SEO Guide by SEO Nurse

SEO Tutorial

Search engines contain billions of HTML pages in their database(s). When a user performs a search, the search engine must not only filter a set of pages that are relevant to the query, but also rank (order) them from best to worst. Since it is impractical for search engines to use human reviews for the sheer volume of the databases, they rely on programmed algorithms to analyze and rank pages.

There are two categories of criteria that search engines use to rank pages:

• On Page Factors - Analysis of the HTML source code for a page
• Off Page Factors - Analysis of inbound links and the pages they link from

Each search engine weights factors differently, but the fact remains that they all have a limited criteria to choose from. By optimizing your site for one search engine, you will to a large degree optimize it for all of them.

SEO Tutorial Outline

Google has claimed that they incorporate over 99 factors in their ranking algorithm. There is a wealth of detailed analysis, opinions and conjecture available on the internet that attempts to reverse engineer the "secret formula" and qualify the relative importance of every possible factor. Unless your website is competing in an ultra-competitive industry, this level of analysis and detail is not necessary. Especially considering that Google or any other search engine can easily tweak their ranking formulas at any time.

Keyword Research

The very first step in the SEO process is to research which keywords and keyphrases you should be targeting. Your goal is to be ranked well for keywords / keyphrases that are highly targeted for your service, product, industry or offering. Optimizing your pages for keywords that are too general or unrelated to the subject of your site will only bring lots of unqualified traffic that does not convert well. Since you are paying for the bandwith, you want to maximize your ROI by targeting qualified traffic.

Company Name and Product Name Keywords

Generally, you do not need to optimize your site for your company name or product name(s). Unless your business / product names are composed of generic words (like Best Buy for example), your site will naturally attain the top rankings for those keywords. Most inbound links from external sites will reference your site / pages using your company name and/or product name(s) in the anchor text. Therefore, you can concentrate on keywords that people might use if they were searching for your type of service, product or offering.

Generating Good Keywords

Get some pencil and paper. Brainstorm for 20 minutes to an hour and jot down notes. Ask yourself, if I were looking for the type of offering my website advertises/sells, how would I search for it on the internet?

When you have a good list of keywords, you can use several on-line tools to search for related possibilities:

• Google AdWords' Keyword Suggestion Tool
• Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool
• WordTracker
• Webmaster Toolkit's Keyword Research Tool
• Espotting's Keyword Generator
• Ask Jeeves Related Search Suggestions

Evaluating Keyphrase Suitability

You should now have a fairly large list of keyphrases that are good candidates for targeting with your site. The next step is to research the viability of each keyphrase. Some keyphrases are more competitive than others. When you are just starting out, it makes more sense to target the less competitive phrases to achieve some early success.

The first step in evaluating keyphrases is determining how popular they are. Some of the tools listed above provide statistics showing popularity metrics for keyphrases. While these may not translate into an exact science, they do offer a rough guage of the popularity of a keyphrase. You can also use a Google AdWords account to get traffic estimates for your keyphrases on Google without actually paying any money. If you do follow through and set up an account, you can get some actual data on the keyphrase traffic.

The next step is to determine the competitiveness of each keyphrase. While WordTracker offers a KEI analysis, it is better to do your own analysis manually. Go to Google, enter your proposed keyphrase and search. Check the top 10-20 results.

1. Do they contain the exact keyphrase in their title, description and page text?
2. What is their PR?
3. How many backlinks do they have?

If the listings do not contain the exact keyphrase (not just the keywords used in phrase), have low PR and/or few backlinks, then the chances are very good that you can obtain a top 10-20 listing fairly quickly for that keyphrase.

If you would like some expert assistance with keyphrase research, Measuring Up now offers very reasonable keyword research services for website designers, SEO/SEM consultants, and "do-it-yourself" webmasters.

On Page Optimization

Before we dig into on page optimizations, we need to consider how the major search engines index pages. Major search engines use spiders (also called robots) to crawl (trace) the web and find pages by following links just like a human browser might. However, there are technical limitations to what spiders can do. Your site's architecture can make a huge difference in a spider's ability to read and index your pages.

An in-depth dissertation on site architecture is beyond the scope of this tutorial. However, if your site employs:

• Mostly Flash content
• Mostly graphic content
• Dynamically rendered pages (PHP, ASP, etc.) with session IDs
• Frames
• Javascript menus

You need to investigate the potential problems spiders are going to have indexing your pages before the following SEO tutorial will be effective. A quick check on the Lynx Viewer will let you see your web site much like the search engine spiders do. Can they see your content and (navigation) links?

SEO lends itself to tunnel vision among the newcomers to the field. The gratification of seeing your pages rising in search engine results for your keyhrases can be addictive. Always keep your visitor in mind when performing your search engine optimizations. Achieving high rankings (and traffic) will only result in higher bandwidth bills if your site does not convert traffic to sales (whether direct or indirect). Never compromise the useability and copy of your site in favor of SEO - avoid SEO tunnel vision. Your conversions/ROI will likely suffer.

Title Tag

Google and most search engines place a lot of emphasis on the title tag for each page. Title tags should include the one or two keyphrases that you will be targeting with that page. The closer the keyphrase is to the beginning of the title, the more weight it carries. Thus keyphrase one, keyphrase two - business name will be more effective than business name - keyphrase one, keyphrase two.

It is a good idea to limit the number of keyphrases you target with any given page to two (three at the very most) per page. Trying to target more keyphrases results in diluted results for all phrases. It is better to add more pages to your site and target additional terms with additional pages and copy. Search engines will index all of your pages, so do not limit yourself to trying to optimize just your home (index) page.

(Meta) Description Tag

Most search engines ignore the description tag as far as keyword relevancy is concerned. It doesn't hurt to work your keywords into the description tag, but if you include the description tag, write it to entice visitors to come to your page. Most search engines use the Description tag to some extent when displaying search results. This is your chance to differentiate your site from all the other results in a search.

(Meta) Keyword Tag

Most search engines completely ignore the keyword tag. Years ago, this tag was used by the search engines for determining relevancy, but it was abused. If you include a keyword tag, keep it short. There is not much point in listing anything other than the keyphrases you have included in the title tag.

Copy

The single most important part of your on-page SEO effort is to ensure that your keyphrases are used within the copy (text) of your page. The keyphrases should be repeated as much as possible without compromising the text. Forcing the phrases into the text in choppy, stilted sentences may impress the search engines, but it will not impress your human visitors. It is counterproductive.

Keyphrases may (and should) be used in:

• heading tags - Use h1, h2, h3, etc. tags to structure the main points on your pages. Use your keyphrases where appropriate.
• main page text - Write about your subject matter. Use your keyphrases where appropriate.
• strong, bold or italics tags - Use around your keyphrases where emphasis is warranted.
• image alt tags - Each image on your page should have an alt tag for visitors with:
  • text only browsers
  • graphics turned off (dial-up connections, overseas connections, etc.)
  • handicapped browsers (with text-to-speech for the sight impaired)
  Your alt tag should describe the image using your keyphrases where appropriate.
• filenames - choosing keyword or keyphrase rich folder/directory and file names gives you another avenue for introducing your keywords/keyphrases in your internal site links. Use hyphens (dashes) to separate words in keyphrases. Search engines parse hyphens as spaces.

Be sure not to abuse image alt tags or heading tags with keyword stuffing. Search engines may penalize your site for that.

This is all you need to do for basic on page optimizations to produce dramatic results for non-optimized sites. Acheiving the right balance of keyphrase repetition and copy that also sells is an art. If you are interested in learning more about SEO copywriting, Karon Thackston's The Step-By-Step Copywriting Course is very good.

Off Page Optimization

Off page optimizations consist entirely of link building strategies. Because it entails third parties, you will often be limited in how much control you can exert. However, knowing what the search engines are looking for can assist you to optimize those opportunities where you do have control.

Search engines evaluate pages that link to yours for relevance. Having a link from a page discussing widget training services will be more helpful to a widget storefront than a link from "Joe Bob's Land of a Million Free Links". In addition to relevance that search engines will appreciate, links from topically related sites can and will drive traffic to your site in their own right.

Maximizing the Value of Links

Every link is a good link, but some links are better than others. When soliciting links from link partners, directories or other venues, you should keep the following in mind:

• Always link to your home page using your domain name root. Do not link to the page name of the default home page. For example, all home page links on this site link to http://www.measuring-up.com/ and not http://www.measuring-up.com/index.html. Of course, the filename should be included when linking to pages other than the home page.
• Maintain consistency in using the www. prefix in the URL. Search engines treat http://measuring-up.com/ and http://www.measuring-up.com/ as two different sites.
• Use your keywords/keyphrases as/in the anchor text for all links whenever appropriate. You usually do not have much control over 3rd party links to your site, but you can control the anchor text for all links within your site and from any 3rd party links that you can define/edit.

Link Building Campaigns

With a new site, it can be helpful to engage in a link building campaign to get your site some immediate exposure. As your site matures and develops more content, you will find that other sites will start linking to it without solicitations.

There are several avenues you can pursue to expand your link building campaign:

• free directories - Crawling search engines use these human edited directories to find (and categorize) websites. Be sure you get listings for all directories that are applicable:
  • DMOZ - largest free directory. Used by Google to power the Google directory. It can take a long time (months in some cases) for an application to be processed, so patience is golden when applying to DMOZ.
  • WebSavvy
  • JoeAnt - You must apply to become an editor if you do not want to pay for inclusion.
  • Gimpsy - Only accepts sites that offer some interactive features. Be sure to check their guidelines before applying.
  • Zeal - Only accepts non-commercial sites.
  When applying to these directories, comply with their instructions and make it as easy as possible for their editors to approve your submission(s). Consider becoming an editor for some directories and you might get the ability to fast-track your own submissions.
• themed portals - Look for magazines, discussion forums, targeted vertical directories, etc. that pertain to your niche. Request listings where appropriate.
• press releases / articles - Many websites will be happy to publish a press release or content article and include a link back to your site.
• industry organizations - Many non-profit organizations offer directories of their membership with links to their websites. Join as many as make sense for your venture.
• participate in discussion forums - Many internet discussion forums allow hyperlinks in "signature files". Participate in discussions and offer advice and wisdom. Do not spam forums with blatant advertising. This will reflect poorly on you as well as possibly get you banned from the forum.
• set up a search engine friendly affiliate program - offer commissions on sales of your product(s) for others to advertise your wares and link to your site.
• RSS news feeds - publish company news though RSS syndication. Other websites pick up the RSS feed and publish your news story (which can include a link back to your site, of course).
• paid advertising - There are many directories (like Yahoo), portals and websites that offer paid advertising options from text links to banners.

Find more link building ideas.

Reciprocal Links

You can use the search engines to find websites that might link to you. Search on your keywords and your competitors' backlinks to find sites that link out to websites in your industry. Visit those sites and try to determine the owner's name (or a manager as appropriate). Send them a personalized e-mail introducing them to your site. Request consideration for a listing on their links page (and include the URL for that page) where your website would be of value to their audience.

Many owners/managers/webmasters will be happy to link to your site if it is germane, quality and useful to their audience. Some might request reciprocation. If their site is useful for visitors to your site, you should consider reciprocating. We do not recommend trading links with websites that have no topical connection to your site. It looks unprofessional and some search engines may be starting to penalize sites for it.

When you solicit a link from another site, be sure to format your requested link to conform to the format published on the target link page. Be sure to use your keyphrases whenever descriptions are published next to links.

As you generate backlinks with keyword rich anchor text or from related authority sites, you will be maximizing your off page optimizations.

SEO Resources - Tools, Advice and Forums

We have made every effort to make this SEO resource page as comprehensive as possible. If there are useful SEO tools, advice pages or discussion forums missing that you think should be here, please e-mail your suggestion to resources@measuring-up.com.

Keyword Research Tools

Google AdWords' Keyword Suggestion Tool [Free] - Find keywords related to your keyphrases.

Google AdWords [Free] - Initiate the process for setting up a PPC ad and see traffic estimates for your keyphrases. You can cancel the process without paying any fees.

Digital Point's Keyword Suggestion Tool [Free] - The tool queries both Overture and Wordtracker and displays the results side by side for comparison.

Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool [Free] - Displays the number of times a given query was searched for the last month. Results may not be representative (accurate) for any specific engine, but it is useful for finding keywords related to a given term.

SEO Research Labs [$ for full service consulting] - Provides outsourced keyword research services for website designers, SEO/SEM consultants, and "do-it-yourself" webmasters.

WordTracker [Free demo / $$$ for full function] - Keyword research tool that analyzes search data from several meta-search engines.

SEO Keyphrase Ranking / Tracking Tools

Digital Point Keyword Tracker [Free] - This tool allows you track your site's search positions for your keyphrases on Google, Yahoo and MSN. It requires a Google API key (which is also free) and the installation of a PHP script for Yahoo/MSN tracking:

In case you are wondering why you have to install a script on your server to enable these functions is because Yahoo and MSN limit the number of API requests made per day on an IP address basis. So this will make the requests from your server IP.

http://www.seochat.com/googledance/ [Free] - This tool allows you to search multiple datacenters at the same time. Warning! Use this tool sparingly - it may violate Google's Terms of Service.

MarketLeap's Link Popularity Checker [Free] - Compare the relative IBLs indexed by several search engines for your site against up to three other sites. Warning! Use this tool sparingly - it may violate some search engines' Terms of Service.

McDar SEO Tools [Free] - Offers several ranking, keyword and link popularity checking tools. Warning! Use these tools sparingly - they may violate some search engines' Terms of Service.

SEO / Webmaster Tools

Check Server Headers Tool [Free] - Check HTTP Status Codes for any URI (includes bulk check feature). Useful for checking for 301 and 302 redirects.

Search Engine World's Misc. Tools [Free] - Page size checker, spider emulator, html validator, robots.txt validator and more.

Xenu Link Sleuth [Free Download] - Check your site for broken links. Quickly check other sites for links to your site.

Keyword Density Analyzer [Free] - Compare the keyword density of your site against another site.

Display Emulators and Validation Tools

Lynx Viewer [Free] - See how your web pages look in a text-only browser. This is how most search engine spiders will see your page.

MarketingProf's Wireless/Mobile Device Emulator [Free (requires registration)] - Article includes link to download (for Windows NT, 2000 or XP) a wireless/mobile device emulator. See how your web page is rendered on internet enabled cell phones and PDAs.

W3C CSS Validation Service [Free] - Validate your CSS code and fix errors that might cause problems with browsers in displaying your page correctly.

W3C Markup Validation Service [Free] - Validate your HTML code and fix errors that might cause problems with spiders or browsers in interpreting your page correctly.

Miscellaneous SEO/Webmaster Tools

Search Engine Relationship Chart [Free] - This interactive reference chart shows you the relationships of all the major search engines, PPC providers and directory feeds.

AdWords Keyword Permutation Generator [Free Download] - Generate bounded keyword permutations for pasting into AdWords keyword lists.

File Splitter [Free Download] - Easily split large text files (like monthly server logs) into smaller, more manageable files that can be completely loaded into Microsoft Excel for detailed analysis.

Profit Protector HTML Tool (Affiliate Link Encapsulator) [Free Download] - Generate Javascript encapsulated HTML code to protect your affiliate links from abuse.

E_Cloaker 2.0 [Free Download] - Generate unicode e-mail link HTML code for your web pages.

SEO Consultants' Advanced E-mail Link Generator [Free] - Generate unicode e-mail link HTML code for your web pages (includes CC:, BCC:, subject and body text options).

SEO Discussion Forums

Please note that there are a lot of SEO related discussion forums available on the internet. If you are just getting started, they can be overwhelming and often offer conflicting advice. The following list is not intended to be a comprehensive directory of forums, but rather a list of quality places where anyone can go and learn with a minimum of hassle or confusion.

High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum [Free] - Friendly and dynamic forum with top experts and a web marketing focus.

iHelpYou Free Search Engine Forums [Free] - Focused on industry best practices in search engine optimization.

SEO Chat Forums [Free] - Fast paced forum that with a large membership that explores the technical side of the search engine algorithms.

SEO Articles and Miscellaneous Resources

Search Engine College [???] - Offers classes and certification in SEO & SEM from top experts in the field.

GoogleGuy Says [Free] - Collected postings of an anonymous employee (executive?) from Google.