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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
What is SEO
• Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
What is SEM
• Search engine marketing, (SEM), is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion
Search Engine
• Search indexes or engines are the predominant type of search tools. Originally, the term search engine referred to some kind of search index, a huge database containing information from individual Web sites.
Search directories
• A search directory is a categorized collection of information about websites instead of containing information from Web pages.
• dir.yahoo.com
• dir.google.com
• dmoz.org – Open Directory
That which is not indexed
• Links ending with .php?q=7 are less likely to be indexed , the more the parameters its less likely. 3 is fine.
• Session ID pages are not indexed
• Flash objects
• Image navigations
• Javascript navigations
• Frames and IFrames
That which is not indexed
• Forwarded URLS
• Duplicated pages – less ranking
Frames and IFrames
• Using <noframe> tag to describe with keyword rich content.
• In Frame Definition , provide title, keyword, description, and inside the body provide some description inside head tags
• All pages that are loaded into frames should contain TITLE tags, meta tags, and navigation links.
• Individual page skipping frames problem.
Dynamic sites solution
• Rewrite php query urls to permanlinks using mod rewrite
• Static copies / cached copies
• Session id , use cookies instead of urls
• Omit session ID with the URL for searchbot alone – User Agent Scripting – Cloaking .
Well known SEO code
• <title>
• <meta name=“keyword” content=“ ” … >
• <meta name=“description” content… >
Title
• Title should be immediately below the head tag.
• 40 to 60 characters . Max 65
• Placing primary keyword at the beginning.
• Put brand name / company name at end.
• Use ‘ | ‘ – pipeline to separate keyword from brand/company name.
Meta Description
• Text in this tag is indexed and used for search often.
• Upto 250 characters.• Place the important keywords in the first 150
characters• Begin with title tag keyword and prefix it with
qulaifiers .• WARNING : beware of over-optimization.• WP : avoid auto excerpts
Meta Keyword
• Google dropped using keywords, bing gives less importance, but small search engines considers keyword tags.
• Less important , spend less time for this.• Place 5-10 keywords.• Separate each keyword with comma or
space. • Keywords must also be in the content or
within the <body> tag.
Other metas
• REVISIT
• ROBOTS
• NO SNIPPET
• NO ARCHIVE
ROBOTS
• Pages that are under construction.• Directories in which you store scripts and
CSS style sheets.• <META NAME=”robots”
CONTENT=”noindex, nofollow”>• To block entire directories on your Web site,
create a text file called robots.txt and place it in your site’s root directory — which is the same directory
ROBOTS
• The robots.txt file allows you to block specific search engines and allow others.
• User-agent: *
• Disallow: /includes/
• Disallow: /scripts/
• Disallow: /info/scripts/
• Disallow: /staff.html
NO SNIPPET
• <META NAME=”googlebot” CONTENT=”nosnippet”>
• This meta tag tells Google not to use the description snippet, the piece of
• information it grabs from within a Web page to use as the description;
• instead, it uses the DESCRIPTION meta tag.
NO ARCHIVE
• <META NAME=”googlebot” CONTENT=”noarchive”>
• This meta tag tells Google not to place a copy of the page into the cache.
Keywords
• Third party keyword suggester
• Analyze , research on a keyword before writing.
• Keyword density and frequency.
• Multiple keywords.
Eg. Home , house
• Page focus on NARROW set of keywords
Placement of Keywords
• Place multiple times.
• Place in between <h> <b> <i> tags
• Placing in links.
• Avoid click here words for links.
• Avoid lengthy URLS
• Uppercase for first letter , remaining small.
• Bulleted.
Tips for keywords
• Local attention – chennai , bangalore
• Very specific keywords
• Spelling mistakes
• Geo Specific keywords
Search Bots Secret
• Search bots doesn’t sees the client/browser side processes
• Use Server side processing.
• Robots.txt file serves great use for other less popular search engines.
Make it easy for indexing
• Multiple navigations , placing simple text navigation at bottom.
• Placing a link for sitemap.
• Linking posts one to another.
• Avoid lengthy codes. Include javascripts and css in separate file and link them. This also helps to structurize and reuse.
Make it easy for indexing
• Naming files and folders with appropriate keywords.
• Making directory structure as short as possible.
• Provide keyword rich alt tags and name for images.
• Keep content between 200 – 400 words.
Free Content
• Everything is copy protected other than that released before 1923.
• Govt sources
• Syndication sites – ask and get.
• Press releases
• Q & A
• Forums
• Blogs
• Creative commons
Geo Targeted
• Local search terms
• Local Search engines / Regional
• Generally fits business/products
Submitting for indexing
• Webmasters – google, yahoo, bing.• XML Sitemap submission• XML file size – upto 10 MB , 50,000 links.
When exceeded multiple xml files can be used, assister by a indexed xml file .
• Intimate XML location in webmaster link and robots.txt file.
• Ping search engine by using sitemap xml file.
Webmaster tools
• URL submission
• XML sitemap
• Robots file
• Crawl stats
• Crawl errors
Dir Listing & Yahoo
• Dir listing in yahoo is for money.
• Dir listing in Opendirectory will take plenty of time.
• Yahoo paid inclusion costs.
• Submit to different types of directories.
Page Rank
• A page has a PageRank only if it’s indexed by Google.
• Web sites don’t have a PageRank; Web pages have a PageRank.
• When you place a link on a page, pointing to another page, the page with the link is voting for the page it’s pointing to.
• Linking to another page doesn’t reduce the PageRank of the origin page, but it does increase of the receiving page.
Page Rank
• Every page has a vote, use it wisely to vote for yourself or for others.
• Huge sites equal better page rank.• Make sure that all your pages have at least one
link back into the site.• The page receiving the inbound link gets the
greatest gain.• You can ensure that PageRank is well distributed
around your Website by including lots of links.
Page Rank
• Google toolbar
• Page rank between 0 – 10 , higher better.
Page Rank
• PR (A) = (1 – d) + d (PR (t1) / C (t1) + ... + PR (tn) / C (
• PR = PageRank
• A = Web page A
• d = A damping factor, usually set to 0.85
• t1...tn = Pages linking to Web page A
• C = The number of outbound links from page tn
Incoming links
• Sites that points to your page, that page indexes well.
• Depending on the keyword on the link, its weightage increases.
• More the incoming links from RELATED sites, better the ranking will be.
• Mutual links sharing sites ranks little less than genuine ones.
Incoming links
• Links from higher page rank , passes the rank to the destination too.
• Googlebombs
• Links from page of lesser/no rank is useless for better position in search results, but it still ensures indexing.
Incomings to be avoided
• The link points somewhere else, perhaps to a program on someone else’s Web site, which then forwards the browser to your site.
• Links from Javascripts (sometimes hidden)
• Nofollow links
Neighborhood
Trust & Trust Ranks
• Few sites are manually selected as trusted sites by search engines.
• The nearer you are to the trusted site, better your trust rank will be. Neighbor hood used here. So, links from reputable website are important.
Sites to Link
• Search Directories
• Ask friends, colleagues.
• Association sites.
• Manufacturer sites.
• Ask other sites , consider Reciprocal links.
• Newsletters, press release, syndicates.
• Discussion, blogs.
• Placing useful content – promotion.
Other tips
• Check for broken links
• If changes are made to an url , make appropriate redirects.
• To avoid directory listing , place empty index.html file in the folder, added that it can have a code for redirection.
Search Tips
• Site:domain.com
• Double quotes “search term“
• “search term“ – omitableword - omits this word
• Allintext:
• Allinurl:
• Allintitle:
• Info:
• Cache:
Search Tips
• Related:http://domain.com
• Define:word
• Synonym:word
Keywords
• Focus on set of narrow keywords single post.• Keyword proominance for title tag, means put
the primary keyword first , then secondary and company name at last
• H1 tag only once should be used and must contain the main Topic with keyword
• H1 and H2 tags must be used at minimum• H1 mandatory, h2 recommended, h3 optional
Keywords
• Keyword prominence fits for H tags as well• Poor quality code , slow load times means
poor user experience , which search engines doesn’t likes.
• Jpeg format for photos with little compression – increases speed.
• Home anchor text must contain keyword
( do not waste home anchor text )• Keywords must be relative to content.
Keywords
• prioritize keywordskeywords - first tier , second tier and third tier. First tier - imp keyword - high traffic/competitionsecond tier - less imp - third tier - long tail keyword , less competition , easy to be ranked.
Keywords
• Seasonal keywords - use google trends to spot seasonal keywords.
• Negative keywords - keywords for which we don’t need traffic. - can be implemented by using - symbol along with the negative keyword.
• Finding new keywords – generally products, companies ( nouns )
Keyword qualifier• Keyword qualifier is an adjective. • Price qaulifiers – free, cheap, sale, discount.• Quality/Experience q – best, expert,
professional, licensed, certified.• Informational q – info, research, how to, DIY,
help.• Time qualifier – night, day, 24hours• Intent q – buy, shop, store, online• Category q- product variations like red pen
Points
• Provide higher quality and higher proportion of links to important pages.
• Provide lesser quality and lesser proportion of links to less imp pages.
• Footer with home link and imp page links.• Image filenames and alt tags – less weight
age – it acts as supplements.• Text attributes – bold, italic underline• Text attribues – supplements.
• Text attributes max two phrases with primary keyword.
• Larger the site – more topics – more keywords – better ranked, than smaller sites.
• Cover broad topics under your specific selected topic.
• Publish contents regularly , keep site alive.• Fresh content bump – supplementary weight
wil be awarded for updates.
• Outbound links with keywords and avoid overdoing it. – use nofollow – unethical.
• Tags in wordpress – easy for search. • Keywords in content – 8%• Convert visitors to customers• Calls to action – phrase, graphics or section
of website that urges visitor to take some tangible step.
e.g : call now for service, subscribe now.
Converion based websites
• Make contact page visible – mail , phone.• Keep it at top/side where user sees.• Avoid dead end chat support. • On the whole make it easy for users.• Give alternative options along the way,
E.g: when not buying , provide subscription option
• Sell benefits not feature (i.e) focus on benefit that customer gets.
Converion based websites
• Use testimonals – less
• Guide eyes and attention like using arrows
Wordpress - Advantages
• Provides platform which can be easily crawled.
• Tagging, pingback, trackback – helps to get connected
• Feeds • Permanlinks• Update services – intimates site updates• Simple • Custom templates
Wordpress - Disadvantages
• Nofollow not available in dynamically generated navigation menus – this is of use in page rank control for less important pages like contact us, policy.
Wordpress – to be tweaked
• Comments for posts , not for page.• Customization of page code.• Duplicated copies –
tags/categories/excerpts/structured months• Write unique content for excerpts for
everypost, else it will be getting indexed under tags rather than the post.
• Use robots.txt for archives | tags where index shudn’t be performed.
Wordpres Render/Generate Flow
•In general - Content remains constant
Setting goals
• Need traffic ?
• Type of audience
• Monitor viewers screen size
• Conversion focused landing pages must be shallow – with fewer steps
• Visit sites for inspiration – designing
Plugins and tools• Woorank.com – chrome extension
• SEO quake
• SEO site tools
• Google Insights | Google suggest
• Google adwords keytool | sktool
• Google adwords->external tools->keyword tool
• Google analytics
• labs.google.com
• Google trends
• More comments means page updates, spider keeps returning, keywords increases, rank improves.
• Sitewide links like footer and header nav earns same power as a single link.
• Repeatitive links from same Ip | consecutive IP’s are ignored
Long tail searches
• With 2,3,4,5 keywords – less volume of searches
• Geo based
• Manufacturer names
• Keywords like best, top rated…
• Three types of searches :1) Navigational - googling for microsoft site 2) Information - searching to know how pda works3) Transactional - searching to buy a laptop , mobile , car
Geo-targeted pages• Geo-targeted pages :
One page concentrates on general content, and it will be accompanied by a widget called related posts which contains related local specific links Like Main page - service details.widget links - service at chennai , pondicherry.
• Use census for Geo – targeted pages
Permanlinks
• Date based permanlinks brings small performance benefits.
• Sites with less than 1000 pages can use %postname%
WP post/page title
• This is not hidden meta tag.
• This serves as internal navigation anchor text.
• Readability is preferred here , not keywords.
• Avoid keywords as it might over-optimize.
Body Content
• Heavily weighted component of search engine.
• Body content is visible part of the webpage that user views.
• Minimum 300 words per page , atleast 250• Maximum 1200 words per page, atmost
1500. If exceeds split the page.• More words , more likely to be indexed and
ranked well.
Body Content
• Page must be focused either with single keyword or sets of closely related keywords, it helps to shape the content better.
• Avoid too many keywords on single page.• Keyword should appear in the first para, and
bold it when it occurs at first . • Keywords in anchor text of outbound links.• Avoid too many outbound links as it might
reduce page vote.
Body Content• Focus on people also when focusing on SEO
• Keywords must be 2-5 % of total words used.
• H1 tag – use it only once and use it for main heading of the website / post titles
• H2 tag – use it for sub headings – min 3
• H3 tag – use it for tags/categories
• H1 | H2 | H3 – can be customized in css
Body Content
• H1 more weight
• H2 moderate
• H3 less weightage.
• Post titles must be simple and catchy
Image Optimization
• Less weightage in page ranking• Image filename , alt tag and title.• Use alternative keywords for each.• Alt tag is used for displaying info when image
doesn’t gets loaded.• Title tag is mouse overlay text.• Keyword proximity.. The more nearer
keywords to an images , defines it – helps in improving image rank
Image Optimization
• Alt tag can add more precision.
• WP caption helps in image proximity, use right keywords here.
• Sites most size is mostly consumed by images
• Reducing image sizes helps to load site faster.
Image Optimization
• Avoid BMP – no use
• Gif – for swaths of solid colors – not fit for photographies – used for limited colors.
• Jpg – good compression – used for photographies – compression inversely proportional to size
• PNG – can be used for both | good quality. PNG transparency not supported in IE .
Content
• Place your contact number prominently with invite action .
• Trust elements – message of confidence – ur photos, logos, seals, warranties, sales coupons.
• Free articles, how tos, educational content
WP plugin
• Advanced category excluder – excludes categories at specified parts of the site.
• Multi column category list plugin – spans two or more alphabetic wordpress columns and makes room for customized headers.
• My category order• Fold category list – keeps current cat
expanded , others closed.• Facepress – posts to facebook
WP plugin
• Share on facebook – FB button
• Tweet this – posts in twitter
• Flash video player
Back links
• Inbound links
• Adds traffic and page rank, speeds index
• Submit to directories
• Submit to Article submission pages – contains overviews of sites.
• Blog comments – u comment and I follow, search for this in google images. – dofollow blogs
Page Rank• Dump factor : Amount of page rank that
can be passed away , usually around 0.85 | 85 %
Page Rank
• Page rank will be shared equally to all outbound links
No Follow
• Nofollow – search engine doesn’t sees as link, page rank is preserved.
• Used to avoid link spamming .• Common place of use is in comments.• Its natural to have nofollow inbounds• Nofollow are used for internal links such as
contactus, about us pages.• No follow for navigational menus can be done
with enabling link relation option
Link bait
• Resources
• Humor
• Current events
• Controversies
• Interviews
• Reviews
• How to
• Video
