Jul 11
Sections:
Choosing the correct domain name for your website or blog is important. However, unless you are a large multi-national you do not want to spend a fortune on a premium domain name.
The domain name should suit the topic of your site and include the main keyword or keyword phrase in your market in possible. It is best to pick a relatively short name which people can remember rather than trying to stuff in all your keywords though.
Using hyphens to separate words used to be common practice (e.g. http://online-marketing-opportunity.com/) but this is no longer necessary. Search engines are now much better at picking out the individual words in a domain name so it is best to go with the shorter, non-hyphenated version (e.g. http://onlinemarketingopportunity.com/).
The sections at the end of a domain name like .com, .org and .co.uk are called top level domains (TLD). Always choose a .com domain for your site if possible, they usually only cost a few extra dollars and there is evidence that .com domains generally rank better in the search engines.
Country specific TLDs like .co.uk can be used if you only want to target visitors from that country. Avoid other TLDs like .org, .net and .ws if you can. Type a competitive term into Google and look at the URLs, most of the top 10 results will end in .com or your regional TLD.
Jul 12
On-page optimisation does not carry as much weight for rankings as off-page optimisation but the on-page factors are completely in your control so you should make the most of them. Follow these simple tips to optimise your website pages.
Meta Tags
You may have read somewhere online that meta tags are dead and you no longer need to use them, well this is just a load of rubbish. While it is true that good meta tags alone will not give you high rankings they are very important for 2 reasons:
1. Search engines, including Google, do use the title tag in their ranking algorithms. OK, it may not be the most important ranking factor but it is one that is totally in your control - so make the most of it!
2. A well written title and description will improve the click through rate of your listing in the search engine results. There is no point being at #1 in Google if your title and description is so bad that nobody clicks through to your site.
Title Meta Tag
You should include the main keyword for the page once or twice in the title for optimisation purposes. Titles should also be written to compel browsers to click on your listing. Make sure you keep your title to around 8 words or less, under 64 characters. Any longer than this and Google will not display the full title and add … to the end. An incomplete title in the search results will lower the click through rate resulting in less visitors to your site.
Description Meta Tag
The description tag should also include the main keyword for the page once or twice. Again it is important to keep the description short so that it is shown in full in the search results. One or two sentences will do but write then to make people click on the listing.
Keywords Meta Tag
The keywords tag is not that important but is still worth including. Just use the main 4 or 5 keyword phrases for the page and make sure the keywords are actually on the page in the body text. A good keywords tag will not boost your rankings in Google, however a keyword-stuffed tag with many keywords could get your site penalised – DO NOT add every keyword you can think of to your keyword tags.
Jul 13
Keyword Density
The keyword density is the number of times a keyword appears on a page in relation to the total number of words. If you search around you will find many different ‘ideal’ keyword density percentages, a good guide is 2 – 5% with a minimum page length of 350 words.
Having said that, you will find pages ranked at #1 in Google that do not even contain the keyword in question. This can be achieved through external text links which use the keyword phrase.
If you do not believe me enter ‘click here’ into Google, the first result is a page for Adobe Reader. Visit the page and search for click here, you will not find it on the page. So many pages have a link along the lines of ‘click here to download Adobe Reader’ that it ranks at the top in Google with a keyword density of 0%.
I do not calculate the keyword density for any of my pages. When I optimise the body text of a page I try to add the main keyword phrase once in the first paragraph, once in the last paragraph and 2 to 6 times in the rest of the text depending on the length of the page.
If you are convinced that you need the ‘right’ keyword density for your page here is what you can do. Enter the keyword into Google and measure the keyword density of the first 3 results pages, take an average of these 3 figures and apply it to your page.
However, any benefits of using this method seem to me to be outweighed by the time and effort it takes to put it into place.
Jul 13
Other On-Page Optimisation Factors
Try and include your main keyword phrase in an on-page title at least once. This does not have to be an H1 tag, H2 or H3 are fine too if they fit in with your page design.
There is some evidence to suggest that having your keyword in bold or as a text link helps slightly with rankings. Do not overdo this though, 1 bold and 1 text link per page is enough.
You should use appropriate alt tags for your images. This is not really for SEO reasons but it makes the code and structure of your page better formed. It can also lead to more traffic from Google images. If you have a picture of a keyboard on your page use ‘keyboard’ or ‘keyboard image’ as the alt tag. Never keyword stuff the alt tags on your images, this can be viewed by the search engines as Spam and get your site into trouble.
Jul 14
Google Webmaster Tools
If you have a website or a blog and you do not have a Webmaster Tools account then you should get one today. It is free to sign up, it will give Google useful information about your site and it will provide you with details from Google on areas where your site could be improved.
If you do not have a Google account visit here to sign up. Once you have signed up and logged in to your account select Webmaster Tools under ‘My products’ and add your site.
There are lots of different options here but in order to access some of them you will need to verify your account. This is fairly straight forward if you have ftp access to your site. Just create a blank page, save it with the filename provided and publish it. You have now proved to Google that you own the site which allows you access to more detailed information.
Once you have verified your site, go through the various options and look out for any problems or areas for improvement suggested by Google. These are worth acting on as they will make it easier for Google to index your site which can increase the number of your pages in the index.
Jul 15
Using A Google Sitemap
One of the most useful aspects of a Webmaster Tools account is the ability to submit a Google sitemap of your site. This sitemap contains a list of all the pages on your site displayed in a format the Google spiders can read every time they visit your site. If you already have a google sitemap, submit it through your Webmaster Tools account. Google is unlikely to index every page on your site but it can increase the number of pages they do include.
If you do not have a Google sitemap you need to create one. You can do this by hand and code a line for every page on your site using the code below:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9“>
<url><loc>http://www.example.com/</loc><priority>0.8</priority></url>
</urlset>
However, it is much faster to use software to create the sitemap for you. There are a number of different programs out there but I would recommend GSiteCrawler, it is free to download and use.
Once the software has downloaded, add a new project using the ‘add’ button in the bottom left corner. Use the new site wizard to create the sitemap for your site. For the file extensions list, you only want to include files that you want indexed by the search engines. For a standard site this would just be .htm, .html and .shtml. You should untick the boxes for videos, images and office files unless you want those files to appear in the index.
In step 4 of the setup wizard, uncheck the ‘Import known pages from Google’ box. Next, press finish and the program will create your sitemap. It will only take a minute or two for a very small site but for a large site it could take an hour or so.
Once it has finished go ahead and publish the sitemap.xml file and the gss style sheet file in the root directory on your server. Navigate to the page, website.com/sitemap.xml, and you should see your new Google sitemap.
Jul 16
Off-Page Optimisation
The term off-page optimisation refers to factors external to a site which help it to rank in the search engines. This is basically link building but there are many different ways of getting links to your site. Around 75% of the weighting for the Google ranking algorithm is concerned with off-page factors. This means that for any competitive keyword phrase you are going to have to get some quality inbound links in order to rank well.
Unfortunately there is no quick and easy, free way to obtain high quality links for a website, if you know of one please let me know :). Some methods are more effective than others and you can take some shortcuts if you have a decent budget to spend, but it is not easy to get to the #1 spot on Google for a competitive high-traffic term.
There are 2 aspects to consider when building links for your site, some links will help you rank in the search engines and others will send relevant referral traffic. It is a good idea to try and get a mix so that you are not too reliant on the search engines for traffic.
Link Quality
When you are link building, remember that quality is more important than quantity. I have often had people say to me “My site has 10,000 incoming links but my competitor with only 500 links is higher than me in the rankings, its not fair.” The simple reason for this is link quality.
A single link from an established website with a PageRank (PR) of 7 is worth a lot more than a link from a brand new PR 0 blog. Bear this in mind when you go hunting for links. You also need to take into account the number of external links on a page when assessing link quality. A page with 50 or more outbound links is not going to give your site much of a boost unless it is on a highly authoritative website. Generally you want to get links from pages with 20 or less external links and if yours is the only link then even better :).
Jul 17
There are 101 different ways of getting an inbound link to your site. Some are more effective than others so here I am going to try and outline the best methods.
Best Online Directories
There are 2 online directories which stand out above the rest:
The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) is a human edited, free to submit directory. This is probably the most powerful free link you can get. The search engines value these links highly and other directories use the DMOZ list so a listing here can lead to multiple incoming links to your site.
It can also be very difficult to get into. They tend to have a backlog of sites for review and they have high standards. Do not bother submiting your site here until it is completely finished with useful, original content.
DMOZ say you should only submit your site to 1 category and then just wait until you are added. You will not be notified if your site is declined. I have had success with submiting sites to 1 main (topic) category and 1 regional category, the regiona lcategories tend to have a shorter wait. If you have not been listed within 3 months re-submit until you are.
Follow all the other submission guidelines carefully though, if you do not fill the form in correctly your site will be automatically declined.
The Yahoo Directory is probably the second best directory on the web, Google value a link from here highly but it is not free. The ‘review fee’ is $299 per year and if they do not like your site and refuse to list it you will not receive a refund! Read their guideliness carefully before you submit here, you do not want to waste $299. This directory may seem expensive and is not really suitable for small personal websites. However, if you want to run a proper business website that makes money you should submit here. It will help to get your site fully indexed and give a rankings boost.
Jul 18
General Online Directories
There are LOTS of general online directories out there. Although there are a few large, well-known sites that are exceptions you do not usually want to pay for these links.
Fortunately, many offer free submissions. When evaluating a directory consider the PageRank (PR) of the home page, the PR of the internal page where your link will be displayed and the total number of links on that page.
Here are a few decent general directories that (at the time of publishing) offer free submissions:
http://www.somuch.com/
http://www.worldsiteindex.com/
http://www.jayde.com/
http://www.fat64.net/
http://www.fourfind.com/
Local / Market Specific Online Directories
Submitting to local directories can help your site to get traffic for local searches. These local search keywords can be a useful source of traffic as they generally have a much lower level of competition as well as relevant traffic. To find directories in your area just do a search for ‘online directories location’.
Market specific online directories can be a good source of referral traffic. Some browsers will use a market specific directory to search for a product or service rather than a search engine. Again these can be found quite easily by searching for ‘market online directories’.
Jul 19
Article Submission
You can write articles on topics relevant to your site and submit them to article submission directories. In return the directory will give you a link back to your site, usually you can choose the link text.
When you submit an article you give other webmasters permission to re-print your article on their site as long as they leave the article and the backlink to your site intact. A well-written and interesting article can be picked up by numerous different sites generating many links back to your site and providing a stream of referral traffic.
Some people will write an article in 5 minutes and then spend ages submitting it to the many hundreds of article directories out there. This method can get you a lot of links but most of the online article directories are low quality sites so they do not provide valuable links.
I suggest you take the time to write a strong article that will hold the interest of people in your market. Then submit it to just the top 3 – 5 online article directories. Continue writing and submitting quality articles using variations of your main keyword, this will give your incoming links more diversity. By writing numerous good articles on related topics you may become known as an expert in your field. Also as the articles are interesting, other webmasters are more likely to publish them on their own sites.
The top article directories at the moment are:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.goarticles.com/
http://www.articledashboard.com/
http://searchwarp.com/
http://www.articlesbase.com/