays one of the most important roles in search results at Google, and is almost always the heading Google chooses for each of its listings. Placement of your target phrase is best used near the start of the tag and repeated again in the middle or near the end. Three uses of your target phrase may be helpful in some instances, as long as it is not too overwhelming. For best results each page on your site should have a totally unique title tag.
It is also important to remember that because Google will use this title as the main heading for your listing, you will want to keep it attractive to potential searchers. Try to also add a call to action, or other wording to help make your listing appear attractive to searchers.
To help illustrate the fact Google takes this tag into consideration, simply do a search for your target phrase and take a look at the titles of the top 10. I tried a search for a rather broad term "travel" and saw that all 10/10 listings had it in the title tag, and 6/10 had it as the very first word. A quick scan showed that the entire top 30 either had the word travel, or travels in their title tags.
If you do only one thing to your website, make sure that all your title tags are relevant, unique, and contain your target phrase for each page.
Meta Description Tag
The Meta Description tag is still occasionally used by Google as the description which appears in the search results themselves. While this used to be a more common practice Google tends to use it most often on sites with very limited content, or those which are flash based. I have seen it still used for content rich sites, however this is less common.
The Meta Description tag still has an impact on search rankings. Your best bet when using this tag is to keep it short and sweet with your target phrase close to the start and never repeated more than 3 times. Like the title tag, each page on you site should have its own unique description tag.
Meta Keyword Tag
When it comes to Google this tag is useless, and won't influence your rankings. There is some speculation as to whether a spammy keyword tag can however, have a negative effect on Google rankings. As a result, if you do utilize a keyword Meta tag for the smaller engines, it is best to keep it clean and play it safe.
Keyword Density
Keyword density plays a role in overall rankings; however, it is not as cut and dry as it once was. Once upon a time there was a magic number that when used could almost guarantee top rankings. This is no longer the case. Today the ideal density varies from industry to industry, phrase to phrase. To find out what density you should aim for, take the top 10 or 20 search results and see what percentage those sites are using. In most cases you will find that the majority of these sites have a very similar density to one another, and this average density is a good estimation of what you should aim for.
Body Text and Keyword Placement
The location of relevant text on your site will help establish the overall importance of your target phrase. While you do not want to overwhelm the engines and site visitors with a bombardment of target phrases at the top of the page, try to sprinkle in some instances as close to the top of the page as possible.
Synonyms
Be sure to include various synonyms for your target phrases within your body text on your site. Google will use these synonyms to tie in the overall relevance of the page for your main target phrases, which in turn can improve your odds. To find possible synonyms you can use a thesaurus, but the best way is to search Google itself and see exactly what they consider to be similar. Simply search in Google for your target phrase preceded with a title, such as "travel". Next scan through the search results for any text Google has bolded. These are all words that Google considers to be related. Using the "travel" example Google brings up phrases such as 'travel', 'tourism', 'accommodation', as well as various other travel related terms.
Keywords in Domain
There is still some speculation if having a target phrase as part of your top level domain (TLD) is of use to search rankings. From my experience, yes, there is value here, although, nothing like it was several years ago. If you are starting off in the online world and are contemplating which domain to go for, consider one that uses your target phrase, assuming that it is both relevant to your business name, and uses no more than a single hyphen. While multiple hyphens in a domain can be successful, they are very common with highly spammy websites, so it is best to not take that route if possible.
While having a keyword located within your domain can offer some ranking juice, I would not suggest heading out and doing a domain swap. In most cases you would be better off working on your existing site than starting from scratch with a new domain.
Keywords in page specific URL
Using keywords for specific page URL's can also help add a little bit of value to your site, providing you use them responsibly. Consider using a keyword as a directory name and as part of a file name where it naturally makes sense to do so.
Heading Tags
Placement of target phrases within heading tags helps to establish the importance of those given phrases. That said do not over do it, or abuse it. Only place target phrases within a heading tag if it makes sense to do so, and don't flood a page with numerous tags. Heading tags are not as critical as they once were, but still a good contribution to a well optimized page.
Link Anchor Text
This is the actual text you click on as part of a link. When full or partial target phrases are used within your text links they help pass on some value to the linked page for those phrases. This is also true when considering surrounding text. When the content around the link is also relevant, the link holds slightly more value.
While a link that simply states "click here" or "www.domainname" does have its place, they provide considerably less value than a link that would use "discount travel" as its anchor.
Image Alt Text
While image alt text still plays a minor role, its biggest part is within the use of image based navigation. If you have an image linked to another page, the alt text will be attributed much the same way as standard link anchor text is.
Image Alt text should always be short and to the point and should accurately describe either the image itself, or the page the image is linking to. Do not use alt tags as a place to stuff keywords.
Inline Links
These are links that are found mid sentence or mid paragraph as opposed to a simple listing of links as found in a menu or possibly on a sitemap. Links found mid paragraph tend to pass on a little more value from the surrounding text and can offer more relevance to the linked page.
Site Navigation
It is absolutely imperative that your website be fully spiderable by the search engines. This may seem obvious, but often webmasters overlook Google's ability to crawl a website. Google has become very advanced in what links it can follow and how it can spider a website, but there are still some things that can cause significant roadblocks.
- Flash: One of the most commonly made mistakes is the use of flash. If flash is used as a sole means of site navigation then you can count on Google not viewing your internal pages, and having a significant disadvantage in terms of site rankings.
- Java Script / DHTML: These days most Java Script and even DHTML menus can be spidered by Google, however, this is not always the case. If your site utilizes any kind of fancy navigation and you are wondering why Google has not indexed your internal pages, check out Google's Cached Text version of your page. If you do not see any text links, then your navigation may be invisible to Google.
- Images: Image based navigation has been safe for many years now, but if your site uses this form of navigation it is essential to have brief, relevant alt text on all your buttons. This alt text will act much like standard anchor text for text based links. This is not only for the purpose of search ranking value, but take a look at Google's cached text version of your page. If you have image based links that do not have alt text, those links do not appear. This doesn't mean Google won't follow them, but for anyone viewing your site on a text based browser, your links will be invisible to them.
URL Structure
Avoid long elaborate URL's with extraneous characters. While Google has reached a point where they can index massive URL strings, it is best to avoid them if at all possible. For dynamic sites consider utilizing mod rewrites to significantly clean up the URL to not only make it more search engine friendly, but more user friendly as well.
THE RIGHT KEYWORDS
This article is not about keyword research so I will not spend too much time on this topic, however, I felt it was important to at least brush on this slightly.
Make sure that your targets are achievable. If you select the wrong keywords it can make your entire optimisation experience essentially a waste or time. Choose keywords that are attainable but yet still offer a reasonable search frequency for your industry. Your phrase selection should also be targeted to bring qualified traffic to your site.
Using the travel industry as an example, targeting the word "travel" would make very little sense but by narrowing it down to "New York travel" for example, you now have less competition, and a more qualified audience. Keep your targets in perspective and go after the obtainable rankings.
WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION
There are many on-site factors that play a role in your search engine rankings. Here are a number of those factors, and what you can do to increase your chances of success.
Title Tag
The title tag plays one of the most important roles in search results at Google, and is almost always the heading Google chooses for each of its listings. Placement of your target phrase is best used near the start of the tag and repeated again in the middle or near the end. Three uses of your target phrase may be helpful in some instances, as long as it is not too overwhelming. For best results each page on your site should have a totally unique title tag.
It is also important to remember that because Google will use this title as the main heading for your listing, you will want to keep it attractive to potential searchers. Try to also add a call to action, or other wording to help make your listing appear attractive to searchers.
To help illustrate the fact Google takes this tag into consideration, simply do a search for your target phrase and take a look at the titles of the top 10. I tried a search for a rather broad term "travel" and saw that all 10/10 listings had it in the title tag, and 6/10 had it as the very first word. A quick scan showed that the entire top 30 either had the word travel, or travels in their title tags.
If you do only one thing to your website, make sure that all your title tags are relevant, unique, and contain your target phrase for each page.
Meta Description Tag
The Meta Description tag is still occasionally used by Google as the description which appears in the search results themselves. While this used to be a more common practice Google tends to use it most often on sites with very limited content, or those which are flash based. I have seen it still used for content rich sites, however this is less common.
The Meta Description tag still has an impact on search rankings. Your best bet when using this tag is to keep it short and sweet with your target phrase close to the start and never repeated more than 3 times. Like the title tag, each page on you site should have its own unique description tag.
Meta Keyword Tag
When it comes to Google this tag is useless, and won't influence your rankings. There is some speculation as to whether a spammy keyword tag can however, have a negative effect on Google rankings. As a result, if you do utilize a keyword Meta tag for the smaller engines, it is best to keep it clean and play it safe.
Keyword Density
Keyword density plays a role in overall rankings; however, it is not as cut and dry as it once was. Once upon a time there was a magic number that when used could almost guarantee top rankings. This is no longer the case. Today the ideal density varies from industry to industry, phrase to phrase. To find out what density you should aim for, take the top 10 or 20 search results and see what percentage those sites are using. In most cases you will find that the majority of these sites have a very similar density to one another, and this average density is a good estimation of what you should aim for.
Body Text and Keyword Placement
The location of relevant text on your site will help establish the overall importance of your target phrase. While you do not want to overwhelm the engines and site visitors with a bombardment of target phrases at the top of the page, try to sprinkle in some instances as close to the top of the page as possible.
Synonyms
Be sure to include various synonyms for your target phrases within your body text on your site. Google will use these synonyms to tie in the overall relevance of the page for your main target phrases, which in turn can improve your odds. To find possible synonyms you can use a thesaurus, but the best way is to search Google itself and see exactly what they consider to be similar. Simply search in Google for your target phrase preceded with a title, such as "travel". Next scan through the search results for any text Google has bolded. These are all words that Google considers to be related. Using the "travel" example Google brings up phrases such as 'travel', 'tourism', 'accommodation', as well as various other travel related terms.
Keywords in Domain
There is still some speculation if having a target phrase as part of your top level domain (TLD) is of use to search rankings. From my experience, yes, there is value here, although, nothing like it was several years ago. If you are starting off in the online world and are contemplating which domain to go for, consider one that uses your target phrase, assuming that it is both relevant to your business name, and uses no more than a single hyphen. While multiple hyphens in a domain can be successful, they are very common with highly spammy websites, so it is best to not take that route if possible.
While having a keyword located within your domain can offer some ranking juice, I would not suggest heading out and doing a domain swap. In most cases you would be better off working on your existing site than starting from scratch with a new domain.
Keywords in page specific URL
Using keywords for specific page URL's can also help add a little bit of value to your site, providing you use them responsibly. Consider using a keyword as a directory name and as part of a file name where it naturally makes sense to do so.
Heading Tags
Placement of target phrases within heading tags helps to establish the importance of those given phrases. That said do not over do it, or abuse it. Only place target phrases within a heading tag if it makes sense to do so, and don't flood a page with numerous tags. Heading tags are not as critical as they once were, but still a good contribution to a well optimized page.
Link Anchor Text
This is the actual text you click on as part of a link. When full or partial target phrases are used within your text links they help pass on some value to the linked page for those phrases. This is also true when considering surrounding text. When the content around the link is also relevant, the link holds slightly more value.
While a link that simply states "click here" or "www.domainname" does have its place, they provide considerably less value than a link that would use "discount travel" as its anchor.
Image Alt Text
While image alt text still plays a minor role, its biggest part is within the use of image based navigation. If you have an image linked to another page, the alt text will be attributed much the same way as standard link anchor text is.
Image Alt text should always be short and to the point and should accurately describe either the image itself, or the page the image is linking to. Do not use alt tags as a place to stuff keywords.
Inline Links
These are links that are found mid sentence or mid paragraph as opposed to a simple listing of links as found in a menu or possibly on a sitemap. Links found mid paragraph tend to pass on a little more value from the surrounding text and can offer more relevance to the linked page.
Site Navigation
It is absolutely imperative that your website be fully spiderable by the search engines. This may seem obvious, but often webmasters overlook Google's ability to crawl a website. Google has become very advanced in what links it can follow and how it can spider a website, but there are still some things that can cause significant roadblocks.
- Flash: One of the most commonly made mistakes is the use of flash. If flash is used as a sole means of site navigation then you can count on Google not viewing your internal pages, and having a significant disadvantage in terms of site rankings.
- Java Script / DHTML: These days most Java Script and even DHTML menus can be spidered by Google, however, this is not always the case. If your site utilizes any kind of fancy navigation and you are wondering why Google has not indexed your internal pages, check out Google's Cached Text version of your page. If you do not see any text links, then your navigation may be invisible to Google.
- Images: Image based navigation has been safe for many years now, but if your site uses this form of navigation it is essential to have brief, relevant alt text on all your buttons. This alt text will act much like standard anchor text for text based links. This is not only for the purpose of search ranking value, but take a look at Google's cached text version of your page. If you have image based links that do not have alt text, those links do not appear. This doesn't mean Google won't follow them, but for anyone viewing your site on a text based browser, your links will be invisible to them.
URL Structure
Avoid long elaborate URL's with extraneous characters. While Google has reached a point where they can index massive URL strings, it is best to avoid them if at all possible. For dynamic sites consider utilizing mod rewrites to significantly clean up the URL to not only make it more search engine friendly, but more user friendly as well.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Identify SEO Problems
When You Aren't Getting the Results You Expected.
After a thorough Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign has been completed, it can be incredibly frustrating to find you aren't getting any rankings on your selected keywords.
You can't ask the search engines why your site isn't ranked; they won't respond to specific questions about lack of rankings from website owners.
Whether you have handled your SEO yourself, or hired an SEO Firm, this can happen. No one controls the engines, and the results aren't always what you would expect.
The good news is the search engines are logical - they are based on a very specific algorithm, and with a little more effort and attention to the details to make sure it isn't a minor mistake holding things up - you should be able to enhance your site and fix the problems to get the results you are looking for.
Back to the Basics.
The first place to start depends on whether you are handling your SEO yourself, or have outsourced it to an SEO Firm. If you have outsourced your SEO, you need to contact the Firm and ask them to explain what they are doing to address the situation and what their theory is for the lack of results.
If you are handling your own SEO, then you need to take a step back and look at the basics - make sure you haven't left anything out - or worse still, made an error that could be preventing the results you are looking for.
What are the Basics?
As with most SEO issues, it all comes down to knowledge and time. You need to have the information to ensure you are handling things correctly - and you need to have the time to implement the steps properly.
Here is a list of items to consider and some potential problems. These are all reasons your site may not be getting the rankings you are looking for.
Start at the top of the list and work your way through each item, making sure that you look at the details and specifics.
Index Time: The amount of time before the engine indexes your site should be listed on the search engine's submission page, but these aren't always accurate or may be out of date. On average, index times range from one to eight weeks, depending on the engine.
Already Indexed: The major engines won't tell you if you're listed; it's up to you to find out. The method to discover if a page or domain has been indexed varies from one engine to another. Never assume you're not indexed just because you searched through keywords and you never came up in the first few pages of results. You could still be indexed and end up at the bottom of the heap.
Site Map From Home Page: Some engines have been known to drop pages that cannot be traveled to from the home page. Hot Bot has been rumored to do this. Think of your site links as a series of roads from one page to another. If there's no road from your home page to the page you want indexed, a search engine may decide the page is unnecessary.
External Links: Some search engines may index your home page but refuse to index any other pages unless there are links from another domain. Or, they may index you for a while but then "prune" their database later because you didn't achieve any external links after a certain period of time.
Free Sites: Because of all the "junk" submissions from free websites like Geo cities, many engines choose not to index sites from such domains or limit the number of pages they accept.
Frames: Content inside of HTML frames can cause problems with submissions because the search engine may index the main content of the page, but not the surrounding menu frame. Visitors to your site find some information but miss the associated menu. It's generally better to create non-framed versions of your pages.
Spider Blocks: Search engine spiders cannot index sites that require a registration or password, and they can't fill out forms. This also applies to indexing of content from a search able database. The solution is to create static pages that the engines can find and index without performing a special action on your site. Depending on your database system, there are both utility programs and companies that can assist you with this.
Guilt Through Association: If your website shares the same IP address as other websites on your host's web server, you may find your IP quietly banned because of something someone else did. Ask your hosting service if your domain name has its own unique IP assigned to it. If not, ask them to move it to its own IP to avoid being penalized because of someone else.
Non-Index able Content: Most engines cannot index text embedded in images or multimedia files (audio and video). Most engines also cannot index information that is generated by Java applets.
Large Pages: If your site has a slow connection or the pages are very complex and take a long time to load, it might time out before the spider finishes indexing. To avoid this, limit your page size to 50K or less. A good rule of thumb is that:page size + cumulative image sizes on the page = 50K-70K If it is greater than that amount, visitors with dial-up connections will leave before the page fully loads.
Unreliable Hosts: It pays to have a reliable hosting service. If your website doesn't respond when the search engine spider visits, you won't be indexed. Even worse, if you are indexed and they pay a visit when your site is down, you could be removed from the database.
Proper Directory Submissions: When submitting to a directory site like Yahoo, Open Directory, Look Smart, and others, a live person reviews your site. They decide if the site is of sufficient "quality" before they list it. These directories can help you get listed with other engines, so make sure you give your directory submissions the attention they need.
Spam: If you use questionable techniques that might be considered an overt attempt at spamming (i.e., excessive repetition of keywords, same color text as background) an engine may ignore or reject your submissions.
Redirects: Redirects or Meta refresh tags sometimes cause the engines to have trouble indexing your site. If the engines think you are trying to "trick" them by using "cloaking" or IP redirection technology, they may not index the site at all.
Index Times Can Fluctuate: A major engine will not typically go more than three to four months without refreshing its index, but sometimes they'll index sites every 30 days consistently, and then suddenly stop indexing most sites for several months. It can be frustrating, but it happens.
Page Limits: Search engines will only spider so many pages of your Website. This could be a few dozen or three or four hundred depending on the engine. Google is one engine that tends to crawl deeper into your site. How deep they go may depend on factors like your link popularity. Sites with higher link popularity are deemed "worthier" of more thorough indexing.
Random Errors: Sometimes the engines simply lose submissions at random because of bugs and technical errors. Mistakes happen - remember, they're managing a database containing hundreds of millions of pages.
After a thorough Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign has been completed, it can be incredibly frustrating to find you aren't getting any rankings on your selected keywords.
You can't ask the search engines why your site isn't ranked; they won't respond to specific questions about lack of rankings from website owners.
Whether you have handled your SEO yourself, or hired an SEO Firm, this can happen. No one controls the engines, and the results aren't always what you would expect.
The good news is the search engines are logical - they are based on a very specific algorithm, and with a little more effort and attention to the details to make sure it isn't a minor mistake holding things up - you should be able to enhance your site and fix the problems to get the results you are looking for.
Back to the Basics.
The first place to start depends on whether you are handling your SEO yourself, or have outsourced it to an SEO Firm. If you have outsourced your SEO, you need to contact the Firm and ask them to explain what they are doing to address the situation and what their theory is for the lack of results.
If you are handling your own SEO, then you need to take a step back and look at the basics - make sure you haven't left anything out - or worse still, made an error that could be preventing the results you are looking for.
What are the Basics?
As with most SEO issues, it all comes down to knowledge and time. You need to have the information to ensure you are handling things correctly - and you need to have the time to implement the steps properly.
Here is a list of items to consider and some potential problems. These are all reasons your site may not be getting the rankings you are looking for.
Start at the top of the list and work your way through each item, making sure that you look at the details and specifics.
Index Time: The amount of time before the engine indexes your site should be listed on the search engine's submission page, but these aren't always accurate or may be out of date. On average, index times range from one to eight weeks, depending on the engine.
Already Indexed: The major engines won't tell you if you're listed; it's up to you to find out. The method to discover if a page or domain has been indexed varies from one engine to another. Never assume you're not indexed just because you searched through keywords and you never came up in the first few pages of results. You could still be indexed and end up at the bottom of the heap.
Site Map From Home Page: Some engines have been known to drop pages that cannot be traveled to from the home page. Hot Bot has been rumored to do this. Think of your site links as a series of roads from one page to another. If there's no road from your home page to the page you want indexed, a search engine may decide the page is unnecessary.
External Links: Some search engines may index your home page but refuse to index any other pages unless there are links from another domain. Or, they may index you for a while but then "prune" their database later because you didn't achieve any external links after a certain period of time.
Free Sites: Because of all the "junk" submissions from free websites like Geo cities, many engines choose not to index sites from such domains or limit the number of pages they accept.
Frames: Content inside of HTML frames can cause problems with submissions because the search engine may index the main content of the page, but not the surrounding menu frame. Visitors to your site find some information but miss the associated menu. It's generally better to create non-framed versions of your pages.
Spider Blocks: Search engine spiders cannot index sites that require a registration or password, and they can't fill out forms. This also applies to indexing of content from a search able database. The solution is to create static pages that the engines can find and index without performing a special action on your site. Depending on your database system, there are both utility programs and companies that can assist you with this.
Guilt Through Association: If your website shares the same IP address as other websites on your host's web server, you may find your IP quietly banned because of something someone else did. Ask your hosting service if your domain name has its own unique IP assigned to it. If not, ask them to move it to its own IP to avoid being penalized because of someone else.
Non-Index able Content: Most engines cannot index text embedded in images or multimedia files (audio and video). Most engines also cannot index information that is generated by Java applets.
Large Pages: If your site has a slow connection or the pages are very complex and take a long time to load, it might time out before the spider finishes indexing. To avoid this, limit your page size to 50K or less. A good rule of thumb is that:page size + cumulative image sizes on the page = 50K-70K If it is greater than that amount, visitors with dial-up connections will leave before the page fully loads.
Unreliable Hosts: It pays to have a reliable hosting service. If your website doesn't respond when the search engine spider visits, you won't be indexed. Even worse, if you are indexed and they pay a visit when your site is down, you could be removed from the database.
Proper Directory Submissions: When submitting to a directory site like Yahoo, Open Directory, Look Smart, and others, a live person reviews your site. They decide if the site is of sufficient "quality" before they list it. These directories can help you get listed with other engines, so make sure you give your directory submissions the attention they need.
Spam: If you use questionable techniques that might be considered an overt attempt at spamming (i.e., excessive repetition of keywords, same color text as background) an engine may ignore or reject your submissions.
Redirects: Redirects or Meta refresh tags sometimes cause the engines to have trouble indexing your site. If the engines think you are trying to "trick" them by using "cloaking" or IP redirection technology, they may not index the site at all.
Index Times Can Fluctuate: A major engine will not typically go more than three to four months without refreshing its index, but sometimes they'll index sites every 30 days consistently, and then suddenly stop indexing most sites for several months. It can be frustrating, but it happens.
Page Limits: Search engines will only spider so many pages of your Website. This could be a few dozen or three or four hundred depending on the engine. Google is one engine that tends to crawl deeper into your site. How deep they go may depend on factors like your link popularity. Sites with higher link popularity are deemed "worthier" of more thorough indexing.
Random Errors: Sometimes the engines simply lose submissions at random because of bugs and technical errors. Mistakes happen - remember, they're managing a database containing hundreds of millions of pages.
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