SEO Bssics - Search Engine Optimization

Search Engines Intent: 

Search Engines Intent Search engines try to second-guess what the end-user is seeking They search engines then serve up results that best match the end-user’s need SEO requires you to understand the intent of the end visitor and provide the content to match his needs. End-user searches for info Websites offer info

SEO Basics: 

SEO Basics

2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors: 

2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors

The Main Ingredients of SEO:: 

The Main Ingredients of SEO: Content Using the Right Words the Right Way! Thematic structure Content is King Leveraging images & videos Leverage Blended Search Architecture Neighborhood & age of the site Search friendly URLs Navigational Issues Don’t make the page heavy A Clean Site is a Search Friendly Site Keep the site up and running Things to avoid Linking Acquire Relevant & Trustworthy Links Linking Signals Linking Sources

PowerPoint Presentation: 

Content

Using the Right Words the Right Way!: 

Using the Right Words the Right Way! Identify the right and the most relevant keywords for your business. Create or optimize pages around your website around these terms. Title, description, header, body copy, ALT tags, keywords in URL, keywords in internal links etc tell a search engine what the page is about and what it contains Make sure each page has unique content.

Thematic structure: 

Thematic structure Folder structure of the site should be thematic Group content by products, services, or whatever theme best applies An organized structure makes it easy to crawl, index, and rank a site Have pages and their content thematically arranged Keep one theme per page Don’t group stuff that can confuse the search engine about the theme of a page’s contents There is no such thing as “too much content” however, there is “confused” and “garbled” content

Content is King!: 

Content is King! Make sure there is substantial amount of text in any page (average of 500-600 words) Keep the content to ONE theme per page Keep the content as frequently updated as possible Give as much information on the site as possible Avoid duplicate or extremely similar text on many pages Add case studies, articles and other informative content to the site

Leveraging images & videos: 

Leveraging images & videos Have as many images and videos as meaningfully possible Use ALT tags for ALL images. Optimize alt tags by adding a image caption and also by adding relevant keywords. Tag videos with relevant keywords and use them on the site. This can be done by adding relevant & appealing content in titles, video snippets etc.

Leverage Blended Search: 

Leverage Blended Search Video Blog Book News In addition, there will also be: Images, local search, PDFs and other results A site needs to have rich media to generate traffic from blended search Build a site with as many of these as possible

PowerPoint Presentation: 

Architecture

Neighborhood & age of the site: 

Neighborhood & age of the site You are judged by the company you keep Stay away from IP groups which have black listed & spam sites Do not link to sites which are black listed Ensure the site is clear of any spam database Age is perceived to be synonymous with wisdom A 10-year old site would have built credibility over the years It also would have established a track record of a serious player with long term interest with the search engines A new site will be up against this competition and will find it hard to rank. It would have to overtake the older site in credibility before it ranks Make a long term commitment The tenure that a domain name is booked for also matters. A domain name booked for 10 years shows serious long term intent as compared to a domain name booked for one year Book the domain name for as long a term as possible

Search friendly URLs: 

Search friendly URLs Avoid too many dynamic parameters in a URL Too many trailing parameters don’t help. Use relevant keywords in the URL Use “–” or “_” to separate words Limit the “–” or “_” to 3 or 4 per URL The Matrix

Navigational Issues: 

Navigational Issues Make information easy to find Don’t make the site a treasure hunt. Guide the user through the page/site Use text links wherever possible. If main links are images, repeat them at the bottom of the page as text Avoid putting the main links in flash, AJAX or scripts Put text links in the body text wherever possible. Internal linking structure helps crawling Put keywords in the “anchor text” of the link. “click here” or “more >>” links don’t tell search engines anything Put your conversion links prominently (preferably as text)

Don’t make the page heavy: 

Don’t make the page heavy Too many images, JavaScript, CSS code and any other script increases the weight of the page This reduces crawling speed, and provide a poor user experience to users visiting the website Externalize and call these scripts from pages instead of embedding the script on the page itself The site that loads faster and provides a better user experience will rank higher than the others.

A Clean Site is a Search Friendly Site: 

A Clean Site is a Search Friendly Site Make sure there are no broken links Make sure ALL links on the page/site…internal & external…work Limit the number of links on a page to under 100 where possible Make sure the pages are compatible on most browsers Check to see what the page looks like in a text browser. What a text browser sees is what the search engine will see Keep it on a good, fast server. Crawlers can give up on the site if the server response time is slow. Get the site verified in Google Webmasters and ensure that there are no errors or warnings.

HTML & XML sitemaps: 

HTML & XML sitemaps HTML sitemaps help both the visitor to the site and the search engines. Include one on your site always. Limit each URL to contain up to 99 links In addition, XML sitemaps help a search engine crawler index ALL the pages in the site. Including one is highly recommended

Keep the site up and running: 

Keep the site up and running Server down time results in: Bad user experience Crawlers not being able to crawl and index the site This in turn reduces the credibility and status of the site in search engines A fast, simple, user friendly, high traffic, well linked site will do well It will also make it easy for guys like me to write meaningful SEO tags to boost rankings

Things to avoid: 

Things to avoid Search engines cannot crawl the contents of: AJAX : To get the content indexed, put a copy in non-AJAX pages JavaScript : Make sure no critical content (that should be indexed) is here Flash files : Use these for effects and illustrations. Not for content & links Frames : These hinder the crawlability of the site. Avoid frames Multimedia : Its important to ensure that your critical content doesn’t remain embedded in photos/videos etc.

Linking: 

Linking

Acquire Relevant & Trustworthy Links: 

Acquire Relevant & Trustworthy Links Acquiring links from other relevant sites helps search engines find and rate your site. Both the authority and relevance of links matter High relevance of the links to your business means the site will be in a favorable cluster of sites. This in turn will increase the site’s page rank and help achieve ranks for targeted terms. Spread the word: Talk about the site on blogs and forums Do active web PR Get as many relevant back links as possible Syndicate the site’s content, videos, articles, etc

Linking Signals: 

Linking Signals

Linking Sources: 

Linking Sources

PowerPoint Presentation: 

and there’s more….

Things search engines love: 

Things search engines love Resources, Whitepapers, Articles, How to guides, FAQs & Glossaries : Search engines love content of the informational kind Freshness : Search engines love content that’s fresh or latest Text ! Categorize your website into themes if required and put intriguing, relevant text in your website Natural Links: Acquiring relevant links naturally is a great indicator for search engines for ranking your content

Build the site for the user: 

Build the site for the user Ensure a good user experience on the site Use analytics to ensure: Low bounce rate: High time on site suggests a good user experience High conversion rate: High conversion rate suggests happy users Make sure the content is persuasive and compelling to users

PowerPoint Presentation: 

Questions? 