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1 HOUR SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Table of Contents
1. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? 2. What are meta tags? 3. How do I optimize HTML Tags for SEO? 4. What are keywords? 5. What is link popularity? 6. How do I submit to search engines? 7. What are pay per click (PPC) search engines? 8. What's the best SEO software?
WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)?
SEO involves making Web pages more search engine friendly to promote them as the most relevant solutions for the search engines' users. The improvements can mean the difference between achieving top rankings, which can result in thousands of monthly visitors, and being lost in oblivion.
WHY IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION IMPORTANT?
Search engine optimization is basically about following search engine rules. If your Web page fits the criterias that a search engine considers the most important factors in terms of relevance, then it will reward you with a top ranking. Search engine optimizers simply modify Web pages to fit these criterias. This gives the Web pages a better chance of being selected by the search engines as the most relevant page for the search query.
THE IMPORTANCE OF KEYWORD RESEARCH
The Internet is basically a massive disorganized library. Search engines are like librarians. They both try to organize the content, so that people can find what they're looking for without too much effort. With books, librarians have the benefit of bibliographic databases and the information on the book covers to help them organize their library.
Search engines don't have such a luxury. There aren't databases of every single Web page ever created. The Internet is just too big. There's too much information to index. The only way a search engine can try to organize the mass of information available on the Internet is by the use of keywords and links.
It makes sense to think that if a Web page contains enough keywords related to a certain topic, it should be relevant to a search for information on that particular topic. So part of the search engine optimization specialist's job is to make sure the Web pages target the keywords that people search for when looking for products, services or information related to what the Web page offers.
The variety of keywords used to search for the same product, service or information is quite staggering. For example, here are the most popular keyword phrases used by people searching for information on search engine optimization:
search engine optimization search engine ranking search engine optimisation (notice the English - as opposed to American - spelling of optimization?) search engine placement website optimisation search engine positioning web site optimization (notice a space between 'web site?') high search engine ranking web page optimisation search engine promotion top search engine ranking high search engine rankings search engine rankings better search engine placement web site optimisation high search engine placement search engines optimization website optimization search engine optimizations (notice the 's' at the end of optimization?) high search engine positioning engine optimization resources
You notice how many different variations people use to search for information on the same topic? The fact is, unless a page contains all of the keywords in a search query, then it will have very little of appearing at the top of the rankings.
Before Web pages can be optimized, you must conduct research to determine which keywords to target. This involves finding targeted keywords, determining their popularity, assessing the amount of competition, and then deciding which keywords to use in your Web pages. Fortunately, there are tools to help you find out what people are really searching for.
WHAT ARE META TAGS?
Meta tags are hidden HTML tags used to describe various aspects about a Web page. The two most important meta tags are the 'meta description' and 'meta keywords' tags. Let's take a closer look at each meta tag. Sample meta tags:
<HEAD><TITLE>Meta Tags</TITLE><META NAME="description" CONTENT="Guide to what meta tags are and how you should use them."><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="meta tags, free meta tag generators."></HEAD><BODY>
META DESCRIPTION TAGS
The contents of meta description tags are indexed by some search engines as the page description in its search engine results. However, meta description tags is often misused, with misleading or even false descriptions about a page. As a result, the relevancy of search results are often compromised, so search engines have begun to de-emphasize the importance and even totally ignore the contents of the tag.
Some search engines still index the contents of a meta description tag for its search results. But if the meta description tag is missing, the search engine will usually extract a description from the body text. In general, search engines will index the first 135-249 characters of the meta description tag contents. Write a description that sells the page. Include the most important keywords at the beginning of the tag. But, don't just fill the description tag with keywords.
META KEYWORDS TAGS
The contents of a meta keyword tag is used to help define the important keywords of a page. It sounds good in theory. However, in practice, the meta keywords tag is often misused, including the addition of excessive or irrelevant keywords. So much so that virtually all search engines ignore the contents of the meta keywords tag. So it's not worth wasting any time on.
SHOULD YOU SEPARATE KEYWORDS WITH COMMAS?
This is a question that has come up a lot and one that I have wondered about myself. Some search engine optimizers recommend leaving out the commas, so that it creates more keyword combinations for the search engines to index.
I'm actually testing both techniques at the moment to see which, if any, helps improve rankings in search engines that still indexes the tag. I have yet to see conclusive proof that one technique is better than the other. So I can't recommend one or the other. I suggest you try both techniques to see if which, if any, produces better results.
HOW DO I OPTIMIZE HTML TAGS FOR SEO?
The 3 most important HTML tags in search engine optimization are title tags, header tags, and ALT text. Let's take a closer look at each HTML tag.
TITLE TAGS
Most of the major search engines give the most relevance to keywords in the title tags within the Web page. As such, every page should have a title tag. In general, I have found that short keyword rich descriptions in title tags work best.
Good title tag:
<TITLE>SEO (Search Engine Optimization)</TITLE>
Not so good title tag:
<TITLE>Homepage</TITLE>
HEADER TAGS
Some of the major search engines place a lot of relevance on keywords in header tags (H1, H2 and H3). As such I recommend that you sprinkle keyword rich header tags on your Web pages.
Sample header tags:
<H1>Search Engine Optimization</H1>
<H2>Search Engine Positioning</H2>
ALT TEXT
Always include ALT text to describe the contents of an image. Use keyword rich descriptions in the ALT text, as some search engines index the keywords. You will also provide a text description to visitors with slow download connections or have their images turned off. But to ensure that the text is visible, you must set the image's width and height dimensions.
The use of ALT text also enable visually disabled visitors using screen readers, or reviewers, to interpret the image on the screen. Images can be translated, only if there is alternative text describing the image. Also consider adding a period "." at the end of the ALT text, so that someone hearing the page can tell where one image stops and another starts.
Sample ALT text within an image tag:
<IMG SRC="seo.gif" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="100" ALT="search engine optimization.">
WHAT ARE KEYWORDS?
Keywords contained within a Web page are the most important element to achieving high search engine rankings. Keywords are by no means the only relevant factor in how search engines rank a Web page. Other factors also count. But the majority of SEO strategies involve a Webpage's keywords in one form or another. Therefore, it's fair to say that keywords are the most important element to achieving top search engine rankings. After all, if a page had no text at all, there is nothing for a search engine to index!
PERFECT KEYWORDS
You should create each Web page by concentrating on the following (in order of importance):
1. one keyword or keyword phrase matching the page content2. and most frequently used by the target audience3. and has the least number of competing pages in the search engines.
Admittedly this is not easy and is not always possible. And how do you go about finding the one perfect keyword phrase that matches the page content, that is most frequently used by the target audience, and has the least number of competing pages in the search engines? OK, you may take a breath now. ;o)
KEYWORD FREQUENCY
Keyword frequency refers to the number of times a keyword phrase appears within a page. The theory is that the more times a keyword/s appears within a Webpage, the more relevant the page is likely to be for someone searching those keywords. But do not abuse the system by repeating the same keywords over and over again.
KEYWORD DENSITY
Keyword density is the ratio (percentage) of keywords contained within the total number of indexable words within a Web page. In general, I suggest using a keyword density ratio in the range of 2-8%. Personally worry about it too much about it.
KEYWORD PROMINENCE
Keyword prominence is about improving the prominence of keywords by placing important keywords at the top of a Web page. Basically, the closer your important keywords are to the start of a page, a sentence, title or meta tag, the better.
KEYWORD PROXIMITY
Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two or more keywords. In general, the closer the keywords are, the better.
For example:
Internet keyword marketing and analysis tools
Internet keyword analysis and marketing tools
If someone searched for 'keyword marketing' a Web page containing the first sentence is likely to rank higher than the second, because the two keywords are closer together.
WORD STEMMING
Word stemming is a concept used by some search engines to return search results that include keywords that extend beyond what you searched for. For example, a search with the keyword 'optimize' might return results for, 'optimizes,' 'optimizer,' and 'optimizers'. In general, always try to use the longer version of a keyword, especially plurals.
STOP WORDS
Stop words are common words and characters ignored by most search engines.
For example:
a and are as at be for from he his I in is it of on that the they this to was
Ignoring stop words helps to reduce the amount of storage needed to index the billions of pages of data, and enhance the speed and relevancy of the search results. Only full-text search engines, such as AltaVista, index every single word on a Web page. As such, always try to use keywords instead of stop words as much as possible. Admittedly, it maybe a bit more difficult to read, but I think it is worth the sacrifice, in the cause of trying to achieve higher search engine rankings.
KEYWORDS IN DOMAIN NAMES
Keywords in domain names can help to improve search engine rankings. Often you will see the top ranked domains consist of the keywords you searched for. This is why SEO experts generally recommend registering keyword rich domain names for search engine optimization campaigns.
KEYWORDS SEPARATED BY HYPHENS
You often find domain names with keywords separated by hyphens ranked in the top. I have yet to find conclusive proof that separating keywords in a domain name improves rankings. But I do suggest that you do use this format, just to be on the safe side. After all, you wouldn't want a search engine to index the wrong keywords.
For example, what are the keywords in this domain name, 'newshut.com?' Are they 'news' and 'hut,' or 'new' and 'shut?' You can see how a search engine can easily index different keywords from those you had in mind. If the domain name is, 'news-hut.com,' it would be clear to a search engine exactly what the keywords are.
KEYWORDS IN DIRECTORIES & FILE NAMES
SEO experts recommend including keywords in the directory part of the web site address as well as file names. So not only is it a good idea to register keyword rich domain names, it is also a good idea to name directories and file names after the keywords you're targeting.
WHAT IS LINK POPULARITY?
Link popularity refers to the number of links pointing to and from related sites and is an extremely important method of improving your site's relevancy in search engines.
There are three types of links that will increase the link popularity of your site:
1. Internal links;
2. Inbound/incoming links; and3. Outbound/outgoing links.
Let's take a look at each one in more detail.
INTERNAL LINKS
Internal link popularity refers to the number of links to and from pages within a site. I recommend cross linking your important related pages. This helps search engine spiders find and index your most important pages quicker, especially if some pages are buried deep within your site.
SITE MAPS
Site maps are visual models of a site's content that allows users to find specific content or page. Site maps are like interactive table of contents, with links leading to most, if not all, pages of a web site. Site maps are organized hierarchically, breaking down the site's information into increasingly specific subject areas. If you have more than a dozen pages, I recommend you include a site map in your site. The add a link to the site map page from the home page, and on other pages. This way search engine spiders will find the site map, crawl the links and index your entire web site.
INBOUND/INCOMING LINKS
Inbound/incoming link popularity refers to links pointing to a site from other related sites. In addition, there are two types of inbound links:
1. Links from sites you control: SEO experts do recommend linking between sites with targeted keywords. The reason for doing this is because some of the major search engines, such as Google, place a great importance on the text used within, and close to, links. But do not cross-link every page in one website with every page in another; and
2. Links from sites you don't control: There are two ways of finding sites to link to yours. The best way to get other sites to link to yours is to ask them politely. And the best way to find likely candidates is to ask web sites that link to your competition. To find out which sites are linking to your a particular competitor, visit a search engine such as Yahoo! and enter, "link:" followed by the competitors domain name (with and without "www"). Yahoo! offers far more results than Google, so Yahoo! is the preferred choice.
For example:
link:www.competitor.com
To check the link popularity of your own sites, simply use your own domain name. Do not forget that all the sites listed in the same category as yours in the major web directories, such as the Yahoo! Directory and Open Directory Project, are ideal link candidates too.
Once you have compiled a list of related sites, add a link to them in your site. Then send an email to each web site owner informing them that you have linked to their site and politely ask them for a link back to your site. Another way of finding sites to link to yours is to find sites that accept site submissions. To find such sites, visit a search engine, such as Google, and search for:
"add url" "your keywords"
Include the quotation marks to ensure the search engine only return pages with the exact search phrases you enter. Also try replacing, 'add url' with one of the following sets of search phrases:
add site, add link, submit url, submit site, submit link
In addition, you can also find site submission pages by searching for the actual page. So, try replacing the 'add url' search phrase with one of the following page names:
addurl.html, addsite.html, addlink.html, submiturl.html, submitsite.html, submitlink.html, add-url.html, add-site.html, add-link.html, submit-url.html, submit-site.html, submit-link.html, add_url.html, add_site.html, add_link.html, submit_url.html, submit_site.html, submit_link.html
OUTBOUND/OUTGOING LINKS
Outbound/Outgoing links refers to links pointing to other related sites from your site. Search engine spiders will crawl your site's outbound links and determine that the content of the sites you link to are related to the content of your own site. How much importance outgoing links add to a site's link popularity rating is still being debated by search engine optimization specialists.
LINK KEYWORDS
It is important to name your internal and outgoing links carefully. Since keywords play a major part in determining the relevancy of a Web page, it is essential that they are also included in link text.
LINK QUALITY
The quality of the links is just as important, if not more, than the number of links to your site. The types of sites you should concentrate on getting links from include major search engines (Google, etc.), popular search portals (MSN, etc.), web directories (Yahoo! Directory, Open Directory Project, etc.), high trafficked sites (eBay, Amazon, etc.), news sites (CNN, etc.), and sites related to your site's theme.
LINK EXCHANGES & LINK FARMS
Do not get links from link exchange sites and link farms. Link farms are networks of heavily cross linked pages on one or more sites, with the sole intention of improving the link popularity of those pages and sites. All of the major search engines consider such links as spam, so stay clear of these types of links.
LINK POPULARITY SOFTWARE
Link popularity software can help you find suitable link exchange partners, by searching the Internet looking for suitable reciprocal link exchange sites, based on the keywords you give. It then evaluates each site, sets up a links directory and uploads it to your server. It even helps you email potential link partners by sending personalized reciprocal link email requests, after you visit and approve those sites you wish to include into your links directory.
Arguably the best link popularity software on the market is the 'Internet Business Promoter' SEO software program. It is definitely up there amongst the best, if not the best.
HOW DO I SUBMIT TO SEARCH ENGINES?
The term 'search engine submissions' is as the name suggests about submitting to the search engines, in order to get your site indexed by the search engines and web directories, so that people can find your site. Search engine submission is also known as search engine registration.
Search engine optimization on the other hand refers to search engine positioning and placement, a concept whereby you improve your site's design and content to achieve higher rankings in search engines. Do not confuse search engine submission with search engine optimization.
FREE SUBMISSIONS DON'T GUARANTEE INCLUSION
You're going to learn how to submit your Web pages to the search engines. Where possible, I will discuss free search engine submissions. Most search engines offer a 'paid inclusion' service which guarantees inclusion of your Web pages, for a fee. However, I haven't covered the paid inclusion topic in this course, so as not to confuse those of you completely new to search engine optimization. You'll find more information on paid-inclusion submission programs in my Search Engine Optimization Strategies ebook.
Please note that submitting your web site via free submission forms in search engines and web directories doesn't guarantee inclusion into an index. You may have to resubmit again and again get all of your Web pages indexed.
WHAT ARE WEB DIRECTORIES?
Web directories are human edited lists of web sites organized into categories of topics and subtopics. web directory submissions are an essential part of the search engine marketing and optimization process.
I highly recommend that you spend a bit of time selecting appropriate categories and composing your web directory titles and descriptions, as they will ultimately determine the success of your listings in the directories, and can also contribute a major part to the success of your listings in the search engines as well.
Each web directory have its own set of editorial and submission policies. So study the policies carefully before making any submissions. I recommend you submit your web sites to the top web directories, before submitting them to the search engines.
The reasons are because:
it helps search engines to find and index your web site, as they often crawl the top web directories; and some search engines place a great deal of importance on links to web sites from top web directories. This
will help you search engine rankings.
There's only one recommended method of submitting your web site to the top web directories; by hand.
Search engine submission software claim to submit to web directories. But in reality you spend as much time entering your web site's information into the software, as you would do if you submitted directly via the web directory submission form. So bypass the software and submit directly to the web directories.
WHAT ARE SEARCH ENGINES?
Search engines are defined as a set of programs that includes:
a spider (crawler, bot or robot) that crawls the Internet retrieving Web documents, then follows links to retrieve other Web documents;
a program that creates an index from the documents retrieved by the spider; a program that receives search requests, compares it to the entries in the index, and delivers the most
relevant results to the user.
Search engines are the starting point for most people when they're looking for something on the Internet. As such, it's essential that your Web pages are indexed by the search engines. Otherwise, your Web pages simply won't appear in the search engine search results. Search engine submissions - also known as search engine registration - are important for getting your site indexed by search engines, but not as important as it used to be.
The reason is because more and more search engines, such as Google, do not rely on web site owners to submit their site for indexing. Instead they rely on finding sites via links from other web sites already in its index. Having said that, it's still a good idea to submit your web site to the search engines.
There are 3 ways to submit your web site to the top search engines:
1. submit manually;2. Use submission software; and3. Use online submission services.
MANUAL SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION
The process of 'manual search engine submission' means personally visiting each search engine and registering your Web pages. Some search engines have a policy of only accepted a limited number of Web pages each day, so you would have to return each day to submit additional pages.
Most search engine spiders only crawl a limited number of pages in a site. So if you have a large site you should register every important page of your site, which may require many visits.
SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION SOFTWARE
The alternative to the manual search engine submission process is to use search engine submission software or online services that simulate manual submissions. There is a very important distinction between the two, as most search engines have banned automated search engine submissions. If a program or service does not simulate a manual submission, your submission will likely be ignored or rejected.
I use 'Internet Business Promoter'. It simulates manual submissions, which like I said is important. But it's also helps report my rankings in the search engines.
SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION SERVICES
Online search engine submission services are similar to their software counterpart except they are hosted online rather than on your computer. Just like search engine submission software, online search engine submission services should also simulate manual submissions. Many online search engine submission services are very basic in design. They claim to submit your site to thousands of search engines. That is just marketing hype, so please ignore such claims.
The fact of the matter is there aren't that many search engines on the Internet. Of the thousands of search engines these online submission services claim to submit to, the vast majority are either small directories or link pages, with little or no traffic. Most online submission services do not take into account that some search engines will only accept a maximum number of Web pages from one site per day. As such, people submit too many pages which either get ignored, or rejected by the search engines.
Google is the most popular search engine, powering Google, AOL and Netscape search. Google searches over 4 billion Web pages, supports 82 languages and processes more than 200 million searches a day. Read Google's own site submission and ranking tips in the Google Information for Webmasters section. You may submit your site to Google for free.
YAHOO!
Yahoo! Search powers Yahoo!, AllTheWeb, and AltaVista. Yahoo! offer a free site submission service. Expect a delay of several weeks before your URL is crawled.
METACRAWLERS
Metacrawlers search other search engines simultaneously, compile the results, and display them either in groups, sorted by search engine employed, or by clustering them together and eliminating duplicates. Unlike true search engines, metacrawlers do not crawl the Web themselves to index Web pages.
Because metacrawlers neither crawl and index sites, nor have their own database of sites, they cannot accept site submissions. To get your web site into a metacrawler, submit your Web pages to the search engines or web directories that the metacrawlers search.
The top four metacrawlers are:
1. Dogpile;2. Ixquick;3. Mamma; and4. MetaCrawler
OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT (DMOZ)
The Open Directory Project is the largest human-edited web directory with over 4.7 million reviewed sites. Its index is used by many of top search engines, including Google, AOL and Netscape. So it is good to submit your web site to the index. The Open Directory Project has a page on how to add a site to the Open Directory. All submissions are free.
WHAT ARE PAY PER CLICK (PPC) SEARCH ENGINES?
Pay Per Click (PPC) search engines are also known as:
Cost Per Click (CPC) search engines; Bid For Location search engines; Bid For Position search engines; Pay For Performance search engines; Pay Per Performance search engines; Pay For Placement search engines; Pay Per Placement search engines; Pay For Position search engines; Pay Per Position search engines; Pay For Ranking search engines; Pay Per Ranking search engines; and Pay For Result search engines.
PPC search engines refer most of their traffic via partner sites. The main advantage of advertising in PPC search engines is that they can guarantee top listings in the search results of top search engines, web directories, Web portals and metacrawlers.
The PPC search engines you that offer the most traffic are Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter. In 2010, Yahoo! Search Marketing was integrated into the Microsoft adCenter.
You can open an account for as little as $50. Clicks cost from as little as one cent each, although you would typically expect to pay anywhere from 5 to a dollar, sometimes more, per click. The price depends on the popularity of the
search term and how high you wish to rank. You only pay for click throughs to your web site. The Content network is typically a lot cheaper than the Search network, but the quality of traffic isn't nearly as good.
WHAT'S THE BEST SEO SOFTWARE?
Arguably the best SEO (Search Engine Optimization) software on the market is 'Internet Business Promoter (IBP)'. It is definitely up there amongst the best, if not the best.
IBP includes a unique guarantee: top 10 rankings or money back.
Your website will be listed in the top 10 results in the search engine of your choice. If not, you will get your money back;
You decide for which keywords you want to be listed; and This guarantee is valid for one full year after your purchase.
Example:
1. You decide that you want to have a top 10 ranking on Google.com for the keyword 'inexpensive mp3 player';2. You optimize your website according to the suggestions of IBP's Top 10 Optimizer until there are no further
suggestions (the Top 10 Optimizer gives your site a 100% rating);3. Now it will take a maximum of 90 days until your website is listed in the top 10 results on Google for
'inexpensive mp3 player'. If not, you will get your money back.
HOW CAN IBP GUARANTEE TOP 10 RANKINGS?
Actually, no one can guarantee top 10 rankings except for Google's engineers. However, IBP claim a success rate of more than 98% and they will give you your money back if you don't get top 10 rankings on Google with IBP.
