WEB DESIGN APPLICATIONS

SEOSearch engine optimization

What is a Search Engine?

Examples of popular Search Engines

Why is Search Engine marketing important?

What is a SEO/SEM?

SEO strategy

Ranking factors

Refers to the process of “optimizing” both the on-page and off-page ranking factors in order to achieve high search enginewhat you see on the web pagecomplete URL, the domain name, the page

name, the page name extension SEO is the act of modifying a website to

increase its ranking in organic (vs paid), crawler-based listings of search engines

Optimization generally refers to the work you can do for Search Engines

Directories, like Yahoo operate under very different guidelines

SEM is the act of marketing a website via search engines by purchasing paid listings

Paid lisitng [google > ipl]

These are listings that search engines sell to advertisers, usually through paid placement

In contrast, organic listings are not sold Paid placement allows you to pay for

special placement Recommended: Yahoo Sponsored Link,

Google AdWords

Includes:Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO)

- no cost per clickPaid InclusionPay Per Click (PPC)

SEO SEM/PPC

Pros • Free (not including resources) • Searchers click on organic search results more often than paid PPC links

• Excellent at creating awareness quickly• quick search

Cons • Time consuming• Takes longer to see results

• Can be pricey ($25-$100,000 a month)• Must be managed constantly (daily/weekly)

Drive customers to your website Increase sales leads from customers

looking for their products and services Build your brand online Increase profile against your

competitors Target a global audience via

international search engines

A spider or crawler which is a component of a SE gathers listings by automatically "crawling" the web

The spider follows links to web pages, makes copies of the pages and stores them in the SE’s index

Based on this data, the SE then indexes the pages and ranks the websites

Major SEs that index pages using spiders: Google, Altavista, Msn, Aol, lycos

Choose a domain name that will increase your search engine ranking. How? Simple, short, no hyphens, no numbers

How to increase links: good content good outbound/inbound links target a list of sites from which you can

request inbound links The link’s anchor text is very important

Should contain relevant keywords

Glacier Bay Highlights - Alaskan Glacier Bay CruiseSave up to $300 per cabin - ends 3/31/08! This Alaskan Glacier Bay cruise itinerary is a perfect shorter getaway cruise in the beautiful remote wilderness of Alaska's ...www.sunstonetours.com/alaska/itins/cw_GlacierBayHighlights.asp - 32k - Cached - Similar pages

<title>Glacier Bay Highlights - Alaskan Glacier Bay Cruise</title>

<meta name="description" content="Save up to $300 per cabin - ends 3/31/08! This Alaskan Glacier Bay cruise itinerary is a perfect shorter getaway cruise in the beautiful remote wilderness of Alaska's Inside Passage. Experience the true meaning of wonder in the soaring sanctuary of Glacier Bay National Park.">

=

Include primary or supporting keywords in your highest heading tag (<h1>)

Place supporting keywords in these heading tags<h2> … <h6>

Use CSS to format the look of standard HTML headings

Emphasize text & keywords to show search engines & users that “this is important” to the theme of the page.

Use <strong> for bold Use <em> for emphasize Do not use <b> or <i>

(outdated/obsolete) Only emphasize short segments of

words (1-4 words)

Give your images descriptive filename Use the alt attribute to provide

information about the image Short description of image Include keywords where it makes sense

keywords are words that appear the most in a page used by searchers to find information

Best don’t use comma to separate at least 100 words

Known keywords Ask the client Ask the customers Check the current server logs or analytics tool Check the site search logs

Competitor’s keywords Look at the words in the <title> tag / browser bar View source to view their META keywords

Always include variations of keywords Plurals (widgets, churches) Synonyms (cruise, sail, journey, tour) Stems (fish, fishing) International spelling differences

(Harbor /Harbour)

Online Tools Created for PPC, used for SEO as well Tools

Google Adwords Keywords Tool Trellian (free trial) WordTracker (free trial) SEOBook SEOTool Keyword Suggestion Tool

Use multiple tools to cross-check & validate findings in other tools

The first thing that a search engine displays on a search return

Every single web page should have its own title tag - you can use up to 65 characters eg Ebayhttp://www.ebay.com/

Code example:

<title>Rubber Widgets – Largest Selection of Rubber Widgets</title>

Dreamweaver :

Meta tags placed in <head> portion of page

Meta description tags Variations:

• <meta name=“robots" content=“index,follow" />

• <meta name=“robots" content=“noindex,nofollow" />

• <meta name=“robots" content=“noindex,follow" />

• <meta name=“robots" content=“index,nofollow" />

A short description Include keywords in your alt tags

Submit your website to SEs for indexing Submit your site to search engine

directories, directory sites and portal sites

indexing takes 1 wk to 3 months

Altavista http://addurl.altavista.com/sites/addurl/newurl (Search engines that also use this database - Looksmart)

The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) http://dmoz.org/add.html(Search engines that also use this database - Ask Jeeves, Lycos, Netscape )

Fast http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php(Search engines that also use this database - Lycos)

Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html(Search engines that also use this database - Yahoo)

Inktomi http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm

(Search engines that also use this database - AOL, Excite, MSN, Overture)

MSN http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm

Yahoo http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest

Flash and shockwave - spiders do not pick up these files

Image only sites - spiders do not pick up images

Image maps - spiders cannot read image maps.

Frames - only one page can be titled (titling is critical in search rankings)

If the spider cannot read the complete page (because of the frames), it will not be indexed properly.

Some spiders may not even read a frames web site

Password protected pages – spiders cannot enter password protected pages

PDF files - can be problematic for spiders.

Dynamic pages - spiders cannot index some content on pages using ASP, CGI or other dynamic languages.

Drop down menus – spiders cannot read them

Search Engine RelationshipsBruce Clay’s Search Engine Relationship Ch

art

Keyword Tools (online)Google AdWords: Keyword ToolTrellian Keyword DiscoveryWordtrackerSEOBook SEOTools Keyword Suggestion

Tool

Keyword Tools (client-based)Web CEO

AnalyticsGoogle Analytics (Web-based - Free)Stat Counter (Web-based - Free)Mint (Web-based - Fee)Omniture (Web-based - Fee)Webtrends (Web-based – Fee)

MonitoringWeb CEO (Client-based – Trial/Fee)SEO Tool Rank Checker (Web-based –

Free/Fee)SEO for Firefox (Browser-based)Google Toolbar (Browser-based)

BooksSearch Engine Marketing – Mike Moran &

Bill HuntSearch Engine Optimization for Dummies –

Peter KentBuilding Findable Websites – Aaron WalterSearch Marketing Strategies – James

ColbornWeb Analytics Demystified – Eric PetersonWeb Metrics – Jim SterneThe Online Copywriter’s Handbook – Robert

Bly

Web SitesSearch Engine LandSEOmozWeb Engine Watch

Podcasts (search for these in iTunes or Google)Daily SearchCastSEO 101

Online CoursesLynda.com – Search Engine

Optimization