published by Gary in Black Hat SEO
Black hat search engine optimisation is primarily defined as techniques and tricks that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. Actually every search engine wants to give the most relevant information to its users and the black hat SEO tricks portray the page as something they are not. Black hat tricks — sometimes — can get you at the top of the search results, but they get your website banned as soon as your tricks are noticed by the search engines. There is no SEO like white hat SEO. Given below are some black hat SEO tricks you should avoid for the longevity of your rankings and SEO efforts.
Avoid keyword stuffing
Have you ever encountered pages that nonsensically contain long arrays of keywords and key phrases at the begging of the page and at the end of the page. They are trying to trick the search engines into believing that they contain lots of relevant information about those keywords. This trick used to succeed for a few days but it no longer works and it is now a sure-shot way of getting your website banned for six or seven months.
Don’t make mirror websites
People erroneously think if they have many websites selling the same thing, sooner or later at least one of them will start appearing at the top of the search results. This is precisely the reason why of late the search engines have started penalising web masters for hosting duplicate content.
Avoiding cloaking and doorway pages
Cloaking and doorway pages are specifically created for the search engines and not for the users. Search engines loath such pages because after tricking the search engine into displaying your cloaked page you can redirect the user to any page of your choice. This is the highest kind of deception and lots of search engine resources go into locating the cloaked pages and banning the associated websites.
Don’t stuff keywords in your title
Your title is meant to make things clearer, not to confound your visitors and search engine crawlers. Use clear language in your title. There is no need to use twenty keywords there. Just use one or two most important keywords and construct a pithy sentence out of them and then use that sentence as the title of your page.
Don’t use hidden text
Some webmasters create lots of text using the same color as the background of their page, thinking that text is no longer visible. They don’t understand that the search engine crawlers strip the text of all the formatting and then read it. No matter what color you use, the search engine crawlers can easily read it.
Avoid automated search engine submissions
All the major search engines don’t accept automated submissions and all the search engines that do, are mostly spam related websites specifically run to collect your email addresses. Inbound links created by automatic submissions can adversely affect your search engine ranking.
Avoid senseless link exchanges
There is a reason why the search engines use inbound and outbound links to gauge the popularity of your website. Inbound links from quality websites validate your content. Similarly, by providing quality outbound links you tell the search engines that you link to important information on the Internet. The senseless exchange of links can drastically reduce your link popularity.
In conclusion I’d say always stick to legitimate SEO practices as their affect is long-lasting.
Popularity: 14% [?]
published by Gary in SEO Tools
Different Search Engine Optimisation tools hold different meanings for different web masters and bloggers, and it is really difficult to compile a list of “the best SEO tools�. Still, most of the SEO requirements are generic in nature, and there is an excellent post on Phoenixrealm regarding SEO Tools that will both enhance and ease your SEO efforts.
Popularity: 14% [?]
published by Gary in Keyword Research
If your online business depends on search engine optimisation and relevant traffic from search engines then it is highly important that you optimise your website for the right keywords. The fundamental problem with the majority of web masters is that they quickly assume what keywords people would use to find them. This is a big mistake.
Do you know companies that are very serious about their SEO efforts spend thousands of pounds just trying to find out what keywords and key phrases can fetch them maximum business from the search engines? It’s very critical that relevant keywords are used when writing your web copy and the headings so that not only you focus better, but your visitors too have a rewarding experience at your website.
Finding the right keywords can be very easy, and very difficult: it depends on the nature of your business and the kind of competition you have. Listed below are a few methods you can apply for finding the most accurate keywords for your web pages and enhance your search engine optimisation.
Use the good old search engines to research keywords
Search for the keyword, let’s say on Google, and observe how many results are being returned. By studying the websites that come at the top of the results you can make out whether they appeared for the right keyword or not. If they offer the same service that you do, then you are using the right keyword and you too should optimize your website for that keyword. If they don’t offer the same service, then you should search for the alternative keyword. Keep doing this until the desired websites begin appearing. Then start jotting down all the keywords and phrases that bring up the right websites. They are your keywords.
Use the online thesaurus to research keywords
Yes, a thesaurus is a good source of alternative keywords. Make a list of synonyms you can find and then try them on various search engines. See what sort of results are returned. If right websites appear for your synonyms then you know that your competitor are using those synonyms to optimise their websites.
Use free and commercial keyword research tools
Some of the free keyword research tools are:
Professional Search Engine Optimisation companies such as Doublespark-SEO also utilise paid for keyword research tools such as KeywordDiscovery. Athough these can cost many thousands of pounds per year, they do provide the ultimate in detailed professional keyword research analysis.
Study your log files
Your log files/traffic stats tell you what sort of visitors you attract from various search engines. You log files will also tell you what keywords bring visitors to your website. A careful study can help you decide what keywords to discard and for what keywords to optimise.
Popularity: 12% [?]
published by Gary in SEO Basics
On-page search engine optimisation is a very crucial part of search engine optimisation because it makes the search engine crawlers understand what you page really stands for. Professional search engine optimisation companies believe true on-page optimisation is not only good for SEO, but they also make your web pages really user friendly. Here are a few things you can take care of in order to optimise your web pages:
Keep the junk code out
Junk code is mostly generated when people use software to create web pages. Every GUI software has its proprietary idiosyncrasies and they insert needless, and often deprecated code, into web pages. You can easily create basic, search engine friendly web pages by hand-coding, that is, simply using an ASCII text editor. It keeps the junk code away and makes your code lean. Web pages with less code and more content get ranked well by the search engines.
Use your primary keywords in the title tag
Some say the title tags are important and some say they are not. They are in fact. Most of the search engines consider your title tag when they are ranking your page. And if nothing else, it comes up in the search results. Putting your keywords in the title tag highlights them in the search results and makes people click your link.
Use your primary keywords in the header tags
The header tags make your web page content scannable. They should be able to convey the overall message of your web page and hence, the search engines use them to gauge the relevance of your web page. Putting your keywords within <h1></h1>, <h2></h2>, <h3></h3>, etc. gives the crawlers a fair idea of what you are trying to say/sell.
Use your keywords with anchor text
Anchor text is the text that comes within <a></a>. Instead of saying “To read more about our web designing services click here” you should use “Read more about our web designing services“. It tells the crawlers that the link contains something important about web designing services.
Put your keywords in bullets
You should also use your keywords when you put your ideas in bullet forms.
Apart from this you can also highlight keywords or italisise them to put emphasis on them. And also, if you use images, put the appropriate keywords in the alt tag.
These are a few steps you can take to optimise your web pages.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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