by Francois Muscat | May 19, 2010 | SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long term process. There are dirty tricks that you can do to increase your website visibility fast but they usually only work for a short time and you risk the fact that your website could be penalized by the search engines. Most of these tricks are also known as Black hat SEO.
This is the second part in a series and this post focuses on things you shouldn’t do on your website. Find the first part of the series here: Part 1: SEO tipson things to do for your website.
This is a list of SEO tacticts that you should avoid unless you want to lower your search engine rankings.
12 SEO steps you NEVER should do:
- Keywords: Don’t “keyword stuff” your meta tags, image alt tags, etc. Use only those keywords specific to that page, that image, etc.
- MetaTags: Don’t use the same title on every page. The same applies to keywords and description tags. If you use the same title on every page, it shows that your content isn’t unique. Don’t include keywords in your META tags that are not present in your content.
- Site Structure: Don’t use extensive folders and subfolders in your site structure, spiders like relatively flat websites.
- JavaScript Menus: Don’t use JavaScript menu systems. Search engine spiders can’t navigate these. If you use JavaScript menuing, have auxiliary HTML links for spiders or include a XML sitemap for your website .
- Cloaking: Don’t employ cloaking or sneaky JavaScript redirects. Cloaking refers to presenting different content for users then for search engines.
- Hidden Text: Don’t hide keywords on your page with lightly-colored or hidden text. Search engines detect this and quickly penalize or ban your website from their search results.
- Good Content: Don’t fill your pages with content that is filled with keywords but lacks any really quality, meaning or message. Write your content for users.
- Duplicate Content: Don’t create multiple pages, sub domains and other websites using duplicate content. These will be quickly discounted or penalized by the search engines.
- Auto Generated Content: Don’t use services that claim to supply content automatically for your website. This easy solution generally duplicates the same content onto sites all over the web.
- Alt Tag Stuffing: Don’t add unnecessary or repetitive keywords into the Alt Tag (seen when you hover over an image with your curser). It is OK to use keywords that appropriately describe the image
- Linking: Don’t participate in link schemes designed only to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. Linking must be highly relevant to your topic and be of benefit your visitors.
- Quick Fix: Don’t seek an instant quick fix. SEO is a long-term process, not a method to trick the search engines.
by Francois Muscat | May 17, 2010 | SEO
To attract more visitors to your website is the ultimate goal in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Everyone agrees that organic search results is more effective for conversion and producing positive results.
Websites that have a higher organic search ranking are usually more trusted by people for a service or product and it shows that the website has authority.
This post is the first part in a series where I will be discussing things to do for the optimization of your website and some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tips.
12 Search Engine Optimization steps to do:
- Research: Start your SEO campaign with keyword research. Select key phrases that are highly relevant to the services that your business provides. Specific key phrases with 3-4 words are best if you want visitors that are ready to buy.
- Structure: Use keywords in your domain name, page names, titles, headings, folder names, etc.
- Navigation:Use keywords in your navigation links. Make your website easy to navigate for both search engines and for visitors. Include a XML sitemap if your website navigation is complex.
- META Tags: Use keywords and key phrases in the title, description and keyword tags. Each page in your website should have about 4 keyword phrases that are highly relevant to the content found on that page.
- Content: Use keywords in your content. Use keywords 1-2 times in the top 25% of the text.
- Local: Take advantage of local search opportunities by using your city, state and community names in your body text and on your contact page.
- Valid Code: Validate your code and remove coding errors. These errors interfere with spiders crawling your site and they affect browser compatibility and usability. There are many online code validation websites available.
- XML Sitemap: Include a XML sitemap for your website and submit the sitemap to Google Webmaster tools and Yahoo Site Explorer.
- Links: Gain backlinks to your website from highly relevant blogs, authority sites, directories and other websites that are part of your industry.
- Blog: Start a blog either as part of your website or on a separate domain. Link to relevant pages on your website using your keyword phrases. Comment and participate on other blogs.
- Web Analytics: Install website analytics on your website to monitor progress. Watch not only your overall visitor count, but which keyword phrases are bringing visitors and from which search engines.
- Patience: Search engine optimization is a long term commitment.
Part 2 will be covered in the next post where it will focus on what you should never do on your website.
by Francois Muscat | May 10, 2010 | SEO
Too gain the best search engine results, your website should be optimized to be search engine friendly. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plays a vital role for any website that wants to rank higher on the search engine result pages. What are common mistakes and problems that will keep your website from being ranked high on the search engine result pages (SERP)?
- All Flash websites: These are websites built entirely in Flash. They are good looking and visually vibrant. Search engines have limited ability to index Flash content. The best solution is to provide additional HTML pages that search engines and visitors can look at.
- Splash Pages: This is a graphic entry page where often the only text present is the word “Enter.” Search engines give more value to the home page than any other page on the website. Splash pages are a complete waste of the most valuable real estate on the entire website and should be removed if search rankings are important.
- Frames: This is an extension to HTML that allows several web pages to appear in a single web browser window. These pages are held together with a “Frameset” command. Frames create severe problems with search engines being able to “crawl” your website. Frames websites should be recoded into HTML or better yet, into XHTML / CSS formats.
- Online carts: Online stores come in many forms and many have excellent functionality and “instant” ability to easily have an online store. Many do not allow FTP access so there may be very limited SEO Potential. To these carts add as much keyword rich content as possible and launch an aggressive link popularity campaign.
- Website builders: These are websites designed and maintained with a CMS. They have no FTP access and are marketed under names like: Websites Tonight, Websmartz and EZ Generator. This includes many special purpose websites such as Real Estate, mortgage and insurance agent websites. These usually have no FTP access and you will be limited to adding keyword rich text and an aggressive link popularity campaign such as blog marketing.
- Dynamic URLs: These are the database queries that have a “?” in them. Replace long query strings and session ID’s with search engine friendly URLs. This will greatly improve the crawlability of a large dynamic database driven website.
- Invalid Code: Check your website at http://validator.w3.org and if the number of code errors exceeds 25 per page, go in and fix the errors. This website validator will tell you the nature and the location of the problem. You do not need 100% valid code to get #1 rankings, but large numbers of code errors does hurt rankings.
by Francois Muscat | May 7, 2010 | SEO
To obtain the best search engine results for your website or blog, it should be designed and SEO (Search Engine Optimized) optimized for them. What happens if you already have a good website that converts your visitors into paying customers? What are common website mistakes and problems that will keep your website from being ranked high on the Google search results? I know I’m always referring to Google, but hey, they are the number 1 search engine in my list if not everyone else’s list.
So what can you avoid to help your website being ranked high on the “search engines”? Actually I mean Google…
Never build a Flash only website
These are websites built entirely in Flash. They are usually great looking and vibrant but search engines have limited ability to index Flash content as it is embedded inside the Flash file. If you have a Flash only website, create additional HTML pages so that search engines can index those.
Avoid Splash pages
Splash pages are graphic entry pages where often the only text found on them is “Enter”. Search engines tends to give more value to the home page than any other page on your website. Splash pages are a complete waste of the most valuable page in your entire website and it should be removed if you want to “up” your search engine rankings.
Don’t use Frames
This is an extension of HTML that allows several web pages to appear in a single web browser window. These pages are held together with a “Frameset” HTML snippet. Frames creates problems with search engines. If the search engines only indexes one of the pages on the “Frameset”, the rest of the content will not be shown to the visitor that originated from the search engine. Frames should be recoded into normal HTML or better yet, XHTML and CSS.
Website builders
These are online tools where you can create your own website online. They usually don’t allow FTP access. Popular ones include “Websites Tonight”, “Websmartz” and “EZ Generator”. These “website generators” usually includes special purpose websites for Real Estate, Mortgage and Insurance websites. Most of the time you won’t be able to conduct aggressive “on page SEO” with these.
Dynamic URL’s
These are database queries passed in the url and they have a “?” in them. Replace the long query strings with static URL’s. If you want more information regarding this and your website is running on a Apache web server, search Google for the phrase “ModRewrite”. If you replace your long URL’s with static ones you will greatly improve the crawl ability of a large dynamic website.
by Marelise da Silva | May 5, 2010 | SEO
Google released a PDF guide on how to optimize your website for search engines a couple of months ago. This is an excellent guide for webmasters and website owners learning about SEO. These on page SEO methods if used correctly, can greatly enhance your presence on the web.
Find below what is explained in the guide.
- Tips on creating unique, accurate page titles;
- Making use of the “description” meta tag;
- Improving the structure of your URLs;
- Good practices for site navigation;
- Quality content and services;
- How to write better anchor text;
- Tips on using heading tags appropriately;
- Good practices for images;
- Make effective use of the robots.txt file;
- Guidance on rel=”nofollow” for links;
- Tips on promoting your website in the right ways;
- Making use of the free Google webmaster tools;
- Taking advantage of web analytics services.
Click on the link below to download the guide.
PDF file of Google’s SEO Starter Guide
by Francois Muscat | Apr 23, 2010 | SEO
A detailed website evaluation/analysis will give you important and usability information factors of your website. An SEO (Search Engine Optimization) evaluation measures a website’s ability to get traffic from search engines. In simpler terms, it measures how easy it is to find your website on the internet and how user friendly it is to your visitors.
Find a couple of points below that you can use to evaluate your website.
First impression
- Did the page load quickly?
- Images optimized for fast loading?
- Flash optimized for fast loading?
- No automatically starting audio?
- Industry appropriate look and feel to site.
- Clear call to action on home page?
- Clear understandable layout for first time visitors?
- No use of pop-up windows?
Navigation / Links
- Site wide uniform backbone?
- In a logical flow?
- Do link names match page names?
- Clearly understandable names?
- Check for broken links
- Site wide search?
- Returning visitors see change in hyperlink color
- Breadcrumb navigation on larger sites
- Logo link to home page?
- Backbone navigation at the bottom of each page?
Content
- Is information presented clearly?
- Inverted pyramid writing style? Start with conclusion.
- Visitor focused rather than on company?
- Solves a need?
- Text easy to scan?
- Written in active not passive words.
- Check for misspelled words.
- Forms designed for easy entry
- Not using PDF’s for content (OK for manuals and ebooks)
Accessibility
- Adjustable font sizes (for people with poor eyesight).
- Descriptive ALT text in images (blind users)
- HTML validation (W3C)
- Browser test all major browsers
- Site map present
- Provide redundant text links for image links or image maps
Security / Trust
- Privacy policy
- Terms of use
- Refund policy
- Testimonials
- FAQ / Sales support
- Digital certificate / data security
- Copyright statement on every page?
- Well written “about us” page
- Address and phone number on contact page
