Last week, many webmasters noticed that Google’s public pagerank system (a rough measure of each site’s importance in the search engine) was displaying higher than expected rankings for some sites.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Interesting SEO Interview
I just came across an interesting Webmonkey Q&A interview with SEO expert, Jason McQueen. In it, McQueen covers the basics of search algorithms, white hat versus black hat optimization tactics, the effects of blogs on search results, and more.
Definately worth reading if you get a chance… Here’s the link.
Definately worth reading if you get a chance… Here’s the link.
Google Strives to Further Improve Search Functionality
Despite Google’s dominant position in the search industry, the internet giant’s decision makers insist that search is not a “solved problem,” and that there is still much room for improvement.
Domain Names and SEO
Today we start our series of SEO articles and what better place to open than the beginning? Professional SEO strives to be informative and I get so many SEO questions that seem basic to me that I forget sometimes that not everyone has been involved in search engine optimization for nearly a decade so I am going to start my SEO tutorial series with basic SEO principles and work my way up to advanced SEO.
The SEO starting point for any webmaster interested in search engine optimization is of course which domain name to choose as this choice will either ensure you face an uphill battle, or make things a lot easier for yourself. The reason is that all the search engines give some weight in thier algorithm to what your actual domain name is in terms of your ranking within thier index. For example, the domain of this website is professionalseo.com - this makes it infinitely easier for me to rank high for the search term “Professional SEO” as opposed to other sought after “SEO” keyword phrases like “SEO Services” or “SEO Company” etc.
Another equally, if not even more important reason that many people overlook in the importance of choosing a keyword rich domain is the simple fact that the anchor text that other websites and general web directories will link to me as, is of course- “Professional SEO” .
Since the anchor text (the visible text people see in an outbound link) is another datapoint in Google’s ranking algorithm, this is also clearly a big advantage SEO wise. While obviously I could encourage other websites and directories to list me as: “SEO Company”, the fact is that many do not allow this and require that you list yourself as your actual domain URL for your title. While this all may seem common sense, you would be suprised at how many people overlook this basic starting point.
One last note about keyword rich domains as it relates to search engine optimization is; make sure you choose a TLD (Top Level Domain) name like .com, .net, or .org - many people do not realize that most newer domain extensions are actually ccTLD’s (Country Code Top Level Domains) like .tv which is the country code domain for Tuvalu. The reason this distinction is significant in terms of Search Engine Optimization is that Google and the other search engines will most times only rank a TLD highly worldwide in Google.com while a ccTLD’s ranking will only be good within thier respective country. What this means is that SEOcompany.de will rank very well for the search term “SEO Company” in Germany and Google.de, but will most likely be nowhere to be seen in Google.com so unless you want to be the #1 SEO Company in the small island nation of Tuvalu, .tv might not be for you.
The SEO starting point for any webmaster interested in search engine optimization is of course which domain name to choose as this choice will either ensure you face an uphill battle, or make things a lot easier for yourself. The reason is that all the search engines give some weight in thier algorithm to what your actual domain name is in terms of your ranking within thier index. For example, the domain of this website is professionalseo.com - this makes it infinitely easier for me to rank high for the search term “Professional SEO” as opposed to other sought after “SEO” keyword phrases like “SEO Services” or “SEO Company” etc.
Another equally, if not even more important reason that many people overlook in the importance of choosing a keyword rich domain is the simple fact that the anchor text that other websites and general web directories will link to me as, is of course- “Professional SEO” .
Since the anchor text (the visible text people see in an outbound link) is another datapoint in Google’s ranking algorithm, this is also clearly a big advantage SEO wise. While obviously I could encourage other websites and directories to list me as: “SEO Company”, the fact is that many do not allow this and require that you list yourself as your actual domain URL for your title. While this all may seem common sense, you would be suprised at how many people overlook this basic starting point.
One last note about keyword rich domains as it relates to search engine optimization is; make sure you choose a TLD (Top Level Domain) name like .com, .net, or .org - many people do not realize that most newer domain extensions are actually ccTLD’s (Country Code Top Level Domains) like .tv which is the country code domain for Tuvalu. The reason this distinction is significant in terms of Search Engine Optimization is that Google and the other search engines will most times only rank a TLD highly worldwide in Google.com while a ccTLD’s ranking will only be good within thier respective country. What this means is that SEOcompany.de will rank very well for the search term “SEO Company” in Germany and Google.de, but will most likely be nowhere to be seen in Google.com so unless you want to be the #1 SEO Company in the small island nation of Tuvalu, .tv might not be for you.
Search Engine Optimization Service (SEO Service)
Implementing proper search engine optimization (SEO) and link building search marketing campaign is the only long term means to get higher search engine rankings in Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, Sina, Baidu, etc.Search engine optimization (SEO), also known as organic SEO, search engine positioning or search engine marketing, means to optimize website content using acceptable SEO techniques so that search engines trust and favor your website. Consequently, you can get top search engine rankings.
Unlike our SEO competitors, we do not implement unacceptable SEO practices such as hidden links, hidden text, cloaking, keyword stuffing and etc. We only use search engine mindset to perform SEO analysis and improve your website so as to secure long term website traffic and search engine ranking improvement for your site.
Unlike our SEO competitors, we do not implement unacceptable SEO practices such as hidden links, hidden text, cloaking, keyword stuffing and etc. We only use search engine mindset to perform SEO analysis and improve your website so as to secure long term website traffic and search engine ranking improvement for your site.
The first ranking resultsDo
not be surprised when your site is ranking now in Yahoo at the third page and on the first page of MSN with some very competitive keywords, but you will realize that Google seems to be more resistant to present your site to the users searching the Net. It is therefore absolutely necessary to monitor the effects of your changes closely and daily to achieve a better result and to analyze all responses of the search engines.
It can even happen that your site shows up in MSN and it can disappear after a day or three again which can be really shocking because you have invested a lot of time and probably have sacrificed even your weekends to achieve better ranking results. Get into the code and check what is going on. Make sure that the code of the templates is clean XHTML and replace too many complicated nested tables with a more simple code and additionally clear everything out that can be handled by the Stylesheet. Best way is working following W3C recommendations and you will see this will improve ranking too. Rewrite the content and double check if there is no more duplicate content or Meta tags around.
It can even happen that your site shows up in MSN and it can disappear after a day or three again which can be really shocking because you have invested a lot of time and probably have sacrificed even your weekends to achieve better ranking results. Get into the code and check what is going on. Make sure that the code of the templates is clean XHTML and replace too many complicated nested tables with a more simple code and additionally clear everything out that can be handled by the Stylesheet. Best way is working following W3C recommendations and you will see this will improve ranking too. Rewrite the content and double check if there is no more duplicate content or Meta tags around.
Optimization for ASPSites completely dynamically generated means
< div align="justify" > all the displayed data such as navigation, all content, products, page titles and Meta tags are fetched by the ASP queries from the different fields in the tables of a database and then parsed by the engine onto the users screen through a browser. Fact is that search engine can only understand as much of this code as a person who has a good knowledge of html but has no clue of JavaScript, DHTML or scripting languages such as ASP or JSP. This person is probably not capable to write any queries to search the database and to display the results such as the content for a certain page on the screen. Search Engines can't either.
First requirement in a case like this is to retrieve the ranking status of the web site in question at search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. If the web site does not show up at all (below the first 50 pages) be not discouraged, there are ways to actually improve ranking.
There are factors which should be clarified, check if there are any duplicate content titles and Meta tags. This is very often the case at dynamically generated web sites. This has a bad impact on the ranking, when repeated data is dished up to the bots.
The head tags < head > here comes title and Meta data < /head > are mostly generated by the use of an include files. Take care that as many pages as possible have its own and unique title tag and Meta data such as the description etc. Improving this will take you already further than you probably expected.
Duplicate content mostly found on product pages often without product related small articles, reflecting the keywords users probably will use searching for this product is also a draw back of dynamically generated web sites. In fact this is a common problem with most E-commerce web sites. < /div >
First requirement in a case like this is to retrieve the ranking status of the web site in question at search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. If the web site does not show up at all (below the first 50 pages) be not discouraged, there are ways to actually improve ranking.
There are factors which should be clarified, check if there are any duplicate content titles and Meta tags. This is very often the case at dynamically generated web sites. This has a bad impact on the ranking, when repeated data is dished up to the bots.
The head tags < head > here comes title and Meta data < /head > are mostly generated by the use of an include files. Take care that as many pages as possible have its own and unique title tag and Meta data such as the description etc. Improving this will take you already further than you probably expected.
Duplicate content mostly found on product pages often without product related small articles, reflecting the keywords users probably will use searching for this product is also a draw back of dynamically generated web sites. In fact this is a common problem with most E-commerce web sites. < /div >
Disadvantage of dynamically created pages
Many search engines like Google for example don't like dynamically created pages because the crawlers might get in an infinite loop on your server if they follow dynamically created web pages with a query string in it. The spider can be trapped in the web server - and therefore the spiders and bots are very careful not to enter the web site too deep.
Dynamic generated URL's with a large number of parameters "?&id=" can therefore cause problems for search engine bots. This is why we normally recommend to use a seo rewriting program to change dynamic URL's into Google-friendly URL's. This is always a good step to start with, when you hire a SEO company.
If you can, keep the number of URL parameters to one or two it may help so that search engines can crawl your dynamic web pages.
SEO WATCH only provides professional search engine marketing services and will do every effort to achieve the ranking for your web site!
How SEO WATCH conducts online marketing for web sites
SEO WATCH first analyzes the current traffic of a web site and develops a strategy how this can be improved if traffic is lacking or the wrong target group is reached.
Search engine optimization is not just to rank in search engines but mainly to achieve a good click through rate from the targeted visitors. This means that your web site should come up in the search results of the search-engines with targeted keywords that are related to your content or theme of your site. SEO Traffic Analysis
SEO WATCH applies different kind of marketing strategies to create more quality traffic to a web site, depending on the requirements the strategy is chosen, which fits best to achieve the goal.
For example: best is to create an informational web site with the effect that users will come back and visit your site again. Also to offer variety, entertainment and action is one good way to go. Users want to be engaged and informed.
Google AdWords is a tool, web site owners can use on the side but it is not recommended as the main focus and only channel for online marketing. To manage a successful Google Adwords campaign our team will create different landing pages, from which users will enter the web site, after having clicked on the ad in Google's AdWords boxes. This will certainly help to measure the success-rate of the advertisement campaign the client is running at Google.
Using Google Analytics as the only information of the campaigns effect can create a distorted and incorrect picture of what really is taking place. The Urchin software, that is used by Google for their Analytics program, is stripped of many features, the output is delayed and as in forums of webmasters widely discussed full of flaws. Most well known draw-back is the slowing down of the web site, because the JavaScript offered by Google is connecting each time to the Google Server. Well, it is for free, so no claims can be made. So when you have performance problems check also this fact.
The landing pages are monitored by SEO WATCH and traffic is measured with a professional analytics tool and this will deliver either a positive or a negative result of the running campaign but the result will be correct at least and this is most important. This provides our customers with real control!
The strategies we use depend very much on the budget and in which industry the client is operating and how strong and active the competition is. Please notice that SEO WATCH only offers professional search engine optimization services.
Search engine optimization is not just to rank in search engines but mainly to achieve a good click through rate from the targeted visitors. This means that your web site should come up in the search results of the search-engines with targeted keywords that are related to your content or theme of your site. SEO Traffic Analysis
SEO WATCH applies different kind of marketing strategies to create more quality traffic to a web site, depending on the requirements the strategy is chosen, which fits best to achieve the goal.
For example: best is to create an informational web site with the effect that users will come back and visit your site again. Also to offer variety, entertainment and action is one good way to go. Users want to be engaged and informed.
Google AdWords is a tool, web site owners can use on the side but it is not recommended as the main focus and only channel for online marketing. To manage a successful Google Adwords campaign our team will create different landing pages, from which users will enter the web site, after having clicked on the ad in Google's AdWords boxes. This will certainly help to measure the success-rate of the advertisement campaign the client is running at Google.
Using Google Analytics as the only information of the campaigns effect can create a distorted and incorrect picture of what really is taking place. The Urchin software, that is used by Google for their Analytics program, is stripped of many features, the output is delayed and as in forums of webmasters widely discussed full of flaws. Most well known draw-back is the slowing down of the web site, because the JavaScript offered by Google is connecting each time to the Google Server. Well, it is for free, so no claims can be made. So when you have performance problems check also this fact.
The landing pages are monitored by SEO WATCH and traffic is measured with a professional analytics tool and this will deliver either a positive or a negative result of the running campaign but the result will be correct at least and this is most important. This provides our customers with real control!
The strategies we use depend very much on the budget and in which industry the client is operating and how strong and active the competition is. Please notice that SEO WATCH only offers professional search engine optimization services.
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users. Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indexes.
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, URLs, and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users. Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indexes.
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, URLs, and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
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