Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Tutorial by Sean Buscay
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) : Introduction
Introduction
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Keywords
Introductions Don't Have to Be Flashy
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
Introduction
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves optimizing a website so that it will be likely to get good ranking on search engines. SEO is an important discipline for webmasters to learn because it will directly affect where you rank on the search engines people use to find your site. Not ranking well on search engines is like building a beautiful building meant to serve lots of people in your target audience, but not being listed in the phone book so that people can find your new building or contact you.
While there are many sources on the web that tell you all kinds of ?Tricks? to get good rankings, the truth is that many of these ?Tricks? can backfire on you and actually result in being penalized in your search engine rankings. Christian webmasters need to know what works, what doesn?t, and what is considered ethical among the changing rules in Search Engine optimizations. I have often been asked to evaluate websites that other webmasters have designed. In doing so, I have found that a number of things are commonly wrong with the sites. I have compiled that list for you in this article. The list is in the form of 18 common ?illnesses? I find with websites and what the ?Doctor?s? prescriptions to fix the problems.
It should be noted, that as search engines rapidly change their methods for determining rank, some of these ?prescriptions? may become out of date or less relevant. However, none of them will harm your search engine rankings if you implement them.
Sean Buscay
www.christian-web-masters.comSean Buscay is on a mission to CREATE, ADVANCE, and EXPOUND faith in JESUS using web technology. He is the owner of Christian-Web-Masters.com .
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) : The Website Doctor's prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Introduction
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Keywords
Introductions Don't Have to Be Flashy
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
1. Illness: Your site is mirrored
The prescription: Drop the site mirroring
Website Doctor?s Notes:
Site mirroring is when a single Website can be accessed by multiple domain names (showing the same pages for each domain name) or the site content across multiply hosted domain names is fully the same.
The reason why this is a problem is that many search engines consider this a way to falsely manipulate search engine rankings (spamming).
Sites may often use site mirroring in perfectly innocent ways, like for having an easier and shorter URL and email address, or if the want to have the .com, .org, and .net versions of their organizations name.
However, I have found clients who use site mirroring will typically have rankings that are inexplicably low on most of the major search engines.
Here is what DMOZ.org has to say about site mirroring:
"Do not submit mirror sites. Mirror sites are sites that contain identical content, but have altogether different URLs."
Google does not specifically mention mirrored sites but does mention the use of doorway pages (a purposeful use of multiple domain names to point or re-direct to another site URL). Under reasons why a site may not be indexed, they list the following:
"You employ doorway pages. Google does not encourage the use of doorway pages. We want to point users to content pages, not to doorways or splash screens."
Unfortunately, using these techniques both innocently and for the purpose of manipulating rankings has a very popular recommendation by many ?experts? in the field. However, they are wrong.
2. Illness: Your site is in frames
Prescription: Take the site out of frames
Website Doctor?s Notes:
Many search engines cannot read frames or will incorrectly index a site using frames.
Sites that use frames will often use them in a way to keep all the navigation buttons or links in one frame and content in another. They will also usually put their logo or organizational header info in another frame.
Here is one example of a frameset:
Notice that the content sits in a frame separate from the sites logo or navigation links.
When a search engine returns a result based on keywords found in the content of a framed page, typically only the content page is returned (if the keyword does not match the whole frameset). The result is a potential visitor searched keywords relevant to your site, found your content but had no link or logo to attribute the content to your site or to get them to your home page. Even if they do click on a link to the URL of the framed page, they will end of on a no framed (or orphaned) page that was meant to be framed. The result is they see this in their web browser:
Notice there is no way for them to find the homepage or to navigate any other part of the site.
Sean Buscay
www.christian-web-masters.comSean Buscay is on a mission to CREATE, ADVANCE, and EXPOUND faith in JESUS using web technology. He is the owner of Christian-Web-Masters.com .
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) : Using Keywords
Introduction
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Keywords
Introductions Don't Have to Be Flashy
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
Using Keywords
3. Illness: Your site does not have enough keywords or does not use the right ones
Prescription: Add optimized keywords to the content and meta-tags of your homepage page and all of the subsequent pages
Website Doctor?s Notes:
Keywords are used by many search engines to know how to categorize your site.
I am amazed at how many sites are out there that do not even go so far as to list keywords in their meta-tags (tags that search engines, servers, and browsers read). More importantly, keywords should be contained in your copy as well. Many search engines are not even counting meta-tags as important when compared to the actually copy a visitor will see.
Here are some typical scenarios:
A. An intro page with little or no keywords or key word phrases
B. A page with little thought given to the keywords that are haplessly slapped into it (usually by some programmer without a clue as to a site?s marketing objectives)
Try to think what your target audience might be searching for on the web and what your site has to offer them. Ask people in your target audience how they might search for a site like yours. Take a look at the keywords other sites in your category are using. Generate a list of potential keywords and then go on the web and test them.
You can use this tool to get relative numbers on number of searches for keywords and phrases. It will also provide you with associated keywords:
http://inventory.overture.co...
C. All pages on a site share the same keywords
Don?t do this. Put keywords into your pages tailored to the content on each page individual page. At least do this for the four or five pages you choose to really optimize for search engines.
D. A Website filled with keywords that are too broad in scope
All you are doing by using keywords that are too general is wasting other people?s time and your bandwidth on non-qualified site visitors.
You have to determine if your site has a chance of ranking well on a more general term, verses a more specific and targeted keyword phrase. A more specific keyword phrase will produced a more qualified site visitor. Using the tool mentioned above, make sure there are a large enough number of searches per month with the more qualified keyword you choose.
If your site appeals to persons in a particular geographic region, then one example of qualifying site visitors is by adding a state or region to your keyword phrase. Again, make sure the sate or region you are using has enough searches made per month in conjunction with your keyword phrase. Do not use a state or region abbreviation. These are searched for much less often.
Another important note here is to use both singular and plural versions of your keywords, with an emphasis on the plural. There are several reasons for this. One of them is that some search engines use word-stemming. This means that is if a searcher types in a singular version of a keyword, the search engine can match it to a plural word version on your site. However, word-stemming typically does not go backwards. In other words, if your site only contains a singular version of a key-word, than a search engine can not match a plural version search to your site.
4. Illness: Your site?s important keywords and content are buried too deep in your page
Prescription: Put important content and keyword phrases at the top of your pages
Website Doctor?s Notes:
Some search engines give a higher weight to content placed at the top of a webpage, if the tops of your pages are filled will images, table tags, navigation bars, and unimportant introductory text (totaling something like 40K of data), then you may loose keyword relevancy.
You also want to make sure that you include keyword phrases in heading tags, your page titles, and in the text links to other pages.
Sean Buscay
www.christian-web-masters.comSean Buscay is on a mission to CREATE, ADVANCE, and EXPOUND faith in JESUS using web technology. He is the owner of Christian-Web-Masters.com .
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) : Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Introduction
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Keywords
Introductions Don't Have to Be Flashy
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
7. Illness: Oh no! There?s no sitemap
Prescription: Create a sitemap off the intro page
If you have important areas of your site that are not linked to from your intro page, then place a link on your page titled ?Sitemap?. On your sitemap page have an organized list of text based links to key areas/pages on your Website.
Search engines and site visitors love site maps.
This link has a good description on sitemap usability:
http://www.useit.com/alertbo...
8. Illness: You don?t know what an ?Add URL? or why they are important
Prescription: Create an ?Add URL? page on your homepage
Website Doctor?s Notes: An ?Add URL? page is a webpage inviting others Websites to link to your Website. It tells them how you would like them to link to you. This may include:
a. Giving them the phrase to use when linking to you (using your keywords)
b. Providing them with the code to copy and paste on their site
c. Images to use if they do not want to use a text based link
It is best to ask them to link to you by a text based link, but provide them with the image option if they still want it.
Your ?Add URL? page may also offer to list their site on your own. It would then provide a form for them to submit their site to you.
After you create the page, link to your ?Add URL? page from your intro page and sitemap calling it ?Add URL?. Reasons for naming it this have to do with tested click through levels.
Why is it important that other pages link to you?
Google, one of the worlds most popular search engines takes into account link popularity when returning search result ranking. Increasing your link popularity (the number of pages linked to you) is a win/win. You win with increased ranking on Google and you get more traffic from the sites that link to you.
Simple link exchanges with other sites in your category are what want. Do not place your site on a free for all link p type Website.
You will also want to monitor and adjust all incoming links that you control or influence to contain your keyword phrases.
Sean Buscay
www.christian-web-masters.comSean Buscay is on a mission to CREATE, ADVANCE, and EXPOUND faith in JESUS using web technology. He is the owner of Christian-Web-Masters.com .
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) : Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Introduction
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Keywords
Introductions Don't Have to Be Flashy
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
9. Illness: Your main navigation bar is image based
Prescription: Replace it with or add a text-based navigation bar to your Website
Website Doctor?s Notes:
If a site does not have a text based navigation bar, then we usually add one for the following reasons:
a. Search engines can not read the text in an image file
b. Search engines can read text based links
c. Most image based navigation bars need JavaScript code to create roll-over effects ?More about that later
Note: A text based navigation bar can be made to look nice and have rollover effects using CSS (Cascading style sheets).
10. Illness: All your headlines and keywords are in image files
Prescription: Put them in text (Are you starting to see a pattern?)
Website Doctor?s Notes: Search engines cannot read text in images.
Many sites like to make their headings with nice fonts that they control by outputting as an image file. Unfortunately headings are usually where a pages most relevant keywords are located.
Keywords and phrases should be taken out of images and placed into text so that search engines can read them. Placing important keywords in heading tags (specifically h1 and h2 tags) gives them greater weight for some search engines. To keep headings in a nice format, use CSS.
I recommend at least one h1 tag per page (acting as a main heading) and trying for a couple of h2 tags (acting as subheads).
Sean Buscay
www.christian-web-masters.comSean Buscay is on a mission to CREATE, ADVANCE, and EXPOUND faith in JESUS using web technology. He is the owner of Christian-Web-Masters.com .
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) : Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Introduction
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Keywords
Introductions Don't Have to Be Flashy
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
11. Illness: Your page titles and filenames are obscure and keyword-less
Prescription: Add key word phrases to page titles and file names
Website Doctor?s Notes:
Just as this point states, make the titles tags unique for each of your pages and have them contain keywords instead of some generic, site wide title.
Also, save your HTML file names with keyword phrases. Instead of ?obscurepagename.htm? name it ?my-key-word-phrase.htm?.
12. Illness: You don?t have unique meta tags and keywords for each page
Prescription: Add unique Meta-tag descriptions and keywords.
Website Doctor?s Notes: Each page should have unique meta-tag descriptions and keywords. Also delete any non-essential meta-tags.
Note: Many (I would now say most) search engines no longer use meta tags. Meta tags are a left over from an earlier internet age. Many sites, including this one, no longer use meta tags.
13. Illness: Your'e not dense enough
Prescription: Increase your keyword density
Website Doctor?s Notes:
I recommend shooting for a key word density of 4% on the pages designated to be submitted to search engines. Webpage copy should be approximately 300 to 750 words. Be careful with filling this prescription. You want enough keywords to tell search engines you have good content for their searchers, but you do not want cross the line into spamming. If increasing your keyword density to the prescribed amount, results in clunky or obviously manufactured copy, then back things off. Consider your audience and what they are looking for. Read it from their perspective. The point here is to have a set of keyword phrases in mind, and when you write copy consider using your keywords instead of other potential word choices.
Sean Buscay
www.christian-web-masters.comSean Buscay is on a mission to CREATE, ADVANCE, and EXPOUND faith in JESUS using web technology. He is the owner of Christian-Web-Masters.com .
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) : Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Introduction
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Keywords
Introductions Don't Have to Be Flashy
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
14. Illness: Bloated site with JavaScript
Prescription: Remove code bloated JavaScript in pages and place in include files.
Website Doctor?s Notes: This is important for two reasons. One, search engines often give higher weight to keyword phrases at the top of a page. If the first part of your page contains a lot of JavaScript for those nice effects and interactions, then you may be pushing down the relevancy of your keyword phrases. Two, some search engines may not read your whole page (although this is changing with cheaper bandwidth and storage), so they may miss your keyword phrases all together if you have too much JavaScript at the top.
To fix this problem, place your JavaScript code into a text file and name it whatever you want with a .js extension. For this example I?ll call the file ?myJavascript.js? . Then put this tag in your html head, typically right above the </head> tag:
<script language="JavaScript" src="myJavascript.js" ></script>
15. Illness: Your first sentence is not relevant to your site/page description
Prescription: Make opening sentences on pages be the descriptions.
Website Doctor?s Notes:
Many search engines will use the first sentence on your page a search results description. You want to make sure your opening sentence is a good description of the pages content and will interest your target audience.
Sean Buscay
www.christian-web-masters.comSean Buscay is on a mission to CREATE, ADVANCE, and EXPOUND faith in JESUS using web technology. He is the owner of Christian-Web-Masters.com .
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) : Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
Introduction
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Keywords
Introductions Don't Have to Be Flashy
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
16. Illness: You still have some left over graphic files
Prescription: That?s okay. The web is visual after all. Just make sure you add alt tags to your images and put keyword phrases in those tags.
17. Illness: Tinny Little Letters
Prescription: Remove all small font tags below size 2. Use CSS if you have to.
Doctors Notes:
Many spammers employ the technique of placing keywords in small font on a webpage. This way the visitor does not notice them, but search engines will pick them up. However, search engines have caught on and now for some search engines may consider those small font words as an attempt to spam.
There are legitimate reasons to use small font sizes as part of the normal site design. If you need to do this, then do so by formatting the font with CSS rather than HTML.
18. Illness: Your site redirects or refreshes
Prescription: Stop redirect and refreshing
Website Doctor?s Notes:
Years ago, ?gateway? pages were popular. These were multiple highly optimized web pages that attracted search engines and then redirected people to another (not so relevant) page. The search engines caught on, and labeled sites with these types of pages as spammers.
Although your site may use redirect for a legitimate reason, you do not want to take a chance of being labeled as a spammer.
Discuss this article with other Christian webmasters here.
Sean Buscay
www.christian-web-masters.comSean Buscay is on a mission to CREATE, ADVANCE, and EXPOUND faith in JESUS using web technology. He is the owner of Christian-Web-Masters.com .