SEO

6th Edition

by Peter Kent

SEO

6th Edition

SEO For Dummies®, 6th Edition

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030‐5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

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Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015951276

ISBN 978‐1‐119‐12955‐4 (pbk); 978‐1‐119‐12960‐8 (epub); 9‐781‐119‐12974‐5 (epdf)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Contents at a GlanceIntroduction ................................................................ 1

Part I: Getting Started with SEO ................................... 5Chapter 1: Surveying the Search Engine Landscape ..................................................... 7Chapter 2: Search Results, Deconstructed ................................................................... 23Chapter 3: Your One-Hour, Search Engine–Friendly Web Site Makeover................. 31Chapter 4: Beating the Competition — Planning a Powerful

Search Engine Strategy ................................................................................................. 49Chapter 5: Making Your Site Useful and Visible .......................................................... 67

Part II: Building Search Engine‐Friendly Sites ............. 83Chapter 6: Picking Powerful Keywords ......................................................................... 85Chapter 7: Creating Pages That Search Engines Love .............................................. 107Chapter 8: Using Structured Data Markup.................................................................. 135Chapter 9: Avoiding Things That Search Engines Hate ............................................ 143Chapter 10: Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap ................................................................. 163Chapter 11: Bulking Up Your Site — Competing with Content ................................ 179Chapter 12: Finding Traffic Through Local-Search Marketing ................................. 203

Part III: Adding Your Site to the Indexes and Directories .............................................................. 229Chapter 13: Getting Your Pages into the Search Engines ......................................... 231Chapter 14: Submitting to the Directories .................................................................. 247Chapter 15: Product Search: Remember the Shopping Directories

and Retailers ................................................................................................................ 257

Part IV: After You’ve Submitted Your Site .................. 283Chapter 16: Using Link Popularity to Boost Your Position ...................................... 285Chapter 17: Finding Sites to Link to Yours ................................................................. 309Chapter 18: Even More Great Places to Get Links ..................................................... 331Chapter 19: Social Networking — Driven by Drivel ................................................... 343Chapter 20: Video: Putting Your Best Face Forward ................................................. 351Chapter 21: When Google Bites Back: A Guide to Catastrophe ............................... 357

vi SEO For Dummies

Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................... 377Chapter 22: Ten-Plus Myths and Mistakes ................................................................. 379Chapter 23: Ten-Plus Ways to Stay Updated .............................................................. 387Chapter 24: Ten-Plus Useful Things to Know ............................................................. 393

Index ...................................................................... 409

Table of ContentsIntroduction ................................................................. 1

About This Book .............................................................................................. 1Foolish Assumptions ....................................................................................... 2Icons Used in This Book ................................................................................. 3Beyond the Book ............................................................................................. 4

Part I: Getting Started with SEO .................................... 5

Chapter 1: Surveying the Search Engine Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Investigating Search Engines and Directories ............................................. 8

Search sites, indexes, & engines .......................................................... 8Search directories ................................................................................ 10Spidered Directories ............................................................................ 11Pay-per-click systems .......................................................................... 11Keeping the terms straight ................................................................. 12Why bother with search engines? ..................................................... 13

Where Do People Search? ............................................................................. 15Search Engine Magic ..................................................................................... 18

How do they do it? ............................................................................... 18Stepping into the programmers’ shoes ............................................. 19

Gathering Your Tools .................................................................................... 20

Chapter 2: Search Results, Deconstructed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23The Big Two: Organic and PPC .................................................................... 23Looking at Local Results ............................................................................... 25Checking Out Shopping Results ................................................................... 26Staying Current with News Results ............................................................. 27Viewing Video and Image Results ................................................................ 28Getting Friendly with Social Results ........................................................... 29Collecting Bits n’ Pieces ................................................................................ 29

Chapter 3: Your One-Hour, Search Engine–Friendly Web Site Makeover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Is Your Site Indexed? ..................................................................................... 31Google.................................................................................................... 32Yahoo! and Bing ................................................................................... 34Open Directory Project ....................................................................... 34

Taking Action If You’re Not Listed .............................................................. 34No links.................................................................................................. 35Unreliable Web Server......................................................................... 35

viii SEO For Dummies

robots.txt is blocking your site .......................................................... 36robots meta tags are blocking pages ................................................ 36Bad domain name ................................................................................ 37Unreadable navigation ........................................................................ 37Dealing with dynamic pages ............................................................... 39The Canonical tag ................................................................................ 40

Picking Good Keywords ................................................................................ 40Examining Your Pages .................................................................................. 41

Using frames ......................................................................................... 42Looking at the TITLE tags ................................................................... 43Examining the DESCRIPTION tag ....................................................... 44Giving search engines something to read......................................... 45

Getting Your Site Indexed ............................................................................. 48

Chapter 4: Beating the Competition — Planning a Powerful Search Engine Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Don’t Trust Your Web Designer ................................................................... 50Understanding the Limitations .................................................................... 51Eyeing the Competition ................................................................................ 52

Getting a “gut feel” for the competition ............................................ 52Why is my competitor ranking so high? ........................................... 55

Going Beyond Getting to #1 ......................................................................... 55Highly targeted keyword phrases ...................................................... 56Understanding the search tail ............................................................ 56

Controlling Search Engine Variables ........................................................... 58Keywords .............................................................................................. 59Content .................................................................................................. 59Page optimization ................................................................................ 60Submissions .......................................................................................... 60Links ...................................................................................................... 60Time and the Google sandbox............................................................ 61

Determining Your Plan of Attack ................................................................. 62Look Away a Few Minutes ............................................................................ 64Two Things to Remember ............................................................................ 65

Chapter 5: Making Your Site Useful and Visible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67Learning from Amazon .................................................................................. 67Revealing the Secret But Essential Rule of Web Success ......................... 69

The evolving, incorrect “secret” ........................................................ 70Uncovering the real secret ................................................................. 71Showing a bias for content ................................................................. 71

Making Your Site Work Well ......................................................................... 72Limiting multimedia ............................................................................. 73Using text, not graphics ...................................................................... 73Don’t be cute ........................................................................................ 74Making it easy to move around .......................................................... 74Providing different routes................................................................... 75Using long link text .............................................................................. 75

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Don’t keep restructuring ..................................................................... 76Editing and checking spelling ............................................................. 76Ugly doesn’t sell ................................................................................... 77

Panda — Google Endorses Good Design .................................................... 79Keep It Fresh (Perhaps) ................................................................................ 82

Part II: Building Search Engine‐Friendly Sites .............. 83

Chapter 6: Picking Powerful Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85Understanding the Importance of Keywords ............................................. 86Thinking Like Your Prey ............................................................................... 88Starting Your Keyword Analysis .................................................................. 88

Identifying the obvious keywords ..................................................... 88Looking at your Web site’s access logs ............................................ 89Examining competitors’ keyword tags .............................................. 89Brainstorming with colleagues .......................................................... 89Looking closely at your list................................................................. 89

Using a Keyword Tool ................................................................................... 93Using the free Google keyword tool .................................................. 93Using the free Bing Ads keywords tool ............................................. 99Commercial keyword tools: Using Wordtracker ............................ 100Yet more keyword tools .................................................................... 103

Choosing Your Keywords ........................................................................... 104Cam again? You might be missing the target ................................. 104Ambiguous terms ............................................................................... 105Very broad terms ............................................................................... 105Picking combinations ........................................................................ 106

Chapter 7: Creating Pages That Search Engines Love . . . . . . . . . . . .107Preparing Your Site ..................................................................................... 108

Finding a hosting company............................................................... 108Picking a domain name ..................................................................... 108Mobile readiness and “Mobilegeddon” ........................................... 110HTTPS .................................................................................................. 111

Seeing Through a Search Engine’s Eyes ................................................... 112Understanding Keyword Concepts ........................................................... 115

Picking one or two phrases per page .............................................. 115Checking prominence ........................................................................ 116Watching density ............................................................................... 117Placing keywords throughout your site .......................................... 117

Creating Your Web Pages ........................................................................... 118Naming files ........................................................................................ 118Creating directory structure ............................................................ 119Viewing TITLE tags ............................................................................ 119Using the DESCRIPTION meta tag .................................................... 121Tapping into the KEYWORDS meta tag ........................................... 124Using other meta tags ....................................................................... 125

x SEO For Dummies

Including image ALT text .................................................................. 126Adding body text................................................................................ 127Creating headers: CSS versus <H> tags ........................................... 128Formatting text ................................................................................... 129Creating links ...................................................................................... 130Using other company and product names ..................................... 131Creating navigation structures that search engines can read ..... 132Blocking searchbots .......................................................................... 133

Chapter 8: Using Structured Data Markup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135Creating Rich Snippets ................................................................................ 136Pick Your Data Format ................................................................................ 139Providing Knowledge Graph Information ................................................. 140Getting Help .................................................................................................. 141

Chapter 9: Avoiding Things That Search Engines Hate . . . . . . . . . . . .143Dealing with Frames .................................................................................... 143The HTML Nitty-Gritty of Frames .............................................................. 145Handling iframes .......................................................................................... 147Fixing Invisible Navigation Systems .......................................................... 147

Fixing the problem ............................................................................. 148Flush the Flash Animation .......................................................................... 149Waiting for Silverlight (to Disappear) ....................................................... 150Avoiding Embedded Text in Images .......................................................... 150Reducing the Clutter in Your Web Pages ................................................. 151

Use external JavaScripts ................................................................... 152Use external CSS files ........................................................................ 152Move image maps to the bottom of the page ................................. 153Avoid the urge to copy and paste from MS Word ......................... 153

Managing Dynamic Web Pages .................................................................. 154Understanding dynamic-page URLs ................................................ 155Fixing your dynamic Web page problem ........................................ 156

Using Session IDs in URLs .......................................................................... 157Fixing Bits and Pieces ................................................................................. 160

Forwarded pages................................................................................ 160Image maps ......................................................................................... 161Special characters ............................................................................. 161

Chapter 10: Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163Tricking Search Engines ............................................................................. 164

Deciding whether to trick ................................................................. 164Figuring out the tricks ....................................................................... 165Do these tricks work? ........................................................................ 166

Concrete Shoes, Cyanide, TNT — An Arsenal for Dirty Deeds .............. 166Keyword stacking and stuffing ......................................................... 167Hiding (and shrinking) keywords .................................................... 168Hiding links ......................................................................................... 170

xi Table of Contents

Duplicating pages and sites .............................................................. 170Page swapping and page jacking ..................................................... 171

Doorway and Information Pages ............................................................... 171Using Redirects and Cloaking .................................................................... 173

Understanding redirects ................................................................... 173Examining cloaking ............................................................................ 175

Tricks Versus Strategies ............................................................................. 176Link Tricks .................................................................................................... 177Paying the Ultimate Penalty ....................................................................... 177

Chapter 11: Bulking Up Your Site — Competing with Content . . . . .179Creating Content Three Ways .................................................................... 180Writing Your Own Stuff ............................................................................... 181

Summarizing online articles ............................................................. 182Reviewing Web sites and products ................................................. 182

Convincing Someone Else to Write Content ............................................ 183Using OPC (Other People’s Content) ........................................................ 184Understanding Copyright — It’s Not Yours! ............................................ 185Hunting for Other People’s Content .......................................................... 187

Keywords ............................................................................................ 187Product information .......................................................................... 188Web sites and e-mail newsletters .................................................... 189Government sources ......................................................................... 190Content-syndication sites ................................................................. 191Traditional syndication services ..................................................... 194RSS syndication feeds ....................................................................... 195Open content and copyleft ............................................................... 197Search results pages .......................................................................... 198Press releases ..................................................................................... 198Q&A areas ........................................................................................... 199Message boards ................................................................................. 199Blogs .................................................................................................... 200

A Word about Duplicated Content ............................................................ 201

Chapter 12: Finding Traffic through Local-Search Marketing . . . . . .203Why You Shouldn’t Skip This Chapter ...................................................... 203Understanding Local-Search Marketing’s Importance ............................ 204Looking through Local Search ................................................................... 205How Does Local Search Work? .................................................................. 207

Search terms ....................................................................................... 207Partner and localized sites ............................................................... 207IP numbers .......................................................................................... 207

Two Ways to Reach People Locally .......................................................... 210“Localizing” Your Web Pages ..................................................................... 210

Use the Geo meta tags ....................................................................... 212Grabbing control of (or adding) your business listing ................. 214Increasing the odds ........................................................................... 218

xii SEO For Dummies

Finding More Local Systems ...................................................................... 218Don’t Forget Local-Local Directories ........................................................ 220The Other Side of Local: Review Sites ...................................................... 221

Removing bad reviews ...................................................................... 223Diluting bad reviews .......................................................................... 224Identifying important review sites ................................................... 224

Working with the Yellow Pages ................................................................. 225

Part III: Adding Your Site to the Indexes and Directories ............................................................... 229

Chapter 13: Getting Your Pages into the Search Engines . . . . . . . . . .231Linking Your Site for Inclusion ................................................................... 231Simple Link Submissions to the Major Systems ...................................... 232Submitting an XML Sitemap ....................................................................... 233

Creating your sitemap ....................................................................... 234Submitting your sitemaps ................................................................. 236Using Webmaster tools, too ............................................................. 240

Submitting to Secondary Systems ............................................................. 243Using Registration Services and Software Programs .............................. 245

Chapter 14: Submitting to the Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247Pitting Search Directories Against Search Engines ................................. 247Why Are Directories So Significant? .......................................................... 249Submitting to the Search Directories ........................................................ 250

Submitting to the Open Directory Project ...................................... 250Finding Specialized Directories ................................................................. 252

Finding directories through DMOZ.................................................. 253Getting the link ................................................................................... 254

Using “Local” Directories ........................................................................... 256

Chapter 15: Product Search: Remember the Shopping Directories and Retailers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257

Understanding Where People Search for Products ................................ 257Working with the Product Indexes ............................................................ 260

Google Product Listing Ads .............................................................. 261Yahoo! Shopping, PriceGrabber, and PrecioMania ....................... 262Bing Product Ads ............................................................................... 264Amazon Product Ads ......................................................................... 264Shopping.com ..................................................................................... 264BizRate & Shopzilla ............................................................................ 265NexTag................................................................................................. 266Pricewatch .......................................................................................... 266

Exploring More Shopping Services ........................................................... 267

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The Classified-Ad Sites ................................................................................ 269Working with E-Commerce or Merchant Sites ......................................... 270

Working with eBay ............................................................................. 270Working with Amazon ....................................................................... 271

Managing Your Data .................................................................................... 272The data you need ............................................................................. 273Formatting guidelines ........................................................................ 274Creating your spreadsheet ............................................................... 274Getting those product URLs ............................................................. 275Creating individual sheets ................................................................ 277Creating and uploading your data files ........................................... 279Multichannel, automated data management .................................. 281

Part IV: After You’ve Submitted Your Site ................... 283

Chapter 16: Using Link Popularity to Boost Your Position . . . . . . . . .285Why Search Engines Like Links ................................................................. 285

Google: All about links ...................................................................... 286Links: The gift that keeps on giving ................................................. 287

Understanding Page Value and PageRank ................................................ 288PageRank — One part of the equation ............................................ 290The PageRank algorithm ................................................................... 291Measuring PageRank ......................................................................... 293Leaking PageRank .............................................................................. 295PageRank Alternatives ...................................................................... 296

Page Relevance ............................................................................................ 297Hubs and Neighborhoods ........................................................................... 298Trust in TrustRank ...................................................................................... 299Inserting Keywords into Links ................................................................... 300

The Googlebomb lives....................................................................... 301PageRank versus Keywords.............................................................. 303Get a Good Mix ................................................................................... 303

Good Links and Bad .................................................................................... 303Recognizing Links with No Value .............................................................. 305

Identifying links that aren’t links ..................................................... 305Identifying nofollow links .................................................................. 307

Recalling a Few Basic Rules about Links .................................................. 308

Chapter 17: Finding Sites to Link to Yours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .309Controlling Your Links ................................................................................ 310

Converting good links to bad ........................................................... 310The perfect link text .......................................................................... 310

Doing a Link Analysis .................................................................................. 312Google.................................................................................................. 312Link popularity software ................................................................... 313