Tag: serps

  • Crucial Factors In SEO

    Summary:
    There’s no shortage on advice regarding what people should do to improve a web site’s position in the search engine listings. It is easy to become confused when you consume all the information that is available, because some folks agree with others while some totally disagree and offer dissimilar advice.

    You should be extremely suspicious of any advice given by someone that tells you to use search engine submissions, employ traffic exchanges, or use FFA sites. That is so o…

    There’s no shortage on advice regarding what people should do to improve a web site’s position in the search engine listings. It is easy to become confused when you consume all the information that is available, because some folks agree with others while some totally disagree and offer dissimilar advice.

    You should be extremely suspicious of any advice given by someone that tells you to use search engine submissions, employ traffic exchanges, or use FFA sites. That is so out of date it’s not funny.

    What is pertinent for excellent rankings in the search engines was highlighted not too long ago via a survey done by SEOmoz of a collection of SEO professionals.

    In short, below are the 4 most important search engine optimization ranking factors, in accordance with the experts’ consensus views.

    Keywords that Appear in the Title

    Using the correct keywords when crafting the title tag of a page is of extreme importance. It does not only promote higher rankings, it also helps with the click-through from the SE listings to the destination page. It is of lesser value to be listed high in the results without receiving that many clicks. The ultimate purpose is to gain as many targeted visitors to your site as possible.

    The keywords that were used by the searcher are bolded in the results of the search. When the right keyphrase of the page title is bolded, it gives the listing a higher opportunity of being seen and receiving a click. Nevertheless, highlighted keywords are not the only thing to think about when writing the page title tag.

    Lots of additional clicks can be attained from a smartly written page title tag, especially when it invites the searcher to click. It is better to attract a hundred clicks from position number five with an eye-catching title tag than fifty clicks from position number three with a badly written title tag, correct?

    Anchor Text used by Inbound Links

    The anchor text that is employed in the link that points to your web site from an external site counts a lot in the search engine algorithms to figure out what your site is all about. Additionally, what your site is all about defines to a large extent what keywords it will rank for in the search results.

    If at all you can influence in any way the anchor text that other web sites employ when they link to you, then it’s an extremely prudent way of investing your time.

    A larger number of external sites that have links to your site employing a certain set of keywords, or alternate versions of that keyword, will prompt the SE’s to more readily compute that your site is all about that specific keyphrase.

    It’s far more advantageous if the content of the destination page on your site contains that particular keyword and phrases similar in meaning.

    The Universal Link Popularity of Your Site

    Search engines figure out the relative importance of a site from the volume of hyperlinks that point to the web site. They include both quality of hyperlinks and quantity of the hyperlinks.

    The more different web sites that have links to your web site, the higher the SE’s will calculate the deemed importance of your site.

    Link building is a never-ending process. One can never have a sufficient number of backlinks pointing to your site. It’s true that it is possible to build links too fast and that can raise some alerts in the algorithms of the search engines. But, if it’s done as an ongoing effort with a long-term outlook, every backlink deserves the resources spent in acquiring it. They all add up to an improved deemed importance of your web site.

    Link Popularity in the Site’s Internal Link Structure

    The fact is that some of your web pages will get more external links than others. Those that do not get a lot of external links could be the actual money pages that you would wish to rank well in the SE indexes.

    The internal linking structure, in addition to the anchor text employed in the internal links, is the way to disperse PageRank inside your own site.

    Some search engine optimization professionals say that an internal link to a page has the same value as a link from an external page. That doesn’t mean the site will rank with nothing more than internal links. What it means is that you could cause a page to be ranked by having internal links pointing to it even though it does not have lots of external links, on the condition that the remainder of the web site has acquired enough trust from external links.

    Conclusion

    SEO might appear daunting when one views it as a whole. However, when viewed as individual focus areas, there are a select number of relatively easy areas one can concentrate on and make the largest benefits.

  • Conflicting SEO Expectations

    Summary:
    SEO is undisputedly the best method for generating traffic and profits. That being said, you need to understand the inherent conflict that can arise with SEO.

    SEO is undisputedly the best method for generating traffic and profits. That being said, you need to understand the inherent conflict that can arise with SEO.

    Conflicting SEO Expectations

    SEO is both the technical effort and art of getting your site ranked highly in search results on Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are two competing factors in the effort, time and volume of traffic, which can lead to clients having unreasonable expectations.

    The conflict giving rise to misunderstood SEO expectations deal with keywords. Obviously, an optimization program is designed to get you high in the rankings on various keywords. The problem, of course, is the more traffic a keyword produces, the higher the number of sites competing for rankings under the phrase. Inevitably, this translates to a longer period of time required to get top rankings.

    Obviously, most clients want to obtain top rankings as quickly as possible. The best way to do this is identify those keywords that have decent traffic, but few sites competing for rankings. In such a campaign, clients see results relatively quickly, but they have fallen into a trap. Even if they go into the number one position across the top three search engines, they have limited the amount of traffic they can receive. This leads to frustration as revenues are effectively capped.

    A proper optimization plan should focus on both short and long term rankings. When laying out the site, the home page and other centralized pages should be devoted to keywords with monstrous amounts of traffic that will require a lot of time to obtain top rankings on. To counterbalance this, additional pages should be built focusing on keywords for which there is less traffic, but for which high rankings can be acquired relatively quickly.

    The exact time periods on this approach are entirely dependent on the subject matter of the site and the keywords involved. For a brand new site, one can expect to see rankings on MSN within a month, Yahoo in four to six months and Google in six to nine months. For an established site, the figures will be shorter but it is dependent upon the results of the keyword research in the specific field.

    Understanding optimization is the key to having reasonable SEO expectations. A mix of short and long term goals is the best method of attack in nearly every situation.

  • Driving Your SEO Professional Insane

    Summary:
    Checking the rankings of your site in the search engines can become addictive. This is fine so long as you do not drive the person handling your seo work insane.

    Checking the rankings of your site in the search engines can become addictive. This is fine so long as you do not drive the person handling your seo work insane.

    Driving Your SEO Professional Insane

    What are the first words out of a search engine optimization professionalĂ­s mouth when talking to a potential client? This is going to take some time. Not only do we say this, but we tend to overestimate how long it is going to take. In addition to covering our butts, we say this to keep you from driving us insane.

    As a client, you must show some faith in your search engine optimization professional. If you are told it is going to take a certain amount of time before rankings will appear, do not start checking them every morning. Okay, you can check them, but do not call me everyday! The more time I spend on the phone with you, the less time I have to work on your campaign. Patience is the word you have to focus on here.

    A second method for driving your seo professional insane is the area of unwanted advice. This typically occurs when you read an article, book or see something on the television about search engine optimization. You may have the urge to tell us about it or ask for clarification. Why? Are you suddenly going to implement it in your site? If it is important, there is an excellent chance we already know about it. The optimization game changes all the time and we stay on top of it. Please resist the urge to call with little tidbits of information. If you want to learn how the process works, make sure to mention that at the outset of the relationship.

    A third method for putting your seo person in a mental health clinic is daily ranking addiction. This occurs after rankings have been obtained for all or most of the desired keywords. You are so pleased with the situation, you review the rankings each morning. Inevitably, a ranking moves down. Your first step is to call us. This is maddening. In fact, we may not call you back because we know the rankings are just fluctuating a bit because of an update. A few days later, we call back and tell you the ranking is fine. Yes, this is done on purpose. Please do not call to inform us of changes in the rankings each day! DonĂ­t worry, we will keep an eye on everything.

    Your search engine optimization professional should be a valued part of your business family. Driving them insane is not a good way to treat a family member!