Search Engine Optimization SEO Tips

Top Ten SEO Mistakes.

2008-10-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

1. Using a "Splash Page".

I think you have seen sites where you go to the main page and all you see is a beautiful picture with the two words of text saying "enter here." The picture is beautiful, no doubt, but this is a disaster when it comes to search engine optimization. Search engine robots are looking for text, but there is no text on a "splash page." The main page of any website is the most important page, and it has the best chance of being optimized. If you use it to place a pretty picture, you are throwing away this chance. Search engines don't appreciate splash pages, and many human users too are annoyed by having to click to finally view the content. Avoid splash pages at all costs.

2. Putting Important Text, or even all the Text as an Image.

I have seen clever web designers produce a beautiful web page that has images and text combined to look like a normal web page. However if you try to put your cursor over the text and select it, you can't do it because there is no text. The whole page has been rendered as a jpg or gif image. It looks good to the viewer, but the search engine robot doesn't find any searchable text. Be careful if you are using some automatic web design programs which turn text into images. Also while it is quite extreme to turn an entire page into an image, you should also avoid changing your important headlines into gif images.

3. Not Putting Title And Description Tags on Pages.

Have you ever visited a web page that showed the words "new page" in the line at the top of the browser? The website owner forgot to put a title tag on the page. The title tag, which is in the head section of the document and is put between the items is treated by search engines as one of the most important indicators about the content of a page. If you leave out the title tag or don't pay much importance to what you put there, then you are wasting a good optimization opportunity, as well as showing a sloppy kind of site construction.

Similarly, the description tag is often shown in search engine results pages (SERPS) as the description of your site. If you make a compelling description, it helps people to click through to your site. Ideally you want your site to be well ranked, but a high ranking is not enough. You need people to click through once they see your site's listing, and a good description can help you out.

4. Putting the Same Title and Description Tags on all the Pages.

Each of your pages is unique and has a special function, and you should let search engines and users know about this by changing the title and description tags to match the content on that particular page. It is not possible to optimize one single page for many different search terms, but it is possible to optimize each of the pages of your site for one or two important search phrases. If you take the time to make unique title and description tags for each of your pages, you can take advantage of this possibility and rank well for several search terms.

5. Trying to get by with a "Brochure" Site.

If you want to be the top site in your particular field, then you have to deserve it. The best way to deserve is to offer a good amount of quality content. You cannot get by with just putting a few pages with general descriptions about your company. For example, if you are selling electronic items, then back up your offering with reviews and helpful information for the consumers. This will make your site a valuable resource. Human visitors, and search engines alike, will soon recognize you as an authoritative source of information in your field.

6. Redesigning an Existing Site and Neglecting the Old URLs.

Your old website may have looked bad, but it had traffic and search engines indexed those pages and people are finding those pages based on the information that the search engine robots compiled from them. If you redesign your site, and completely toss out the old urls, without compensating for it, then you are tossing away all the traffic you built up before, because search engines will be sending people to pages that no longer exist.

There is a way to avoid this. If it is possible, stick to the same structure that your old site had and retain the same url addresses for the new pages. If this is not possible then the best thing to do is to make "permanent redirects." For this you will have to make a .htaccess file (a text file with instructions on the functioning of the site) . This file will tell search engines to permanently redirect traffic from an old url to a new url. When this file is in place if anyone types in the old url, he or she will be permanently redirected to the new location. Similarly the search engines will soon change their listings from the old urls to the new urls.

7. Not Using Local Keywords.

If you have just set up a web design business, don't think that you are going to be able to get a first page listing for the term "web design" or "web designer." The competition is too great and you are just starting out. But if you live in Missoula, Montana, then it is possible to get a good listing for "Web design, Missoula, Montana." So, put those geographical terms in your title tag, your description tag and the text on your page. Wherever possible optimize your site for local and regional keywords and you will stand a much better chance of being found by people who need your products or services.

8. Trying to do "Branding" in the Title Tag.

Everyone likes to put the name of their company first and the title tags of most sites reflects this. The first thing you see in the upper left hand corner of the blue line at the top of the browser is the name of the company. But if no one knows about your company, then no one is searching for your name. People are searching for answers to their needs, not to find you! If you can, avoid the temptation to put your company name as the first (and for search engines) and most important word in your title tag. Rather, put the most important keyword that people will use when searching for a site such as yours. You can do your branding elsewhere on the page (with your logo and supporting text) but don't try to do it in the title tag unless you are already quite famous.

9. Trying to Trick the Search Engines with Hidden Text, Cloaking or Doorway Pages.

If I had to prioritize the list, then I guess this is the biggest mistake you can make. Instead of putting energy into deceiving the search engines, you should use the same enthusiasm and skill to construct web pages that offer solid content to visitors. In the past people used to put hidden text, stuffed with keywords using font coloring that matched a background, or construct doorway pages or even pages with code that tried to deceive the search engines. These methods don't work and can get you banned from search engine indices. If anyone proposes to help you with "optimization" methods such as this, then you should avoid it like a plague.

10. Linking to "Bad Neighbourhoods".

You can't get into trouble if a questionable or substandard site links to you, but according to Google, you can be penalized if you link to what they call bad neighbourhoods. These are spam sites or other sites that have a bad reputation. So, don't accept offers to link with any and all websites. Visit the proposed link partner and see if the site is ranked, as opposed to being banned, and if there are any other issues that might make it questionable. If you have doubt, then don't.

Avoid these mistakes, and concentrate on providing informative and interesting content and you will succeed in your online endeavours.

Orginal author Donald Nelson

2 Reasons Your SEO May Not Be Working

2008-10-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Naturally, everyone wants to rank well in the search engine results pages. I talk to people everyday that have either attempted SEO themselves or contracted an individual or firm to perform the SEO for them. I hear all the time how SEO hasnt worked, for various reasons.

So, here it is: 2 Ways Your SEO May Not Be Working

Poor Keyword Choices

Keyword and phrase selection in order to properly SEO your web site is a difficult and lengthy process. It involves research and niche targeting to thoroughly investigate the industry or topic your web site is all about. The most common approach by many is to compile a list of highly popular key phrases. This is not always the best approach. The key phrases that are the most popular are quite often difficult to rank for, as you are competing with many more web pages for the coveted top spots.

In addition, even if you are fortunate to rank for your chosen key phrases, they may not be your best converting. In other words, your statistics may show a lot of visitors, but not many of them that are actually contacting you or purchasing your product or service.

Solution: Figure out what terms best describe what you do and include them in your web copy and ensure your keyword saturation is strong. (for a 300-400 word page put your main keyword in the text 4-6 times)

Content Updates

Content Management SystemIf you cant recall the last time you sent your web developer some new content for your web site, or at the bottom of your pages, it still reads â€œLast Updated July 2005â€�, then this one is for you. Search engines are big business nowadays. What is Google worth again?

The big 3, that is; Google, MSN and Yahoo! are fiercely competing for you! Search engines need visitors and market share. Now how do you suppose they try to accomplish this? Well, two ways that they compete with each other is by providing a) relevant results and b) recent, fresh results.

Since search engines render results based strictly upon website content it makes sense then that they want content from sites that are fresh with new content!

Lets look at the fresh kind of results. Search engines crave fresh content because it helps to keep their results relevant. Its extremely important that we give the search engines the new content they desire so they can index it and include it in their results pages. Updating your website on a regular basis shows both the search engines and your website visitors that your company is active and worth their trust. Content writing is not for everyone, that is for certain, however, the seo benefits alone may be worth it to hire a content writer for seo.

Top 10 Tips to Top Google

2008-10-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Optimization services which are also known as SEO are needed to perform well in the search engines. More importantly finding a google search engine optimization services company is needed to rank in the most popular search engine itself. When trying to grab that top place, you need to focus on several factors. This article is composed of methodologies that are widely accepted by SEO professionals. These are arranged from most to least important from my personal, yet educated opinion. This was actually stated by google in their own publications.

Search Engine Optimization Link Popularity
Your sites link popularity is the main and most important factor when trying to improve your SEO campaign. You must focus on obtaining inbound links from quality and relevant sites. Several methods are submitting to link directories, reciprocal linking, article distribution, video blogging, forums and social bookmarking.

Using Keywords In The Meta And Title Tags
Second on our list is placing your keywords you are trying to obtain top rankings for within your title, description meta tag and keywords meta tag. In google SEO, your title tag only allows 8-9 words within the title tag for their search engine results. So limit yourself to 9 words (use as many as possible) and then move forward.

Time Your Web Site Has Been Indexed
Something that the search engines have placed a lot of emphasis on is "sandboxing" new sites on the internet. On average this process takes 3-4 months to get out of. The longer that your site is online the more trusted your site will be to the search engines. Ideally I believe a site is going to benefit most when it has been consistently indexed for 2 years or more.

Anchor Text Of Inbound Links
Even if you have a large number of inbound links, they won't do a lot of good if they aren't linked with good anchor text. Anchor text is the actual text that is clickable within the link. Keep links around 3-5 words long. Many search engine optimization experts believe bolding your links will improve rankings as well.

Link Popularity On Sub Pages
It is highly believed that sub pages within your web site must have inbound links and popularity for your entire site to succeed (including your home page). Even if you have a successful site right now, it could do even better with inbound links to sub pages.

Relevancy Of Inbound Links
Links coming to your web site must be coming from relevant sites with relevant content! This is extremely important.

Link Popularity Of Your Site Compared To Your Competitions
This is another seo factor that deems a lot of attention when it comes to google seo tips. You must make sure that you have comparable link popularity to your competition for certain key terms. Without comparable link popularity you simply won't succeed as much as you want to.

Keyword Use In Your Pages Content
You must use your top key terms within the content of your web site. Certain key phrases can show tremendous growth by having the exact phrase within the content of your site itself. Google loves unique content and google loves relevancy.

How Popular Are The Sites That Are Linking To You - Are They Relevant?
Quality inbound links should come from recognized or semi popular to popular sites. These sites must also have similar content to your topic. If they come up high under your key terms, they are a great site. You should try to obtain links from these web sites.

Using Good Tools To Help With Search Engine Optimization or SEO?
You must perform research of key terms. I use google's keyword tool personally, however there are many out there. Also I recommend using SEO programs to analyze your competition.

SEO - Search Engine Tools

2008-10-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

SEO software is a great tool for the seo disadvantaged web builder and designer. SEO software is designed to stream line the process of achieving a top ranking website. SEO software is software that will help you to create well-optimized pages. SEO software is a low-cost alternative to costly SEO companies. SEO software is able to cover most basics and advanced aspects of SEO.

SEO Software packages are usually the right solution because you receive all of the needed software in one package. SEO tools helps you to create Search Engine optimization projects quickly and easily. Optimizing software should be used primarily to automate a few of the processes that normally would take a lot of time and effort to complete.

SEO tools are meant to make your job easier. There is not an SEO tool that will boost your rankings by itself. SEO software is designed to save you effort and money on your submissions. SEO software recognizes that an important strategy of yours is to obtain high ranking, but it also recognizes that you have competitors doing the same. Your job is to out optimize them.

SEO technology is very important and with proper use, you can rocket your online business success level second to none. Search Engine Optimisation helps your visibility on search engines for your niche keywords and phrases. SEO is very important to your online presence. Millions of internet users use search engines to find what they want and need.

SEO tools allows to effortlessly do what would take you weeks even months. If you're serious about Search Engine Optimization, then I urge you to purchase a reputable SEO software or hire a top optimizer, it's like cheating to beat your competition and get your site ranked properly.

Basic SEO

2008-10-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

1. Insert keywords within the title tag so that search engine robots will know what your page is about. The title tag is located right at the top of your document within the head tags. Inserting a keyword or key phrase will greatly improve your chances of bringing targeted traffic to your site.

Make sure that the title tag contains text which a human can relate to. The text within the title tag is what shows up in a search result. Treat it like a headline.

2. Use the same keywords as anchor text to link to the page from different pages on your site. This is especially useful if your site contains many pages. The more keywords that link to a specific page the better.

3. Make sure that the text within the title tag is also within the body of the page. It is unwise to have keywords in the title tag which are not contained within the body of the page.

Adding the exact same text for your h1 tag will tell the reader who clicks on your page from a search engine result that they have clicked on the correct link and have arrived at the page where they intended to visit. Robots like this too because now there is a relation between the title of your page and the headline.

Also, sprinkle your keywords throughout your article. The most important keywords can be bolded or colored in red. A good place to do this is once or twice in the body at the top of your article and in the sub-headings.

4. Do not use the exact same title tag on every page on your website. Search engine robots might determine that all your pages are the same if all your title tags are the same. If this happens, your pages might not get indexed.

I always use the headline of my pages as the title tag to help the robots know exactly what my page is about. A good place to insert the headline is within the h1 tag. So the headline is the same as the title tag text.

5. Do not spam the description or keyword meta tag by stuffing meaningless keywords or even spend too much time on this tag. SEO pros all agree that these tags are not as important today as they once were. I just place my headline once within the keywords and description tags.

6. Do not link to link-farms or other search engine unfriendly neighborhoods.

7. Do not use doorway pages. Doorway pages are designed for robots only, not humans. Search engines like to index human friendly pages which contain content which is relevant to the search.

8. Title tags for text links. Insert the title tag within the HTML of your text link to add weight to the link and the page where the link resides. This is like the alt tag for images.

My site contains navigation menus on the left and right of the page. The menu consists of links not images. When you hover over the link with your mouse, the title of the link appears. View the source of this page to see how to add this tag to your links.

9. Describe your images with the use of the alt tag. This will help search engines that index images to find your pages and will also help readers who use text only web browsers.

10. Submit to the search engines yourself. Do not use a submission service or submission software. Doing so could get your site penalized or even banned.

Here is the submission page for google: http://www.google.com/addurl.html

Submit only once. There is no need to submit every two weeks. There is no need to submit more than one page. Robots follow links. If your site has a nice link trail, your entire site will get indexed.

My site has a nice human friendly link trail which robots follow easily. All my pages get indexed without ever submitting more than the main index page once.