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7/29/2019 Introductory Comprehensive Guide on Search Engine Optimization for Beginners
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www.freemindsfreelines.com Page 1
www.freemindsfreelines.com
Comprehensive Introductory Guide
on Search Engine Optimizationfor Beginners
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Welcome readers!
This ebook offers an introductory yet comprehensive guide on Search Engine Optimizationor SEO for beginners. It was researched and compiled by a freelance writer, blogger, SEO,
and social media consultant. This ebook is available for free through various sources. If youbelieve you have benefitted from this compilation and would like to contact the author for
questions, comments, suggestions, hire offered services, or to even send a complimentarymonetary incentive, please feel free to leave a message through the au thors personal blog
www.freemindsfreelines.comand use the contact form found on the site.
Disclaimer
No part of this manuscript may be used for mass reproduction and distribution. However,
parts and portions may be quoted provided that a link redirecting to the blog
www.freemindsfreelines.comis utilized as a reference.
http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/7/29/2019 Introductory Comprehensive Guide on Search Engine Optimization for Beginners
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What to Expect
Table of Search Engine Scores for various elements:
Keywords
LinksMeta tags
ContentSEO and Additional Elements
Domain Names, URLs, etc.I. Introduction SEO Defined
1. The Functionality of Search Engines
2. Variations among Popular Search EnginesII. Keywords the Most Relevant Element in SEO1. Selecting the Proper Keywords to be optimized
2. Keyword Density
3. Keywords in Specific Areasa. URL and File Name Keywords
b. Page Title Keywords
c. Heading KeywordsIII. Backlinks Another Relevant SEO Element
Backlinks DefinedThe Relevance of Backlinks
Anchor TextMethods Used When Building Backlinks
1. Backlink Builder Tool2. Submit Site in Directories
3. Article Directories and Forum Boards
4. RSS Feeds5. Affiliate programs
6. News Updates and Press Releases
Link Methods that are not recommended
IV. MetatagsMeta tags Defined
Meta Description
Meta KeywordsMeta Robots
V. Content is King
Defining Good ContentWriting SEO Content for Search Engines and for Real PeopleSEO Killers Duplicate Content, Spamming, and Fillers
VI. Visual Elements and SEO
1. Images2. Videos, Movies, and Animation
3. Frames4. JavaScriptVII. Static and Dynamic URLsVIII. Gain Greater Traffic by Promoting Your Website
1. Submit your site to website directories, forum community boards, and others2. Secondary Search Engines3. Advertisements and Submission Services
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Keywords
1 tag
keywords
It is vital to use keywords in tags due to the fact
that search results will display the contents of the
tag as the title of your site or page. Title tags
should be comprised of no more than 7 words and thekeyword should appear at the start of the title.
+3
2 URL keywords Placing keywords in site or page URLs is advantageous
such as http://sitename.com/seo-services.html, inwhich SEO services is the targeted keyword for
optimization. But in case the keyword is not actuallylocated anywhere on the text content, do not expect to
achieve anything by placing it in the URL.
+3
3 Keyword density
applied to text
content
This is one more factor which needs to be considered.
Keyword density for major keywords is advisable at 3-
7% and for minor keywords; it should be at 1-2%.Keyword density beyond 10% appears forced, unnaturaland can be deemed as keyword stuffing.
+3
4 Keyword placement
in anchor text
Keyword placement in anchor text is also vital,
particularly anchor texts used for inbound links. If the
keyword used for an anchor text found in other sitesredirects to your site, it is counted as a vote for you bysearch engines. Its a vote not solely about the site but
the keyword as well.
+3
5 Keyword tags in
, ,
, etc. headings
Keywords placed in headings also matter. But make
sure that such keywords are actually used within the
text content.
+3
6 Keywords atopening sentencesor paragraphs
Keywords at opening sentences or paragraphs alsomatter but not as much as keywords located in theanchor text. This does not always apply to the very first
paragraph. There are cases, such as in tables,
wherewith the opening is actually not the first phrase orsentence on the table but the first paragraph after the
table.
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7 tag keywords Search engine spiders do not crawl images but they
read the image descriptions found on the tag. Soif there are images in your site or page, maximize the
use of the tag by adding keywords to it.
+2
8 Meta tags keywords Meta tag keywords are not of primary importance toGoogle but are still considered highly by Yahoo andBing. So make sure to utilize these tags correctly. It will
cause no harm to have it done, so why not do it?
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9 Proximity in Proximity in keywords refers to the distance between +1
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keywords keywords. It is of course preferable to write the wordsclosely such as, dog food with no interfering words in
between. In case there are words in between them suchas dog being in the first paragraph and food in the
third, it still counts. But having no interfering wordsbetween the keywords is still better. Proximity in
keywords is applied to keywords consisting of 2 words
or more.
10 Keyword phrase Aside from keywords, keyword optimization can also be
performed through keyword phrases. These are
keywords composed of a few words such as SEOservices or even longer. Keyword phrases to beenhanced should be highly searched ones. In this way,
you get exactly the same words in search results. It isalso logical to apply SEO for 2 or more words i.e. SEO
and services. aside from phrases.
+1
11 Minor keywords Enhancing minor keywords is advantageous becauseeveryone else is already working on primary keywords.
This lessens the competition and will eventually result tomore hits for sites and pages that are enhanced using
minor keywords. As an example, real estate New York
may result to thousands of hits more compared to usingreal estate alone. If you are targeting New York only,you may receive lesser hits but at least the traffic
gained is from a locally targeted audience.
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12 Keyword roots Keyword roots are not much of an issue with the English
language since most words are derived from the sameroot word. So if you used the word dog on your site or
page, you will also receive hits for other related wordsstemming from the same root word including dogs anddoggy. It may become a problem for other languages,
however, since not all words are derived from the sameroot word.
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13 Synonymous words You can also optimize synonymous words related to thetarget keyword. Like the previous entry, this applies
well for sites written in English. It is because searchengines also consider synonyms when measuring theranking of websites. This does not apply to sites written
in other languages when calculating keyword relevance.
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14 Misspelled keywords Errors in spelling happen all the time, even when
searching for keywords online. So if you happen to knowmisspelled or equivalent words of your targeted
keywords, you may consider optimizing your site
through them too. It will gain traffic for your site but willnot impress your readers. It is recommended to usemisspelled words in meta tags only and not in the actual
content when optimizing.
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15 Diluted keywords An overuse of keywords, particularly those that does notcorrelate with each other will not benefit the primary
keywords in terms of rank. In fact, it will dilute or drownthem within the content.
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16 Keyword stuffing Unnaturally forced keywords which are used in a density
of over 10% is considered keyword stuffing. Stuffingkeywords may result to your site being banned fromsearch engines.
-3
Links - internal, incoming, outgoing
17 Anchor text for
incoming links
As explained in the keywords section, the anchor text
for incoming links is one of the most vital elements to
achieve good ranks. In relation to this, it isrecommended to choose a keyword for the anchor text
although it is not necessary to do so.
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18 Source of incoming
links
Aside from the anchor text, it is also vital to know the
reputation of the site where the incoming links arecoming from. Sites with higher PR or page rank providemore valuable incoming links.
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19 Links from relatedsites
Links coming from sites related to yours add more valueto an incoming link. It creates an impression thatcompeting sites vote for you and that you are known as
an authority in your niche.
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20 .edu and .gov. links Links from .edu and .gov sites are valuable than the
regular .com, .info, .biz, etc. sites. It is also difficult togain links from such sites.
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21 Total count ofbacklinks
In general, it is better to have more backlinks. But thereare also other factors which must be considered and aremore relevant than the total number of backlinks
created. These include the reputation of the site linking
to you; the anchor text used, if there is any keywordattached to it, and so on.
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22 Internal links and
their anchor text
Internal links and their anchor text are also counted but
not as relevant as the anchor text for incoming links.
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23 Text surroundingthe anchor text
The text surrounding the anchor text is also importantas it ensures that the link is relevant, natural, and not
merely superficially planted to create a link.
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24 Tenure of incoming
links
The more tenure the incoming links are, the better. So
to acquire a lot of links in a short period of time maymean purchasing them.
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25 Directory links Directory links will help but it will be dependent on thedirectory itself. DMOZ, Yahoo, and other top directories
will greatly improve your sites rank but acquiring linksfrom PR0 directories wont help. It may even be
considered as link spamming, especially if you havehundreds or even thousands of links coming from such
places online.
+2
26 Total count ofoutbound links from
the site which links
to yours
The less number of outbound links found on the site orpage which links to your site, the better. This will make
your link appear more relevant.
+1
27 Labeled anchors Labeled anchors (the targeted area for incoming links)will help not only for navigating within the site but also
contributes to SEO. This is due to the fact that labeled
anchors highlight the importance of a page, paragraph,or text. The example below shows an example of how
labeled anchors appear to be: Readmore about dogs. Here, #dogs is the labeled
anchor.
+1
28 IP address where an
incoming link comesfrom
Google shows no discrimination for incoming links that
are created from the same IP address or the same IPclasses (type C). Bing and Yahoo! on the other handdisregards links from the same source (IP address or IP
class) so it recommended to gain links from varying
links and link types.
+1
29 Incoming links fromlinks farms and
deceptive sites
Link farms cause no harm if links gained from such sitesare reciprocally created. The notion behind this is that
we cannot restrict which sites links to link farms. Sothere is no penalty for linking to such sites as it is notyou deliberately linking to them. But nonetheless, it isrecommended to be wary of linking to link farms and
other deceptive sites.
0
30 Outbound links Google abhor pages which are filled with links, so its
best to maintain the number of links to 100 or below forevery page. A lot of outbound links does not contribute
to improving your sites rank and may even worsen it.
-1
31 Spamming or
excessively usinglinks
Too many links going to or coming from the same site
does not benefit your sites rank, whether it is aboutcross-linking or linking to suspicious sites. Either way, itstill connotes spamming or even link buying. For thesake of SEO, not all links are counted in relation toranking.
-1
32 Outgoing links tosites with negative
reputation
Although incoming links from sites with negativereputation (i.e. link farms) are non-affecting, outgoing
links from your site to them on the other hand is very
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disadvantageous to your site. Thus, you must regularlyanalyze the reputation of sites you link to.
33 Interlinking Interlinking happens when one site (site 1) links to asecond site (site 2), whereas site 2 links to a third site(site 3), and site 3 links back to site 1. This is only a
basic example, there are more complicated techniques
used. It may appear to be reciprocal in nature butinterlinking has a penalty attached to it.
-3
34 Pixelated links Pixelated links are almost unseen by the human eye andobviously will not be clicked. These are clearly created
to try manipulating search engines.
-3
Meta tags
35 Meta tag for
Meta tags are slowly losing their value, but if there are
meta tags which are still deemed valuable, these are the and the meta tags
wherewith the latter is used to add a description of your
website. Aside from the fact that Yahoo! and Bing stilltake into consideration the contents of the tag, these also provide additional
benefits. These are what come up for the description
summary of your site in search engine results.
+1
36 Meta tag for
The meta tag for is also vital, but like all
other meta tags, it loses value in the eyes of Google andis looked upon with only a minimal value in the eyes ofYahoo! and Bing. When using meta tags, these should
be comprised of 10 to 20 words only. Never use
keywords that are not included in the page content, itdoesnt help your sites ranking.
+1
37 Meta tag for
The meta tag for must be filled out if yourwebsite has a specified language used. Search engines
have alternative options to recognize what language isused on your sites but you should still fill out the tag nonetheless as they still crawl it.
+1
38 Meta tag for
The meta tag for is used for redirecting webusers from your web site to another. This is only
applicable if there is a recent transition from onedomain name to another. The meta tag for is
deemed as inappropriate and may even harm your sitesrank. Aside from the tag, you can also
redirect through 301.
-1
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Content
39 Original content Content that is original, valuable, and presenteddifferently from other websites both in words used andtopics chosen will definitely help increase your sites
rating.
+3
40 Duration of updates Constant change is highly valued. The duration by which
updates are made matters. Adding updates regularlywill benefit your site the most but it wont help much if
the updates made are very minimal.
+3
41 Font size ofkeywords
If a keyword in the content is presented with a fontwhich is larger than the ones used for the rest of the
content, both web users and search engines notice itmore than the rest. Thus, increases its value. The samerule is applicable for headings (, , and soone.), which are normally presented in larger font
anyway.
+2
42 Applying format to
keywords
Applying formatting rules such as bold and italics are
other means by which vital words as well as phrases are
highlighted. When formatting through bold, italic, andenlarged font, however, caution must be exercised.
Otherwise, the exact opposite of what you intended theformatting for might happen instead.
+2
43 How old the contentis
Newer contents or those which are constantly updatedare preferable.
+2
44 Size of the contentfile Lengthy pages are usually not preferred. You canreceive higher ratings with 3 short files rather than 1
lengthy file on any subject. So it is more recommended
to divide lengthy pages into shorter ones.
+1
45 Separating content For marketing purposes, separating content (based on
IP address, browser usage, and so on) is useful but in
terms of SEO, it is not. If there is only one websiteaddress but the contents are different, search engineswill find it confusing when indexing the content of the
page.
-2
46 Site codes and
design
Although there are nearly no sites that are banned due
to coding and design, search engines are still clear intheir stand against site codes and designs that areineffective and improper. Its not just about the
aesthetic value. Sites with messed up codes and designsare difficult to index. So with this, it means site codes
and designs that are poorly implemented can be
harmful.
-2
47 Unlawful use of Plagiarized content or content glorifying unlawful -3
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56 Frames Frames are really, really not good for SEO. These mustnot be used unless it is needed to do so.
-2
57 Flash Search engines do not include Flash files in their indexso if there are any in your site, make sure to include analternate text to describe it.
-2
58 Main page in flash Good to hear that main pages exclusively available in
Flash no longer exist. Main pages that are composedmainly of Flash with no HTML are considered a suicidal
act in SEO.
-3
Domain names, URLs, and Web Familiarization
59 URLs and domain
names that arekeyword rich
Having URLs and domain names that are keyword rich
are very vital particularly for Yahoo! and Bing.
+3
60 Access to sitesections and pages
Access to site sections and pages is a basic factor but isdisregarded most of the time. Sites or pages which
cannot be accessed due to missing links, 404 page errormessages, password restricted sections, and otherrelated error messages are not indexable.
+3
61 Sitemap Search engines love sitemaps, especially if it is updatedand comprehensive. It doesnt matter if its formatted inbasic HTML or is written in a special Google formatting.
+2
62 Website size Search engines love big websites so the rule is that the
larger the website is; the better. Large websites are not
user friendly at times and cannot provide easynavigation due to their size, so it may be necessary attimes to break large websites into a number of smaller
sites. There are no websites being banned because theycontain more than 10,000 pages though, so there is noneed to break your site apart just because it is growing
in size.
+2
63 Domain age Just like wine, more tenured sites gain greater
authority. The reason behind this is that tenured andestablished sites can be trusted (they have been
existing for long and are more likely to remain) morethan budding sites which have just been recently
created and may probably die soon.
+2
64 Website niche Keywords found in domain names and on site content
are not the only ones which are vital. The websitesniche is also relevant when it comes to site rating. Thisis due to the fact that when the niche of the site falls
under one theme or topic, the rank of all pages related
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to it will be increased too.
65 Location of files
within the site
The location of files within the site matter too. Those
that are found anywhere within or near the rootdirectory of the site are ranked higher than those whichare found further below.
+1
66 Main domain versus
sub domains
A main domain is preferable than sub domains. For
example, a main domain likewww.freemindsfreelines.comis much better than a sub
domain likewww.freemindsfreelines.blogspot.com.
+1
67 Top level domains
or TLDs
TLDs dont have the same value. Some TLDs are
preferred over others. As an example, the most usedTLD which is .com has an advantage over .info, .biz,
.ws, and other domains. But all these are conquered by
domains .edu and .gov.
+1
68 Hyphenated URLs Hyphenated URLs make the website addresses morereadable and also improve SEO ranks. This is applicableto hyphenation in domain names as well as the whole
site name found in the URL.
+1
69 Length of the URL The length of the URL actually doesnt make a differencebut if it is very lengthy, it may appear like spam. So it is
recommended to keep the URL length to no more than10 words with 3 or 4 applied for the domain name and 6to 7 to complete the site address.
0
70 IP address The IP address may have an implication for websites
hosted in a shared or a free hosting service, most
especially if the type C of IP addresses is bannedbecause of unethical techniques like spamming.
0
71 Adsense does not
contribute to siterank
Adsense is not connected to SEO rating. Google does
not increase your sites rank because of Adsense. It maybecome an additional source of income but is not
associated with search engine ratings.
0
72 Adwords is notassociated with your
sites score
Like Adsense, Adwords is also not connected to searchengine rank. Adwords can help gain greater traffic to
your website but does not directly contribute to yoursites score.
0
73 Website downtime Website downtime makes your site inaccessible and so ifit is always experiencing downtime, it becomes
unindexable. This matters only if your web hosting
service cannot be relied upon and offers an uptimebelow 97% to 98%.
-1
74 Dynamic URLs Search engines have a preference over static URLsalthough some websites with dynamic URLs may
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dominate search results at times. Lengthy dynamicURLs with more than 100 characters and symbols are
disadvantageous. These must be rewritten into aversion which is SEO friendly and readable by humans.
You can use dynamic URL rewriter tools to have it done.
75 Session IDs Session IDs are far worse than dynamic URLs. Session
IDs must not be used for content which you would needsearch engine crawlers to index.
-2
76 Banning robotsthrough robots.txt
Banning robots from an extended area of a website willcreate a domino effect on other areas because crawlers
tend to visit sites with a noindex rule less often.
-2
77 Site redirect (like
301 and 302)
If not utilized correctly, redirects can cause damage
such as when the targeted site does not load or even
worse, the redirect will be deemed as a black hatstrategy when the web user is redirected to another
page right away.
-3
I. Introduction SEO Defined
Every time you enter a keyword or set of keywords on a search field and hit the enter key,
a list of websites shows up on the search results. Web users often visit websites listed at the
top of the list since they are thought to be of greater relevance to the keywords beingsearched. If youre wondering why some sites rank higher than others, then you should
know that this is due to a powerful Internet marketing method called Search EngineOptimization or SEO.
SEO is a method which enables your website to rank higher than millions of others inrelation to a searched keyword. SEO thus contribute in increasing your websites traffic from
search engines.
This tutorial on SEO will discuss all information you must learn about Search EngineOptimization including its definition, how it works, and the different criteria used by search
engines when assigning ranks to websites.
1. The Functionality of Search Engines
The first thing you should know about SEO is that search engines are not actual humans.Although this is very obvious, how humans and search engines take a look at web pages is
not the same. Search engines are not viewing web pages based on text, like humans do.Despite advancement in technology, search engines have not evolved to an intelligent formwhich can appreciate website designs as well as the audio and moving images in movies.
Search engines are crawling the Web, taking note of specific items in a site (mostly the text
portion only) to understand what a website is all about. This short explanation is not themost comprehensive yet because next we will see what search engines do in order toprovide search results. They will crawl, index, process, calculate relevance, and retrieve.
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Crawling is the first thing which search engines do. It is done through software called a
spideror crawler. In Google, its a Googlebot. Spiders or crawlers visit links from one to
another and indexes everything they pass by along the way. Since there are quite a numberof web pages online (about 20 billion), it may be impossible for spiders to crawl a site
everyday just to check for newly added pages or for modifications of existing pages. Insome cases, crawlers may not be able to visit a site in a month or more.
What you can at least check is what the crawlers actually see from your website. As
mentioned earlier, crawlers do not have human characteristics. They dont see images,Flash videos, JavaScript encoding, website frames, pages protected by passwords, and in-
site directories. So if there are a lot of these elements on your website, you should try using
the Spider Simulator found below to find out if such elements can be viewed by spiders. Ifthese cannot be viewed, they are not indexed, spidered, or whatever you want to call it. In
other words, they simply wont exist for search engines.
After crawling, what should follow next is indexing. The page will be indexed and kept in adata storage center for later retrieval. Indexing is the process by which keywords that best
describes a web page is assigned. It will be humanly impossible to process a huge amount
of information but search engines are able to do so with a breeze. In some instances, they
are also having trouble identifying the meaning of a page but you can help them understandpages better through SEO. It makes it easier to have pages classified and will also improve
your sites ranking.
When a query happens through a search field, search engines will process it. The search
engine will compare the keywords being searched with the pages already indexed in the
database. It is likely that millions of pages are related to what is being searched; the searchengine then begins to calculate the relevance of related pages.
Search engines utilize different algorithms in order to calculate relevance. All algorithmsfollow varying value assigned to common elements such as links, tags or meta tags, andkeyword density. This explains why all search engines show different search results for the
same keywords or search string. It is also a given fact that search engines like Google,Yahoo, and Bing regularly update their algorithms. So if you would like to stay on top, youneed to adapt well to such changes. This is one reason why you need to be dedicated toSEO efforts. Another reason is of course the constant addition of competition every day.
Lastly, search engines retrievesearch results. Its simply the process of showing the searchresults to the browser you are using. Retrieved pages will be displayed based on relevance
in a seemingly endless list of pages.
2. Variations among Popular Search Engines
Although all search engines function similarly, the minimal differences among these explainswhy there are variations when it comes to displaying search results based on relevance.Different search engines have differing considerations. These factors are also considered
differently when it comes to relevancy. Some SEO experts sometimes joke about these
differences. Some say that the algorithms used by Yahoo or Bing are intended to be theexact opposite of Google. There may be truth in such jokes as different search engines pay
attention to different details. So if you intend to dominate more than one of them,
optimizing must be done very carefully.
One major difference between search engines is on keywords. Yahoo and Bing assign
greater significance to keywords on the actual pages. Google on the other hand, places
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File and directory names are also relevant. Search engines prioritize pages or sites with
keywords in the file name. As an example, http://mysite.com/adopt-dog.htmlmay not be
as effective as http://adopt-dog.net/adopt-dog.html but is at least more ideal overhttp://mysite.com/animal-care.html. What makes keywords in file names more
advantageous than keywords used in URLs is the fact that it will be easier to change it incase a new site niche is chosen.
b. Page Title Keywords
Page titles are one more important place for keywords because tags are often
displayed in most search engines (Google included). HTML guidelines do not require adding
contents in the tag. You can actually keep it blank and the browsers title field willsimply read Untitled Document or something similar. For the sake of SEO however, it is
best not to keep the tag blank. You should write the title of the page on it instead.
Unlike URLs, you can use a generous number of words for page titles. Applying the dogexample earlier, the tag for the domain http://adopt-dog.net may include the
following titles: Adopt a Dog - Save Lives and Bring Joy to Your Home,
What You Must Know About Adopting a Dog, and other lengthier titles.
c. Heading Keywords
Headings are often used to categorize different sections of a page based on topic so itseasier to read. It doesnt seem fit on a literary sense to use headings for every other
paragraph. But for the purpose of SEO it is advisable to have as many heading as can be
tolerated on a single page, most especially if the headings contain keywords.
There is technically no restriction when it comes to the number of tags used, i.e.
, , , but headings that are too long are obviously not recommendedas theyre very unsightly to read. So you need to be careful when it comes to the number ofwords used in headings, in the same way you would pay attention to URL length. Another
consideration is the layout of the heading itself. The first heading or is usuallydisplayed in larger fonts. Also, it is recommended to use 7-8 words or even less for theheading. More words used will mean spreading the heading in 2 or 3 lines, which is notadvisable and should be avoided.
III. Backlinks Another Relevant SEO Element
Backlinks Defined
For easier understanding, there are classifications of links. These are inbound and outbound.
Outbound links begin from your website and redirects to another site. Inbound links on theother hand, starts from an external source redirecting to your site instead. For example, if
another site links to your site, the link from that site is an inbound link for your site.However, it becomes an outbound link from the other sites point of view. Backlinks are
actually one of the main components to an effective SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
The Relevance of Backlinks
Backlinks indicate how popular a website is. It also measures the relevance of the site.
Backlinks are relevant because there are certain search engines such as Google, which gives
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greater importance to websites with a large number of quality backlinks. Search engines
rank such websites higher than others when displaying search results in relation to a
keyword search.
When search engines measure the relevancy of a website to a given keyword, they take intoconsideration not only the quantity of backlinks connected to the site but also the quality of
each link. In determining the quality of links, search engines check the content of the sitewhere your link is placed. When evaluating the quality of links, search engines examine the
sites content. If other sites are the source of backlinks for your site and if such sites havesimilar content or theme with your site, these backlinks are deemed of greater importance
to your website. If backlinks found on other sites have different theme from that of yours,
then these are deemed with lesser relevance. The more relevant the backlinks are, thehigher the quality.
For instance, if a website owners site discusses about rescuing orphan dogs, and a backlinkfor it exists from another site which is also about dogs, then a greater relevance is placedon it by search engines compared to a link about racing cars. Thus, the more relevant the
site linking to your own website is, the higher the quality of the backlink it provides.
Search engines advocate a fair play among websites and are in search of naturally placedlinks that comes as a result of a slow but sure process in time. Although it wont be a
problem to optimize your websites page for SEO, it will be more difficult for you to enticeother sites to create links for your site. This is why search engines place a greater valuewith links. Also, the criteria used by search engines to classify quality backlinks has become
more difficult to achieve, thanks to unethical web owners who attempt to acquire backlinks
through deceiving and surreptitious means. Some of which include hidden links or pagesresulting from automatically updating pages which simply aims to create backlinks for sites.These types of pages are called link farms. Not only are they ignored by search engines
when analyzing links, but creating links through link farms may result to your website beingbanned for good.
Anchor Text
An anchor text is a link which applies the hyperlink onto a keyword. The anchor text in a
link can be considered as one of the most useful tools a webmaster may ever have.Backlinks from various websites wherewith the anchor text is orphan dogs will help build
your sites rank for the keyword orphan dogs. Applying hyperlinks on keywords is more
powerful than creating links which simply say click here or the like that doesnt describeyour site at all. There is a backlink anchor text analysis tool which you can use in order tosearch for backlinks made for your site and the keywords which were used for the link.
Should you ever stumble upon a site creating links for your website but the anchor text
used is incorrect, you may contact the sites admin and ask them to update the anchor textin order to associate it with keywords that are of greater relevance to your site. Doing so
will help increase your sites rank.
Methods Used When Building Backlinks
Despite natural backlinks which will eventually be created for your site, more quality
backlinks should not be turned down.
1. Backlink Builder Tool
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This type of tool allows you locate websites where you can possibly find and plant quality
backlinks just by entering related keywords in the search field.
After typing in keywords you would like to search for, the backlink builder tool will display
suggested sites where you can possibly create links from.
2.Submit Site in Directories
If you really want to establish your presence online, then submitting your site to directorieslike DMOZ and Yahoo is necessary. Its not only about creating free quality backlinks but it
is also about promoting your site easily amongst search engines and actual web users.
Normally, being listed in website directories is free but the only problem is that you mayneed to wait for a few months before you are finally listed in the category you choose.
3. Article Directories and Forum Boards
Search engines usually index forum boards so participating in forum threads is another
option to create quality backlinks using the anchor text of your choice. The backlink created
is of greater value if the blog is a highly respectable one. There are some instances
wherewith a forum moderator or administrator may edit your reply or at worse, delete it incase it violates the terms of use within the forum though. The forum admin may not even
allow links within posts unless it is really necessary. This is very rare but there are forumowners who intentionally block search engines from crawling or indexing the entire boards.So it will be useless to create links in such forums.
4. RSS Feeds
You may also offer RSS feeds for free in case some sites become interested. Once your RSS
feeds are published in other sites, you gain a backlink for your site and possibly a swarm ofvisits too. People will visit your site to see more details after seeing the headline publishedin the other site.
5. Affiliate programs
Affiliate programs also provide an opportunity to build more quality backlinks and attract
more visitors and potential buyers at the same time. This method can be very costly thoughsince affiliate commissions are normally at 10% up to 30%. If you do have an affiliateprogram to attract buyers, then is there a reason why you should not use it to gain quality
backlinks?
6.News Updates and Press Releases
News updates and press releases are not used regularly when building backlinks but youcan expect great results in case the method is applied correctly. There are various websites
which posts about news updates and press releases for free or after paying a minimal fee. Ifthe press release about a relevant event is written by a professional, it may attract potential
visitors. The backlink created about your site coming from a respectable site will also helpencourage your SEO attempts. There is an issue though as press releases cannot be
released if its not news worthy. This is the reason why we mentioned earlier that news
updates and press releases are not often utilized to create backlinks.
Link Methods that are not Recommended
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In the past few months, reciprocal linking has been the talk of town. Google had also
targeted these in one of their recent updates. In the update, reciprocal links were filtered by
search engines.
In relation to reciprocal linking, what webmasters do is to create a mutual agreement withother sites in order to exchange reciprocal links in order to build the rank of their sites. In
this type of exchange, a web owner places a link which redirects to another site on his ownsite while the other site will also do the same for your website to return the favor. Problem
is, a lot of such links are irrelevant and were not counted anymore. During the whole time,links that are not relevant are disregarded. This had caused the relevancy score of a lot of
websites to drop and eventually remove them off the Google top ranks.
Google is also working on a patency that will consider not only the popularity of the site you
create links for but will take into consideration the trustworthiness of such sites. It means
that your site may get penalized by search engines just by creating backlinks for black listedsites.
A lot of webmasters own more than a single site. The sites created may or may not be
relevant to each other. In case it is the former, you have to be cautious about interlinking
various sites on a single IP. If you have a few sites that are related to each other, thencreating a link for each of the websites on a single page may not become beneficial to you.
Search engines may detect that you are trying to manipulate rankings. A lot of webmastershave utilized the same method. Having numerous links for specific sites coming from asingle IP address is called as backlink bombing.
One fact is for sure, linking between your own sites will not become advantageous to youfrom the point of view of search engines. The only purpose for interlinking between yoursites is to redirect web users to additional resources available through other sites. If this is
the purpose for interlinking between your sites, then it will be allowable provided that thelinks coming from one IP address alone is done minimally. A single or even two links in onepage from time to time will not have the sites penalized.
IV. Metatags
Meta tags Defined
Meta tags function as a summary of the information found on a specific page for searchengines crawlers. Meta tags are not visibly seen by site visitors. The most common Meta
tags utilized are tags for the keywords used and the sites description. You must insert these
tags anywhere in your sites page.
Years ago, Meta tags are the main tools used in search engine optimization and you candirectly correlate keywords found within Meta tags and the sites rank for search results.
Search engine algorithms have improved since then though and it decreases the weight ofdata found in Meta tags every day.
Meta Description
The Meta description tag is another option for you to describe your site. It will inform searchengines about topics and themes that your site is related to. There are even search engines
(like Google) which uses meta descriptions when displaying a summary of your contentonce it is included in the search results list for a specific search string. So if the Meta
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description written for your site is very descriptive and keyword rich; you may be able to
gain greater traffic for your site.
As an example, for the site about adopting dogs which we have cited earlier, the Metadescription tag may be similar to this:
Meta Keywords
The Meta keywords tag can be possibly used to add keywords which have great relevance to
your sites pages. Popular search engines may not consider it but this is still an opportunity
to specify and place emphasis on your targeted keywords. You can also include misspelledwords and related words to your keywords in the Meta keywords tag. The effect may be
very minimal but if it helps improve your websites rank among search engines, why not
take advantage of the opportunity?
e.g.
Meta Robots
Meta robots tag makes specifications about pages and sections in your site that you do NOTwant for search engines to crawl and index. There are certain contents which you dont wantsearch engines to index but at the same time, need them to remain where they are placed
on your site. Excluding such pages from search engines index can be accomplished in two
ways. You can either do so through a Meta robots tag or through a robots.txt file. The latteris a more recommended option. But in case you apply the former, this is how it will looklike:
V. Content is King
If textual content for SEO is being written exclusively for machines, then optimization wouldhave been very easy. Just choose keywords, use them in specified areas of the article, and
watch how fast your hits go up. At some point, SEO writers dont remember that this is not
how it works. Real persons read the content and they presume that your article or webcontent will be beneficial to them in return for the favor of visiting your site. They are
expecting a worthy content and these presumptions have developed the system used bysearch engines in ranking websites.
Defining Good Content
Good search engine optimized content possesses three principal distinguishing elements: Provides relevant information which engages human readers Improves rank for search engines Entices other sites to create backlinks
Notice that human readers are on top of the list. Your website should provide valuablecontent wherewith visitors can engage with. There are not much sites with expertise on a
single subject alone to have a very informative niche. Competition sites actually abound.
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Your website can stand out by featuring interviews, useful lists, and researching all
information well. Its either you write the content greatly or spend money on hiring a prolific
writer. Shelling out for this purpose will greatly reward you in the long run for the greatertraffic achieved.
Search engines are not your number one spectators but they do matter when it comes to
your sites rank. When SEO was first introduced, Meta tags filled with keywords can alreadydrive traffic back to your site. Web users get enticed to stay on a site which offers
affordable flight fares and featured advertisements, but that did not bother search engines.Each update made on the algorithm of search engines improved how they differentiate
relevant sites from garbage, so webmasters needed to improve their methods too. Instead
of Meta tags, keywords were used all throughout the article instead.
The algorithm update in April 2011 for Googles search engine demoted the use of keyword
and key phrase spamming and assigned greater value to other methods used to evaluate asites importance to visitors. This change had affected a remarkable population of Internetsites. It included popular business sites to personal blogs and top ranking websites which
trusted on keyword stuffing. A lot of powerful sites lost their might down due to this.
Although the importance of keywords did not waver, they are not the sole element used by
search engines when ranking sites now.
The fall of SEO keywords have caused the rise of links. If other sites link or ping your siteback as an attention worthy read, a thought provoking rant, or as a source of content withauthority, search engines will judge your page or site as something readers may need to
see and as a result, increases its points. Applying link baits to your site will attract the
attention of search engines and readers who utilize them. The best way to accomplish this isthrough a powerful and fresh content. Adding social media to the picture, they are alsoattracted to pages with amazing content. Links provided by social media sites still matter,
so entice such sites through a link worthy content.
Writing SEO Content for Search Engines and for Real People
SEO is not about spreading keywords anymore, the way Hansel and Gretel spreadbreadcrumbs. Newly developed search engines crawl pages as if they were actual readers.
Jakob Nielsen from Copenhagens Technical University, a popular research professional andan expert when it comes to how humans and machines communicate discovered that about
80% of a sites viewers actually scan pages instead of reading the content per line. The first
few seconds will be crucial for them to decide if a website or page deserves their time.Search engine programming professionals still make use of Nielsens study to applytechnique which will create natural and useful rankings.
What entices web users in a site also works for search engines. The upper left hand side of
the site is the most profitable real estate-like section of the site. This is what viewers willfirst notice. This section should house texts of great importance so search engines will easilyfind it. It is also a perfect area for texts inside boxes and for items under a list. Both of
these look appealing on more human brains (based on carbon) and machine brains (based
on silicon).
Text highlighted in bold grabs the attention of humans and machines alike, but the
application of these should be done with a sound judgment. A lot of bold texts will appearlike your advertising too much and search engines will demote your site because of it. HTMLtags for bold and italicization should be applied for text with informative ideas, and not to
simply highlight words. The words very or more in bold or italics does not imply anything
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to search engines, so these must be utilized only for placing tags on valuable ideas and
headings.
Queries now search for related terms and important phrases, not mere keywords. Anyone
can get clues from contextual meaning and easily differentiates the word clippingwhile itrefers to hair from the exact word which denotes film or video games. You must make sure
that your sites viewers whether human or machine understand if youre referring toGerman shepherds as one of the breed of dogs or as an enticing job in farming for wool and
mutton in Europe. In SEO, your text must be filled with synonyms of related words to makesearch engines understand what your site is all about.
Luckily, there is a method to apply proper words into the content without the need to keeptrack of the density of keywords and key phrases. All you must do is to write an enticing
content which human readers are sure to enjoy reading. As you go ahead and write for
human visitors, the problem with pleasing search engines will definitely follow after.
SEO Killers Duplicate Content, Spamming, and Fillers
You already know what describes SEO content of today, but it is also necessary to know
what it should not contain. The same research from Nielsen revealed what made web usersstay on a website and what turned them off. All search engines consider the same reasonswhen assigning low ranking to websites or when removing them completely from the
ranking.
Duplicate content can pull down a website. Even duplicate content that is gathered throughlawful means such as linking articles fully to news bits and an ample quote devaluates a
sites SEO efforts. Viewers will not keep visiting a website which provides them only with
another sites content in summary. If there is no original content to boast of, page rankingwill eventually slip down.
Although you will not like an ample supply of duplicate content delivered to your site, you
do need the fresh information which news feeds provide. So what you need to do is to writeup-to-date content based on data gathered elsewhere whenever you can. You will have toexert greater effort to associate and make a summary of news stories or to apply it on a
new article only as a link, but applying these steps will place your site in a moreadvantageous position. If you include enough valuable information combined with great
writing plus add useful links, you will see your site in the heights of search engine ranks.
The traditional way of using keyword computation and keeping up with the right calculationfor keywords is not only old; it will also hurt the ranking of your site. Keyword stuffing is the
trademark of websites filled with advertisements, and search engines are aware of it.
Making use of associated words and important phrases to emphasize a topic labels your
website with relevance and increases it advantage over search engines. A variation in wordsalso enhances readability for human readers.
Still citing the Nielsen research, human viewers avoid websites that are filled with fillers.
Pure and complete web writing is more valuable than endless pages filled with fluff material.Exaggeration and overly promoting content such as calling a product as ever perfect or
the best solution as an example does not add valuable content. Human viewers elude fluff
material and search engine software pulls down sites filled with it so it is best to minimize orcompletely remove it from your sites content.
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Search engines actually update their algorithms periodically in the hope of providing web
users with search results that are of greater relevance. The status of SEO art also updates
alongside these changes. The only element which remains the same in web content writingis human readers. Pages filled with content which appeals to readers and are presented in a
user-friendly format will rank higher.
You can use tools online such a Similarity Page Checker in order to determine thesimilarity by simply entering the URLs of both sites.
VI. Visual Elements and SEO
It was noted earlier that search engines cannot index certain elements such as images,audio, videos, and Java Script. Rather, they depend upon the text content and descriptionprovided in relation to such files for indexing. In a way, this scenario can be comparable to
how everything works about 10 years ago. The Meta tag allows you to write a description of
your site and search engines utilize this description in order to analyze and index your siteand page. In the future, there may be a possibility for search engines to index the
aforementioned types of data. But for now, the idea is still far from reality.
1. Images
Images are an important element in any web page and from a web master or designers
perspective. It is no ordinary element but a necessary feature in all sites. But searchengines and web designers do not share the same idealism. For search engines, everythingelse other than the text fades away in the background. Web designers may find it difficult to
understand that links based on text (with correct anchor text) as well as a pure text pagepresentation in exchange for attractive images is not a fancy but a necessity. True, it will bea struggle to maintain a balance between the application of both art and SEO in a website.
But because of the fact that even the most appealing site is not visible online if it does notattract search engines, compromising visual appeal is a must.
With everything that has been mentioned, the bottom line is not about completely removing
images. Of course, this is not feasible because it will leave the site empty and unappealing.Instead, the real score is about using images to illustrate the text or decorate the site andnot for navigational purposes or in worst cases, to display fanciful text or font. Most
importantly, the tag of the must be filled with a relevant description of the
image. It is not a requirement for HTML components but it is for search engines. It will notbe bothersome to add appropriate file names to the images instead of generic names such
as image 1, image 2, image N, and so on. As an example, we bring you an illustration of the
proper way to name an image file and to include a detailed description through the alt tag.
Sample:
Just make sure that when writing descriptions for the tag, most especially for smaller
images, the content should be no more than 20 words. A small image file with a longdescription may arouse the suspicion of search engines and may even look like keyword
stuffing.
2. Videos, Movies, and Animation
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The issue with videos, movies, and animation can be comparable to images. These are
important for a web designer but are not preferable for search engines. For example, an
appealing Flash animation welcome is still usually applied for home pages. But you do notrealize how disadvantageous this is for search engines. It is in fact the top killer for
rankings! It may become worse than that when you apply Flash when narrating a storywhich can actually be written in textual content and will be easily crawled and indexed by
search engines. You can deal with this by creating an HTML version of the Flash based filefor search engines. You must also create a robots.txt file in order to restrict search engines
from crawling and indexing the Flash file. Otherwise, there may be a penalty for duplicationof content. We will not be expounding on the topic of robots.txt file; however, as it is not for
starters.
Google is trying to develop new search software which will permit the search function to
crawl videos, movies, and animation. This technology will also enable .swf format to be
accessible and usable for search engines. But since this is not an available technology yet, itis still recommended to minimize the use of Flash in websites or in case it is used, adescription in text must be present alongside the Flash file through the tag.
3. Frames
Its great to hear that frames are starting to become obsolete from the Internet as the dayspass by. Web designers love frames about 5 or 10 years ago but search engines never did.
Search engines find it trivial to index pages with frames due to the fact that the URL for
these pages remains constant regardless of which frame you view. It was confusing forsearch engines to see that there is only a single URL for 3 or more pages. Search enginesfollow a rule when it comes to this - that there is 1 URL for 1 page. Although search engines
can actually index the pages by checking the links from one frame leading to the next, but
this is rather challenging for them.
Should you ever use frames nonetheless, there should be relevant description about the site
placed in a tag. An example will be provided below. It is not for newbies so in
case you do not comprehend what it is all about, just bear in mind the fact that the tag is used to create an alternate (or a brief description) of your website forsearch engines and also for web visitors who utilize browsers which cannot interpret frames.
Moreover, if you consider the use of the tag, it is recommended for you tolearn more about it before you actually use it.
Sample:
This website works best for browsers that are compatible withframes.
Welcome! Our site is dedicated for everyone who is contemplating upon
the thought of adopting dogs. Dog adoption, particularly dogs without homes they can call
their own, is an act of nobility. You rescue the pitiful animal by doing so.
4. JavaScriptIt is a fact that sheer HTML alone does not contribute much when it comes to thecomplexity of websites and in providing a lot of extra features needed. HTML was not
created for advanced web site structures anyway, so it is not expected for HTML to be ableto store web session data as well as to handle an actual written database of programsneeded by websites of today. This is why other languages for scripting like JavaScript andPHP are used to improve what HTML can do.
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As of the moment, search engines simply skip JavaScript when they see one. Due to this,
first off, links that are embedded within JavaScript codes are not crawled. Second, when
JavaScript is presented in the actual HTML file instead of uploaded through a .js file whenneeded, it scatters the HTML file and search engine crawlers will most often than not, jump
over it and proceed to the succeeding site for spidering. For the sake of providinginformation, the tag will show an alternate version to be displayed in browsers
but the use of this functionality is difficult to discuss, so it not actually worth expoundinghere.
VII. Static and Dynamic URLs
In reference to the preceding chapter, you probably think that everything about searchengines is designed to be against webmasters intentions to create an impressive site. But itwas already discussed earlier why search engines are not in favor of additional elements
such as images, videos, and other extended programming.
You probably also believe that search engines are too audacious to disapprove of dynamic
URLs but in truth, web users are also not attracted to URLs such as
http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10 because these types of URLs will not describewhat the site or page is all about.
There are various explanations why static URLS are ahead of dynamic URLs. First, dynamic
URLs are not often present. These come up as a result of an end user action such ascompleting a form, sending electronic data, and initiating a search with the sites own
search engine. You can say that in the eyes of search engines, these types of pages are notpresent at all, because spiders index pages when they crawl through it, and not by
submitting answers to forms.
Second, although a dynamic page is created after a user fills up a form and its saved on the
server, search engines may still possibly ignore it due to multiple questions and other
neither non-alphabetical nor numerical characters present. In the past, search engines does
not even index dynamic pages altogether, they are trying to do so today but at a normallyslower pace when compared to indexing static pages.
This limitation is not to promote the use of static programming only. Websites based ondata are exceptional but it will be preferable if pages are presented to search engines in a
language they can understand better. This issue with dynamic URLs can be resolved with
the use ofURL rewriting. All servers and control panels actually have systems which can beutilized in order to rewrite URLs in a format which present them in browsers as if they arestandard HTML pages. You can try URL Rewriting Tools available (over the web) in order to
change an encrypted text like the sample below:
(http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10) into a more understandable version, such ashttp://site.com/product-categoryid-2-productid-10.
VIII. Gain Greater Traffic by Promoting Your Website
SEO was mainly created to increase your sites visibility with search engines which in turn
elevate your sites rank in search results. This obviously translates to greater traffic back to
your site. Acquiring more visits (especially more buys) to your site is the main goal as towhy you promote your site. The truth is; SEO is just one of the many ways to promote awebsite and gain traffic. There are various other options both online and offline in order to
achieve the goal of generating greater traffic and extending reach to a targeted group of
http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/product-categoryid-2-productid-10http://site.com/product-categoryid-2-productid-10http://site.com/product-categoryid-2-productid-10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=107/29/2019 Introductory Comprehensive Guide on Search Engine Optimization for Beginners
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web users. We will not discuss about these in this guide but bear in mind that search
engines are not the sole option to attract visits to your website, but they appear to be a
better option and it is easier to gain traffic through them.
1. Submit your site to website directories, forum community boards,
and others
After applying search engine optimization techniques to your site, the next step is to have it
submitted to search engines. Usually, there is nothing needed to be done for your site to beindexed as search engines will normally crawl your site and index it. Although problem is,
there is no definite time frame as to when they will crawl your site initially and at what
duration they will do so again afterwards. There is nothing which can be done in order foryou to entice them to do so. True, you can always utilize their Submit a Siteoption inorder to provide information about your website (URL, most of the time) but it does not
guarantee that they will actually crawl your site immediately. Moreover, even after
submitting your site URL, search engines will still decide whether or not to visit your siteafterwards. Nonetheless, these are the URLs to where you can submit your site in the top
search engines: Google andBing. Yahoo is actually consolidated with Bing now so
submitting website URLs are processed as one (Bings submit URL page).
Aside from search engines, you can also submit your site to website directories. Althoughthese directories also compile websites based on topic, they are not the same as search
engines in a few factors. First, website directories normally employ humans and thewebsites submitted to them are manually analyzed based on relevance upon submission.
Second, website directories do not utilize crawlers to locate URLs, so you must visit themand have your site details submitted. But at least after doing so, your site is listed for all
time and you dont need to do anything after. Popular website directories include DMOZ and
Yahoo! directory (not the search engine) and these are where you can submit your site forlisting:DMOZandYahoo!.
In some cases, adding link which redirects back to your site in appropriate forums and
related sites can generate traffic. You may have to locate these forums and sites that arerelevant to your sites specialty but searching through search engines such as Google and
other top search engines will help you know what these sites are. As an example, if you love
hardware, you can key in hardware forums through the search field and after a fewseconds, a compilation of the top hardware forums will be displayed. You will then have to
visit each site one after the other as some does not permit mentioning links, particularly
commercial ones in posts. Although participating in forums for the purpose of promotingyour site will take longer as compared to the time it takes to submit site information tosearch engines, the benefits derived from such an effort will be worth it.
2. Secondary Search Engines
Primary search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing are not the sole search engines inthe world. Nor are they the only search engines designed for general searches. There are
other secondary search engines which also exist for the same purpose and will be beneficial
in your quest to reach out to a targeted group of web users. You dont have an idea aboutthe total number of search engines specializing in a specific niche such as law-related,educational, and so on. There are actually some which are large websites on their own and
collect data on other sites which deal about a specific topic. Most of them however, accept
all sorts of sites and have these organized into different categories. So upon finding a
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