Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Four (more or less) Search Engine Tactics
The following is a formula of Search Engine Tactics. These tactics work well with Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL. The big Four
Build Search Engine Friendly Structure -
Build Search Engine Friendly Structure -
- Make it a Flat Directory.
- Make sure your keywords are in your page, and as link text in images.
- Make sure you have a working 404 Error page
- Make sure home page has links to all other pages in site.
- Do a site map - hard to remember to do, but helps the spiders.
Make sure you use the right program/process
- No Frames - (I know they are easy, but not SEO friendly)
- No intro, flash pages, Fancier is usually not good for SEO
Double check every page on your site
- Key words in title.
- Key words in image text.
- Meta tags well written.
Choose Keywords carefully
- Interview friends, industry people
- Look at keywords from a buyers point of view
- Don't use just hype words
Combine these strategies with a linking program will help you achieve success.
Just to make it fun, you can have the best SEO site in the world, and the search engines will keep changing their algorythms to mix it up. So you have to stay on top of it. It is an ongoing job. Even if you follow all the tactics above, remember, Content is King. So you cannot forget about making great content.
Good Luck and see you at the Top!
- Bob -
Monday, January 23, 2006
Search Engine Tactics
Many companies still believe in the of "if you build it they will come" theory only to find that very few web surfers find their web site, let alone qualified potential customers. They are left with a pretty site that no one sees. A persistent, well-planned, ongoing and executed Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and campaign will bring qualified visitors to your site. Done correctly, a campaign will provide a traceable method for increasing both traffic and sales -- traceable back to the source of where your visitor came from, ensuring that marketing programs can be proven, enhanced, cancelled, or targeted at the true source of your visitors interest.
The majority of websites are found through search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Websearches search databases of information rather than the web itself, you need to drive visitors to your site through the search engines' information databases. Although optimizing your site and strategically submitting is time-consuming, it is a traceable method of attracting qualified customers. ------ and extremely important!!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making your site friendly to search engines. Performing SEO requires you to look at your website from the point of view of internet users trying to find services, products and/or information like that available on your website. It also helps to be familiar with some of the underlying technologies of search engines - but this is not a critical requirement for performing SEO.
Today, designers develop sites with many usability and technical requirements in mind. What most of them aren't adding to the functional requirements of the web site is a easy set of steps to ensure their website is search engine friendly - search engine optimized. Setting up your site correctly from the beginning (or during a site redesign) is your best bet to get yourself noticed by all of those web crawlers (spiders, robots) and human-edited directories. The web grows so fast, optimal search engine positioning requires a persistent approach. This process is on-going and unfortunately never complete.
Search Engine Optimization campaigns are divided into tactical areas. By paying attention to the common sense steps described in each tactic you give your company the advantage of a low-cost method of driving self-qualified traffic to their website, as well as out positioning any competition who has not implemented SEO tactics. Your code, your keywords, your choice of web technologies and site architecture all must be friendly to and optimized for search engines for all aspects of the campaign to achieve high placement in the results of visitor searches.
If your code, keywords and architecture are up to SEO standards, your site will magically rise to the top and you will be successful.
Next week I will discuss 4 tactics areas to help make this happen.
Stay tuned.
- Bob Liddle -
The majority of websites are found through search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Websearches search databases of information rather than the web itself, you need to drive visitors to your site through the search engines' information databases. Although optimizing your site and strategically submitting is time-consuming, it is a traceable method of attracting qualified customers. ------ and extremely important!!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making your site friendly to search engines. Performing SEO requires you to look at your website from the point of view of internet users trying to find services, products and/or information like that available on your website. It also helps to be familiar with some of the underlying technologies of search engines - but this is not a critical requirement for performing SEO.
Today, designers develop sites with many usability and technical requirements in mind. What most of them aren't adding to the functional requirements of the web site is a easy set of steps to ensure their website is search engine friendly - search engine optimized. Setting up your site correctly from the beginning (or during a site redesign) is your best bet to get yourself noticed by all of those web crawlers (spiders, robots) and human-edited directories. The web grows so fast, optimal search engine positioning requires a persistent approach. This process is on-going and unfortunately never complete.
Search Engine Optimization campaigns are divided into tactical areas. By paying attention to the common sense steps described in each tactic you give your company the advantage of a low-cost method of driving self-qualified traffic to their website, as well as out positioning any competition who has not implemented SEO tactics. Your code, your keywords, your choice of web technologies and site architecture all must be friendly to and optimized for search engines for all aspects of the campaign to achieve high placement in the results of visitor searches.
If your code, keywords and architecture are up to SEO standards, your site will magically rise to the top and you will be successful.
Next week I will discuss 4 tactics areas to help make this happen.
Stay tuned.
- Bob Liddle -
Monday, January 16, 2006
Google bar and Page Rank? What is that?
What is the Google Toolbar and Page Rank
The Google Toolbar is a free downloadable tool bar that gives you search results, checks, autofill, etc. But most importantly lets you look at Page Rank. Page Rank is a score on a scale of 1 - 10 of what Google thinks is the value of the site. The next 2 paragraphs define Page Rank by Google.
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
O Page Rank means Google does not know the site is there. Basically 4 means you are noticed and doing well. No one is sure of values, but it seems that it is 8 times harder to get a 5 than a 4 and 8 times harder to get a 6 than a 5. etc. Very few sites have 9 or 10. Although Page Rank is important in Google it is not the end all. You can (and many sites do) have a great place on Google Search with a low Page Rank. But it is easier as you get higher.
Download your Google ToolBar and enjoy it.
Good luck
- Bob -
The Google Toolbar is a free downloadable tool bar that gives you search results, checks, autofill, etc. But most importantly lets you look at Page Rank. Page Rank is a score on a scale of 1 - 10 of what Google thinks is the value of the site. The next 2 paragraphs define Page Rank by Google.
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
O Page Rank means Google does not know the site is there. Basically 4 means you are noticed and doing well. No one is sure of values, but it seems that it is 8 times harder to get a 5 than a 4 and 8 times harder to get a 6 than a 5. etc. Very few sites have 9 or 10. Although Page Rank is important in Google it is not the end all. You can (and many sites do) have a great place on Google Search with a low Page Rank. But it is easier as you get higher.
Download your Google ToolBar and enjoy it.
Good luck
- Bob -
Monday, January 09, 2006
Content is King
How to get high rankings on Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL? I know it seems obvious, but getting good content is very important. Content is described as the text on the web page. Google does not care about pretty graphics. - Content is King.
Look at web pages that have high Google rankings. Invariably, (and there are exceptions) they have a lot of words. I recommend a minimum of about 500 words in your body on your main page. Make sure you use your key words, and make sure you use them early in the body. In other words they count for more than at the end of the body of the page.
Your content should be easy to understand and in plain English. Make sure your grammer is acceptable and there are no misspellings.
Check Kustom Koozies for a site that seems to have a lot of words on the main page, but it ranks #1 in Google for it's keywords. A rewrite of the site might make sense from a pure English point of view, but from a Search Engine Optimization point of view it does great.
ps. there is rumor of another Google update right around the corner. Update meaning there will be big shifting of rankings.
Look at web pages that have high Google rankings. Invariably, (and there are exceptions) they have a lot of words. I recommend a minimum of about 500 words in your body on your main page. Make sure you use your key words, and make sure you use them early in the body. In other words they count for more than at the end of the body of the page.
Your content should be easy to understand and in plain English. Make sure your grammer is acceptable and there are no misspellings.
Check Kustom Koozies for a site that seems to have a lot of words on the main page, but it ranks #1 in Google for it's keywords. A rewrite of the site might make sense from a pure English point of view, but from a Search Engine Optimization point of view it does great.
ps. there is rumor of another Google update right around the corner. Update meaning there will be big shifting of rankings.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Value of Search Engine Optimization
This blog is going to be an ongoing discussion of Search Engine Marketing and Optimization. It will relate to Dockside Marketing and the ongoing services offered there, and will reflect the ongoing education received by myself. I am in a constant educatinal phase with about an hour a day in reading forums. I have maintained this pace (more and less at different times) for 6 years. I have made my share of mistakes, but have learned a lot in the process.
I have always said, I would rather work with someone who has made the mistakes already. Make those mistakes on someone else. Not me.
How valuable is Search Engine Optimization? You can be selling your products 24 hours a day. Can you imagine being on page 1 for Google, or actually being #1? It can happen, and it can change your life. People are looking, it just takes work to be found.
Well we have set the groundwork. I am going to keep this up on a regular basis, so hold on!!!
- Bob -
I have always said, I would rather work with someone who has made the mistakes already. Make those mistakes on someone else. Not me.
How valuable is Search Engine Optimization? You can be selling your products 24 hours a day. Can you imagine being on page 1 for Google, or actually being #1? It can happen, and it can change your life. People are looking, it just takes work to be found.
Well we have set the groundwork. I am going to keep this up on a regular basis, so hold on!!!
- Bob -
