This document provides tips on how to rank highly on Google searches. It discusses optimizing websites for search engines through on-site factors like keywords, metadata tags, links and fresh content. It emphasizes that search engines value original, keyword-rich content and recommends tactics like blogging, video, social media and web 2.0 integration to engage visitors and improve search rankings. Regularly adding new content is key to maintaining search engine prominence.
Hello Web Marketing fans,
For those that made it out last night to my Website Marketing seminar I hope the seminar was valuable and time well spent. For those that were not able to make the seminar the feedback seems to lean towards hosting another workshop, stay tuned in 2010. For anyone that would like to see my presentation, I have posted my slides on my website:
http://www.youneedseo.com/dec8/Website-Marketing-Seminar-2009.ppt (~40MB file)
I updated one of the last slides (SEO Resources) to include some information on some notable players in the SEO/Social Media world, as well as a feature within Google Reader that allows me to share my daily reading (blog) list.
If there are any questions for me please never hesitate to email (michael@youneedseo.com). Lastly, if you or your organization is interested in a free Website Marketing Seminar & Workshop please let me know, I am happy to discuss!
Thanks,
Michael
michael@youneedseo.com
http://www.youneedseo.com
Learn top ten mistakes that often made by people trying to self-optimize their websites. Plus Broad SEO advice for website owners, web designers or webmasters of web sites.
Visit http://internetbusinessservices.info/form.php?id=649173 for more info
Learn the basics of search engine marketing and optimization, including campaign creation and tracking, choosing vendors, and analyzing results from visits, actions and ranking in Google, Bing, Ask and other search engines.
Hello Web Marketing fans,
For those that made it out last night to my Website Marketing seminar I hope the seminar was valuable and time well spent. For those that were not able to make the seminar the feedback seems to lean towards hosting another workshop, stay tuned in 2010. For anyone that would like to see my presentation, I have posted my slides on my website:
http://www.youneedseo.com/dec8/Website-Marketing-Seminar-2009.ppt (~40MB file)
I updated one of the last slides (SEO Resources) to include some information on some notable players in the SEO/Social Media world, as well as a feature within Google Reader that allows me to share my daily reading (blog) list.
If there are any questions for me please never hesitate to email (michael@youneedseo.com). Lastly, if you or your organization is interested in a free Website Marketing Seminar & Workshop please let me know, I am happy to discuss!
Thanks,
Michael
michael@youneedseo.com
http://www.youneedseo.com
Learn top ten mistakes that often made by people trying to self-optimize their websites. Plus Broad SEO advice for website owners, web designers or webmasters of web sites.
Visit http://internetbusinessservices.info/form.php?id=649173 for more info
Learn the basics of search engine marketing and optimization, including campaign creation and tracking, choosing vendors, and analyzing results from visits, actions and ranking in Google, Bing, Ask and other search engines.
Schema can sound scary, but it doesn’t have to be. In this presentation, we’ll run through the basics of schema and chat about how you can apply it in key areas like products and local SEO.
Grab more free training at https://www.rebeccagill.com and https://www.ithemes.com.
Topics Covered:
What Is Search Engine
Why We Use Search Engines
What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The Necessity Of Branding & Exposure
Order Of SEO
Keywords
Classifying the Keywords
The best place for marketers & entrepreneurs to learn about Joint Ventures, collaboration, connecting, internet marketing, and home based business.
When it comes to rank your website in Google Ranking, then SEO plays a major role. But Few knows the best and effective ways to rank your website in Google SERPs.
SEO Secrets for Online Retailers Webinar getelastic
Webinar featuring useful tips, tools and best practices for optimizing your ecommerce site for search engine rankings. Presented by Elastic Path Ecommerce Software's Jason Billingsley and Founder of SEO firm Netconcepts Stephan Spencer.
Schema can sound scary, but it doesn’t have to be. In this presentation, we’ll run through the basics of schema and chat about how you can apply it in key areas like products and local SEO.
Grab more free training at https://www.rebeccagill.com and https://www.ithemes.com.
Topics Covered:
What Is Search Engine
Why We Use Search Engines
What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The Necessity Of Branding & Exposure
Order Of SEO
Keywords
Classifying the Keywords
The best place for marketers & entrepreneurs to learn about Joint Ventures, collaboration, connecting, internet marketing, and home based business.
When it comes to rank your website in Google Ranking, then SEO plays a major role. But Few knows the best and effective ways to rank your website in Google SERPs.
SEO Secrets for Online Retailers Webinar getelastic
Webinar featuring useful tips, tools and best practices for optimizing your ecommerce site for search engine rankings. Presented by Elastic Path Ecommerce Software's Jason Billingsley and Founder of SEO firm Netconcepts Stephan Spencer.
The key to using the Internet as a business tool is to reduce that frustration and connect with customers in the easiest, most direct way possible. SEO (search engine optimization) is, perhaps, the fastest growing marketing tool available today and it works by putting your website at the top of search results page on Google and Bing when customers are searching for terms relevant to your business.
The Internet can work wonders: If you are looking for guidance on a home improvement project, there is a YouTube video for every conceivable “how to.” Need a last-minute recipe or want to find a unique gift item? Presto, with a few clicks results appear on your screen. Of course, it can also be frustrating. The key to using the Internet as a business tool is to reduce that frustration and connect with customers in the easiest, most direct way possible. In other words, don’t let potential leads get lost on their way to your website! (http://bit.ly/2ghsK8H)
You’ve got your site, done your research, got feeds coming in but you still aren’t making enough to retire to the south of France. In fact, you don’t seem to be pulling the traffic and... nope, you just aren’t ranking. But your site is HUGE and should be ranking – why isn’t it?
This session will look beyond SEO 101 to the specific issues affiliates face with large sites, product feeds, architecture and optimization. By examining beyond the basics, this session will build on existing knowledge about SEO to help those with larger, more complex sites requiring more bespoke solutions to rank well and beat the ‘affiliate penalty’.
With topics covered ranging from uniqueness, madlib, linking, and monitoring to site architecture, vertical selection, roadblocks and more, this session is going to be crammed full of interesting tips, tricks and insight.
Topics Covered:
What is Keyword Research
Introducing Keyword Research & tools in the market
Find global search volume for specific keyword
Find country based/local search volume for specific keyword
Find the competition of the keyword
Allintitle concept
Beginner's Guide to SEO [Technical SEO & On Page]Boni Satani
I had prepared this presentation for Gujarat University Programe 'Finishing School' wherein professors of colleges were participant.
The purpose of the programe was to enable professors with understanding of SEO & various other digital marketing channels so that they can equipped students with the latest knowledge.
The importance of SEO in Internet MarketingConversacja
Basic SEO training course prepared for Stjerneskibet coworking space (Odense, Denmark).
Schedule:
SEO BASICS
Specific knowledge points include:
Learning how Google works
What search engines are looking for
Building a monthly SEO action plan
KEYPHRASE RESEARCH
Specific knowledge points include:
Understanding the importance of keyphrase research
Learning the keyphrase research tools
How to develop a per-page keyphrase strategy
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT TRAINING
Specific knowledge points include:
Specific SEO writing best practices
Important places to include your main keywords
How to edit existing text for keyphrases
SEO Rules, Tools, Benefits, and ChallengesUnderstanding SEO S.docxklinda1
SEO: Rules, Tools, Benefits, and Challenges
Understanding SEO
Search engines need to help users find what they’re looking for. To make sure they list the best results first, they look for certain signals:
· popularity
· authority
· relevance
· trust
· importance
Search engine optimization (SEO), also called organic or natural optimization, involves optimizing websites to achieve high rankings on search engines for certain selected key phrases. Generally, techniques used for optimizing on one search engine will also help efforts directed at others.
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links, a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” (Google, n.d.-a).
SEO can be divided into two main strategies:
· On-page optimization is achieved by making changes to the HTML code, content and structure of a website, making it more accessible for search engines, and by extension, easier for users to find.
· Off-page optimization is generally focused on building links to the website, and covers activities like social media and digital PR.
SEO is an extremely effective way of generating new business to a site. It is a continuous process and a way of thinking about how search engines see your website and how users use search engines to find your website. It’s search psychology.
Search engine optimization is a fairly technical practice but it can easily be broken down into five main areas:
· a search engine–friendly website structure
· a well-researched list of key phrases
· content optimized to target those key phrases
· link popularity
· user insights
Search Engine–Friendly Website Structure
Search engines encounter two kinds of obstacles:
· Technical challenges that prevent the search engine spider from accessing content.
· A competitive marketing environment where everyone wants to rank highly.
To ensure that search engines can access your content, you must remove technical barriers. Those who want to achieve the best results must follow best practices.
The key is to make sure that there are direct HTML links to each page you want the search engines to index. The most important pages should be accessible directly from the home page of your website.
The information architecture, or how content is planned and laid out, has important usability and SEO implications. Users want to find what they are looking for quickly and easily, while website owners want search engine spiders to be able to access and index all applicable pages. In fact, Google has released an update that penalizes sites with poor user experience (such as no content above the fold, or a high bounce rate) (Cutts, .
Marketing the Library: How to Achieve Cut-Through Amid a Tsunamis of Marketin...Clayton Wehner
A presentation delivered to the Public Libraries Western Australia conference in September 2017. Tips on how to market the library in a world where the individual is targeted by up to 10,000 marketing messages every day.
The Future of the Public Library: from dusty tomes to disruptive technologiesClayton Wehner
A presentation delivered at the Public Libraries Western Australia conference in September 2017 that covers the transition of the public library from a place of books to a place of community.
Provides simple advice for small businesses that are interested in establishing their own website. Talks through a logical website development methodology to ensure that the end product serves its purpose.
Follow the advice in the presentation to build yourself an amazing Linkedin profile. Step-by-step advice about how to stand out from the crowd on Linkedin. Give you Linkedin profile some attention today.
An A-Z of Over 100 Online Tools and Tips for Small BusinessClayton Wehner
A presentation containing the very best online tools and tips for small business. Most of these tools are free to use, have a free use tier, or a free trial period.
Engaging with Readers in the Web 2.0 era – social media, mobile devices & eBooksClayton Wehner
Presentation delivered to the Public Libraries South Australia Conference by Clayton Wehner of Blue Train Enterprises, at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Tuesday
Ten ways for booksellers to leverage social mediaClayton Wehner
Presentation delivered by Clayton Wehner to the Australian Booksellers Association Conference in Melbourne, July 2011. Contains ten simple steps for booksellers to get involved in social media.
The Social Media Phenomenon: How to leverage it to best effectClayton Wehner
Presentation to Deakin University Alumni in Adelaide at the National Wine Centre, Monday 12 September 2010.
Presentation provides an overview of social media, discussion of the various social media tools, and 23 principles for social media success
This presentation covers:
The Who, What, Where, When, Why of Blogs
Blog Business Case
Blogging Software
Create a Blog
‘Pimping’ your Blog
How and What to Write
Promoting your Blog
Measuring Success
Making Money
This presentation covers the Who, What, Where, When, Why of Blogs; Blog Business Cases; Blogging Software; Create a Blog; ‘Pimping’ your Blog; How and What to Write; Promoting your Blog; Measuring Success; and Making Money with Blogs
How to use Twitter, Facebook and Social Media to market your businessClayton Wehner
This slideshow tells you how to use Twitter, Facebook and Social Media to market your business. It also contains information about blogs and online video
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
From Daily Decisions to Bottom Line: Connecting Product Work to Revenue by VP...
How To Rank No 1 On Google
1. How to rank No. 1 on Google Clayton Wehner - Blue Train Enterprises E: contact@bluetrainenterprises.com.au W: www.bluetrainenterprises.com.au
2. Scope 1 – Search engines and Google 2 – Choosing the Right Keywords 3 - On-site Optimisation 4 – Getting Value from Links 5 – Content is King 6 – More things to do and not do If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask them at any time during the seminar Go to www.bluetrainenterprises.com.au/ebec to follow this presentation on your laptop
4. What is a search engine? A web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web (Wikipedia) Search engines exist to deliver the best possible search results to the user, for any given keyword combination. Search engines use complex algorithms to index and rank web pages programmatically.
6. About Google Brainchild of two college friends, Sergey Brin and Larry Page Their search engine was originally called BackRub In 1997 it became Google, a play on the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros Google became the world’s biggest search index in June 2000 Google’s ascent as a ‘second mover’ was remarkable – it eclipsed the likes of AltaVista, Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos Today Google is a frontrunner in mapping and satellite technology, operating system software, office applications, mobile computing and much, much more
7. Why is important to optimise for Google? ‘Build it and they will come’ doesn’t apply on the web There are many fancy websites on the web that never get seen! Launching a website is the easy part… The hard part is getting qualified traffic Need to satisfy two ‘audiences’: People or ‘real’ visitors Search engine ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’
8. Why is important to optimise for Google? 93% of consumers’ worldwide use search engines to locate web sites. (Forrester Research) 85% of qualified web traffic is driven through search engines. (WWW User Survey) 75% of search engine traffic never scroll past the first page of results. (WWW User Survey) Google is the number one website in Australia (Hitwise)
9. Organic vs Paid Google displays two types of results: Organic results: these are unpaid listings that are ranked by importance/keyword relevance Paid results: these are pay-per-click listings that appear on the right hand margin and above the organic listings – anybody can bid to display their ad at the top of these listings Google users generally accord greater worth to the organic results
14. Are you in Google? site:www.yoursite.com Displays a list of pages from your site that have been indexed by Google link:www.yoursite.com Displays a sample of external pages that link to your site cache:www.yoursite.com Displays the cached image of the website that is currently on file at Google. info:www.yoursite.com Displays information that Google currently holds about the website. related:www.yoursite.com Displays pages that are similar to your website. If you are not in Google, submit your site here: http://www.google.com.au/addurl
15. Choosing the Right Keywords A keyword combination is used to obtain search results from a search engine Web pages can be optimised for particular keyword combinations Before optimising a website, it is necessary to identify the best keywords to optimise for
16. Choosing the Right Keywords It’s necessary to do some keyword analysis… What is the volume of traffic for the keyword combination? Have other websites optimised for those keywords? Would it be hard to get a high ranking? Who sits in the No. 1 spot for those keywords? What keywords are my competitors targeting? What do the keywords say about the searcher’s intent/mindset? Surfers Researchers Buyers
17. Exercise What is the searcher’s intent/mindset if they were to use the following search terms? Hotels Cheap hotels Hotels in Sydney Last minute Sydney hotel deals Sydney serviced apartment deals Bed and breakfast on george street Sydney Grand Mercure hotel Darling Harbour Sydney
18. Exercise Pair up Imagine that you are in the market for something from your partner’s website and you’re ready to buy Write down three keyword phrases that you might enter into a search engine to find that product or service Then, write down three keyword phrases that you think somebody would enter into a search engine to find your own product or service Compare your keyword combinations
19. Google Keyword Suggestion Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Visit the site now and plug in a generic word that relates to your business Take a minute or two to review the data…because I’m going to ask you to come up with the best keyword combination for your home page shortly…
20. Keyword Advice Optimise each page for a different keyword combination Don’t choose single keywords – 3-5 word combinations are best Don’t choose generic keywords - be specific Don’t choose hotly-contested keywords Use geographic qualifiers – ie. Adelaide Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes Choose keywords that align with a ‘buying’ state of mind
21. Exercise Take a couple of minutes to come up with an appropriate keyword combination that you could optimise your home page for. Here are some combinations that I have used: Canberra jobs (CapitalJobs.com.au) Australian online bookstore (Boomerang Books) Cheap books Australia (Boomerang Books) Cheap hotels Sydney (Getaroom.com.au)
24. On Site Optimisation On-site factors play a big role in determining your search engine rankings These are the things that you can do yourself or that you can task your web developer to do on your behalf
25. Use of multimedia platforms Be careful when using multimedia platforms, such as Flash, particularly as navigational elements Your website must be ‘spiderable’, otherwise it won’t get good search engine rankings Text-based navigation can be ‘spidered’; links embedded within a Flash element cannot. Be careful also with Javascript, DHTML or other graphical navigation elements If you use these, provide a text based navigation bar elsewhere on the page
26. On-site navigation Your navigation structure and accessibility is critical for search engine rankings – search engines need to be able to access your content in order to index it KISS principle Employ the 2 click rule (3 click rule at most) Use textual links from your home page Use a Sitemap which can be accessed from your home page Employ inline / contextual links
27. The TITLE tag The singularly most important on-site factor! If you do one thing to your site, then this should be it! This is what appears in the top bar in your browser Almost always the heading that Google chooses for its listings – therefore it needs to be enticing or contain a call-to-action
31. The TITLE tag Include your chosen keywords within the TITLE tag – preferably near the start of the tag Try to keep it to 70 characters Must be relevant to the page content Very important - each page should have a different TITLE tag
32. Exercise Open your own website in your browser View the source code (View menu) What is your TITLE tag? Is it appropriate? Could it be better? What does your main competitor have as their home page TITLE tag? Is it better than yours?
33. Metadata Tags Search engines also use a series of metadata tags that reside in the header of the page to index websites These tags can’t be seen by human visitors to your website – but they’re still interrogated by the search engines
34. The DESCRIPTION tag A textual description of what the page is about Regularly used in Google search results as the description of your site
35.
36. The DESCRIPTION tag Include keywords close to the start of the tag, but don’t repeat more than 3 times Try to keep it to 150 characters Must be relevant to the page content Each page should have a different DESCRIPTION tag
37. The KEYWORD tag Less important than TITLE and DESCRIPTION, but still worth including Up to 10 individual words, separated by commas
38. Body Text Google loves original, high quality textual content Body text is extremely important for search engine rankings because this is what human users come to see Keywords, synonyms and variations of the primary keyword combination should be included in the body text, but not so that it reads ‘artificially’. It should read naturally. More on textual content in Part 5…
39. Keywords in URLs URLs that contain keywords are better than those that don’t Quite easy to do if your website is static, a little more difficult for database-driven sites Don’t make the URLs too long because this will be seen as an attempt to manipulate the search results Good and bad: www.mysite.com/hotels/sydney/hilton.html www.mysite.com/search.asp?hotelID=435&locID=32
40. Heading Tags Heading tags – eg. <h1>, <h2> - within the HTML identify headings within the page copy and break up the text They are used by search engines to determine page content Use keywords in these tags, but don’t overdo it.
41.
42. Link Anchor Text The ‘anchor’ text contained within hyperlinks provides Google with an understanding of what the linked content is about Every hyperlink on your site should have descriptive anchor text, rather than ‘click here…’ Inline links or contextual links are best eg. Blue Train Enterprises offers a free white paper on how to optimise your website for the search engines
43. Image ALT Text There is the opportunity to specify ‘alternate’ text for every image on your website The ALT text is displayed if the image doesn’t load in the user’s browser It also can have a positive effect on your website rankings The ALT tag should describe the image Keep it short and to the point Don’t use ALT tags as a place to stuff keywords
44. A word on domain names… Domain names can assist search engine rankings too If you are thinking of changing names, or planning a new business, think carefully about the domain name you choose Best to have .com.au for Australian market, but if possible secure .com as well Try to keep it short, memorable Try to include keywords in the domain name Register the name for as long as possible
45. Customer Assurance Factors It is recommended that your website contains: Business information – ABN, ACN, RBN Telephone number – 1300 adds credibility A physical address Information about your business – ‘about us’ Policies Privacy Security Terms of use / disclaimers A sitemap with links to major pages
48. Getting Value from Links Links – both inbound and outbound – are important factors for Google when assessing a website’s importance
49. Inbound Links These are links on other websites that link to your site Good quality inbound links serve as a ‘vote of confidence’ for your site – if a good site links to your site, then by association, your site must be good, too Try and get links from ‘authority’ websites to your site Thematically-linked sites High ranking and well-known sites Government (.gov.au) sites – eg SA Central Educational institution (.edu.au) sites It’s not the volume of inbound links that is important – it’s the quality
50. Inbound Links When requesting a link, try and engineer it so that your keywords are included in the anchor text – eg. Cheap Hotel Deals from Getaroom.com.au
51. Exercise Think of five websites that you could try and get an inbound link from: …. …. …. …. …. Think B2B partners, customers, local government, local media, chambers of commerce, industry associations, business enterprise centres, consumer websites…
52. Outbound Links There is evidence to suggest that your outbound links contribute to your rankings Only link to good quality, thematically-aligned content on third party websites Only link to sites that would be of interest to your audience Be aware that outbound links take visitors away from your site – and that is not necessarily what you want to do.
53. Caution… Reciprocal links – I’ll link to you, if you link to me You can get some value from these only if the two sites are thematically aligned and are both high quality Most requests for reciprocal links should be deleted, particularly three-way link swaps Paid Links Google frowns upon paid links – the Google algorithm is sophisticated and can detect links which seek to artificially manipulate its rankings Link Farms & ‘Bad Neighbourhoods’ These are sites that allow you to post your link for free alongside thousands of other sites Being linked from these sites can damage your standing
54. Getting listed in Directories Being listed in major directory-based websites can boost your rankings considerably http://www.dmoz.org - a difficult one to get into http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html http://www.google.com/local/add - a very important one that will see your business plotted on Google Maps http://www.yellowpages.com.au/awu_freeListing.do http://www.hotfrog.com.au http://www.aussieweb.com.au http://www.truelocal.com.au http://www.bigroo.com.au http://www.webwombat.com.au/submit/index.htm
55. Other ways to get Inbound Links Articles / interviews published on other websites Press releases Forum posts Blog comments ‘Link bait’ – controversial is best!
60. Content is King Ever heard the saying? Search engines are simply a means to locate great content Does your site have great content? Or is it ‘brochure-ware’? Does your site ‘do’ anything else that will bring visitors back time and again?
61. Content is King Add content that people want to read and will pass on – top ten tips, ‘how to’ guides, free white papers Text should be in short sentences, compact paragraphs, be well punctuated, and contain headings to break up the text – time-poor people don’t read, they scan Pages should not scroll and scroll and scroll… One page per theme (optimised for that theme) and cross-link
62. Content is King Text should be written from a WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) perspective – no fluff, just tell the customer what they want to hear. Add content regularly – if your site remains static, then it will lose its prominence in the search engines (and visitors won’t want to come back)
63. Add content regularly Some ideas for new content for your website: New products Company activities Special offers or discounts Achievements – awards New staff profiles Case studies about your products or services Testimonials from customers ‘How to’ guides General advice about products or services Observations about the market
64. Web 2.0 Content Web 2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and its hosted services, such as social networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, etc (Wikipedia) Google loves this content and you should employ it where appropriate
65. Blogs Blog = web log In essence, an online journal or diary, ordered by date An excellent way of adding content regularly to your website You can quickly establish yourself as an expert in your field via a blog Can be setup within minutes online: Wordpress.com Blogger.com TypePad.com But it takes dedication and patience!
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68. RSS RSS = ‘really simple syndication’ A ‘push’ method of distribution for new content Allows users to receive automatic updates when content is released RSS feeds generally viewed in RSS readers – inc. browsers, Outlook Can also distribute to mobile devices and social networking sites
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70. Video The biggest growth area on the web as broadband uptake and bandwidth increases Over 20 hours of video every minute is uploaded to YouTube Video can be done cheaply with a handheld camcorder Viral impact can bring thousands of visitors to a website in a short space of time Examples: Elf Yourself The Greatest Job in the World The World’s Greatest Business Mind
71. Social networking Web based services that allow users to create online communities based on shared interests and activities – there are over 2,000 of them!
72. Facebook Over 175 million users worldwide Has beaten MySpace in Australia – 41.88% of social networking traffic goes to Facebook (Source: Hitwise) Businesses can establish a Facebook Page or Group But many businesses still block access to Facebook in the workplace…
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74. Twitter Fastest growing, hottest property right now – anybody using it? Micro-blogging; 140 character limit – basically ‘SMS on the web’ (but also can be done via mobile device) You follow people, they follow you; your ‘tweets’ are seen by your followers, you see the ‘tweets’ of people you follow But who would be interested in this seemingly banal, nebulous information? Business can use it as an information channel to ‘push’ information to prospects – and it helps with search engine rankings!
77. Bookmarking / Tagging Sites Consider implementing an AddThis or AddToAny button on your pages www.addthis.com www.addtoany.com A simple piece of code that adds a button to your page:
78. Exercise Consider the different Web 2.0 content options – blogs, video, Facebook, Twitter, bookmarking / tagging – we’ve discussed today Some (or all) might not be appropriate for your business How might some of these things help your business? Take 2 minutes to think about it
81. More things that you should do… Monitor your server statistics – unique visitors is the key metric to track (not ‘hits’) Set up Google Analytics on your site -http://www.google.com/analytics/ Set up Google Webmaster Tools - http://www.google.com/webmasters/ Set up Google Alerts for your business - http://www.google.com/alerts Try out Google Adwords pay per click advertising using a trial offer - http://www.google.com.au/contactadwords
82. Other technical things to do… Remove multiple ‘instances’ of your site with a Permanent 301 redirect to elminate dilution of your website standing Implement a robots.txt file Implement an XML sitemap Ensure that your pages load quickly by streamlining your code and optimising your images Ensure that your site’s server has close to 100% uptime – if it isn’t live when the spider arrives, your rankings may be affected Make your site W3C compliant – http://validator.w3.org
83. What you should NEVER DO Hidden text Keyword stuffing Display duplicate content Cloaking – displaying different content to visitors and spiders Use Flash alone Use Frames
84. A final thought If you employ one of the strategies mentioned in this presentation, you will get some benefit in the search engine results pages If you employ a couple, you will get much greater benefit If you employ all of them properly, then you will most likely go to the top of the results The little things count and, when you employ them together, they can make a big difference to your site performance