Archive for the ‘Search Engine Optimization’ Category

OnPage Search Engine Optimization Techniques

Monday, November 28th, 2005

Search Engine Optimization is the art of designing your web pages to be ranked high by search engines for keywords that you target. There are several methods and they vary from Search Engine to Search Engine. One aspect of Search Engine Optimization relays heavily on the Onpage Optimization.

Onpage Optimization deals with the placement of keywords on the page, the header tags, the appearance of the keywords and the use of keywords in the meta and alt tags on the page. Below are some tips on OnPage optimization that I have picked up and used in my own web sites.

Step1: Select a page title that only includes your keywords.

Step 2: Use Header Tags to emphasize the keywords you have selected. Use your number 1 keyword in the {H1} tag and secondary keywords in your {H2} header tags.

Step 3: Write solid content that naturally includes your main and your secondary keywords throughout the text. If possible use your first keyword as near the top of the content and as close to the bottom of the content as possible.

Step 4: Once the content is complete go through and randomly bold, italicize and underline the main and secondary keywords.

Step 5: Be sure to use your keywords in the alt tags of your images.

As a guide you might do a search for you main keyword in Google. View the page and the source code of the page to see what OnPage Optimization that webmaster did to get a top rank.

While OnPage Optimization can be a significant reason why your web site ranks well in the search engine there are several other key factors like, page content, link popularity, site indexing and competition.

Search Engine Optimization is an equal opportunity marketing practice. If you are diligent you can create a flood of prime targeted.

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The first step in any search engine optimization campaign

Monday, November 21st, 2005

[2) Putting too many keywords in the Meta Keywords tag

I often see sites which have hundreds of keywords listed in the Meta Keywords tag, in the hope that by listing the keywords in the Meta Keywords tag, they will be able to get a high ranking for those keywords. Nothing could be further from the truth. Contrary to popular opinion, the Meta Keywords tag has almost completely lost its importance as far as search engine positioning is concerned. Hence, just by listing keywords in the Meta Keywords tag, you will never be able to get a high ranking. To get a high ranking for those keywords, you need to put the keywords in the actual body content of your site.

3) Creating lots of similar doorway pages

Another myth prevalent among people is that since the algorithm of each search engine is different, they need to create different pages for different search engines. While this is great in theory, it is counter-productive in practice. If you use this tactic, you will soon end up with hundreds of pages, which can quickly become an administrative nightmare. Also, just imagine the amount of time you will need to spend constantly updating the pages in response to the changes that the search engines make to their algorithms. Furthermore, although the pages are meant for different engines, they will actually end up being pretty similar to each other. The search engines are often able to detect when a site has created such similar pages, and may penalize or even ban this site from their index. Hence, instead of creating different pages for different search engines, create one page which is optimized for one keyword for all the search engines. In order to learn how to create such pages, see my article on this topic at http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?3455_a&keyword-rich-pa ges.htm

4) Using Hidden Text

Hidden text is text with the same color as the background color of your page. For example, if the background color of your page is white and you have added some white text to that page, that is considered as hidden text. Many webmasters, in order to get high rankings in the search engines, try to make their pages as keyword rich as possible. However, there is a limit to the number of keywords you can repeat in a page without making it sound odd to your human visitors. Thus, in order to ensure that the human visitors to a page don’t perceive the text to be odd, but that the page is still keyword rich, many webmasters add text (containing the keywords) with the same color as the background color. This ensures that while the search engines can see the keywords, the human visitors cannot. The search engines have long since caught up with this technique, and ignore or penalize the pages which contain such text. They may also penalize the entire site if even one of the pages in that site contain such hidden text.

However, the problem with this is that the search engines may often end up penalizing sites which did not intend to use hidden text. For instance, suppose you have a page with a white background and a table in that page with a black background. Further suppose that you have added some white text in that table. This text will, in fact, be visible to your human visitors, i.e. this shouldn’t be called hidden text. However, the search engines can interpret this to be hidden text because they may often ignore the fact that the background of the table is black. Hence, in order to ensure that your site is not penalized because of this, you should go through all the pages in your site and see whether you have inadvertently made any such mistake.

5) Not using the NOFRAMES tag in case your site uses frames

Many search engines don’t understand frames. For sites which have used frames, these search engines only consider what is present in the NOFRAMES tag. Yet, many webmasters make the mistake of adding something like this to the NOFRAMES tag: “This site uses frames, but your browser doesn’t support them”. For the search engines which don’t understand frames, this is all the text that they ever get to see in this site, which means that the chances of this site getting a good ranking in these search engines are non-existent. Hence, if your site uses frames, you need to add a lot of keyword rich text to the NOFRAMES tag. For more information on the different issues that arise when you use frames in your site, see my article on this topic at http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?3455_a&frames.htm

6) Using Page Cloaking

Page cloaking is a technique used to deliver different web pages under different circumstances. People generally use page cloaking for two reasons: i) in order to hide the source code of their search engine optimized pages from their competitors and ii) in order to prevent human visitors from having to see a page which looks good to the search engines but does not necessarily look good to humans. The problem with this is that when a site uses cloaking, it prevents the search engines from being able to spider the same page that their users are going to see. And if the search engines can’t do this, they can no longer be confident of providing relevant results to their users. Thus, if a search engine discovers that a site has used cloaking, it will probably ban the site forever from their index. Hence, my advice is that you should not even think about using cloaking in your site. For more information on what page cloaking is, how it is implemented, and why you should not use cloaking, see my article on this topic at http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?3455_a&page-cloaking.h tm

7) Using Automatic Submission Tools

In order to save time, many people use an automatic submission software or service to submit their sites to the major search engines. It is true that submitting your site manually to the search engines takes a lot of time and that an automatic submission tool can help you save a lot of time. However, the search engines don’t like automatic submission tools and may ignore your pages if you use them. In my opinion, the major search engines are simply too important for you not to spend the time to submit your site manually to them. In order to speed up the process of submitting your site, you can use our free submission tool which allows you to submit your site manually to all the search engines, without having to go to the “ADD URL” pages of the individual engines. It is available at http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?3455_a&submission.htm

Devoting too much time to search engine positioning

Yes – I lied. There’s another common mistake that people make when it comes to search engine optimization – they spend too much time over it. Sure, search engine placement is the most cost effective way of driving traffic to your site and you do need to spend some time every day learning how the search engines work and in optimizing your site for the search engines. However, you must remember that search engine optimization is a means to an end for you – it’s not the end in itself. The end is to increase the sales of your products and services. Hence, apart from trying to improve your site’s position in the search engines, you also need to spend time on all the other factors which determine the success or the failure of your web site – the quality of the products and services that you are selling, the quality of your customer service, and so on. You may have excellent rankings in the search engines, but if the quality of your products and services are poor, or if your customer service leaves a lot to be desired, those high rankings aren’t going to do much good.

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Avoiding a Bad SEO Experience

Wednesday, October 26th, 2005

There are many pitfalls associated with search engine optimization. There is the decision of whether you should do it in-house or outsource it. There is the process of finding a vendor that will be right for you and your business. Feel free to discuss this on our blog

Posted in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization | 6 Comments »

Writing Optimized Articles

Wednesday, September 21st, 2005

Search engines give the highest organic ranking to authority sites. These are sites that have lots of unique and relevant information which makes people want to link to the site. One way to build up this information is by developing articles related to your business or industry. These articles should be optimized in order for you to get the benefit of increased ranking on various search engines. The goal is to put these articles on your website and also optimize them to be indexed by search engines.

To write an optimized article you should choose a topic that is related to your business and website. Do not copy content from your site. It should be original as search engines do not like duplicated content.

How is this done? The article should be optimized for a particular keyword. So if your keyword is

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Choosing a Newswire Service to Distribute Optimized Press Releases

Thursday, August 4th, 2005

Press releases have traditionally been associated with public relations. Over the past ten years there have been major changes in the field brought about by the development of the web. This has led to the online distributions of releases and so the function is now being increasingly associated with the technical skills belonging to search engine marketers. For many people in the search marketing field who are not experienced in public relations and have been approached to optimize press releases the field can be confusing. The basics of press release optimization are similar to keyword optimization for web sites; however there are some areas that demand specialized knowledge.

Firstly an overview of the basics of press releases. Generally speaking the goal of a press release is to generate favorable media coverage that is aimed at your target audience. Therefore you need to know your target audience and where they go for their information. From this you can build a media list of journalists and publications you want to contact. Once you have your media list you need to determine your distribution method.

What makes up a successful press release?

There are many ingredients to a good press release. It has to be well written, preferably by a subject expert, it has to be a good read, and it has to be newsworthy so that journalists and your target audience will be interested in your news. A good press release always has well written content offering unique information presented in a story type of format.

When you have prepared your press release how do you deliver it to your media contacts? You have a few options. You can correspond directly with individual media contacts. You can distribute it via a media database service which enables you to pay for and build a media list from their database of editors, reporters, producers, etc. Your other option is to deliver your release via a newswire service.

A newswire service distributes news and information. It may also offer additional services related to targeting, evaluation and measurement of results. Your distribution may be targeted towards a more specialized distribution list or on a more broad, national or international level.

There are many newswire services to choose from and for someone new it may be confusing. If you do a search for ‘newswire service’ you will come across many services including PRNewswire, BusinessWire, PR Web, MarketWire, PR Leap, US Newswire, and many others.

Choosing a newswire service depends on your approach. Press releases can be approached from a public relations viewpoint or a search marketing viewpoint or some combination of both. Before the growth of the web it was primarily used as a public relations tool to get news published. With the growth of the web it developed into a way to target prospects, not just the media. It also developed into a way to get additional search engine traffic through almost immediate indexing and placement, incoming links, brand development, and keyword targeting. Press releases can also be used to control and dominate a search engine space by focusing on a particular brand name.

Traditional Newswire Slow to Adapt

I have observed that some of the older, more traditional, newswire services such as PRNewswire (est. 1954) and BusinessWire (est. 1961) were slow to adapt to the needs of the digital environment. However they have rapidly caught up. Unfortunately their services are relatively expensive ($500-$700 per 400 word release and can include an annual membership fee of $100+). These are the newswire services that tend to be used by traditional PR agencies for their corporate clients.

Some of the newer newswire agencies such as PR-Web (est. 1997) and PR Leap (est. 2003) were at forefront of adapting to the digital age. They promote their services by stating that they offer free press release distribution but do accept contributions for an increasingly expanded range of services. These contributions for expanded services range from $20 to $200+. These newswire services are generally used by small to medium sized online businesses, search engine marketing and new media agencies.

Favorite Newswire Is…

From my experience, and trial and error with the various services I tend to favor PR-Web for optimized press releases. PR Web is on the leading edge of online news releases and is geared towards optimized press releases. Not only do they release instantaneously to online media sources and journalists but they also offer a database of older press releases for media research. Then there is the cost advantage. I find that the $80 contribution works well and gets you listed in Google News and Yahoo News on the day of release. I also use the $200 contribution which enables you to include hotlinks in the text and also attach images. (In my experience the free service does not offer the range of services that you will need to maximize exposure for your release.) These news listings also filter through the web search engine results pages (SERPs) within a few days where they can stay active for around a month. When they are picked up by other media sources and added to their site’s content they can say in the SERPs for an indefinite time.

If you are involved in a online reputation management campaign or if you are trying to control a particular search engine space you may want to use more than one newswire service and use multiple releases for the keyword. I have found that this is a useful way to increase your total presence within the SERPs for a brand or corporate name. This enables you to have your unique content located on different sites to show up for your keyword.

More and more search engine marketers are making use of the possibilities that press release optimization offers for their clients. And more and more public relations professionals are coming to these marketers to optimize their press releases. To take full advantage of these possibilities my advice is to experiment with different newswire services to find out what service works best for you and your clients. Also be aware that the field is very dynamic so try to stay on top of new developments and stay on the lookout for any new newswire services that enter the marketplace.

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Blocking The Search Engine Spiders From Indexing Specific Pages

Wednesday, July 20th, 2005

Dylan Downhill

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Indexing Obstacles for Dynamic Web Sites

Tuesday, May 10th, 2005

URL Parameters, Session ID’s, Reserved Characters and Deep Nested web pages can make it harder for search engines to fully index your website. If your site uses any of the following you may find it hard to get indexed by the search engines:

Parameters

If your URL’s include parameters (end with ?a=1&b=2) then the search engines may not index these pages. This is because the spider can get caught in an infinite loop, indexing the same page hundreds of times with exactly the same content.

It used to be that no search engines would index pages with parameters. This is now much improved to how it used to be, however to ensure your site is indexed by all the search engine spiders always limit to a maximum of two parameters, but if possible use none.

Session IDs

Question – What’s worse than a search engine not indexing a URL with a session ID?
Answer – A search engine that does index a URL with a session ID

If a search engine indexed pages with session IDs the following could happen:

Visitors coming from that search using the same session id share a shopping cart, exposing order and shipping history, and potentially credit card information
The search engines index the same page with different session ids resulting in a duplicate content penalty
The search engines ignore the page thus ensuring your pages are not indexed

Sometimes this problem can be extremely hard to see, the site may only use the URL session id when a visitor doesn’t accept cookies – no spiders accept cookies so they would always see the session ID. To check this properly turn off accepting cookies on your browser, clear your cookie cache, and then access your site.

Reserved Characters

Moving away from standard alphanumeric characters in a URL can cause issues. HTML and URL’s reserve certain characters to serve special uses. An example of this is the & character, which in URL’s is used to divide parameters. If your site uses these non-alphanumeric characters you need to encode them whenever they’re listed. If someone links to you from their own site they could mis-enter it causing it to point to the wrong URL.

# (pound sign or hash sign) are used for accessing anchors on pages, these can be kept when used for this purpose but avoid filesnames with these in.

Spaces are also a reserved character, being rendered as %20 in URLs. When representing a space in the URL, use a hypen (‘-’) instead.

Nested Too Deep

While not really about the syntax for URLs, if your page is more than three levels deep on your site the search engines may deem it irrelevant and not index it.

Depth should be measured from the home page of your site, count the number of clicks it takes to get t the destination page, add one (so you include home) and that’s your level. Keep at most three deep, if you can’t consider adding a search engine friendly site map.

Links

If you’re still having problems getting your site indexed it might just be lack of incoming links. Arrange non-reciprocated and reciprocated links from good quality sites. Instead of arranging for all your links to go to your home page, try to arrange deep links to your internal pages – some of the directories allow deep linking to internal pages as well as listing your home page.

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Search Engine Friendly Redirects – File Level

Tuesday, March 15th, 2005

There are three articles dealing with redirects to handle redirecing one file at a time, redirecting one directory at a time, and redirecting multiple pages easily.

If you are going to move a page you will likely want to redirect visitors to the old page to the new in such a methd that the search engines don’t get confused. Some of the ways they can get confused include:

Bringing up two copies of the same page. This is likely to trip a duplicate content penalty.
Using a temporary redirect. This means ‘the page has moved but will be back shortly – don’t update your index’.

A 301 permanent redirect is the redirection method recommended by the major search engines. Using a 301 redirect you are in effect telling the search engines the page has moved and to update their index. It also has the nice side benefit of redirecting the benefit of inbound links to the new page.

Implementing a 301 permanent redirect is different depending on the operating system and/or programming language you are using on your server:

IIS Redirect

In internet services manager, right click on /old-file.htm
Select the radio titled “a redirection to a URL”.
Enter the redirection page.
Check “The exact url entered above” and the “A permanent redirection for this resource”
Click on ‘Apply’