After researching SEO and taking a look at what may optimize search results for your site, I found that the best results are not only in the keywords you use in your page title, but also the positioning of keywords in the 1st paragraph of the body text. Editing the content of your page and the html is also influential to search engine results. One other idea that I found which I didnt know existed was the use of consultants and consulting agencies. They have the expertise to get your site ranked for terms that matter in your pages industry/areas of interest. Linking your site from others sites also can drive traffic to your own site. Here is a site that I found that lists a few tips:
http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/checklist.htm
SEO and social networking sites work best when you use content in your page relevant to social networking sites, myspace, facebook, etc. Building relationships between your page and social networking sites . Using social networking sites in you SEO efforts requires you to find out what sites are most appropriate for you to frequent. It is useful to become familiar with the culture of the sites, including what kind of content people publish, what’s popular, and how people interact with each other. A site I came upon that has tips for business entrepreneurs is here:
http://yourwebchick.wordpress.com/
Monday, November 16, 2009
SEO
Search engine optimization is the practice of tweaking your website to work with a variety of search engine algorithms and the natural users of your websites to create something that both “floats to the top” in organic searches and that users find easy to find, use, and link to. This is, in some ways, the opposite of SEM, or search engine marketing, which leverages paid inclusion in search engine result sets.
At one point, webmasters were in the habit of “stuffing” websites with keywords, repeating the words that they thought would increase their rankings. As early as 1997 search engines began to rewrite their algorithms to disregard such artificial inflations of rank. Since then, in order to achieve an optimized state for your website it is recommended that website designers make good use of all of the elements of the web page and use human-friendly naming conventions in their page URLs.
In practice, utilizing titles, friendly URLs and the tag will achieve better results in overall search-ability than paid inclusion, which cannot guarantee rank, or keyword loading within the body of a document. Following these guidelines in the development of web pages seems to be good advice.
At one point, webmasters were in the habit of “stuffing” websites with keywords, repeating the words that they thought would increase their rankings. As early as 1997 search engines began to rewrite their algorithms to disregard such artificial inflations of rank. Since then, in order to achieve an optimized state for your website it is recommended that website designers make good use of all of the elements of the web page and use human-friendly naming conventions in their page URLs.
In practice, utilizing titles, friendly URLs and the tag will achieve better results in overall search-ability than paid inclusion, which cannot guarantee rank, or keyword loading within the body of a document. Following these guidelines in the development of web pages seems to be good advice.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
S E O
Search Engine Optimization is a very good and useful tool to increase hits and make your site more widely known. The Google SEO Start Guide was very helpful and informative. There were obvious know-hows such as the title tag but others like the description meta tag were new to me. I didn't know that Google showed the description meta tag. I always thought Google just showed snippets of text from the website. Also, having a good URL structure was also a good tip. Other tips like the breadcrumbs navigation and the customized 404 page are also great ideas. This entire guide had tips of subtle changes but when utilized all together, I bet the search can be greatly optimized. I never really knew how important the individual title, anchor, h1, etc tags were in a website. Honestly, I kind of found it tedious to have all of those individual tags. But after reading this article, I realize that there is a reason for all of the extra work. For example, I used to avoid or be too lazy to put the "alt" in the image tag but the article states that it is also a good method for optimized search.
As for ways to promote my site, I would say that methods would be different depending on what kind of site you have and what demographic group your site targets. But for the general population, I think social media sites such as facebook and twitter are your best bets. After I launch the site, I would try to make maybe a facebook event on the launching or even a facebook group that people can join. Facebook groups are good for discussions and even posting pictures and events within it. For twitter I would maybe make an account for my site and start following people that i think would be interested in my site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
http://www.seochat.com/
As for ways to promote my site, I would say that methods would be different depending on what kind of site you have and what demographic group your site targets. But for the general population, I think social media sites such as facebook and twitter are your best bets. After I launch the site, I would try to make maybe a facebook event on the launching or even a facebook group that people can join. Facebook groups are good for discussions and even posting pictures and events within it. For twitter I would maybe make an account for my site and start following people that i think would be interested in my site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
http://www.seochat.com/
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Search Engine Optimization
“The objective of search engine optimization (SEO) is to increase a Web site's traffic counts, and ultimately conversions, by ranking very high in the results of searches for the keywords in the search query. It is the mission of SEO to make the site's content worthy of higher search engine ranking by being more relevant and competent than the competition's. This SEO process is often viewed as a struggle to rank well for just a few keywords, instead of a struggle to satisfy the needs of those entering the query. If you search on your best keywords you will see the leading sites in the rankings and to obtain traffic for your content you will need to rank higher than those top sites. Our free site and full services optimize and improve your search engine rankings (traffic and profits) via our books, classroom SEO training, search engine optimization tools, site assessments, services including placement advice, tips, information and hints to improve your search engine marketing relative to the existing leaders. After all, better keyword ranking is the first step to increased Web traffic.” (http://www.bruceday.com) Obviously, the best way to increase traffic on your site is to use the correct wording in your title and choice of keywords, and to use a variation the keywords like synonyms because not everybody thinks of looking for a business or other sites the same way. Just the same way a phone book is organized is kinda the same way search engines are organized. If you were to look for your favorite restaurant and looked for it by name, somebody else might look for it under restaurants in a location and somebody else might look for it by what they offer on their menu, so the key to optimization is to select all the keywords that relate to the most popular ways that people search for your site and put in a few of the non-popular ways also to optimize the search engines’ capabilities.
“As far as traffic generation is concerned, there are very few techniques and channels that will beat social bookmarking promotion.
That being said, there are a couple of things that you should know. First of all, social bookmarking traffic is very peculiar. It does not click on ads. It does not stick around on your site. And it rarely subscribes to your RSS feed.
Secondly, not all types of content will work on all social bookmarking sites. SEO and blogging related topics tend to perform really poorly on Digg, for example, while political coverage receive good attention on Reddit. Over the time you will need to find what is the right social bookmarking site for your content.” (http://www.dailyblogtips.com)
Social bookmarking is a good way to get your site out there but with the difficulties it poses it is not always the right choice to make for your site promotion. If certain sites do not perform well with your related topics it is sometimes not worth the trouble if people cannot view it. So to better optimized your site, sometimes social networking would work better, it just all depends upon your content and desired audience. Jenn Powless
“As far as traffic generation is concerned, there are very few techniques and channels that will beat social bookmarking promotion.
That being said, there are a couple of things that you should know. First of all, social bookmarking traffic is very peculiar. It does not click on ads. It does not stick around on your site. And it rarely subscribes to your RSS feed.
Secondly, not all types of content will work on all social bookmarking sites. SEO and blogging related topics tend to perform really poorly on Digg, for example, while political coverage receive good attention on Reddit. Over the time you will need to find what is the right social bookmarking site for your content.” (http://www.dailyblogtips.com)
Social bookmarking is a good way to get your site out there but with the difficulties it poses it is not always the right choice to make for your site promotion. If certain sites do not perform well with your related topics it is sometimes not worth the trouble if people cannot view it. So to better optimized your site, sometimes social networking would work better, it just all depends upon your content and desired audience. Jenn Powless
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization is basically what helps specific sites get out to the user through a process that is free. In other words, there is no advertising required to make a site get a lot of hits or to make it profitable. SEO helps search queries receive the most relevant sites just by reading simple elements of HTML code.
In the process of creating a site it's important make sure thee is a title for each page that is short and sweet. When someone reads the title it should be instantly recognizable what each specific page is about. Similar to title tags, meta tags also come in handy. They are more specific than title tags as they give a brief sentence pertaining to the content of each page. It's important to make them clear and concise so that they will appear as part of the search results when someone types in a query.
Some people think that social networking should be used instead of SEO as sites can be even more specifically directed to the user (http://online-social-networking.com/social-media-vs-search-engine-optimization). Social bookmarking also applies to this as it enables users to tag websites and keep them organized in a sort of directory. It enables fast access to heavily traffic sites or site that are visited frequently by the user (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking). The metadata is used to mark the site. SEO is great to market one's site without having to spend any money. Using SEO is great with social networking as many people are interconnected and care share different sites with one another. It's probably the fastest way for a site to become big. The inclusion of bookmarks also allows for these sites to not only be passed on throughout the Internet but to also be remembered thus building a solid foundation for a specific website and it various deeper content.
In the process of creating a site it's important make sure thee is a title for each page that is short and sweet. When someone reads the title it should be instantly recognizable what each specific page is about. Similar to title tags, meta tags also come in handy. They are more specific than title tags as they give a brief sentence pertaining to the content of each page. It's important to make them clear and concise so that they will appear as part of the search results when someone types in a query.
Some people think that social networking should be used instead of SEO as sites can be even more specifically directed to the user (http://online-social-networking.com/social-media-vs-search-engine-optimization). Social bookmarking also applies to this as it enables users to tag websites and keep them organized in a sort of directory. It enables fast access to heavily traffic sites or site that are visited frequently by the user (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking). The metadata is used to mark the site. SEO is great to market one's site without having to spend any money. Using SEO is great with social networking as many people are interconnected and care share different sites with one another. It's probably the fastest way for a site to become big. The inclusion of bookmarks also allows for these sites to not only be passed on throughout the Internet but to also be remembered thus building a solid foundation for a specific website and it various deeper content.
SEO-Caution to Beginners
For web developers and online businesses alike, three little words equate to a very strategic and crucial principle: search engine optimization (SEO). This is the practice of employing a variety of strategies in order to get a particular website ranked higher in search engine results. According to A Discussion on SEO Strategies by Scott Johnson, “it is true that all of the websites that you may view on the Internet are after this very thing to get a better ranking, and who are already on the topmost position are on to remain in that very position. The reason behind this is that the better the ranking a website is having the better are its chances of getting the maximum number of visitors to their website, which would ultimately make their business more profitable.” The higher a website or business ranks in search engine results, the more traffic it will have, the more business it will have, the more it will be able to charge for advertising, etc. SEO, if properly pursued, can have grossly beneficial results for any website or business.
There are a litany of methods by which a developer may improve the SEO of a website. According to the article SEO and Website Optimization “these site optimizations can be spread across metrics like site accessibility, URLs, meta-tags, site architecture and many others.” The key is to knowing which tweaks to make where, and how often. For those, like myself, who are completely in the dark as to how these matters work, the handy dandy guideline published by Google called Google’s Search Engine Optimization Guide alludes to many of the manners in which SEO may be achieved. According to this guide, “Search engine optimization is often about making small modifications to parts of your website. When viewed individually, these changes might seem like incremental improvements, but when combined with other optimizations, they could have a noticeable impact on your site's user experience and performance in organic search results.”
It then goes on to elaborate on ways in which a developer may achieve these small modifications. First, the title is of utmost importance. The more specific keywords placed in the title, the more likely it is to turn up higher on relevant searches. Do not make the title just the title, make it the title and a short description of it in pertinent keywords. The guide offers “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.”
Another way to capitalize on website exposure is to properly employ the usage of meta tags. A meta tag, if used properly, gives Google and others such search engines a brief summary on what the website is about. Meta tags are different from title tags in the realm of SEO in that search engines may use the meta tag as a brief description when the page turns up in a site. Therefore, not only are meta tags used to rank the site in terms of relevance in a search engine result, but it gives the searcher a rough idea of whether that particular site is what he or she was looking for. This fact makes meta tags that much more important.
A third manner in which someone may employ SEO is to improve the structure and composition of URLs. According to SEO and Website Optimization, “If the number of dynamic parameters exceeds two, the length and complexity of the URL increases. With this, user readability as well as search engine comprehension will diminish. Wherever possible use human readable links.” The way to go about this for beginner to intermediate SEO-ers is to simply make the URL simple, easily remembered words. For advanced SEO-ers, rewriting a dynamic URL to a static one can be greatly beneficial. However, this task should only be attempted by experts because the guide states that “while Google is fine with this, we'd like to note that this is an advanced procedure and if done incorrectly, could cause crawling issues with your site.”
Once a developer begins to delve into these basic procedures, he can hone his SEO skills an continue onto the more complex methods associated with SEO.
http://www.selfseo.com/story-19722.php
A Discussion on SEO Strategies by Scott Johnson
http://losangelespublicrelations.com/seo-website-optimization/01466
SEO and Website Optimization by Los Angeles Public Relations Firms
SEO Rankings
The Google article on SEO Rankings was very interesting. It pointed out many new ways of increasing a site's ranking that are actually quick and easy to do. I knew that the title section was important but I did not realize that unneeded words can actually hurt your website. So therefore it is better to include a brief and descriptive title instead. This logic can also be applied to the URLs for your site. By having words in the URL that describe the page, search engines are able to find your website faster and easier. It is very interesting how something as simple as the way you structure your URLs can be the difference between having your site come up on the first or last page. The main message from this article is that there are a lot of small things that go into websites, and all of these parts are typically quickly overlooked. So by taking your time to make sure these small parts are done correctly, you will be able to greatly increase the SEO rankings of your website.
Organization seems to be another main theme of the article. Even though you main think your organization makes sense or is good enough, the search engine may not. If you do not use a simple organization structure that can be easily identified by the search engine, it will either skip over your site or you will fall very far behind other sites because it takes too long to go through your site. This includes the way the site is coded and how the navigation overall is structured. A very complex and hard to understand navigation system will not help your SEO rankings. Also it is important to understand that when creating the site, make sure that everything is done when necessary and appropriate. Do not just add in extra parts for the purpose of trying to increase your SEO ranking. These extra random parts will only have the opposite result for your website according to the article.
I was reading a similar article in the New York Times the other day. It was talking about how with the growing number of websites on the internet, it is getting harder and harder to bring people to your website. So this article from Google includes very valuable information in terms of solving this growing issue. I found this article very helpful and I think developers should pay close attention to it in order to improve their websites. The times are changing and it is time to change the ways that websites are designed. This change is actually good because it will lead to better organized and clearer websites.
Organization seems to be another main theme of the article. Even though you main think your organization makes sense or is good enough, the search engine may not. If you do not use a simple organization structure that can be easily identified by the search engine, it will either skip over your site or you will fall very far behind other sites because it takes too long to go through your site. This includes the way the site is coded and how the navigation overall is structured. A very complex and hard to understand navigation system will not help your SEO rankings. Also it is important to understand that when creating the site, make sure that everything is done when necessary and appropriate. Do not just add in extra parts for the purpose of trying to increase your SEO ranking. These extra random parts will only have the opposite result for your website according to the article.
I was reading a similar article in the New York Times the other day. It was talking about how with the growing number of websites on the internet, it is getting harder and harder to bring people to your website. So this article from Google includes very valuable information in terms of solving this growing issue. I found this article very helpful and I think developers should pay close attention to it in order to improve their websites. The times are changing and it is time to change the ways that websites are designed. This change is actually good because it will lead to better organized and clearer websites.
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