SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
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SEO is the process of optimizing a website to increase its ranking in organic search results. This involves modifying elements like keywords, links, titles, and descriptions. Key aspects of SEO include choosing a relevant domain name, getting high-quality backlinks, optimizing pages with targeted keywords throughout, and submitting the site to search engines for indexing. Elements to avoid include flash, image-only content, frames, and dynamically-generated pages which search engine crawlers have difficulty processing.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
- 2. SEO is the act of modifying a website to increase its ranking in organic (vs paid), crawler-based listings of search engines.
- 3. It gives companies the ability to: Drive high quality customers to their website Increase sales leads from customers looking for their products and services Build their brand online by communicating marketing messages to their target audience Increase their profile against their competitors Target a global audience via international search engines
- 4. Title tag Keywords Meta description tag (or first Para of text if no meta des has been added)
- 5. A spider or crawler which is a component of a SE gathers listings by automatically "crawling" the web. The spider follows links to web pages, makes copies of the pages and stores them in the SE’s index. Based on this data, the SE then indexes the pages and ranks the websites. Major SEs that index pages using spiders: Google, Altavista, Msn, Aol, lycos. “Spiders read only text, nothing else”
- 6. 1. Domain name strategies - domain names are traffic magnets > 63 million domain names registered - choose a domain name that will increase your search engine ranking. How? - simple, short, no hyphens, no numbers - use keywords, common words, advertising terms, product names - choose a keyword that is important for your business
- 7. 2. Linking strategies - the more inbound links the higher the SE ranking - if the site linking to you is already indexed, spiders will also receive your site - quality of inbound links is critical - how to increase links: a) good content b) good outbound links c) target a list of sites from which you can request inbound links - links for the sake of links can damage your search rankings “Link relevancy is critical in getting your site indexed by search engines” “A small number of inbound links from high- quality, relevant sites is more valuable than many links from low-traffic, irrelevant sites.”
- 8. 3. Keywords - important in optimising rankings - keywords are words that appear the most in a page - the spider chooses the appropriate keywords for each page, then sends them back to its SE - your web site will then be indexed based on your keywords - can be key phrases or a single keyword - do not use common words eg ‘the’ ‘and’ ‘of’: spiders ignore them - write keyword-rich text - balance keyword-rich and readability - always have text in your page: at least 100 words
- 9. 4. Title tags - important in optimizing rankings - the first thing that a search engine displays on a search return - must keywords in title to be ranked no. 1 - should have the exact keyword you use for the page - every single web page must have its own title tag - you can use up to 65 characters eg Ebay http://www.ebay.com/ (title is littered with keywords) 5. Meta description tags - the next important - displayed below the title in search results - use dynamic, promotional language - use keywords
- 10. Meta keywords tags - no longer carry weight with major SEs - a myth that meta keywords alone affect rankings 6. Alt tags - include keywords in your alt tags 7. Submit your website to SEs for indexing - submit your site to search engine directories, directory sites and portal sites - indexing takes 1 wk to 3 months
- 11. Major SEs to submit to: t The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) http://dmoz.org/add.html (Search engines that also use this database - Ask Jeeves, Lycos, Netscape ) Fast http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php (Search engines that also use this database - Lycos) Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html (Search engines that also use this database - Yahoo) Inktomi http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm (Search engines that also use this database - AOL, Excite, MSN, Overture) Yahoo http://docs.yahoo.com/info/sugges
- 12. SEO - what is NOT recommended Flash and shockwave - spiders do not pick up these files Image only sites - spiders do not pick up images Image maps - spiders cannot read image maps. Do not use them on your home page or critical pages. Frames - only one page can be titled (titling is critical in search rankings) - If the spider cannot read the complete page (because of the frames), it will not be indexed properly. - Some spiders may not even read a frames web site Password protected pages – spiders cannot enter password protected pages
- 13. PDF files - can be problematic for spiders. Although some search engines can index them, the pages must be interpreted into HTML and can lose much of their content. - place PDFs lower down in your site Dynamic pages - spiders cannot index some content on pages using ASP, CGI or other dynamic languages. - Make sure important pages are HTML, no dynamically generated content. Drop down menus – spiders cannot read them
- 14. In summary… Critical elements - domain name, links, keywords, title, meta description, alt tags, submitting your website to SEs - keywords galore: include in page copy, title, description, domain name, alt tags No-nos - flash, image-only sites, image maps, frames, password protected pages, PDFS, dynamic pages, drop-down menus