What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website on organic ("natural" or un-paid) search engine result pages (SERPs), by incorporating search engine friendly elements into a website. A successful search engine optimization campaign will have, as part of the improvements, carefully select, relevant, keywords which the on-page optimization will be designed to make prominent for search engine algorithms.
According to Google:
SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:- Review of your site content or structure- Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, - use of JavaScript- Content development- Management of online business development campaigns- Keyword research- SEO training- Expertise in specific markets and geographies.
There are two major types of search engine optimization, white hat search engine optimization (the 'good' kind), and black hat (the 'not so good' kind). There are of course differing opinions about the nature of each type of SEO.
White Hat SEO:
White hat SEO utilizes techniques and methods to improve the search engine rankings of a website which don't run afoul of search engine (mainly Google) guidelines. Some white hat SEO techniques include: high quality content development, website HTML optimization and restructuring, link acquisition campaigns supported by high quality content and manual research and outreach.
Black Hat SEO:
Black Hat SEO exploits weaknesses in the search engine algorithms to obtain high rankings for a website. Such techniques and methods are in direct conflict with search engine guidelines. Some black hat SEO techniques include: link spam, keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text, and hidden links.
There is often a misunderstanding (due in no small part to SEO sales people) in what a search engine optimization campaign can realistically accomplish. As stated multiple times, search engine optimization is not magic, nor is it an exact science where an action will have a specific and completely predictable reaction. With this in mind, no search engine optimization company can produce high rankings for its clients by simply offering directory submissions, and half-witted articles written by college dropouts who hire out their writing skill so unscrupulous SEO companies for pennies per word.
I will try to provide a means of quick reference as to what SEO can reasonably accomplish, and what it cannot.
Things SEO Can Do:
- Improve the search engine friendliness of your website.
- Improve your website's ranking for a well-researched group of keywords over a period of months or years.
- Improve your website's rankings by utilizing a well planned and executed search engine optimization campaign, which will cost more than you would have guessed.
- Leverage well written, useful, helpful, entertaining, or otherwise interesting content to mount a successful link building campaign which will result in ranking improvements.
- Optimize your website's textual content by incorporating a select number of keywords into the text (not keyword-stuffing), and utilizing the new text to develop an internal link structure which helps magnify the importance of those keywords for the search engines.
Things SEO Cannot Do:
- Make your website irresistible to search engines so that it will rank for any keyword you desire.
- Improve your rankings for the most competitive keywords in your industry within a few weeks.
- Improve your website's rankings by using run-of-the-mill services such as free directory submissions, and "article writing", and doing it while keeping the cost no higher than your monthly budget for your morning coffee.
- Leverage low-quality content that your nephew "wrote" (i.e., copied and partially reworded from Wikipedia articles).
- Optimize your website's content by using a secret keyword density (that only SEO's know) and help your site shoot up in search engine result pages for your most desirable keywords.
Search engines have two major functions: crawling and building an index, and providing search users with a ranked list of the websites they've determined are the most relevant.
Links allow the search engines' automated robots, called "crawlers" or "spiders,". Once the engines find these pages, they decipher the code from them and store selected pieces in massive databases, to be recalled later when needed for a search query. To accomplish the monumental task of holding billions of pages that can be accessed in a fraction of a second, the search engine companies have constructed datacenters all over the world.
How do search engines determine relevance and popularity?
To a search engine, relevance means more than finding a page with the right words. In the early days of the web, search engines didn’t go much further than this simplistic step, and search results were of limited value. Over the years, engineers have devised better ways to match results to searchers’ queries. Today, hundreds of factors influence relevance, and we’ll discuss the most important of these in this post.
Search engines typically assume that the more popular a site, page, or document, the more valuable the information it contains must be. This assumption has proven fairly successful in terms of user satisfaction with search results.
Popularity and relevance aren’t determined manually. Instead, the engines employ mathematical equations (algorithms) to sort the wheat from the chaff (relevance), and then to rank the wheat in order of quality (popularity).
You might want to check out: List of important parameters used in Google's Algorithm.
- Online forms: Search engines aren't good at completing online forms (such as a login), and thus any content contained behind them may remain hidden.
- Duplicate pages: Websites using a CMS (Content Management System) often create duplicate versions of the same page; this is a major problem for search engines looking for completely original content.
- Blocked in the code: Errors in a website's crawling directives (robots.txt) may lead to blocking search engines entirely.
- Poor link structures: If a website's link structure isn't understandable to the search engines, they may not reach all of a website's content; or, if it is crawled, the minimally-exposed content may be deemed unimportant by the engine's index.
- Non-text Content: Although the engines are getting better at reading non-HTML text, content in rich media format is still difficult for search engines to parse. This includes text in Flash files, images, photos, video, audio, and plug-in content.
- Uncommon terms: Text that is not written in the common terms that people use to search. For example, writing about "food cooling units" when people actually search for "refrigerators."
- Language and internationalization subtleties: For example, "color" vs. "colour." When in doubt, check what people are searching for and use exact matches in your content.
- Incongruous location targeting: Targeting content in Polish when the majority of the people who would visit your website are from Japan.
- Mixed contextual signals: For example, the title of your blog post is "America's Best Baseball Player" but the post itself is about a vacation resort in Canada which happens to be about a baseball player in the description. These mixed messages send confusing signals to search engines.
Make sure your content gets seen
Getting the technical details of search engine-friendly web development correct is important, but once the basics are covered, you must also market your content. The engines by themselves have no formulas to gauge the quality of content on the web. Instead, search technology relies on the metrics of relevance and importance, and they measure those metrics by tracking what people do: what they discover, react, comment, and link to. So, you can’t just build a perfect website and write great content; you also have to get that content shared and talked about.
It all begins with words typed into a search box. Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Ranking for the right keywords can make or break your website. By researching your market's keyword demand, you can not only learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a whole.
Do know that it's not always about getting visitors to your site, but about getting the right kind of visitors. The usefulness of this intelligence cannot be overstated; with keyword research you can predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions, and produce the products, services, and content that web searchers are actively seeking. In the history of marketing, there has never been such a low barrier to entry in understanding the motivations of consumers in virtually any niche.
Judging the Value of a Keyword
How much is a keyword worth to your website? If you own an online shoe store, do you make more sales from visitors searching for "brown shoes" or "black boots"? The keywords visitors type into search engines are often available to webmasters, and keyword research tools allow us to find this information.
Understanding the Long Tail of Keyword Demand
Going back to our online shoe store example, it would be great to rank #1 for the keyword "shoes" ... or would it? It's wonderful to deal with keywords that have 5,000 searches a day, or even 500 searches a day, but in reality, these popular search terms actually make up less than 30% of the searches performed on the web. The remaining 70% lie in what's called the "long tail" of search. The long tail contains hundreds of millions of unique searches that might be conducted a few times in any given day, but, when taken together, comprise the majority of the world's search volume.
Another lesson search marketers have learned is that long tail keywords often convert better, because they catch people later in the buying/conversion cycle. A person searching for "shoes" is probably browsing, and not ready to buy. On the other hand, someone searching for "best price on Air Jordan size 12" practically has their wallet out!
Keyword Research Resources:
Google's AdWords Keyword Planner tool is a common starting point for SEO keyword research. It not only suggests keywords and provides estimated search volume, but also predicts the cost of running paid campaigns for these terms. To determine volume for a particular keyword, be sure to set the Match Type to [Exact] and look under Local Monthly Searches. Remember that these represent total searches. Depending on your ranking and click-through rate, the actual number of visitors you achieve for these keywords will usually be much lower.
The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines, Google, Bing, and Yahoo!. Although social media and other types of traffic can generate visits to your website, search engines are the primary method of navigation for most Internet users. This is true whether your site provides content, services, products, information, or just about anything else.
Search engines are unique in that they provide targeted traffic—people looking for what you offer. Search engines are the roadways that make this happen. If search engines cannot find your site, or add your content to their databases, you miss out on incredible opportunities to drive traffic to your site.
Search queries — the words that users type into the search box — carry extraordinary value. Experience has shown that search engine traffic can make (or break) an organization's success. Targeted traffic to a website can provide publicity, revenue, and exposure like no other channel of marketing. Investing in SEO can have an exceptional rate of return compared to other types of marketing and promotion.
Why can't the search engines figure out my site without SEO?
Search engines are smart, but they still need help. The major engines are always working to improve their technology to crawl the web more deeply and return better results to users. However, there is a limit to how search engines can operate. Whereas the right SEO can net you thousands of visitors and increased attention, the wrong moves can hide or bury your site deep in the search results where visibility is minimal.
In addition to making content available to search engines, SEO also helps boost rankings so that content will be placed where searchers will more readily find it. The Internet is becoming increasingly competitive, and those companies who perform SEO will have a decided advantage in visitors and customers.
Can I do SEO for myself?
The world of SEO is complex, but most people can easily understand the basics. Even a small amount of knowledge can make a big difference. Free SEO education is widely available on the web, including in post like this. Combine this with a little practice and you are well on your way to becoming a guru.
Depending on your time commitment, your willingness to learn, and the complexity of your website(s), you may decide you need an expert to handle things for you. Firms that practice SEO can vary; some have a highly specialized focus, while others take a broader and more general approach.
A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. The <title> tag should be placed within the <head> tag of the HTML document. Ideally, you should create a unique title for each page on your site.
Page title contents are displayed in search results
If your document appears in a search results page, the contents of the title tag will usually appear in the first line of the results (if you're unfamiliar with the different parts of a Google search result, you might want to check out the anatomy of a search result video by Google engineer Matt Cutts, and this helpful diagram of a Google search results page).
Words in the title are bolded if they appear in the user's search query. This can help users recognize if the page is likely to be relevant to their search. The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/ business and could include other bits of important information like the physical location of the business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings.
Note: Accurately describe the page's content, choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page's content.
- Avoid choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page.
- Avoid using default or vague titles like "Untitled" or "New Page 1".
Create unique title tags for each page. Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from the others on your site.
- Avoid using a single title tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages.
Use brief, but descriptive titles. Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result.
- Avoid using extremely lengthy titles that are unhelpful to users.
- Avoid stuffing unneeded keywords in your title tags.
A page's description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Whereas a page's title may be a few words or a phrase, a page's description meta tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph. Google Webmaster Tools provides a handy content analysis section that'll tell you about any description meta tags that are either too short, long, or duplicated too many times (the same information is also shown for <title> tags). Like the <title> tag, the description meta tag is placed within the <head> tag of your HTML document.
What are the merits of description meta tags?
Description meta tags are important because Google might use them as snippets for your pages. Note that I say "might" because Google may choose to use a relevant section of your page's visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user's query. Alternatively, Google might use your site's description in the Open Directory Project if your site is listed there (learn how to prevent search engines from displaying ODP data).
Adding description meta tags to each of your pages is always a good practice in case Google cannot find a good selection of text to use in the snippet. The Webmaster Central Blog has an informative post on improving snippets with better description meta tags.
Words in the snippet are bolded when they appear in the user's query. This gives the user clues about whether the content on the page matches with what he or she is looking for.
Note: Accurately summarize the page's content. Write a description that would both inform and interest users if they saw your description meta tag as a snippet in a search result.
- Avoid writing a description meta tag that has no relation to the content on the page.
- Avoid using generic descriptions like "This is a web page" or "Page about baseball cards".
- Avoid filling the description with only keywords.
- Avoid copying and pasting the entire content of the document into the description meta tag.
Use unique descriptions for each page. Having a different description meta tag for each page helps both users and Google, especially in searches where users may bring up multiple pages on your domain (e.g. searches using the site: operator). If your site has thousands or even millions of pages, hand-crafting description meta tags probably isn't feasible. In this case, you could automatically generate description meta tags based on each page's content.
- Avoid using a single description meta tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages.
Simple-to-understand URLs will convey content information easily. Creating descriptive categories and filenames for the documents on your website can not only help you keep your site better organized, but it could also lead to better crawling of your documents by search engines. Also, it can create easier, "friendlier" URLs for those that want to link to your content. Visitors may be intimidated by extremely long and cryptic URLs that contain few recognizable words.
URLs can be sometime confusing and unfriendly. Users would have a hard time reciting the URL from memory or creating a link to it. Also, users may believe that a portion of the URL is unnecessary, especially if the URL shows many unrecognizable parameters. They might leave off a part, breaking the link.
Some users might link to your page using the URL of that page as the anchor text. If your URL contains relevant words, this provides users and search engines with more information about the page than an ID or oddly named parameter would.
URLs are displayed in search results. Lastly, remember that the URL to a document is displayed as part of a search result in Google, below the document's title and snippet. Like the title and snippet, words in the URL on the search result appear in bold if they appear in the user's query. For example; the words in the URL might appeal to a search user more than an ID number like "www. brandonsbaseballcards.com/article/102125/" would.
Google is good at crawling all types of URL structures, even if they're quite complex, but spending the time to make your URLs as simple as possible for both users and search engines can help. Some webmasters try to achieve this by rewriting their dynamic URLs to static ones; while Google is fine with this, I'd like to note that this is an advanced procedure and if done incorrectly, could cause crawling issues with your site. To learn even more about good URL structure, I recommend this Webmaster Help Center page on creating Google-friendly URLs.
Note: Use words in URLs. URLs with words that are relevant to your site's content and structure are friendlier for visitors navigating your site. Visitors remember them better and might be more willing to link to them.
- Avoid using lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs.
- Avoid choosing generic page names like "page1.html".
- Avoid using excessive keywords like"baseball-cards-baseball-cards-baseballcards.htm".
Create a simple directory structure. Use a directory structure that organizes your content well and makes it easy for visitors to know where they're at on your site. Try using your directory structure to indicate the type of content found at that URL.
- Avoid having deep nesting of sub-directories like ".../dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/dir6/page.html".
- Avoid using directory names that have no relation to the content in them.
Provide one version of a URL to reach a document. To prevent users from linking to one version of a URL and others linking to a different version (this could split the reputation of that content between the URLs), focus on using and referring to one URL in the structure and internal linking of your pages. If you do find that people are accessing the same content through multiple URLs, setting up a 301 redirect from non-preferred URLs to the dominant URL is a good solution for this. You may also use canonical URL or use the rel="canonical" link element if you cannot redirect.
- Avoid having pages from subdomains and the root directory access the same content - e.g. "domain.com/page.htm" and "sub.domain.com/page.htm".
- Avoid using odd capitalization of URLs - many users expect lower-case URLs and remember them better.
Navigation is very important for search engines. The navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the content they want. It can also help search engines understand what content the webmaster thinks is important. Although Google's search results are provided at a page level, Google also likes to have a sense of what role a page plays in the bigger picture of the site.
Consider planning out your navigation based on your homepage. All sites have a home or "root" page, which is usually the most frequented page on the site and the starting place of navigation for many visitors. Unless your site has only a handful of pages, you should think about how visitors will go from a general page (your root page) to a page containing more specific content. Do you have enough pages around a specific topic area that it would make sense to create a page describing these related pages (e.g. root page -> related topic listing -> specific topic)? Do you have hundreds of different products that need to be classified under multiple category and subcategory pages?
Ensure more convenience for users by using ‘breadcrumb lists’. A breadcrumb is a row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the root page. Many breadcrumbs have the most general page (usually the root page) as the first, left-most link and list the more specific sections out to the right.
Prepare two sitemaps: one for users, one for search engines. A site map (lower-case) is a simple page on your site that displays the structure of your website, and usually consists of a hierarchical listing of the pages on your site. Visitors may visit this page if they are having problems finding pages on your site. While search engines will also visit this page, getting good crawl coverage of the pages on your site, it's mainly aimed at human visitors.
An XML Sitemap (upper-case) file, which you can submit through Google's Webmaster Tools, makes it easier for Google to discover the pages on your site. Using a Sitemap file is also one way (though not guaranteed) to tell Google which version of a URL you'd prefer as the canonical one (e.g. http://brandonsbaseballcards.com/ or http://http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/). Google helped create the open source Sitemap Generator Script to help you create a Sitemap file for your site. To learn more about Sitemaps, the Webmaster Help Center provides a useful guide to Sitemap files.
Note: Create a naturally flowing hierarchy. Make it as easy as possible for users to go from general content to the more specific content they want on your site. Add navigation pages when it makes sense and effectively work these into your internal link structure.
- Avoid creating complex webs of navigation links, e.g. linking every page on your site to every other page.
- Avoid going overboard with slicing and dicing your content (so that it takes twenty clicks).
Use mostly text for navigation. Controlling most of the navigation from page to page on your site through text links makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your site. Many users also prefer this over other approaches, especially on some devices that might not handle Flash or JavaScript.
- Avoid having a navigation based entirely on drop-down menus, images, or animations - many, but not all, search engines can discover such links on a site, but if a user can reach all pages on a site via normal text links, this will improve the accessibility of your site; more on how Google deals with non-text files.
Have a useful 404 page. Users will occasionally come to a page that doesn't exist on your site, either by following a broken link or typing in the wrong URL. Having a custom 404 page that kindly guides users back to a working page on your site can greatly improve a user's experience. Your 404 page should probably have a link back to your root page and could also provide links to popular or related content on your site. Google provides a 404 widget that you can embed in your 404 page to automatically populate it with many useful features. You can also use Google Webmaster Tools to find the sources of URLs causing "not found" errors.
- Avoid allowing your 404 pages to be indexed in search engines (make sure that your webserver is configured to give a 404 HTTP status code when non-existent pages are requested).
- Avoid providing only a vague message like "Not found", "404", or no 404 page at all.
- Avoid using a design for your 404 pages that isn't consistent with the rest of your site.
Interesting sites will increase their recognition on their own. I have mentioned this over and over again; creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here. Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site's reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.
Think about the words that a user might search for to find a piece of your content. Users who know a lot about the topic might use different keywords in their search queries than someone who is new to the topic. For example, a long-time baseball fan might search for [nlcs], an acronym for the National League Championship Series, while a new fan might use a more general query like [baseball playoffs]. Anticipating these differences in search behavior and accounting for them while writing your content (using a good mix of keyword phrases) could produce positive results. Google AdWords provides a handy Keyword Tool that helps you discover new keyword variations and see the approximate search volume for each keyword. Also, Google Webmaster Tools provides you with the top search queries your site appears for and the ones that led the most users to your site.
Consider creating a new, useful service that no other site offers. You could also write an original piece of research, break an exciting news story, or leverage your unique user base. Other sites may lack the resources or expertise to do these things.
Note: Write easy-to-read text. Users enjoy content that is well written and easy to follow.
- Avoid writing sloppy text with many spelling and grammatical mistakes.
- Avoid embedding text in images for textual content - users may want to copy and paste the text and search engines can't read it.
Stay organized around the topic. It's always beneficial to organize your content so that visitors have a good sense of where one content topic begins and another ends. Breaking your content up into logical chunks or divisions helps users find the content they want faster.
- Avoid dumping large amounts of text on varying topics onto a page without paragraph, subheading, or layout separation.
Create fresh, unique content. New content will not only keep your existing visitor base coming back, but also bring in new visitors.
- Avoid rehashing (or even copying) existing content that will bring little extra value to users.
- Avoid having duplicate or near-duplicate versions of your content across your site.
Create content primarily for your users, not search engines. Designing your site around your visitors' needs while making sure your site is easily accessible to search engines usually produces positive results.
- Avoid inserting numerous unnecessary keywords aimed at search engines but are annoying or nonsensical to users.
- Avoid having blocks of text like "frequent misspellings used to reach this page" that add little value for users.
- Avoid deceptively hiding text from users, but displaying it to search engines.
Suitable anchor text makes it easy to convey the contents linked. Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link, and is placed within the anchor tag <a href="...">Anchor Text Here</a>.
This text tells users and Google something about the page you're linking to. Links on your page maybe internal — pointing to other pages on your site — or external — leading to content on other sites. In either of these cases, the better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for Google to understand what the page you're linking to is about.
Note: Choose descriptive text. The anchor text you use for a link should provide at least a basic idea of what the page linked to is about.
Image-related information can be provided for by using the "alt" attribute. Images may seem like a straightforward component of your site, but you can optimize your use of them. All images can have a distinct filename and "alt" attribute, both of which you should take advantage of. The "alt" attribute allows you to specify alternative text for the image if it cannot be displayed for some reason.
Why use this attribute? If a user is viewing your site on a browser that doesn't support images, or is using alternative technologies, such as a screen reader, the contents of the alt attribute provide information about the picture.
Another reason is that if you're using an image as a link, the alt text for that image will be treated similarly to the anchor text of a text link. However, I don't recommend using too many images for links in your site's navigation when text links could serve the same purpose. Lastly, optimizing your image filenames and alt text makes it easier for image search projects like Google Image Search to better understand your images.
Store files in specialized directories and manage them using common file formats instead of having image files spread out in numerous directories and subdirectories across your domain, consider consolidating your images into a single directory (e.g. brandonsbaseballcards.com/ images/). This simplifies the path to your images.
Use commonly supported filetypes - Most browsers support JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP image formats. It's also a good idea to have the extension of your filename match with the filetype.
Note: Use brief, but descriptive filenames and alt text. Like many of the other parts of the page targeted for optimization, filenames and alt text (for ASCII languages) are best when they're short, but descriptive.
Use heading tags to emphasize important text. Heading tags (not to be confused with the <head> HTML tag or HTTP headers) are used to present structure on the page to users. There are six sizes of heading tags, beginning with <h1>, the most important, and ending with <h6>, the least important.
Since heading tags typically make text contained in them larger than normal text on the page, this is a visual cue to users that this text is important and could help them understand something about the type of content underneath the heading text. Multiple heading sizes used in order create a hierarchical structure for your content, making it easier for users to navigate through your document.
- Avoid writing generic anchor text like "page", "article", or "click here".
- Avoid using text that is off-topic or has no relation to the content of the page linked to.
- Avoid using the page's URL as the anchor text in most cases - although there are certainly legitimate uses of this, such as promoting or referencing a new website's address.
- Avoid writing long anchor text, such as a lengthy sentence or short paragraph of text.
- Avoid using CSS or text styling that make links look just like regular text.
- Avoid using excessively keyword-filled or lengthy anchor text just for search engines.
- Avoid creating unnecessary links that don't help with the user's navigation of the site.
Image-related information can be provided for by using the "alt" attribute. Images may seem like a straightforward component of your site, but you can optimize your use of them. All images can have a distinct filename and "alt" attribute, both of which you should take advantage of. The "alt" attribute allows you to specify alternative text for the image if it cannot be displayed for some reason.
Why use this attribute? If a user is viewing your site on a browser that doesn't support images, or is using alternative technologies, such as a screen reader, the contents of the alt attribute provide information about the picture.
Another reason is that if you're using an image as a link, the alt text for that image will be treated similarly to the anchor text of a text link. However, I don't recommend using too many images for links in your site's navigation when text links could serve the same purpose. Lastly, optimizing your image filenames and alt text makes it easier for image search projects like Google Image Search to better understand your images.
Store files in specialized directories and manage them using common file formats instead of having image files spread out in numerous directories and subdirectories across your domain, consider consolidating your images into a single directory (e.g. brandonsbaseballcards.com/ images/). This simplifies the path to your images.
Use commonly supported filetypes - Most browsers support JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP image formats. It's also a good idea to have the extension of your filename match with the filetype.
Note: Use brief, but descriptive filenames and alt text. Like many of the other parts of the page targeted for optimization, filenames and alt text (for ASCII languages) are best when they're short, but descriptive.
- Avoid using generic filenames like "image1.jpg", "pic.gif", "1.jpg" when possible—some sites with thousands of images might consider automating the naming of images.
- Avoid writing extremely lengthy filenames.
- Avoid stuffing keywords into alt text or copying and pasting entire sentences.
- Avoid writing excessively long alt text that would be considered spammy.
- Avoid using only image links for your site's navigation.
Use heading tags to emphasize important text. Heading tags (not to be confused with the <head> HTML tag or HTTP headers) are used to present structure on the page to users. There are six sizes of heading tags, beginning with <h1>, the most important, and ending with <h6>, the least important.
Since heading tags typically make text contained in them larger than normal text on the page, this is a visual cue to users that this text is important and could help them understand something about the type of content underneath the heading text. Multiple heading sizes used in order create a hierarchical structure for your content, making it easier for users to navigate through your document.
Note: Imagine you're writing an outline. Similar to writing an outline for a large paper, put some thought into what the main points and subpoints of the content on the page will be and decide where to use heading tags appropriately.
Although proper link building is not an easy thing to do, there are still many whitehat SEO techniques you can start with even today, without considerable efforts or expenses.
- Avoid placing text in heading tags that wouldn't be helpful in defining the structure of the page.
- Avoid using heading tags where other tags like <em> and <strong> may be more appropriate.
- Avoid erratically moving from one heading tag size to another.
- Avoid excessively using heading tags throughout the page.
- Avoid putting all of the page's text into a heading tag.
- Avoid using heading tags only for styling text and not presenting structure.
Although proper link building is not an easy thing to do, there are still many whitehat SEO techniques you can start with even today, without considerable efforts or expenses.
1: Ask for backlinks
This is a good way to start, especially if you are a beginner in this job. Think about your friends, relatives, colleagues, partners, clients that have a blog or a site. All you have to do is ask for a backlink. Ask for in-content links instead of links in the sidebar or footer.
But be careful and make sure that the backlink comes from a website that is relevant to your niche, otherwise it will not have too much of an impact and may even be harmful.
This is a good way to start, especially if you are a beginner in this job. Think about your friends, relatives, colleagues, partners, clients that have a blog or a site. All you have to do is ask for a backlink. Ask for in-content links instead of links in the sidebar or footer.
But be careful and make sure that the backlink comes from a website that is relevant to your niche, otherwise it will not have too much of an impact and may even be harmful.
Reference: 5 Ways to Do a Link Request For Backlinks & SEO
2. Build relationships
For good link building, you need to build good relationships. There are plenty of opportunities to build new contacts. You should start with niche-related communities: forums, blogs or social groups.
Make the first step and start contributing with interesting and relevant comments and posts, providing contextual value to each discussion. By actively participating in these online communities focused on your niche, you will not only gain some good backlinks, but you will always have access to the newest industry news and be able to connect to some interesting people that share your passions.
2. Build relationships
For good link building, you need to build good relationships. There are plenty of opportunities to build new contacts. You should start with niche-related communities: forums, blogs or social groups.
Make the first step and start contributing with interesting and relevant comments and posts, providing contextual value to each discussion. By actively participating in these online communities focused on your niche, you will not only gain some good backlinks, but you will always have access to the newest industry news and be able to connect to some interesting people that share your passions.
Reference: Relationship-Based Link Building
3. Give a testimonial
Testimonial link building is a win-win scenario. Many businesses offer you the chance to say a few words about your experience using their products. On the one hand, this is a perfect way for them to build customer trust. On the other hand, it’s a great opportunity for you to get a backlink and potential traffic from that site and it usually has a much higher approval rate than your standard link request e-mails. The contact gets another testimonial to place on their site, while you get a new incoming link.
Reference: The Keys to Using Effective Testimonials
4. Start a blog
Don’t make a blog with one post and one backlink to your site. If you do, you not only wasted your time, but probably also just created another risky link for yourself. If you want to have your own blog, you need to keep it alive.
Write posts on a regular basis. Focus on your industry and on your client’s needs! In time, it will most likely gain authority. Make sure that your content is relevant, useful and well-structured. This is the only way to ensure that the WORLD will want to link to it again and again. That’s how you get great backlinks, you earn them!
5. List your site in trustworthy directories
There are many directories that provide no real value to the Internet users and Google has excluded them from its search results. You don’t want your website to be on such pages!
But not all online directories are bad. A directory that not only gives you the chance to post a link to your website, but also provides useful information for your potential customers is a directory you would want to be listed on.
The new PageRank is RELEVANCY, therefore niche directories and directories attached to informative websites for a specific industry are a good choice. Having your business listed with such directories makes it easier to get indexed with the major search engines and helps people find you online.
Testimonial link building is a win-win scenario. Many businesses offer you the chance to say a few words about your experience using their products. On the one hand, this is a perfect way for them to build customer trust. On the other hand, it’s a great opportunity for you to get a backlink and potential traffic from that site and it usually has a much higher approval rate than your standard link request e-mails. The contact gets another testimonial to place on their site, while you get a new incoming link.
Reference: The Keys to Using Effective Testimonials
4. Start a blog
Don’t make a blog with one post and one backlink to your site. If you do, you not only wasted your time, but probably also just created another risky link for yourself. If you want to have your own blog, you need to keep it alive.
Write posts on a regular basis. Focus on your industry and on your client’s needs! In time, it will most likely gain authority. Make sure that your content is relevant, useful and well-structured. This is the only way to ensure that the WORLD will want to link to it again and again. That’s how you get great backlinks, you earn them!
5. List your site in trustworthy directories
There are many directories that provide no real value to the Internet users and Google has excluded them from its search results. You don’t want your website to be on such pages!
But not all online directories are bad. A directory that not only gives you the chance to post a link to your website, but also provides useful information for your potential customers is a directory you would want to be listed on.
The new PageRank is RELEVANCY, therefore niche directories and directories attached to informative websites for a specific industry are a good choice. Having your business listed with such directories makes it easier to get indexed with the major search engines and helps people find you online.
You could start with a listing in the Dmoz – Open Directory Project. This is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web.
6. Write a good guest post
There are many sites and blogs that will accept to publish your article. Before you write an article somewhere, make sure that:
6. Write a good guest post
There are many sites and blogs that will accept to publish your article. Before you write an article somewhere, make sure that:
- the website or blog is relevant to your topic
- the article is NOT about how great you are/ your company is
- you have a focus on quality (well written, professional, and interesting)
- you keep in mind that a poor article can bring bad reputation
Build links for your business, for your customers, make them relevant, and associate them with great content. Your users will be happy, Google will keep you in the search results and your business will grow.
7. Discover competitors’ common backlinks
If you research your competitors, you will probably notice that they have some backlinks in common which you do not. Well, if they managed to get these backlinks, why shouldn’t you too? All you have to do is to analyze these backlinks and try to get them as well. The Common Backlinks Tool (CBLT) is a tool especially made for this. Enter up to 10 competitors and start your report.
8. Get an indirect backlink from your competitor
It is quite common that some of your competitors link to the same sites. These sites are usually big authorities in the industry. A link from such a place would be very helpful as to the powerful link juice your website would receive.
Read: How To Steal Your Competitors Rankings
9. Recover your dead backlinks
Sometimes you might find broken links to your website. This may be the case if the location of your page changes or if another webmaster misspelled your link. In both cases, these backlinks will return a 404 error.
If you research your competitors, you will probably notice that they have some backlinks in common which you do not. Well, if they managed to get these backlinks, why shouldn’t you too? All you have to do is to analyze these backlinks and try to get them as well. The Common Backlinks Tool (CBLT) is a tool especially made for this. Enter up to 10 competitors and start your report.
8. Get an indirect backlink from your competitor
It is quite common that some of your competitors link to the same sites. These sites are usually big authorities in the industry. A link from such a place would be very helpful as to the powerful link juice your website would receive.
Read: How To Steal Your Competitors Rankings
9. Recover your dead backlinks
Sometimes you might find broken links to your website. This may be the case if the location of your page changes or if another webmaster misspelled your link. In both cases, these backlinks will return a 404 error.
Such issues may also commonly occur after a site was re-launched or migrated to another domain. You should then redirect these backlinks to some other page.
10. Turn your mentions into backlinks
This is probably one of the easiest ways to gain some new backlinks. Somebody already wrote something about you. They mentioned your brand or product, but they have not linked to your website. In situations like these, it is usually enough to contact the webmaster and ask him to convert that mention into a backlink.
Reference: Comparing Brand Mentions to Backlinks for SEO
Black hat SEO is both a myth and a reality we have to face sooner or later as SEO practicioners. While I abide by probably one of the strictest SEO codes of ethics around I still can’t deny that there is blackhat SEO.
10. Turn your mentions into backlinks
This is probably one of the easiest ways to gain some new backlinks. Somebody already wrote something about you. They mentioned your brand or product, but they have not linked to your website. In situations like these, it is usually enough to contact the webmaster and ask him to convert that mention into a backlink.
Reference: Comparing Brand Mentions to Backlinks for SEO
Black hat SEO is both a myth and a reality we have to face sooner or later as SEO practicioners. While I abide by probably one of the strictest SEO codes of ethics around I still can’t deny that there is blackhat SEO.
The blackhat logic goes: When you can’t win the game you have to cheat. It’s the same dilemma as in sports though: When everybody cheats how are you going to win? That’s why reputable and successful SEO experts don’t have to use it.
OK, long story short, here are some black hat techniques you can use ethically as well. Take note how I am explaining only the positive way of using each technique. I do not advocate the use of it in it’s original blackhat context.
Q: What's the difference between organic vs. paid results?
A: Organic results are the results that appear in search engines, for free, based on an algorithm. Paid -- or inorganic -- search results appear at the top or side of a page. These are the links that advertisers pay to appear on different search engines.
Q: Should I optimize my domain name to include keywords?
A: Your primary domain should not include a keyword just for the sake of keyword optimization -- that can actually hurt your SEO. If your company name happens to have a keyword, that's fine, but don't go buying inboundmarketingsoftwarebloggingsocialseoemailautomation.com. Get what I mean?
Q: How do I know when I’m using the right number of keywords on a page?
A: Unfortunately, I can't tell you an exact number that is the "right" number of keywords on a page, mostly because that's the wrong way to think about keyword optimization.
- Throw Away Domains – Create exact match micro sites for short term popular keywords and abandon them when the trend subsides. Something like tigerwoodssexrehab.com.
- Cloaking – Hide the heavy Flash animations from Google, show the text-only version optimized for accessibility and findability.
- Keyword stuffing – Tags and folksonomy. Keyword stuff but adding several tags or let your users do the dirty work via UGC tagging (folksonomy) every major social site does that.
- Automatically generated keyword pages – Some shopping search engines create pages from each Google search query and assign the appropriate products to each query. You can do that as well if you have enough content.
- Scraping – Create mirrors for popular sites. Offer them to the respective webmasters. Most will be glad to pay less.
- Hidden text – Create modern CSS based websites with JQuery effects. They often hide large portions of text in layers to display them on click or mouse over for usability reasons. Example: CSS pagination.
- Blog spam – Don’t spam yourself! Get spammed! Install a WordPress blog without Akismet spam protection. Then create a few posts about Mesothelioma for example, a very profitable keyword. Then let spammers comment spam it or even add posts (via TDO Mini Forms). Last but not least parse the comments for your keyword and outgoing links. If they contain the keyword publish them and remove the outgoing links of course. Bot user generated content so to say.
- Domain grabbing – Buy old authority domains that failed and revive them instead of putting them on sale.
- Link farm – Create a legit blog network of flagship blogs. A full time pro blogger can manage 3 to 5 high quality blogs by her or himself.
- Hidden affiliate links – In fact hiding affiliate links is good for usability and can be even more ethical than showing them. example.com/ref?id=87233683 is far worse than than just example.com. Also unsuspecting Web users will copy your ad to forums etc. which might break their TOS. The only thing you have to do is disclose the affiliate as such. I prefer to use [ad] (on Twitter for example) or [partner-link] elsewhere. This way you can strip the annoying “ref” ids and achieve full disclosure at the same time.
- Invisible links – You’d never used invisible links on your sites did you? You liar! You have. Most free web counters and statistic tools use them. Statcounter is a good example. So when you embed them on your site you use invisible links.
- Different content for search engines than users – Do you use WordPress? Then you have the nofollow attribute added to your comment links. this way the search engine gets different content than the user. He sees and clicks a link. A search bot sees a no trespass sign instead. In white hat SEO it’s often called PageRank sculpting. Most social media add ons do that by default.
- Hacking sites – While crackers hack sites security experts warn site owners that they vulnerabilities. Both discover the same issues. Recently I got an email by someone who warned me to update my WordPress installation. That was a grand idea I thought.
- Map spam – Instead of faking multiple addresses all over the place just to appear on Google Maps and Local why don’t you simply create an affiliate network of real life small business owners with shops and offices who, for a small amount of money, are your representatives there? All they need to do is to collect your mail from Google and potential clients.
- Deceptive headlines – Tabloids use them all the time, black hat SEO also do. There are ethical use cases for deceptive headlines though. Satire is one of course and humor simply as well. For instance I could end this list with 24 items and declare this post to a list of 30 items anyways. That would be a good laugh. I’ve done that in the past but in a more humorous post.
Q: What's the difference between organic vs. paid results?
A: Organic results are the results that appear in search engines, for free, based on an algorithm. Paid -- or inorganic -- search results appear at the top or side of a page. These are the links that advertisers pay to appear on different search engines.
Q: Should I optimize my domain name to include keywords?
A: Your primary domain should not include a keyword just for the sake of keyword optimization -- that can actually hurt your SEO. If your company name happens to have a keyword, that's fine, but don't go buying inboundmarketingsoftwarebloggingsocialseoemailautomation.com. Get what I mean?
Q: How do I know when I’m using the right number of keywords on a page?
A: Unfortunately, I can't tell you an exact number that is the "right" number of keywords on a page, mostly because that's the wrong way to think about keyword optimization.
There's no keyword density you should be aiming for -- in fact, using a keyword too many times can result in penalization due to "keyword stuffing." Just keep the reader in mind, and only use keywords when you need to. You'll find enough natural opportunities to include keywords that you won't even have to worry about reaching an arbitrary number.
Q: What’s the difference between internal and inbound links?
A: Internal links are links on a page on your site that go to another page on your site. Inbound links are other websites that link to your content. Both are valuable for SEO.
Q: What’s the difference between internal and inbound links?
A: Internal links are links on a page on your site that go to another page on your site. Inbound links are other websites that link to your content. Both are valuable for SEO.
Q: How many internal links do I need on each page of content?
A: Just like you should avoid stuffing too many keywords into your content, you should avoid stuffing too many links into your content. Only include them when it improves the reader experience.
Q: Do I need to know code to do SEO myself?
A: You do not need to know how to code for every element of search optimization. There are some more advanced SEO tactics that you will need a basic understanding of code for, but it isn't necessary for every part.
Q: What is robots.txt?
A: This is a page that gives search engines information about the pages a company wants indexed or crawled. You can find this page by doing to YOURDOMAIN/robots.txt.
Q: What is the sitemap.xml file?
A: This file is an index of all the pages on your site. It's a quick reference for search engines of content that you want indexed.
Q: How can I see what pages are indexed?
A: It's as easy as typing in site:www.YOURDOMAIN.com to find the pages on your site that are indexed.
Q: Why do you need alt text on your images?
A: Search engines cannot read images, but they can read text. The alt text helps them figure out what the images are all about. Plus, if a page doesn't load for some reason, people can still find out what the image is by reading the alt text.
A: Search engines cannot read images, but they can read text. The alt text helps them figure out what the images are all about. Plus, if a page doesn't load for some reason, people can still find out what the image is by reading the alt text.
Q: How long does it take to see results from SEO?
A: There are a few different factors that will determine how quickly (or slowly) results will come. This list includes, but isn't limited to:
- How much content you create
- The quality of the content
- How the content resonates with your audience
- If you're a big or small site with strong or weak domain authority
Q: Should I hire someone to do my SEO?
A: Hiring someone internally or externally to do your SEO can be helpful, but it can also be dangerous if that person doesn't actually know the modern rules of SEO. Google goes into the risks of hiring the wrong SEO person in this support doc.
About Author:
Dawood Khan is a professional blogger with a love of travel. He writes regularly about internet marketing on his personal blog and on the internet marketing discussion forum Warrior.PK.
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