Intro
Optimising your website to improve your site’s relevance in search engine listing is often a slow process. It involves making small but significant changes to your website in order to increase its visibility to search engines. Many of the search engine optimisation tips to improve your website not only increase your chances of being found by search engines but also enhance the user experience of your website.
This article contains a number of search engine optimisation tips to help improve your website’s relevance in search results listings.
Uniform Resource Locater (URL’s)
Making sure you structure your URL’s correctly is not only important for search engine optimisation but also helps people understand and find content on your website. Here are some top SEO tips:
* Try to keep your URL’s as short as possible as this will help people remember or guess them.
* Where possible always use words rather than numbers in your URL. Words are meaningful to both people and search engines, for example this URL "http://www.nomensa.com/web-accessibility.html" is far more understandable than "http://www.nomensa.com/44535.html".
* Choose words that describe the content of your page and can be easily remembered by people using your site. For example if your page content is about web accessibility then your URL should reflect that e.g. http://www.nomensa.com/web-accessibility.html.
* Individual words within your URL should be separated with hyphens so they can be easily recognised by search engines such as Google. Search engines treat hyphens (-) and underscores (_) as spaces: http://www.nomensa.com/web-accessibility.html.
* Use your keywords in your URL’s that relate to the content where appropriate.
Page Titles
Descriptive page titles help all users find content and understand where they are within a website structure. The title of the webpage will appear at the top of each search result within a search results listing. Titles should be short yet descriptive, as search engines tend to limit the length of the title shown in the search results listing. If the title is too long, the end is replaced with an ellipsis (…).
For better search engine optimisation results each page should have a unique title that clearly describes the content of the page. Unique titles help both users and search engines differentiate between pages on your website. Ideally the page title should match the URL of the page by containing the same words for example:
URL: http://www.nomensa.com/web-accessibility.html
Title: Web Accessibility
Descriptions
Page descriptions are not displayed to human users of a website on the site itself, but are presented to search engine ‘crawlers’. The content of a page description appears in the search result snippet within a list of search results. It is important to make sure your page descriptions clearly summarise the content on the page, making it engaging and informative in order to entice people to your page from a list of search results. For example the description for our ‘Web Accessibility’ page could be:
“Web accessibility services including accessibility audits, template coding and full Quality Assurance programmes to ensure websites achieve maximum optimisation and legal compliance.”
Each page on your website should have a unique description which helps both search engines and users differentiate between multiple pages within a search listing. Do not use the same description for each page.
Also try to avoid using ‘wasted’ words within your descriptions such as ‘Welcome to my website’ or filling your descriptions with keywords.
Links
It is important for both search engine optimisation and accessibility to ensure that the link phrases used across your website accurately reflect the target of the link i.e. the page to which the link leads. Link phrases should be clear and concise allowing people and search engines to understand the link at the first time of reading and without having to read the surrounding content on the page.
Try to avoid link text that does not have any context, for example ‘click here’ or ‘read more’. It is good practice to use the title of the page you want to link to as the link text. For example if you are linking to a page titled ‘Web Accessibility’, your link phrase would be ‘Read more about Web Accessibility’.
Headings
Using headings to help structure your pages is very important in terms of accessibility as it helps people understand the relevance and importance of content on the page. This also applies to search engines.
Headings should be used appropriately to add structure to your content. Keywords can be used as headings to help search engines understand the relevance of content on the page. The first heading (h1) on the page should contain the same words as your URL and page title e.g.:
URL: http://www.nomensa.com/web-accessibility.html
Page Title: Web Accessibility
First Heading (h1): Web Accessibility
Images
Text content is not the only type of content which can be optimised to help improve your search engine listings; images can also be used to your advantage.
Foreground images within your site should have clear, concise yet descriptive filenames. Try to avoid filenames which do not relate to the content of the image, such as ‘photo-1.gif’. Instead use filenames which relate to the content within the image. Filenames can also contain keywords for that particular page.
Improving the file names of images will increase the likelihood of people being able to find your images when using tools such as Google Image search.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
SEO explained
the importance of Google
As the number one search engine in the world, Google is a harmony of both simplicity and intricacy that appeals to casual web users with its easy-to-use interface, yet also leaves web developers in marvel over its algorithmic mastery.
From prominent e-commerce sites, to the newest online startups, the benefit or detriment of online businesses rests in the amount of search engine traffic received from Google. The key to online survival is achieving high rankings, but even the best web developers lack Search Engine Optimization (SEO) knowledge and experience.
Thus, we’d like to take a moment to provide you with an overview of SEO, and briefly show how SEO Clique can make it work to your benefit.
What is SEO?
By definition, Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via search results for certain keywords.
Typically, the earlier a site is listed in search results, or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit the site. SEO can also target different kinds of searches, including an image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
How does it work?
SEO employs a variety of techniques, mostly geared towards determining how search algorithms work and the type of searches being conducted. Site attributes like coding, content, and structure all play a role in impacting SEO.
How can it benefit me?
SEO is not merely a supplement to a website. Rather, it is a rapidly growing web standard that has taken form to direct traffic in the online marketplace.
What does SEO involve?
The first concept one needs to understand is that Google is capable of closely monitoring the SEO activity of millions of websites, and the framework and rules set forth by Google can both help and hurt a site.
Put simply, Google is remarkably intelligent, and as a result there are no shortcuts in content-based, non-pay-per-click SEO. There are no quick and underhanded ways to instantly make a site leap to the first listing on the front page of a search overnight. There are no loopholes or exceptions, and even if by chance you’ve found one and take advantage of it, it’s only a matter of time before Google finds out and your site may be blacklisted.
SEO Basics
There are a number of SEO-specific techniques that web developers can put to use in order to gain better search rankings.
Copy is King:
Unique and original content that is optimized and enhanced for SEO purposes is one of the most reliable and surefire ways to ensure that search engine robots will notice your site.
Factors such as structure of language, choice of copy, and even presentation are all taken into consideration. Thankfully, these qualities can be tweaked for your benefit while also making your site more generally appealing to users in the process.
Code Optimization:
Google visits millions of sites when conducting its indexing process, and as such can overlook sites that take longer to load due with condensed and sloppy coding, or overused style properties that make navigation a clunky affair.
Standard HTML has a reputation for being dense and heavy, so a website’s code needs to be as light as possible since long loading times for the user translates to long loading times for Google.
Fortunately, new standards in web design can clean up the clutter. In particular, choosing Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to design your website keeps the code light by keeping all of the style properties in one place, allowing for less code repetition, and also making it easier to add new content.
Content Optimization:
Dead are the days when SEO was simply about loading up code with META tags. Now every facet of a site from title tags and images, to copy placement and text formatting have an impact on not just SEO, but also how you wish your site to be presented to both Google and web users.
Cascading Style Sheets have quickly become the cutting edge standard for both an SEO-friendly design, as well as faster production of visually stunning web pages. Additionally, because all of the graphical aspects of design are controlled by one central style sheet, the code volume is dramatically reduced, allowing for more efficient pages.
In today’s World Wide Web, most of the pages you see owe at least part of their appearance to CSS, including this one, while on the horizon are even greater programming and designing tools that will put out more amazing results than CSS.
Keyword Optimization
A large portion of optimizing your content involves choosing the right keywords for your site. Keywords are essentially any words or phrases that user may search for that would draw them to their site.
However, while finding out keywords may seem as simple as picking a few relatable terms, one also has to take into consideration competition and search volume.
From a contextual standpoint, it may make sense to use certain keywords for your website, but just how high is the search volume for those keywords? Also, a keyword may have a high search volume, but the advertiser competition may be so great that your relatively smaller website may not be able to compete with bigger sites.
At any rate, once the appropriate keywords are chosen, web pages need around 300 words of quality content, enriched with your keywords. Never include a keyword in the copy that isn't mentioned in the Keywords META tag, and never include a keyword in your META tag that isn't included in your copy. Also try to include keywords in your title tags without making it look overly blatant.
External SEO
Your ranking may increase in Yahoo and MSN with the techniques already outlined, but for Google, you will need links on your site, and as many of them as you possibly can. This is called external SEO, and it can make a huge difference for your online presence.
One way to do it is to write articles and arrange for them to be posted on other websites with a link back to you. Blogging is another example of how you can garner attention, both from the search engines and from potential customers.
This leads us to the toughest part of the Google SEO process -- back links. Back links are websites that link directly to your website. The general principal is the more back links you have, the higher your pages will be ranked, as the consensus is your page is more important if so many links are pointing to it.
Submitting your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo! and other directories can increase the number of sites linking back to yours; however, one issue is that setting up back links takes time. Emailing 5-10 websites each and every day to request back-links or partnership links is recommended, but also remember that the sites contacted should be relevant but not competitive.
Do It Right
There’s no room for slackers and cheats when it comes to Google. There is no easy way out, and no foolproof method for getting to the top ranking instantly.
Though many sites may try resorting to shady tactics such as “black hat SEO,” “spamdexing,” or keyword and link stuffing, these can actually harm search engine results, and Google may remove them from their indexes altogether. The bottom line is that Google wants quality websites where the appropriate amount of work has been devoted to SEO.
Give Google its fair due of credit for being an intelligent, well-crafted search engine tool and it will reward you with a higher ranking. There are rules and guidelines that have been set forth for achieving strong results, some of which can be bent, but ultimately sites looking for more traffic want to adhere to these mandates.
As the number one search engine in the world, Google is a harmony of both simplicity and intricacy that appeals to casual web users with its easy-to-use interface, yet also leaves web developers in marvel over its algorithmic mastery.
From prominent e-commerce sites, to the newest online startups, the benefit or detriment of online businesses rests in the amount of search engine traffic received from Google. The key to online survival is achieving high rankings, but even the best web developers lack Search Engine Optimization (SEO) knowledge and experience.
Thus, we’d like to take a moment to provide you with an overview of SEO, and briefly show how SEO Clique can make it work to your benefit.
What is SEO?
By definition, Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via search results for certain keywords.
Typically, the earlier a site is listed in search results, or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit the site. SEO can also target different kinds of searches, including an image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
How does it work?
SEO employs a variety of techniques, mostly geared towards determining how search algorithms work and the type of searches being conducted. Site attributes like coding, content, and structure all play a role in impacting SEO.
How can it benefit me?
SEO is not merely a supplement to a website. Rather, it is a rapidly growing web standard that has taken form to direct traffic in the online marketplace.
What does SEO involve?
The first concept one needs to understand is that Google is capable of closely monitoring the SEO activity of millions of websites, and the framework and rules set forth by Google can both help and hurt a site.
Put simply, Google is remarkably intelligent, and as a result there are no shortcuts in content-based, non-pay-per-click SEO. There are no quick and underhanded ways to instantly make a site leap to the first listing on the front page of a search overnight. There are no loopholes or exceptions, and even if by chance you’ve found one and take advantage of it, it’s only a matter of time before Google finds out and your site may be blacklisted.
SEO Basics
There are a number of SEO-specific techniques that web developers can put to use in order to gain better search rankings.
Copy is King:
Unique and original content that is optimized and enhanced for SEO purposes is one of the most reliable and surefire ways to ensure that search engine robots will notice your site.
Factors such as structure of language, choice of copy, and even presentation are all taken into consideration. Thankfully, these qualities can be tweaked for your benefit while also making your site more generally appealing to users in the process.
Code Optimization:
Google visits millions of sites when conducting its indexing process, and as such can overlook sites that take longer to load due with condensed and sloppy coding, or overused style properties that make navigation a clunky affair.
Standard HTML has a reputation for being dense and heavy, so a website’s code needs to be as light as possible since long loading times for the user translates to long loading times for Google.
Fortunately, new standards in web design can clean up the clutter. In particular, choosing Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to design your website keeps the code light by keeping all of the style properties in one place, allowing for less code repetition, and also making it easier to add new content.
Content Optimization:
Dead are the days when SEO was simply about loading up code with META tags. Now every facet of a site from title tags and images, to copy placement and text formatting have an impact on not just SEO, but also how you wish your site to be presented to both Google and web users.
Cascading Style Sheets have quickly become the cutting edge standard for both an SEO-friendly design, as well as faster production of visually stunning web pages. Additionally, because all of the graphical aspects of design are controlled by one central style sheet, the code volume is dramatically reduced, allowing for more efficient pages.
In today’s World Wide Web, most of the pages you see owe at least part of their appearance to CSS, including this one, while on the horizon are even greater programming and designing tools that will put out more amazing results than CSS.
Keyword Optimization
A large portion of optimizing your content involves choosing the right keywords for your site. Keywords are essentially any words or phrases that user may search for that would draw them to their site.
However, while finding out keywords may seem as simple as picking a few relatable terms, one also has to take into consideration competition and search volume.
From a contextual standpoint, it may make sense to use certain keywords for your website, but just how high is the search volume for those keywords? Also, a keyword may have a high search volume, but the advertiser competition may be so great that your relatively smaller website may not be able to compete with bigger sites.
At any rate, once the appropriate keywords are chosen, web pages need around 300 words of quality content, enriched with your keywords. Never include a keyword in the copy that isn't mentioned in the Keywords META tag, and never include a keyword in your META tag that isn't included in your copy. Also try to include keywords in your title tags without making it look overly blatant.
External SEO
Your ranking may increase in Yahoo and MSN with the techniques already outlined, but for Google, you will need links on your site, and as many of them as you possibly can. This is called external SEO, and it can make a huge difference for your online presence.
One way to do it is to write articles and arrange for them to be posted on other websites with a link back to you. Blogging is another example of how you can garner attention, both from the search engines and from potential customers.
This leads us to the toughest part of the Google SEO process -- back links. Back links are websites that link directly to your website. The general principal is the more back links you have, the higher your pages will be ranked, as the consensus is your page is more important if so many links are pointing to it.
Submitting your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo! and other directories can increase the number of sites linking back to yours; however, one issue is that setting up back links takes time. Emailing 5-10 websites each and every day to request back-links or partnership links is recommended, but also remember that the sites contacted should be relevant but not competitive.
Do It Right
There’s no room for slackers and cheats when it comes to Google. There is no easy way out, and no foolproof method for getting to the top ranking instantly.
Though many sites may try resorting to shady tactics such as “black hat SEO,” “spamdexing,” or keyword and link stuffing, these can actually harm search engine results, and Google may remove them from their indexes altogether. The bottom line is that Google wants quality websites where the appropriate amount of work has been devoted to SEO.
Give Google its fair due of credit for being an intelligent, well-crafted search engine tool and it will reward you with a higher ranking. There are rules and guidelines that have been set forth for achieving strong results, some of which can be bent, but ultimately sites looking for more traffic want to adhere to these mandates.
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