Showing posts with label SeoTips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SeoTips. Show all posts
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Showing adsense ads between Post Title and Post Body in Blogger
You may have seen Google Ads showing just below every post title (but above the post body) on different blogs or websites. You can see it on this blog also. But have you ever tried to apply this on your blog. Some of you may have tried it by adding the adsense code in post, but its not possible to put adsense code every time you make a post. or still if you do this, it would be very hectic.
Here I am showing the simple trick using which, you will have to do it only once and it will automatically be showing below the Title of each and every post of your blog.Just follow the simple steps showing below:
Step 1:
First of all setup your Adsense in whatever format you wish or which suits your blog and get the code.
Step 2:
When you have have got adsense code, you will have to parse this code HERE. Parsing is nothing but the conversion of the special symbols of adsense into xml supported language. After parsing you will get the converted code. Just Copy the code and then proceed for the next step.
Step 3:
Now login to your Blogger Account and go to Layout >> Edit HTML. Here you then Click on the “Expand Widget Templates” box.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Five Ways To Ensure Your Twitter Campaigns Fail Miserably
There is no doubt about it, the potential to make a lot of money on Twitter is great. However, the potential for a campaign to crash and burn also exists. If you play the game the right way, you win, if you don’t, you lose. It really is as simple as that. There are lots of articles and information on how to properly market on Twitter. In this article, we will take a different approach and discuss 5 surefire ways to fail.
1. Never Provide Updates: One of the quickest way to get a bunch of people to unfollow you is to never have anything to say. If you don’t take some time to write posts, people will get bored with you and will either not bother to check your updates or will stop becoming a follower all-together. The only people that may be able to get by with this behavior are major celebrities. Because this probably does not describe you, it is important to connect with your followers through consistent interactions.
1. Never Provide Updates: One of the quickest way to get a bunch of people to unfollow you is to never have anything to say. If you don’t take some time to write posts, people will get bored with you and will either not bother to check your updates or will stop becoming a follower all-together. The only people that may be able to get by with this behavior are major celebrities. Because this probably does not describe you, it is important to connect with your followers through consistent interactions.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques
Small businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization. But if you read a variety of small businesses blogs and Web sites, you’ll quickly see that there’s a lot of uncertainty over what makes up “the basics.” Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot of experience knowing what SEO resources can be trusted, there’s also a lot of misinformation about SEO strategies and tactics.
This article is the second in a two-part SEO checklist specifically for small business owners and webmasters. Last week, I shared 20 “don’ts.” Naturally, this week addresses the “Do’s”—things to make sure you include whether you’re hiring an SEO company or doing it yourself.
Small Business SEO Checklist: The Do’s
1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.
2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.
3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.
4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock’s Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I’ve read and recommend.
5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.
6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.
7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.
8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.
9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.
10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords or Yahoo’s Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.
11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you’d like; it’s close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don’t appear on the page.
12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.
13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.
14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.
15. Build links intelligently. Submit your site to quality, trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com, Aviva, and Best of the web. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area—the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too.
16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.
17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.
18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you’re a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don’t spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.
19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.
20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google’s webmaster Central and Yahoo’s Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they’re aware of.
21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.
Just like last week, this list could continue well beyond these 21 “DOs.” Your additions are welcome in the comments.
With this checklist and last week’s list of “Don’ts,” you should be able to develop a good plan of attack for your SEO efforts for your small business.
This article is the second in a two-part SEO checklist specifically for small business owners and webmasters. Last week, I shared 20 “don’ts.” Naturally, this week addresses the “Do’s”—things to make sure you include whether you’re hiring an SEO company or doing it yourself.
Small Business SEO Checklist: The Do’s
1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.
2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.
3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.
4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock’s Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I’ve read and recommend.
5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.
6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.
7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.
8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.
9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.
10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords or Yahoo’s Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.
11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you’d like; it’s close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don’t appear on the page.
12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.
13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.
14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.
15. Build links intelligently. Submit your site to quality, trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com, Aviva, and Best of the web. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area—the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too.
16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.
17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.
18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you’re a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don’t spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.
19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.
20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google’s webmaster Central and Yahoo’s Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they’re aware of.
21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.
Just like last week, this list could continue well beyond these 21 “DOs.” Your additions are welcome in the comments.
With this checklist and last week’s list of “Don’ts,” you should be able to develop a good plan of attack for your SEO efforts for your small business.
8 tips to enhance your WordPress blog SEO
1 - Optimize your title tag
In terms of SEO, the title tag is one of the most important things: In fact, the title appears as a link in search engines results and social bookmarking sites. Unfortunely, most WordPress themes displays the title tag in a non-optimized way. I had recently written a tutorial here at Cats Who Code to obtain a really SEO-friendly title tag.
2 - Create an archive page
In my opinion, all blogs should have an archive page: It allows your readers to quickly browse your blog and find what they’re looking for, and this page is also very good for SEO. Some months ago, I wrote a tutorial on wphacks.com, showing you how you can easily create this kind of page, with or without the help of a plugin.
3 - Use the correct H tag structure (h1, h2, h3..)
When I download free WordPress themes, I'm often scared to see how badly the H structure is used: h2 are everywhere. In order to get the best SEO results possible, you should use the correct structure:
h1 for the post title
h2 for inside titles
h3 for inside subtitles
and so on...
4 - Use a good permalink structure
If you're not using permalinks yet, don't even ask why do you get so bad results from search engines. Permalinks is a complete must have.
To enable permalinks, go to the "Customize Permalink Structure" page in your Wordpress Admin : Dashboard>Options>Permalinks and choose a permalink structure.
In my opinion, you should choose "custom" and use one of the following structures:
5 - Increase your Pagerank by leaving comments on other blogs
Having backlinks is really important, in terms of SEO. But, especially if your blog is quite new, having quality backlinks isn't always easy. The solution is to leave (relevant, of course) comments on blog who don't use the rel="nofollow" attribute, or have the Top Commentators widget, or even Comment Luv.
Some times ago, I have compiled a list of 250+ links to get free backlinks. You should definitely check it out, and leave some comments!
6 - Install the "ALL In One SEO Pack" plugin
In my opinion, All In One SEO Pack is one of the best ever WordPress plugins: It allows you to enable meta descriptions and keywords, avoid duplicate content by noindexing pages as such as categories or tags, and tweak titles.
7 - Create a robot.txt file
Duplicate content can really hurt your blog rankings. One of the best things against duplicate content is to create a robots.txt file.
robots.txt is a simple text file, containing instruction for search engines (follow that link, don't index this directory, and so on...) and uploaded on your server root.
A good robots.txt file can be found here. There's also a great exemple in Kyle Eslick's Success With WordPress ebook.
8 - Read WordPress SEO ebooks
As I told you last week, ebooks are a very good way to get and keep useful information. Jai from Blog Oh Blog wrote a whole ebook about WordPress SEO. It is free, so you have no reason not to download it. Also, I recommend Kyle Eslick's Success With WordPress ebook, which contain a very good chapter about WordPress SEO.
In terms of SEO, the title tag is one of the most important things: In fact, the title appears as a link in search engines results and social bookmarking sites. Unfortunely, most WordPress themes displays the title tag in a non-optimized way. I had recently written a tutorial here at Cats Who Code to obtain a really SEO-friendly title tag.
2 - Create an archive page
In my opinion, all blogs should have an archive page: It allows your readers to quickly browse your blog and find what they’re looking for, and this page is also very good for SEO. Some months ago, I wrote a tutorial on wphacks.com, showing you how you can easily create this kind of page, with or without the help of a plugin.
3 - Use the correct H tag structure (h1, h2, h3..)
When I download free WordPress themes, I'm often scared to see how badly the H structure is used: h2 are everywhere. In order to get the best SEO results possible, you should use the correct structure:
h1 for the post title
h2 for inside titles
h3 for inside subtitles
and so on...
4 - Use a good permalink structure
If you're not using permalinks yet, don't even ask why do you get so bad results from search engines. Permalinks is a complete must have.
To enable permalinks, go to the "Customize Permalink Structure" page in your Wordpress Admin : Dashboard>Options>Permalinks and choose a permalink structure.
In my opinion, you should choose "custom" and use one of the following structures:
/%postname%/%post_id% /%post_id% /%category%/%postname%-%post_id%5 - Increase your Pagerank by leaving comments on other blogs
Having backlinks is really important, in terms of SEO. But, especially if your blog is quite new, having quality backlinks isn't always easy. The solution is to leave (relevant, of course) comments on blog who don't use the rel="nofollow" attribute, or have the Top Commentators widget, or even Comment Luv.
Some times ago, I have compiled a list of 250+ links to get free backlinks. You should definitely check it out, and leave some comments!
6 - Install the "ALL In One SEO Pack" plugin
In my opinion, All In One SEO Pack is one of the best ever WordPress plugins: It allows you to enable meta descriptions and keywords, avoid duplicate content by noindexing pages as such as categories or tags, and tweak titles.
7 - Create a robot.txt file
Duplicate content can really hurt your blog rankings. One of the best things against duplicate content is to create a robots.txt file.
robots.txt is a simple text file, containing instruction for search engines (follow that link, don't index this directory, and so on...) and uploaded on your server root.
A good robots.txt file can be found here. There's also a great exemple in Kyle Eslick's Success With WordPress ebook.
8 - Read WordPress SEO ebooks
As I told you last week, ebooks are a very good way to get and keep useful information. Jai from Blog Oh Blog wrote a whole ebook about WordPress SEO. It is free, so you have no reason not to download it. Also, I recommend Kyle Eslick's Success With WordPress ebook, which contain a very good chapter about WordPress SEO.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Top 50 SEO Tips, top search engine optimization tips
Site Architecture:
1 . Utilize search engine friendly URL links which have hyphens instead of underscores, dynamic or session URLs which often confuse crawlers.
2. Rewrite dynamic URLs via .htaccess into URL friendly ones.
3. Use robots.txt to control access to which pages crawlers analyze and index. Restrict robots from “print” html pages for example to control duplicate content issues.
4. Put each domain on a separate IP address. Sharing IP addresses with other sites that could potentially be spamming or using black hat techniques isn’t smart, and at $3-5 a month for a unique IP it’s worth it.
5. If you're running Linux as your web hosting server then read about creating an .htaccess file to avoid canonicalization.
6. If you're running Windows as your web hosting server then learn about how to do the equivalent of .htaccess.
7. Invest in quality web hosting service. Most sites aren’t setup to handle the incoming traffic from hitting the top of Digg but you should be able to handle a steadily increasing amount of traffic from your SEO efforts. If your site goes down and the search engines try to index the site you will be penalized, and the results can be dramatic.
8. Validate your HTML to W3C standards. Although there is no evidence that this is required Google it provides a clean experience to visitors.
9. Keep the number of trailing slashes to less than four to avoid crawling and other issues. If you have a blog just the post name is optimal, the date and other information is unnecessary.
10. When considering launching a new site consider purchasing a domain name that has been registered for quite some time. This avoids any perils of the “Google Sandbox” as well as having the advantage of already having established back links, and other SEO benefits.
11. If no domain names are available that suit your company consider purchasing a domain name that has your specific keywords in it. Limit the hyphens to a maximum of two.
12. When creating pages ensure that no page is beyond two pages from the home page. This helps ensure that your pages will become indexed.
13. Check for dead/broken links in Google Webmaster Tools, and then utilize a 301 redirect to the correct location or to the home page to clean up that aspect.
14. Register your domain name for the maximum amount of time. This instills trust among the search engines that you don’t have a one year hosting plan and then you’re done. This is a cheap solution, and lets them know that you plan to be around for a long time.
15. Ensure that outgoing links from your site are going to quality on topic sites. Linking to poker/porn/Viagra, etc sites from a health site for example will hurt not help you.
Keyword Research
1. Determine the keywords that you would like to target by doing some research at Google Adwords or alternatives such as Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery.
2. Place your keywords in your body text. Don’t worry about keyword density as much as making it functional for both the user while targeting your specific keywords for the search engines.
3. Use keywords in the H1, H2, and H3 tags that are relevant to your site.
4. Place your targeted keywords in the page URL, separated by a dash between keywords.
5. Target keywords above and beyond just the ones with the most traffic. Misspellings, alternative words, and lower traffic keywords could potentially still are lucrative by driving targeted traffic to your site.
On Page Optimization
1. Add a unique title to each page that targets your specific keywords. Typically this occurs with having your targeted keywords followed by – company name. If your brand is strong enough you can switch this around and have your company first.
2. Add a unique Meta description to each page that again targets your specific keywords. This is limited to 160 characters in Google, 165 in Yahoo, and slightly over 200 for MSN. Make the description unique for each page so that you don’t fall into any duplicate content issues.
3. Add a unique Meta keyword tag for each page that only lists keywords that are relevant and appear on the page. Although Meta keyword is not used by Google it still has some importance for Yahoo.
4. Make sure that all images have alt tags associated with them to ensure that your site is accessible for everyone.
5. Develop content that is unique and different for all pages. Having similar content on multiple pages could throw up duplicate content filters and your pages could go supplemental.
Link Building
1. Download WebCEO and submit your site to the various search engines and directories through the automatic process.
2. Download DigiXMAS and semi-auto submit your site to several hundred directories.
3. Don’t worry about incoming directory links, and whether you are submitting too quickly. You will be denied from some, others will take months to approve you, and the resulting links will appear natural.
4. Submit your site to DMOZ. Although DMOZ has had problems recently it is still a highly trusted source, and is the premier free directory to submit your site to. It may take months or even years to get added but it is still worth the 10 minutes to submit to.
5. Pay to submit your site to Yahoo directory. Along with DMOZ Yahoo directory is one of the most trusted directories out there. The $299 fee is nominal and instills trust among Yahoo and the other search engines.
6. Create “link bait” content for submission to the social websites such as Digg, Reddit, etc. Getting an article to the top of a social website can result in thousands of additional back links almost overnight.
7. Manual link building is a highly effective way to increase your rankings in the SERPs. Use WebCEO to find link partners who are related to your respective field, and would be willing to link to you.
8. Often times the best links are the links that your competitors have. Go to yahoo and type in “link:www.competitor.com” and look for links that they have that you should look into.
9. Edu and Gov links are typically more respected and trusted than Com links as they have built up thousands of back links, produce quality content, and are unlikely to engage in questionable techniques. If you can get these links get them.
10. If you want to buy links do so in a manner that is not obvious. Purchase links from relevant sites and don’t publish details in forums or other locations which could be seen.
11. When linking out or posting links surround the link with text so that it does not appear to be a generic links page, and instead flows nicely with relevant information.
12. Post your link in forums that you frequent with the anchor text that you are targeting.
13. Comment on blogs, again with the same anchor text and link that you’re targeting.
14. Although Wikipedia utilizes “NOFOLLOW” attributes on links adding your relevant links to Wikipedia can generate a significant amount of targeted traffic to your website.
15. Create a Squidoo lens to generate back links as well as hopefully generate traffic to your website.
Miscellaneous
1. Create a sitemap of your site using GSite Crawler or a free online sitemap tool like XML-Sitemaps.
2. Submit your site Google Webmaster Tools, and then verify it.
3. Inside Google Webmaster Tools choose Preferred Domain and pick www.yoursite.com or yoursite.com to avoid canonicalization issues.
4. Submit your site to Yahoo! Site Explorer, and then verify it.
5. Download Firefox and then head over to SEOBook to download Aaron Wall’s SEO Tools for Firefox. This neat utility allows you to check back links, Edu links, Wikipedia entries, cache date, and other SEO info that is crucial for analyzing data.
6. Use page analysis to look at the anchor text of incoming links to your site to analyze what is working, how spread out your anchors are, and how to solidify under a few anchor texts if possible.
7. Develop articles that visitors may want to link to. Interviews with industry leaders and others are a quick way to develop links.
8. Submit your article to article submission services only after your article has been indexed by the search engines to avoid any duplicate filters.
9. Ignore Page Rank. Although it may be important to those who aren’t as familiar to the SEO process it does not determine your rankings, and is only updated visually every 3-4 months. Actual Page Rank is constantly being updated by Google on a daily basis.
10. Ignore Alexa data. Alexa is calculated by users who install their toolbar and is thus a very narrow segment of the population. Companies who browse their own sites with the toolbar thus rank unnaturally high in Alexa.
1 . Utilize search engine friendly URL links which have hyphens instead of underscores, dynamic or session URLs which often confuse crawlers.
2. Rewrite dynamic URLs via .htaccess into URL friendly ones.
3. Use robots.txt to control access to which pages crawlers analyze and index. Restrict robots from “print” html pages for example to control duplicate content issues.
4. Put each domain on a separate IP address. Sharing IP addresses with other sites that could potentially be spamming or using black hat techniques isn’t smart, and at $3-5 a month for a unique IP it’s worth it.
5. If you're running Linux as your web hosting server then read about creating an .htaccess file to avoid canonicalization.
6. If you're running Windows as your web hosting server then learn about how to do the equivalent of .htaccess.
7. Invest in quality web hosting service. Most sites aren’t setup to handle the incoming traffic from hitting the top of Digg but you should be able to handle a steadily increasing amount of traffic from your SEO efforts. If your site goes down and the search engines try to index the site you will be penalized, and the results can be dramatic.
8. Validate your HTML to W3C standards. Although there is no evidence that this is required Google it provides a clean experience to visitors.
9. Keep the number of trailing slashes to less than four to avoid crawling and other issues. If you have a blog just the post name is optimal, the date and other information is unnecessary.
10. When considering launching a new site consider purchasing a domain name that has been registered for quite some time. This avoids any perils of the “Google Sandbox” as well as having the advantage of already having established back links, and other SEO benefits.
11. If no domain names are available that suit your company consider purchasing a domain name that has your specific keywords in it. Limit the hyphens to a maximum of two.
12. When creating pages ensure that no page is beyond two pages from the home page. This helps ensure that your pages will become indexed.
13. Check for dead/broken links in Google Webmaster Tools, and then utilize a 301 redirect to the correct location or to the home page to clean up that aspect.
14. Register your domain name for the maximum amount of time. This instills trust among the search engines that you don’t have a one year hosting plan and then you’re done. This is a cheap solution, and lets them know that you plan to be around for a long time.
15. Ensure that outgoing links from your site are going to quality on topic sites. Linking to poker/porn/Viagra, etc sites from a health site for example will hurt not help you.
Keyword Research
1. Determine the keywords that you would like to target by doing some research at Google Adwords or alternatives such as Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery.
2. Place your keywords in your body text. Don’t worry about keyword density as much as making it functional for both the user while targeting your specific keywords for the search engines.
3. Use keywords in the H1, H2, and H3 tags that are relevant to your site.
4. Place your targeted keywords in the page URL, separated by a dash between keywords.
5. Target keywords above and beyond just the ones with the most traffic. Misspellings, alternative words, and lower traffic keywords could potentially still are lucrative by driving targeted traffic to your site.
On Page Optimization
1. Add a unique title to each page that targets your specific keywords. Typically this occurs with having your targeted keywords followed by – company name. If your brand is strong enough you can switch this around and have your company first.
2. Add a unique Meta description to each page that again targets your specific keywords. This is limited to 160 characters in Google, 165 in Yahoo, and slightly over 200 for MSN. Make the description unique for each page so that you don’t fall into any duplicate content issues.
3. Add a unique Meta keyword tag for each page that only lists keywords that are relevant and appear on the page. Although Meta keyword is not used by Google it still has some importance for Yahoo.
4. Make sure that all images have alt tags associated with them to ensure that your site is accessible for everyone.
5. Develop content that is unique and different for all pages. Having similar content on multiple pages could throw up duplicate content filters and your pages could go supplemental.
Link Building
1. Download WebCEO and submit your site to the various search engines and directories through the automatic process.
2. Download DigiXMAS and semi-auto submit your site to several hundred directories.
3. Don’t worry about incoming directory links, and whether you are submitting too quickly. You will be denied from some, others will take months to approve you, and the resulting links will appear natural.
4. Submit your site to DMOZ. Although DMOZ has had problems recently it is still a highly trusted source, and is the premier free directory to submit your site to. It may take months or even years to get added but it is still worth the 10 minutes to submit to.
5. Pay to submit your site to Yahoo directory. Along with DMOZ Yahoo directory is one of the most trusted directories out there. The $299 fee is nominal and instills trust among Yahoo and the other search engines.
6. Create “link bait” content for submission to the social websites such as Digg, Reddit, etc. Getting an article to the top of a social website can result in thousands of additional back links almost overnight.
7. Manual link building is a highly effective way to increase your rankings in the SERPs. Use WebCEO to find link partners who are related to your respective field, and would be willing to link to you.
8. Often times the best links are the links that your competitors have. Go to yahoo and type in “link:www.competitor.com” and look for links that they have that you should look into.
9. Edu and Gov links are typically more respected and trusted than Com links as they have built up thousands of back links, produce quality content, and are unlikely to engage in questionable techniques. If you can get these links get them.
10. If you want to buy links do so in a manner that is not obvious. Purchase links from relevant sites and don’t publish details in forums or other locations which could be seen.
11. When linking out or posting links surround the link with text so that it does not appear to be a generic links page, and instead flows nicely with relevant information.
12. Post your link in forums that you frequent with the anchor text that you are targeting.
13. Comment on blogs, again with the same anchor text and link that you’re targeting.
14. Although Wikipedia utilizes “NOFOLLOW” attributes on links adding your relevant links to Wikipedia can generate a significant amount of targeted traffic to your website.
15. Create a Squidoo lens to generate back links as well as hopefully generate traffic to your website.
Miscellaneous
1. Create a sitemap of your site using GSite Crawler or a free online sitemap tool like XML-Sitemaps.
2. Submit your site Google Webmaster Tools, and then verify it.
3. Inside Google Webmaster Tools choose Preferred Domain and pick www.yoursite.com or yoursite.com to avoid canonicalization issues.
4. Submit your site to Yahoo! Site Explorer, and then verify it.
5. Download Firefox and then head over to SEOBook to download Aaron Wall’s SEO Tools for Firefox. This neat utility allows you to check back links, Edu links, Wikipedia entries, cache date, and other SEO info that is crucial for analyzing data.
6. Use page analysis to look at the anchor text of incoming links to your site to analyze what is working, how spread out your anchors are, and how to solidify under a few anchor texts if possible.
7. Develop articles that visitors may want to link to. Interviews with industry leaders and others are a quick way to develop links.
8. Submit your article to article submission services only after your article has been indexed by the search engines to avoid any duplicate filters.
9. Ignore Page Rank. Although it may be important to those who aren’t as familiar to the SEO process it does not determine your rankings, and is only updated visually every 3-4 months. Actual Page Rank is constantly being updated by Google on a daily basis.
10. Ignore Alexa data. Alexa is calculated by users who install their toolbar and is thus a very narrow segment of the population. Companies who browse their own sites with the toolbar thus rank unnaturally high in Alexa.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The 52 Top SEO Tips - Here Are 10 of Them
From the obvious to the "Hey-I-never-thought-of-that-great-idea-before", here are 10 of the top 52 tips on how to optimize your website for its turbo-charge rocket ride up the search engine rankings.
Be bold. Use the tags around some of your keywords on each page. Do NOT use them everywhere the keyword appears. Once or twice is plenty.
Deep linking. Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site. Here is an example of deep linking, in this case to my personal happiness workbook.
Become a foreigner. Canada and the UK have many directories for websites of companies based in those countries. Can you get a business address in one of those countries?
Newsletters. Offer articles to ezine publishers that archive their ezines. The links stay live often for many years in their archives.
First come, first served. If you must have image links in your navigation bar, include also text links. However, make sure the text links show up first in the source code, because search engine robots will follow the first link they find to any particular page. They won't follow additional links to the same page. You can see this in action at the link to the home page on this web site monitoring page
Multiple domains. If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it might be worth having multiple domains. Why? First, search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, and you might warrant two. Second, directories usually accept only home pages, so you can get more directory listings this way. Why not a site dedicated to gumbo pudding pops?
Article exchanges. You've heard of link exchanges, useless as they generally are. Article exchanges are like link exchanges, only much more useful. You publish someone else's article on the history of pudding pops with a link back to their site. They publish your article on the top ten pudding pop flavors in Viet Nam, with a link back to your site. You both have content. You both get high quality links. (More on high quality links in other tips.)
Titles for links. Links can get titles, too. Not only does this help visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, but some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.
Not anchor text. Don't overdo the anchor text. You don't want all your inbound links looking the same, because that looks like automation - something Google frowns upon. Use your URL sometimes, your company name other times, "Gumbo Pudding Pop" occasionally, "Get gumbo pudding pops" as well, "Gumbo-flavored pudding pops" some other times, etc.
Site map. A big site needs a site map, which should be linked to from every page on the site. This will help the search engine robots find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a site map, too. It's called the navigation bar. See how the second navigation bar at the bottom of Last Minute Florida Villas is like a mini-site map?
There you have it: 10 of the 52 Top SEO Tips, a free tip sheet that comes with Don't Get Banned By the Search Engines:
There is a lot more to search engine optimization, and there are always more details when looking at an individual site. But these tips should help any website significantly improve its rankings.
Be bold. Use the tags around some of your keywords on each page. Do NOT use them everywhere the keyword appears. Once or twice is plenty.
Deep linking. Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site. Here is an example of deep linking, in this case to my personal happiness workbook.
Become a foreigner. Canada and the UK have many directories for websites of companies based in those countries. Can you get a business address in one of those countries?
Newsletters. Offer articles to ezine publishers that archive their ezines. The links stay live often for many years in their archives.
First come, first served. If you must have image links in your navigation bar, include also text links. However, make sure the text links show up first in the source code, because search engine robots will follow the first link they find to any particular page. They won't follow additional links to the same page. You can see this in action at the link to the home page on this web site monitoring page
Multiple domains. If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it might be worth having multiple domains. Why? First, search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, and you might warrant two. Second, directories usually accept only home pages, so you can get more directory listings this way. Why not a site dedicated to gumbo pudding pops?
Article exchanges. You've heard of link exchanges, useless as they generally are. Article exchanges are like link exchanges, only much more useful. You publish someone else's article on the history of pudding pops with a link back to their site. They publish your article on the top ten pudding pop flavors in Viet Nam, with a link back to your site. You both have content. You both get high quality links. (More on high quality links in other tips.)
Titles for links. Links can get titles, too. Not only does this help visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, but some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.
Not anchor text. Don't overdo the anchor text. You don't want all your inbound links looking the same, because that looks like automation - something Google frowns upon. Use your URL sometimes, your company name other times, "Gumbo Pudding Pop" occasionally, "Get gumbo pudding pops" as well, "Gumbo-flavored pudding pops" some other times, etc.
Site map. A big site needs a site map, which should be linked to from every page on the site. This will help the search engine robots find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a site map, too. It's called the navigation bar. See how the second navigation bar at the bottom of Last Minute Florida Villas is like a mini-site map?
There you have it: 10 of the 52 Top SEO Tips, a free tip sheet that comes with Don't Get Banned By the Search Engines:
There is a lot more to search engine optimization, and there are always more details when looking at an individual site. But these tips should help any website significantly improve its rankings.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Follow your friends on Twitter and Facebook in one central place
Seesmic makes it easy to reply to them and share text, links, photos and videos all in one screen.
We update Seesmic every other week or so. Come see what's new!
See what Seesmic can do for you in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc6CsZrwaMg&feature=player_embedded
Seesmic shows all your accounts in one single column
Multiple Twitter accounts and Facebook updates appear together in one single, easy-to-follow column. Use it just for one Twitter and Facebook account or manage multiple identities. Manage your personal brand and different business accounts on Twitter
Seesmic Desktop benefits all types of users, including YOU!
Casual Users and Friends: Check out the activities of your friends and family and see what they are up to in Facebook and Twitter in one single stream.
Listeners: Manage what you want the world to say to you through searches and userlists.
Influencers: Make an impact on others by easily sharing links, images and messages. Pass along other information that will benefit your friends and followers.
Person Brands and Businesses: Manage your brand (both personal and business) and hear what people are saying about you. Quickly respond to users, stay engaged, and strengthen your community.
Photos and Videos
Seesmic lets you take pictures and record videos (soon) straight from your computer webcam or drag and drop them.
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