What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process by which websites are ‘tuned’ to make them rank higher in natural search engine results listings.

An effective SEO strategy starts with the thorough research and analysis of a website, its market and its competition. Using the data generated by the research, targeted changes are made to the website’s content and meta-data, and a network of high quality inbound links (also called back-links or external links) is established.

Following the content optimization and link building processes, the effectiveness of the website’s SEO strategy is monitored on a rolling basis through the use of website analytic software, such as Google Analytics. The data revealed by the web analytic then dictates the future direction of the SEO strategy, with further content optimization and link building conducted as and when necessary.
SEO process:

• Research – getting under the skin of the website and its market
• Optimize - using targeted keywords and long-tail phrases in the website content
• Build – establishing a network of high quality one way links
• Analyze – monitoring the Search Engine Optimization strategy using SEO tools / SEO software
• Refine – acting on what the web analytic tell us about the strategy’s effectiveness

The main search engines are constantly refining their algorithms, making it vital for any Search Engine Optimization strategy to remain adaptable and keep abreast of changes that could affect the ranking of the website in natural search listings. SEO is a long-term plan for success.

Search Engine Optimization – boosting rankings, targeting traffic, delivering results

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10 SEO Techniques All Top Web Sites Should Use

1. Title Tag

Near the very top of a web site’s source code you’ll find various meta tags — the standard ones being the Title, Description and Keyword tags. The title tag is technically not a meta tag, though it is commonly associated with them. The title tag plays such a large role in the indexing of your web site, that it is considered the most important of the three.
A page title is the first thing a search engine will look at when determining just what the particular page is about. It is also the first thing potential visitors will see when looking at your search engine listing.
It’s important to include a keyword or two in the title tag — but don’t go overboard – you don’t want to do what’s known as “keyword stuffing” which does nothing but make your web site look like spam. Most people will include either the company name, or title of the particular page here, as well.

2. Meta Tags

There are two primary meta tags in terms of SEO — the description and the keyword tag. It’s debatable whether the search engines use the description tag as far as ranking your results. However it is one of the more important tags because it is listed in your search result — it is what users read when your link comes up and what makes them decide whether or not to click on your link.
Be sure to include a few relevant keywords in this tag, but don’t stuff it with keywords either. The description tag should read like a sentence — not a keyword list.
Due to “keyword stuffing” many search engines now completely disregard the keyword tag. It is no longer nearly as important as it was years ago, however it doesn’t hurt to include them in your source code.
When creating your keyword list, you’ll want to think of the specific terms people will type in when searching for a site like yours. Just don’t go overboard — too many duplicates are not a good thing (as in “web designer” “web designers” “custom web designer” “html web designer” “your state here web designer” – you get the idea). Those are all basically the same, so pick one or two variations at the most and move onto the next keyword.

3. Proper Use of Heading Tags

This is a very important element to consider when writing out your site copy. Use of heading tags helps users, web browsers and search engines alike know where the major key points of your copy are.
Your main page title should use the <h1> tag — this shows what your page is about. Use of additional tags, such as <h2> and <h3> are equally important by helping to break down your copy. For one, you’ll see a visual break in the text. But as far as the search engines are concerned, it will automatically know what your topics are on a page. The various heading tags give a priority to the content and help index your site properly.

4. Alt Attributes on Images

Putting alt attributes on your images actually serves two purposes. In terms of SEO, putting a brief yet descriptive alt attribute along with your image, places additional relevant text to your source code that the search engines can see when indexing your site. The more relevant text on your page the better chance you have of achieving higher search engine rankings.
In addition, including image alt attributes help the visually impaired who access web sites using a screen reader. They can’t see the image, but with a descriptive alt attribute, they will be able to know what your image is.

5. Title Attributes on Links

Including title attributes on links is another important step that any good web site will have. That’s the little “tool tip” that pops up when you place your mouse over a link. These are especially important for image links, but equally useful for text links.
As a note, you should use descriptive text for your links. “Click here” doesn’t really tell a person – or more importantly, the search engines — what the link is. At the very least put a title tag that will explain that “Click Here” really means “Web Design Portfolio” for example. Better yet – make the main link text something like “View my web design portfolio” — this will give some value to the link showing that the resulting page is relevant to searches for portfolio’s.

6. XML Sitemap

My last post referenced the sitemaps used by web visitors to help them navigate through your site themselves. However, there’s another version — XML sitemaps — that are used by the search engines in order to index through your site, as well.
This list of ALL pages / posts / etc. of your site also includes information such as the date the page was last modified, as well as a priority number of what you feel the most important pages of your sites are. All elements that help the search engines properly find and link to all content of your site.

7. Relevant Content

Having content relevant to your main page or site topic is perhaps the most important SEO aspect of a page. You can put all the keywords you want in the meta tags and alt image tags, etc — but if the actual readable text on the page is not relevant to the target keywords, it ends up basically being a futile attempt.
While it is important to include as many keywords in your page copy as possible, it is equally as important for it to read well and make sense. I’m sure we’ve all seen keyword stuffed pages written by SEO companies that honestly don’t make much sense from the reader’s point of view.
When creating your site copy, just write naturally, explaining whatever information you’re discussing. The key is to make it relevant, and to have it make sense to the reader. Even if you trick the search engines into thinking your page is great — when a potential customer arrives at the site and can’t make heads or tails of your information and it just feels spammy to them — you can bet they’ll be clicking on the next web site within a matter of seconds.

8. Link Building

We’ve probably all heard of Google Page Rank — it seems to be every web site owner’s dream to have as high a page rank as possible. While the algorithm for determining page rank encompasses many elements, and is constantly changing, one item is the number of links pointing to your web site.
Now, you’ll want to steer clear of link farms and other spammy attempts at getting links to your site. However there are many reputable and niche directory sites that you can use to submit your web site, or specific blog articles to.
With genuine content — especially if you have a blog — you’ll be able to generate links with other web sites and blogs, as well. It’s somewhat of a give and take, in that if you link out to other sites, you’ll find sites linking back to you  — and hopefully see your page rank going up, as well!

9. Social Media

Although technically not SEO, Social Media is such a growing factor in getting your web site noticed, that it’s an important element to include in your plan.
Social media ranges from social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn — to social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon and many more. There is a lot of relationship building involved, but as you build your own networks and build quality content on your web site or blog, you’ll see traffic to your web site increasing, as well.
As with any relationship, it is a give and take. Don’t just expect to join a site like Twitter for the pure sake of pushing your content. That just won’t fly — your true intentions will stick out like a sore thumb and do nothing but turn people off.
Even if you are on the site purely for networking reasons, the key is to make friends. Help out members of your network if they ask for a “retweet” or Digg, give helpful advice if asked, etc. You’ll see the same in return.
If you write a great post and have built meaningful relationships with peers in your  niche, you’ll often find that friends will submit your posts and give you votes on the social bookmarking sites. The more votes you receive, the more likely your post is to be noticed by others and shared around, often resulting in additional link backs from other blogs, etc.

10. A Few SEO Don’ts — Flash and Splash

Along with any list of Do’s come the Don’ts. As far as SEO is concerned, two of these items are splash pages (often consisting of a flash animation) and all flash web sites.
Yes, flash is pretty! Full flash web sites can actually be amazing to look at — their own bit of interactive artwork. But unfortunately the search engines don’t get along well with Flash. Although there is talk of possible advancement in this area, for the most part the search engines cannot read Flash.
All that great content that you wrote for your site will not be seen by the search engines if it’s embedded into a Flash web site. As far as the search engines are concerned, your all flash web site might as well be invisible. And if the search engines can’t see your site content, a good chunk of potential customers will miss out on what you have to offer, too.
Equally as “pointless” are splash pages. Once very popular, the splash page should no longer be an important feature of any site. While splash pages used to serve as an introduction into a web site (often with a flash animation), it is no longer seen as helpful, and often times might actually annoy visitors.
For one — it’s an extra click to get into your content. Worse is when you don’t give a “skip intro” option or set of links into your main site content — because you’re essentially forcing your visitors to sit through the full animation. If you’re lucky, this will only annoy them… if not — they’ll just leave without giving your main web site a shot. And without an html link pointing into your site, the search engines have no way to continue either (unless you made use of a sitemap.xml file — but still…)
A good alternative to both issues is to make use of a flash header. There’s no problem to include a flash animation at the top of your main site, or as a feature within the content area, etc. Because this is an addition to your web site, as opposed to a full separate element.

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Creating an HTML Email Form

If you would like to provide your web site visitors with a simple way to contact you from your web site, but really don't want to display your email address, this HTML form code may be what you're looking for. 

You can create a simple form, as displayed below, to enable your visitors to send you comments, questions, product support requests, or whatever you'd like. Name: Email: Comment: Copy and paste the following HTML code into the HTML portion of your web page:

Name:
Email:
Comment:

Copy and paste the following HTML code into the HTML portion of your web page:

<FORM action="mailto:you@yourdomain.com" method="post" enctype="text/plain">
<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="4" WIDTH="90%">
<TR>
<TD width="30%"><DIV align="right">
<B>Name:</B>
</DIV>
</TD>
<TD width="70%">
<INPUT type="text" name="name" size="20">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD><DIV align="right"><B>Email:</B></DIV>
</TD>
<TD>
<INPUT type="text" name="email" size="20">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD><DIV align="right">
<B>Comment:</B>
</DIV>
</TD>
<TD><TEXTAREA name="comment" cols="30" wrap="virtual" rows="4">
</TEXTAREA>
</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD>&nbsp;</TD>
<TD>
<INPUT type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
<INPUT type="reset" name="reset" value="Reset">
</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</FORM>

 

Change the text indicated in red to your email address. Displaying an email form on your web page provides a great way to enable your visitors to contact you.

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Alexa Vs Google Analytics Vs Earnings

I’m writing this post as a response to a strange comment received recently, but more than that, this can be an ‘eye opener’ post if you fall in same category. Do you believe in website stats and figures which are calculated by third party web companies? do you think it is accurate?. Here, I’m sharing the connectivity between Alexa Vs Google Analytics Vs Earnings of a website or blog.

OK, here is the comment I received recently for my previous post about adsense difference.

hey buddy ,
can you share your traffic analytics report(non-edited) ?
with the help of alexa rank anyone who have some mind can guess approximate adsense income.
so stop proclaiming these non-sense reports.
your sysprobs.com is tech related site so very less chances to get click , because most of the visitors are tech savvy. cpm is not that much for tech sites, according to your site alexa rank your monthly pageviews is not over 500,000 permonth, and most visitors are from india and neighbour countries.
so, stop these fu****g reports.

Interesting comment, but I did not approve it.

Even though I get more good and positive comments, but few of these comments also come to my inbox. That was the main reason I shared my last moth earning report with screenshots of each programs.

My Question is

How others can guess and calculate my blog’s earning and actual traffic from Alexa?

I know most of the new bloggers waste time on third party website calculators and go after behind it, because I also did the same mistake. Alexa could be an important factor to consider, but that is not very accurate. Almost one year ago I shared my comparison with Alexa and exact traffic, you can check it here.

If you are addicted to check your and others’ blog traffic, rank or value on third party websites including Alexa, I suggest to STOP DOING IT. It will never give correct information on others’ websites.

I can explain further on these stats by comparing my both blogs with correct Google analytics and income reports.

Lets see the Alexa rank;

Sysprobs

DailyBlogMoney

So, what you would guess immediately on actual earning and traffic by seeing above Alexa rank?

DailyBlogMoney is having better Alexa rank in India and Global rank is just 1.5 higher than Sysprobs.

So, can we finalize that DailyBlogMoney earning and traffic should be at least half of  Sysprobs?

Let’s look at the actual last three months traffic report of Sysprobs blog.

and for DailyBlogMoney,

DailyBlogMoney’s traffic is only about 1.3% of Sysprobs traffic (by comparing PV).

But, Alexa doesn’t reflect that much difference in the global rank, and surprisingly Indian Alexa rank in better for DailyBlogMoney than Syprobs.

Here is the another Alexa factor to decide traffic, which is ‘Reach’.

‘Reach’ means how many percentage of global internet users visited a particular web site in last 7 days, 1 and 3 months.

Alexa reports for Sysprobs as below,

and For DBM,

As per the above report, 0.00474% internet users visited Sysprobs in last three months whereas 0.00282% users visited DBM. Approximately DBM received half percentage of which Sysprobs got in last three months.

But, was it correct compared to actual Google analytics report? When Alexa ‘reach’ factor reports about 50% traffic, but the real traffic is only around 1.3%, which is a big difference.

What About Earning?

DailyBlogMoney did not earn considerable amount. Recently I removed the main adsense slot from DMB which struggled to make even 10$ per month. The adsense slot after each post is not doing anything and the same applies to other affiliate banners.

So, my blog income is mainly from Sysprobs. I can say that DBM contributed around 1% in my last three months earning. But still that doesn’t translate Global Alexa ranks difference.

The below example is even worse,

When I was new to blogging, I keep on checking website traffic and daily earning at http://www.websiteoutlook.com/.

Here are the stats now,

For Sysprobs

OK, this is quite reasonable.  The daily pageview and Revenue are slightly around what I get from Sysprobs.

Check the below stat for DailyBlogMoney from same websiteoutlook calculator.

Am I making $44 daily from this blog? is monthly earning around ($44×30) $1320? my traffic is near to that?, Nothing is true or even around to actual.

Top Traffic Location

The strange commenter said that Sysprobs’s top traffic country is India. Is it true?, I can’t blame the commenter, because Alexa reports the same as below,

So, he was correct that I can’t earn that much money if my site’s top traffic country is India and neighbor countries.

But, see the below screenshot taken from Google analytic for last three months.

It clearly says United States is getting almost 5 times more traffic than India whereas Alexa reported India as the top country.

Conclusion and What I’m Trying to Say?

• I’m not selling (or compelling you to buy) any products by showing bogus or proclaiming earning reports, and you must be knowing that I have never contacted or used your emails to send any sales emails. So, I do not have any valid reasons to show modified or ‘proclaiming’ earning screenshots.
• Do not believe others’ blog income and traffic stats by any third party website calculators or estimators. Those are not valid and true, my case would be an example.
• Alexa rank, Google Page Ranks and other stats have no any direct connection with earning and traffic of website. The earning completely depends on traffic quantity, quality and how you are monetizing it.
• If your blogging knowledge is limited or you already fed up with blogging, then do not leave these types of comments of others blogs.

There are more genuine and great bloggers around my blog, they leave useful and valuable comments, thanks to them.

This post would be an example of misleading website calculators and rank system. Do not limit your self by checking these ranks and stats for your website and others’ too. Instead, try to publish more and more quality articles, promote your blog and get more traffic.

Good luck guys and Season’s greetings.
Last but not the least to know more about how to make money click the link.

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Google Instant & SEO

From the moment Google Instant was announced back on September 8 there have been forum chats, blog posts, articles and podcasts discussing the ramification of this new technology. Some have called it the “Death of SEO” which others (myself included) have proclaimed this a step forward and an opportunity for SEO's, not a threat. And then of course there's those who don't even know there's been a change at all, let's call them “the vast majority”. In this article we're going to discuss the pros and cons of Google Instant as it pertains to SEO's and to website owners as well as cover some of the reasons that this new technology may not have as large an impact on search behavior as some may fear/predict.

But first, let's cover the basic question …

What Is Google Instant?

Google instant is a technology that allows Google to predict what you are looking for as you type. They are referring to it as 'search-before-you-type” technology (catchy). Essentially – as I type a phrase (let's say “buy shoes online”) as soon as I get to “buy sh” I start seeing results for “buy shoes”. As soon as I've entered “buy shoes “ (with a space after shoes indicating I want more than just the 2 word phrase) I start seeing results for “buy shoes online”.

Technologically this is genius. Google is now serving likely billions of additional search results pages per day as each query has multiplied results that apply to it. Well … I suppose we all wondered what the Caffeine infrastructure update was all about didn't we? But what does this do in the real world?

Why Google Instant Isn't A Big Deal

Alright, obviously it is a significant technological enhancement in search but the way some react you'd think the whole universe was about to be turned on it's head. There are two reasons why that's not the case.

1. I find it unlikely that many will notice right away that the change has occurred and further I find it even less likely that the majority will use the feature. You see – the major hindrance of this enhancement isn't in the technology – it's in the users. Only those who touch type and can do so without looking at their keyboard will be affected. If the user looks at their keyboard while typing then they wouldn't even notice the results coming in ahead of their actual search.


2. This will only affect users who are searching in instances where the shorter or predicted terms match the users end goals. For example, if I am searching for “buy shoes online” and get as far as “buy sh” the top results are sites which clearly suit the needs of a searcher for “buy shoes online” and thus – this may work to the detriment of sites who rank well for “buy shoes online” as they may well lose traffic. In the case of a site targeting, oh – I don't know – “seo consulting” there will likely be little affect if any. The searcher, looking for an SEO consultant, will find once they've entered “seo” that they are presented with Wikipedia and Google – sites that, while informative, don't offer the services (or results) desired and thus – the searcher would be less affected. Once they proceeded on to enter the “seo c” the searcher would be presented with the results for “seo company” but I'm prone to believe that if the searcher wanted those results – they would have searched for it. For this phrase I'm confident we'll see little in the way of negative affect from Google Instant.

So we've discussed why Google Instant isn't a big deal, now let's discuss …

Why Google Instant Is A Big Deal

On the other side of the coin lies the reasons why Google Instant brings forth a revolution in search technology. Followers of the Beanstalk blog or my radio show on WebmasterRadio.fm (Webcology) will know I'm not one to love everything Google does but in this case the immediate affects and long terms affects may well be significant and at the very least – one has to appreciate the brilliance behind the effort. In this section of the article we're going to cover the three important perspectives involved with the launch off this (or any) Google product. They are:

The Searcher – we'll look at the pros and cons from a searcher perspective. It's this aspect that will dictate whether the feature will matter at all.

Google – we'll look at the positive affect on Google. Of course – this aspect is of paramount importance for this feature to be kept.

SEO's – I'm of course incredibly interested and have spent much of my analysis time determining the pros and cons to SEO's (admittedly – there's more than a bit of self interest here).

So let's begin …

Google Instant And The Searcher

This is sort of a win-win for Google from a searcher perspective. One of two things will happen for the searcher. Either they won't notice the change or won't be affected and thus – Google will be exactly where they are now OR they will notice the change and will select results quicker and find the feature helpful. As I noted – it's a win-win. There isn't much of scenario from a searcher perspective where the searcher will be negatively impacted and if they are – they'd simply revert back to past searching patterns. From the perspective of impact on the user – Google has it made with this feature. Their worst-case scenario is that they're exactly where they are now.

Google Instant From Google's Perspective

Any feature added to any corporate system must serve a single primary function – it must make it's developer money. We've already seen that the feature itself can't really negatively impact the searcher but can it make Google money? There are two ways that this can happen:

1. Improved loyalty and marketshare, and


2. Increased revenue directly from the initiative

Fortunately for Google – they're going to win on both fronts here and when we see the Q3 earnings and moreso in the Q4 earning Google reports we'll begin to see how significant an impact this change will have for them – mainly in the second of the two monetary reward methods noted above. And here's why …

We've already covered the improved loyalty this can have on the searchers. Anything that makes my life easier and makes my quest for information faster will make me more loyal. At worst – Google will see my behavior stay the same but for many, the search experience will become faster and more effective – especially once the technology is improved by user behavior to a degree that people trust it more. Overall there will be a net gain in the experience – we've only to wait to see how large that net gain is and how it translates into marketshare. The big win is in the second point.

For anyone who's every bid with AdWords you'll know that for the most part – bids for generic terms are more expensive than bids for very specific terms. If I'm bidding on “shoes” I'm going to pay more than I would for “shoes online”. So let's view the world where I start showing the results (and paid ads) for “shoes” while someone is searching for “shoes online”. And what if that person sees the ads that was written and bid on for “shoes” but relates to their query and they click on it. Google just made more from the paid ad click. Maybe only pennies but multiply that by billions of searches per day and you've got a significant increase in annual revenue.

The move is a huge win for Google but it does come with a theoretical downside and that is annoying the businesses that are paying for the ads. The argument I've heard is that if businesses find that the cost of their campaigns is increasing higher than the ROI that they might get annoyed. Fair enough BUT I would argue – what are they going to do about it? As long as Google maintains the first consideration (the searcher) then the advertisers have no choice. They can drop their bids but at worst – they'll level off to what they were paying for the longtail phrases. Again – worst case scenario, Google will find themselves where they are today.

Google Instant From The SEO's Perspective

So let's assume for a moment that Google Instant is here to stay. Based on all the ways Google and the searchers can win and the limited situational permutations by which they could only come out even I'd say that's a safe assumption. Given this, what's happens to SEO's and those optimizing their own websites?

For one thing – we can't assume that research we did up to and before the 8th will be relevant down the road. I have already scheduled to redo keyword research in a couple months to see what industries and search types have been most (and least) affected by this change. The main reason for this is that I have a strong suspicion that specific industries will be more prone to being affected by the change based mainly on search types (such as the “buy shoes” vs “seo consulting” example above) and demographics. A Linux developer site is more likely to have a demographic off touch typers who can type without looking at the keyboard than say a life insurance site with a more scattered and thus less technically proficient overall demographic.

So in the short term – life is going to be very interesting for the SEO and website owner while we figure out which industries and phrase types are most affected. In a few months when we see the trends and which phrases are being affected and how we'll likely have to make adjustments to many campaigns. The downside for may business owners will be that for those who's campaigns focuses on searches for longtail phrases – they may find the search volumes for their phrases decrease and a shift to more generic (and generally more expensive to attain) phrases is necessary. Only time will tell what the best moves are there and we may not know what exactly will shift and how for a few months yet and even then – we'll then know the trends, not where things will settle (if anything in online marketing can be referred to as “settling” anymore).

If there is a segment that should be concerned about the situation it is small business owners with limited organic or PPC budgets. Google Instant – because it puts preferences to more generic phrases – clearly favors businesses with larger budgets. How much so we'll know after we've had a chance to see how the search volumes shift. For SEO's this presents two opportunities and for business owners who do their own SEO – it offers one. And here's the good news for those.

For SEO's you'll find two new opportunities, The first is that there will be a shift to more generic terms in search volumes. This means that there will be stiffer competition for more competitive phrases. If this sounds like a bad thing it's not. If you're a skilled SEO who knows how to get the job done it means you'll have more access to larger volumes of traffic without the added efforts required to rank for a wide array or phrases. Rather than needing to rank for 10 or 20 phrases to get traffic you'll be able to focus in more and reap the same rewards in the way of traffic. On top of that – SEO's will be able to charge more for the rankings as fewer phrases have a higher value. A win-win for SEOs and a win for business owners who either do their own SEO or have talented SEO's on staff.

The second opportunity will come in the form of improved clickthrough rates though I'll admit – at this point that's just a theory (noted with a hint sent to Gord Hotchkiss to run eyetracking tests on this theory). If I type while looking at my screen and I'm entering in “buy shoes online” and I rank organically or via PPC for both “buy shoes” and “buy shoes online” I would hypothesize that searchers who complete the phrase “buy shoes online” who had the site (or ad) for “buy shoes” appear and then the same site appear for the full query will have a tendency to click on the familiar. This same principle has been witnessed in sites appearing in both paid and organic results who have an increase in their organic clickthrough rates. This will present opportunities for both PPC and organic marketers to improve the traffic to sites by ranking for specific phrases meant to both attain traffic on their own but also to improve traffic for the other. I would suggest that down the road we'll be hearing of this phenomenon when conducting and discussing keyword research.

Conclusion

There isn't much to conclude that hasn't been discussed above. Virtually every party wins or at worst, breaks even with the introduction of this technology. The only victim appears to be small businesses without the budgets to compete for the more generic phrases but even they may win with a shift away from these phrases by the larger companies. It may well occur that while the search volume shift heads in favor of large companies with larger budget – that the lower hanging fruit, while reduced in it's search volume, may fall too in the competition levels making it more affordable. Larger business may focus like snipers on larger phrases and smaller business may well be presented with the opportunity to go after more, less search phrases that aren't worth targeting for larger companies – at least organically.

But only time will tell and of course – we have much data to collect and many algorithmic updates to come between here and there.

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