Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Prepared by: Larry Stewart

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Topic Outline

Introduction How Search Engines Work SEO Building Blocks

• Keywords

• Crawler

• Links

SEO Tools Black Hat Methods Summary and Conclusion

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Introduction

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Definition of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)1

"Natural," or "organic," search engine optimization (SEO) is designing, writing, and HTML-coding a Web site to maximize the chance its pages will appear at the top of spider-based search engine results for selected keywords and phrases

Organic Listings: Listings that search engines do not sell (unlike paid listings)

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SEO

Iterative process Dynamic environment Art Science

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Why is it important?

Internet advertising 1H 2006 : $7.9 Billion2

Search ranking more site visitors Internet users tend not to click through Depends on webs role in your

economic model

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Variation in Approaches

White Hat Abide by terms and conditions set forth by

search engines

Black Hat Breaches search engine terms and conditions May provide short-term gains You run the risk of being penalized by search

engines

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Defining Success (Context)

Search-Friendly (SEO)• High ranking

• Terms and conditions set by search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search)

User-Friendly • Site must satisfy the needs of visitors

Persuasive • Profitable for site owner

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How Search Engines Works

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Search Engine Operations

1. Gather Content • Crawler or spider moves recursively

downloading content

2. Builds sophisticate index

3. Individual web searches run against index

• Results are retrieved and ordered • PageRank & Relevance

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Google Search Placement4

Placement: importance and relevance PageRank (importance)

• Counts links

• Weights links

Query matching (relevance)• sophisticated text-matching techniques

• examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it)

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SEO Optimization

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SEO Optimization Categories

Keywords• Keyword selection and keyword-rich text

Crawler• A crawler-friendly site navigation scheme

Links• Link popularity

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Keyword Recommendations1

Page title: visible HTML text ,“Above the fold” Page Size: "100 KB" limit is still is still widely

held. The optimum page size is 500-3000 words (or 2000 to 20,000 characters)

Be specific Example: “Apple iPod” verses “iPod”

• exact phrase should appear generously throughout your site copy on every page

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More Keyword Recommendations5

Meta tags: use but don’t stuff <meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials on HTML, CSS, XML,

and XHTML">

Alt tags: use for graphics <IMG src="star.gif" alt=“star logo"> Content is king Write good content with relevant and important keywords in

mind.

Geo Targeting Add geocentric terms to target local areas Domain Names Use keywords as part of domain name

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Crawler-friendly

Engine spiders are primitive beings • choose simplicity over complexity

Goal• All your web pages seen by crawlers

• Google: enter in searchbox “allinurl:utexas.edu”

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Suggestions to be Crawler Friendly5

Traditional <a href> tag Keywords in subfolder names Minimize quantity of subfolders Cross link relevant terms and phrases

within the site Multiple paths to pages to eliminate

orphans

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Avoid or Minimize: May Negatively Impact Crawler5

Flash (slow to load and difficult to navigate)

Frames Java navigation Session ID to track visitors exact same Title tags on every page set to require a cookie when a visitor gets

to the page

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Link Development Inbound Links Impact PageRank

PageRank (Popularity, importance) Number and quality of links pointing to a

website Measure of usefulness of site

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Link Development Tradeoffs

Advantage• it is dynamic, cumulative, and difficult to

imitate

Disadvantage• takes time (vs. advertising)

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Link Development Approaches (White Hat)7

Quality content to start with Cultivate quality link (not quantity) Begin with web directories Harness online publicity Use Blogs and forums wisely Investigate competitors

• Understand their strategy• Online publicity, blogs and forums• See inbound links ("link:domain.com" in Google,

"linkdomain:domain.com" in Yahoo)

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SEO Tools

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Search Engine Term and Conditions

Google Yahoo MSN Search

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Vendor Tools Example: Seo Administrator 8

Ranking monitor: site positioning in for keywords

Link popularity checker: checks inbound links

Site indexation tool: check site indexation

Server Log-analyzer: Administrator log analyzer

PageRank analyzer: analyze competitor sites

Keywords tool: suggestions, associations, competitor analysis

HTML analyzer: dissect html text in the same way that a search engine would (syntax, keyword density)

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Black Hat Methods

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Head of the webspam group at Google

Matt Cutts Worked on his Ph.D Computer Science

at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Undergrad Comp Sci and Math (Graduated with M.S.).

Moved into information retrieval after classes from the university's Information and Library Science department

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http://www.searchenginegenie.com/seo-blog/images/matt.gifhttp://www.searchenginegenie.com

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Link Exchange Advertisement

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Keyword Consulting Advertisement

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Black Hat Terms Link Farming: exchanging reciprocal links

Keyword Stuffing: Hidden text, Stuffing text in every nook and cranny

Cloaking: stealth, deliver different page to a search engine for indexing

Doorway Pages: bridge, jump page, designed to appeal to search engine spiders

Fast meta refresh: used to quickly switch doorway pages to the page the user is supposed to see

Code swapping: swap it on the server with the "real" page once a position has been achieved. also sometimes done to keep others from learning exactly how the page ranked well.

Bait and Switch: loads the page with a popular search words such as sex, travel or antivirus when is irrelevant to site

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Online Resources

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Search Engine StandardsGooglehttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&ctx=related

Yahoohttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.htmlhttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-17.htmlhttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/index.html

MSNhttp://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm

Web Robots http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.htmlhttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp/index.htmlhttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8843

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Keyword ToolsOverture tool http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestionWordtracker tool [recommended]http://our.affiliatetracking.net/wordtracker/a/12246Google Sandbox Toolhttps://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandboxEspotting Toolhttp://www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.aspRelated Pageshttp://www.related-pages.com/adwordskeywords.aspx

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Conclusion and Summary

Website Success Search-friendly User-friendly Persuasive

Search-friendly Optimization components Keywords Crawler Links

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Bibliography

1 Thulow, Shari. “What Search Engine Marketing Does Your Site Need?” Clickz. 15 Nov. 2006 < http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3105241 >.

2 “2006 Second Quarter Results (October 4, 2006) .” Interactive Advertising Bureau. 15 Nov. 2006 < http://www.iab.net/resources/ad_revenue.asp >.

3 “Event Homepage.” Search Engine Strategies 2006 Conference and Exposition. 15 Nov. 2006 <http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/winter06/index.html >.

4 “Our Search: Google Technology.” Google Website. 15 Nov. 2006

< http://www.google.com/technology/index.html >.

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Bibliography5Laratro, Joe. “Dos and Don’ts of Search Engine Optimization.”

MoreVisibility. 15 Nov. 2006 <http://www.morevisibility.com/whitepaper/2006/SEO_Do_and_Donts_WP.pdf>

6 Thulow, Shari. “Link Development: The Key to Successful SEO ” Clickz. 15 Nov. 2006 <http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3431741 >.

7 link farming. webopedia. 15 Nov. 2006 <http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/l/link_farming.html>.

8 SSEO Tools. SEO Administrator.<http://www.seoadministrator.com/seo-tools.html><http://seo-tutorial.seoadministrator.com/>

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Backup

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Vendor Tools Example: Seo Administrator 8

Ranking monitor: monitor web site positioning in the major search engines for keywords

Link popularity checker: checks inbound links across a number of search engines

Site indexation tool: check site indexation in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines

Server Log-analyzer: Administrator log analyzer automates (Number of unique IP addresses, Number of visitors… )

PageRank analyzer: analyze competitor sitesKeywords suggestion tool: Keyword suggestion services, Keyword

Associations, search query suggestions, Competitor analysis HTML analyzer: dissect html text in the same way that a search

engine would (syntax, keyword density)

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Black Hat Terms Link Farming: exchanging reciprocal links with Web sites in order to

increase search engine optimization Keyword Stuffing: Hidden text, Stuffing text in every nook and cranny Cloaking: stealth, deliver one page to a search engine for indexing

while serving a different page to everyone else. Doorway Pages: A Web page that is designed to appeal to search

engine spiders. Fast meta refresh: used to quickly switch doorway pages to the page

the user is supposed to see Code swapping: swap it on the server with the "real" page once a

position has been achieved. also sometimes done to keep others from learning exactly how the page ranked well.

Bait and Switch: Another technique combines word stuffing with "bait-and-switch," which loads the page with a popular search word such as sex, travel or antivirus, even though the word has nothing to do with the site content.