Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category
published by Dan in SEO | SEO Basics
- SEO does not guarantee results overnight - Patience is one of the virtues SEOs must develop!
- SEO will get you the traffic but won’t guarantee conversions - You still need good content and a good website design to convince the traffic sent by search engines to take the action you want them to.
- SEO is hinged on keyword selection - If you want a successful SEO campaign you need to make sure that you select the most important/relevant keywords/ke phrases to target.
- SEO is a continuous effort - Search engines are very dynamic. To keep up with the changes in search engine algorithms you should make sure that you keep an eye on your site’s optimisation efforts. SEO is definitely NOT a one-time thing. You also need to regularly look at your keywords to see if you should be targeting new ones.
- SEO starts with website debugging - Time and again I have emphasised the importance of checking bugs, both critical and trivial, before doing SEO. You can not optimise a broken site!
- SEO service providers are not equal - Make sure you hire the services of a good/experienced SEO service provider if you want to get real results. Stay away from SEOs that promise results overnight. Chances are they will employ black hat tactics to show you “results”, which in the end will endanger more than benefit your website.
Popularity: 80% [?]
published by Dan in SEO | SEO Basics
I firmly believe that every now and then it is important that we review SEO basics to make sure that we do not neglect anything. The good thing about reviewing SEO basics is that you get to check whether you are losing sight of the reason why you are doing SEO.
- To get traffic from search engines - The primary purpose of SEO is NOT to be number in SERPs but to get as much traffic as from search engines as possible! This distinction is important because though you might rank better than before your SEO efforts still can’t be considered a success if you don’t reach the number of traffic you need/want from search engines.
- To get interested visitors from search engines - This pertains to relevance. You want the traffic you get to be interested in the content of your website. If you get a very high bounce rate then you need to take a close look at your keywords and start targeting search terms that are more relevant to your site’s actual content.
These are the two most basic reasons for SEO, however, if you look at the bigger picture you will see that even the above reasons exist to support the primary goal of your site (market your products online, educate people about your field, etc.). Hence, always remember that SEO is just a tool to help you reach your website’s aim. If you want to do effective SEO then do not lose sight of your goals.
Popularity: 80% [?]
published by Dan in SEO | SEO Strategy
5. Take advantage of trusted sites
There’s no doubt about it the fastest way to get traffic is not via organic SEO. However, while waiting to become achieve domain authority what you can do is to take advantage of the sites that have already achieved this. To do this the solution is still to somehow get linked to by a trusted site.
Spammers take advantage of sites with authoritative domains by inserting hidden links on the site. What you can do without resorting to spam tactics is to:
- advertise on the site;
- rent a page on the site (some sites allow this);
- get yourself on the site’s blogroll/listings;
- contribute content to the site and link to your site as resource site; and
- use other white hat link building tactics you know.
Note that by getting links from trusted sites will benefit you more than one way. The link will add to your site’s authority (not applicable for ad links that since the nofollow attribute is used in such cases), you’ll get more visibility for your site, and you’ll get traffic referred by the site.
Popularity: 84% [?]
published by Dan in SEO | SEO Strategy
3. Be age concious
This tip is fairly old since we all know that domain age is a factor search engines consider when ranking webpages. If you plan on buying an old domain make sure that it is AT LEAST 5 YEARS OLD. According to randfish the top 100 domains for any type of domain ending (.com, .biz, .net, .info, etc) are mostly older than five years.
4. Get links from .EDU pages
If you look at Google’s SERPs you will find that not all .EDU pages rank well, however, even then .EDU pages (even those that don’t rank that well) are still considered to authority/trusted sites. Because of this you would do well to get links from these pages. Of course links from .GOV are great too but it is harder to get links from government sites so you might as well focus on getting a link or two from a .EDU page. Again this doesn’t guarantee automatic authority for your page but it will still help boost your site’s authority.
Popularity: 84% [?]
published by Dan in SEO | SEO Strategy
2. When to Court Trusted Domains for Links
The answer to the question on when you should court trusted/authoritative domains for links is simple…You should court them if your domain is not yet a trusted domain.
The value of an inbound link increases if the linking site is consider by Google (and other search engines) to be authoritative, which is why most of us need it in order to increase our own domain autority. However, if your domain is already a trusted domain you shouldn’t have to bother trying to get links from other trusted domains. Of course getting links from them is still a good thing but since you are already a trusted site Google will still view your contents as relevant and will thus give you a good rank. Instead of spending your time optimising your site through link building you should instead focus your attention on other issues such as conversion rates and brand/reputation management. This doesn’t mean that you should completely forget search engine optimisation. You should always be aware of your standing with search engines and manage your site to keep it optimised and in good standing, in terms of search rankings, but since you’ve already achieved the goal of many sites, which is to rank well in SERPs, then you should be taking the next step.
Popularity: 84% [?]
published by Dan in SEO | SEO Strategy
Google clearly relies on domain authority when ranking websites, which is why SEOs work on building up a domain’s authority. However, many owners of smaller sites percieve authority building as an impossible task and so concentrate on other means to get the traffic they want and need.
In randfish’s post on “Google Spam Illuminates the Algo’s Reliance on Domain Authority” he outlines some things that can help you enhance your domain’s authority. Note that you should do your usual link building strategies and simply use the additional knowledge to get the results you want a bit faster.
Tips on achieving domain authority:
1. Use a single domain
Instead of using multiple domains for different content it is better to put them all under one domain. The reason for this is that with the more domains you have the more links you’ll need to build each one up. On the other hand, using just one domain will mean that all the links you gather for each content/topic will add to the overall number of links for that domain…and we know that the number of links is what really counts.
In my opinion though even if using a single domain is, as randfish put it, “universally wise” it is still better to use a different domain if your content are of very different topics. Remember search engines also favour themed sites since it helps them determine relevancy. Aside from that the relevance of the links you gather also counts.
The time to put all your content under one domain is when the content are related to each other. For example, put your SEO and SEM content under one domain but use a different domain for your fashion content!
Popularity: 84% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research | SEO
After discussing the purpose of the user for entering the search terms used as example for the previous post I will now discuss how knowing the intent should affect your decision regarding the placement of the keyword. I will be discussing the placement per keyword. Please refer to the previous post to re-check the user intent if you need to.
Before continuing with the discussion let us assume that the website being optimised for the keywords is a website that sell computers and computer parts.
- computers - Since this keyword is very vague as a website that sells computers my advice is to simply make sure that this keyword (both in the singular and plural form) be found ALL OVER the website. Being a very competitive term I would advice smaller websites not to bust their budget trying to make it to the top of SERPs with this keyword especially since users looking to buy computers usually enter more specific keywords.
- refurbished computers - Obviously this keyword should appear on the product description pages of each refurbished computer on sale. A wise thing to do would also to optimise a landing page for refurbished computers on sale. Although you would want your main page to contain the term refurbished computers so that people can still find it via the main page you should optimise the refurbished computers page for this search term more than you would the main page. Leading the user to a page with more specific information will encourage them to stick to that page since they information they need is right before them.
to be continued…
Popularity: 100% [?]
published by Dan in Keyword Research | SEO
Have you ever considered the role user intent plays when it comes to keyword placement? Let us take a look at a few examples for me to be better able to explain the role user intent plays. I’ll be giving some search terms and explain the probable intent of the user.
- computers - By entering a very vague search term the user shows that he’s probably just looking for information. If the user does intend to buy a computer in the near future he’s probably still in the looking/comparing stages and does not intend to buy one at that very moment.
- refurbished computers - The user probably plans to buy a computer and is looking at possibilities.
- discount computers - The user is probably plans to buy a computer and even has a specific budget in mind. Same level intent as someone looking for refurbished computer.
- computer promos - Some one looking for promos has an intention of buying a computer in the very near future if not at that very instant… but only if he finds a good computer promo that suits his budget.
- computer technologies - The user this time is probably searching for computer technologies to be able to learn more about computers. The purpose is research and not to buy anything.
As you can see the kind of keyword entered reveals something, even if not exactly, about the user’s intent. With this in mind you can optimise your web pages for certain keywords with the users’ intent playing a big role in deciding which keywords should be prioritised in which page. I will be discussing more of the keyword placement in my next post.
Popularity: 28% [?]
published by Dan in SEO | SEO Basics
If you want to be really good at SEO you should make sure that you keep track of the changes going on in the search engines’ algorithms. Why is this?
Since the algorithm is the equation(s) used by the search engines to compute a website’s rank in comparison to other websites then it is obviously important. Simply put it is the algorithm that will determine how your site fares in SERPs.
So what do you need to know about search engine algorithms?
- We do not know exactly what the equation is but if you want your website and your client’s website to do well then you have to understand the factors that impact a website’s ranking as well as the kind of impact these factors result in.
- The algorithm used by each search engine is different, however, the majority of factors they use to compute for a website’s rank is the same. However, they differ in the weight they give to each factor and their approach in solving ranking issues.
- The algorithm used by all search engines changes. This is the reason why it is very important to stay updated if you offer SEO services.
Popularity: 37% [?]
published by Dan in SEO
We all know the frustration red-tape can bring. When it comes to business though it must never get in the way of innovation. You simply have to explain to the big wigs that the hassle of going through all that red tape will be well worth the effort in the end.
Note though that red tape seems to grow the bigger a company grows, although there are exceptions of course. This is why you should be prepared to do a lot of waiting after presenting your proposal. Even with the copy writing stage you can still expect a lot of waiting time because with big companies they need to get anything they will put up on the website approved by the legal team. Of course this can take some time since it will be passed back and forth until everything is up to company standards. In short not only do you have to battle their reluctance because of all the red tape but your own impatience as well!
Popularity: 59% [?]
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