seo
DESCRIPTION
simple guide to search engine optimization.TRANSCRIPT
WEB DESIGN APPLICATIONSAhsan uddin Shan
School of Film & Media StudiesNgee Ann Polytechnic
Week 7: SEOSearch engine optimization
Objectives
What is a Search Engine?
Examples of popular Search Engines
Why is Search Engine marketing important?
What is a SEO/SEM?
SEO strategy
Ranking factors
What’s an SEO?
Refers to the process of “optimizing” both the on-page and off-page ranking factors in order to achieve high search engine what you see on the web page complete URL, the domain name, the page
name, the page name extension SEO is the act of modifying a website to
increase its ranking in organic (vs paid), crawler-based listings of search engines
Optimization generally refers to the work you can do for Search Engines
Directories, like Yahoo operate under very different guidelines
What’s an SEO?
What is search engine marketing (SEM)?
SEM is the act of marketing a website via search engines by purchasing paid listings
Paid lisitng [google > ipl]
What are paid listings?
These are listings that search engines sell to advertisers, usually through paid placement
In contrast, organic listings are not sold Paid placement allows you to pay for special
placement Recommended: Yahoo Sponsored Link, Google
AdWords
Search Engine Marketing?
Includes: Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) - no cost per click
Paid Inclusion Pay Per Click (PPC)
SEO vs. SEM & PPC
SEO vs. SEM & PPC
SEO SEM/PPC
Pros • Free (not including resources) • Searchers click on organic search results more often than paid PPC links
• Excellent at creating awareness quickly• quick search
Cons • Time consuming• Takes longer to see results
• Can be pricey ($25-$100,000 a month)• Must be managed constantly (daily/weekly)
Why SEO is important?
Drive customers to your website Increase sales leads from customers looking for
their products and services Build your brand online Increase profile against your competitors Target a global audience via international
search engines
How do organic search listings work?
A spider or crawler which is a component of a SE gathers listings by automatically "crawling" the web
The spider follows links to web pages, makes copies of the pages and stores them in the SE’s index
Based on this data, the SE then indexes the pages and ranks the websites
Major SEs that index pages using spiders: Google, Altavista, Msn, Aol, lycos
SEO strategies/techniques
SEO strategies/techniques: Domain name strategies
Choose a domain name that will increase your search engine ranking. How? Simple, short, no hyphens, no numbers
How to increase links: good content good outbound/inbound links target a list of sites from which you can
request inbound links The link’s anchor text is very important
Should contain relevant keywords
SEO strategies/techniques: links
SEO strategies/techniques: Use the Description
Glacier Bay Highlights - Alaskan Glacier Bay CruiseSave up to $300 per cabin - ends 3/31/08! This Alaskan Glacier Bay cruise itinerary is a perfect shorter getaway cruise in the beautiful remote wilderness of Alaska's ...www.sunstonetours.com/alaska/itins/cw_GlacierBayHighlights.asp - 32k - Cached - Similar pages
<title>Glacier Bay Highlights - Alaskan Glacier Bay Cruise</title>
<meta name="description" content="Save up to $300 per cabin - ends 3/31/08! This Alaskan Glacier Bay cruise itinerary is a perfect shorter getaway cruise in the beautiful remote wilderness of Alaska's Inside Passage. Experience the true meaning of wonder in the soaring sanctuary of Glacier Bay National Park.">
=
SEO strategies/techniques: Content / Body Text
SEO strategies/techniques: HTML Headings <h#>
Include primary or supporting keywords in your highest heading tag (<h1>)
Place supporting keywords in these heading tags <h2> … <h6>
Use CSS to format the look of standard HTML headings
SEO strategies/techniques: Emphasizing Keywords
Emphasize text & keywords to show search engines & users that “this is important” to the theme of the page.
Use <strong> for bold Use <em> for emphasize Do not use <b> or <i> (outdated/obsolete) Only emphasize short segments of words (1-4
words)
SEO strategies/techniques: Images
Give your images descriptive filename Use the alt attribute to provide information
about the image Short description of image Include keywords where it makes sense
keywords are words that appear the most in a page used by searchers to find information
Best don’t use comma to separate at least 100 words
SEO strategies/techniques: Key words
Keyword Discovery
Known keywords Ask the client Ask the customers Check the current server logs or analytics tool Check the site search logs
Competitor’s keywords Look at the words in the <title> tag / browser
bar View source to view their META keywords
Keyword Discovery & Analysis
Always include variations of keywords Plurals (widgets, churches) Synonyms (cruise, sail, journey, tour) Stems (fish, fishing) International spelling differences (Harbor
/Harbour)
Keyword Discovery & Analysis
Online Tools Created for PPC, used for SEO as well Tools
Google Adwords Keywords Tool Trellian (free trial) WordTracker (free trial) SEOBook SEOTool Keyword Suggestion
Tool Use multiple tools to cross-check & validate
findings in other tools
The first thing that a search engine displays on a search return
Every single web page should have its own title tag - you can use up to 65 characters eg Ebayhttp://www.ebay.com/
SEO strategies/techniques: title page
Code example:
<title>Rubber Widgets – Largest Selection of Rubber Widgets</title>
Dreamweaver :
SEO strategies/techniques: title
Meta tags placed in <head> portion of page Meta description tags
SEO strategies/techniques: meta tags
Variations:
• <meta name=“robots" content=“index,follow" />
• <meta name=“robots" content=“noindex,nofollow" />
• <meta name=“robots" content=“noindex,follow" />
• <meta name=“robots" content=“index,nofollow" />
A short description Include keywords in your alt tags
SEO strategies/techniques: alt tag
Submission
Submit your website to SEs for indexing Submit your site to search engine directories,
directory sites and portal sites indexing takes 1 wk to 3 months
Major SEs to submit to:
Altavista http://addurl.altavista.com/sites/addurl/newurl (Search engines that also use this database - Looksmart)
The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) http://dmoz.org/add.html(Search engines that also use this database - Ask Jeeves, Lycos, Netscape )
Fast http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php(Search engines that also use this database - Lycos)
Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html(Search engines that also use this database - Yahoo)
Inktomi http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm
(Search engines that also use this database - AOL, Excite, MSN, Overture)
MSN http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm
Yahoo http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest
Major SEs to submit to:
SEO - what is NOT recommended
Flash and shockwave - spiders do not pick up these files
Image only sites - spiders do not pick up images
Image maps - spiders cannot read image maps.
SEO - what is NOT recommended
Frames - only one page can be titled (titling is critical in search rankings)
If the spider cannot read the complete page (because of the frames), it will not be indexed properly.
Some spiders may not even read a frames web site
Password protected pages – spiders cannot enter password protected pages
PDF files - can be problematic for spiders. Dynamic pages - spiders cannot index
some content on pages using ASP, CGI or other dynamic languages.
Drop down menus – spiders cannot read them
SEO - what is NOT recommended
Resources
Search Engine Relationships Bruce Clay’s Search Engine Relationship Char
tKeyword Tools (online)
Google AdWords: Keyword Tool Trellian Keyword Discovery Wordtracker SEOBook SEOTools Keyword Suggestion Tool
Keyword Tools (client-based) Web CEO
Resources
AnalyticsGoogle Analytics (Web-based - Free)Stat Counter (Web-based - Free)Mint (Web-based - Fee)Omniture (Web-based - Fee)Webtrends (Web-based – Fee)
MonitoringWeb CEO (Client-based – Trial/Fee)SEO Tool Rank Checker (Web-based – Free/Fee)SEO for Firefox (Browser-based)Google Toolbar (Browser-based)
Resources
Books Search Engine Marketing – Mike Moran & Bill
Hunt Search Engine Optimization for Dummies –
Peter Kent Building Findable Websites – Aaron Walter Search Marketing Strategies – James Colborn Web Analytics Demystified – Eric Peterson Web Metrics – Jim Sterne The Online Copywriter’s Handbook – Robert Bly
Resources
Web SitesSearch Engine LandSEOmozWeb Engine Watch
Podcasts (search for these in iTunes or Google)Daily SearchCastSEO 101
Online CoursesLynda.com – Search Engine Optimization