SEO or PPC? What software should I use? How many links do I need? In-house or Outsource? Clients or Affiliates? Figuring out answers as these questions arise…
“The search engines look at many factors. They look for the words throughout the page, both in tye visible page and in the HTML source code for the page. Each time they find the word, they are weighted in some way. A word in one position is “worth” more than a word in another position. A word formatted in one way is “worth” more than a word formatted in another”….
“You’re putting keywords into your web pages in such a manner that the search engines can get to them, read them, and regard them as significant.”
“If a search engine finds the relevant keywords on your page, that’s good. If it finds the keywords in the right places on the page, theat’s a really powerful thing that differentiates your page from your competitors’.”
I Hope y’all like my video on on page SEO. My buddy just asked me a pretty simple question, so I answered it with a video.
In my video about locations on your site to place your keywords, I mentioned the following locations:
Title Tag - Everybody knows how important the title tag is. I sure as hell do! I love the title tag. It’s definitely one of my favorite tools in SEO. Remember to think prominence & density, but don’t forget to think about how it will look to the visitors on the SERP’s.
Meta Description - Occasionally this will show up on the SERP’s so choose wisely. This can make a difference in your click-through-rate. Make sure you add keywords and make sure they are very similar to your keyword-rich content.
Meta Keywords - They still work! I’ve seen sites rank for terms you can only find in their Metas. Don’t spam. Think prominence & density. Make sure every word in your keyword metas is in the page.
Table Summaries - Add your keyword to the table summaries. Aim to make them similar to the headers in that table or the main keywords of that section.
File Name - Save your file as your keyword. i.e. dirtbikers.htm. This way it shows up in the URL.
Header Tags - <H1> = keyword 1 &/or keyword 2. <h2> = keyword 2 &/or keyword 3 & so on.
First 10 Words of the Page - The more prominent you can make it, the better.
First 1/3rd or Content - Make sure your keyword is in the first 1/3rd of your content. Try to trickle down the keyword priority throughout the content.
Keyword Style - Bold, underline, italicize or give the keyword its own style (css & name that style that keyword). This allows the keyword to stick out to users and bots.
Picture File Name - When you save your pictures, make sure you save them as your keywords. ie. blue-keyword.jpeg.
Picture Attributes - If the picture links to another page, give it a title attribute. title=”main keyword of page linking to” and don’t forget the alternate attribute; alt=”keyword”.
Caption of Picture - Adding the keyword to the caption not only tells the visitors how relevant that picture is to your site, it also helps the pictures rank in image searches.
CSS File - This is probably one of those locations that doesn’t really matter, but it’s another spot that could give you the cutting edge necessary to compete. Think Ceteris Puribus.
Internal Linking Page - Put the keyword in the anchor text and title attribute of a link pointing to another page on your site. This shows that you link to relevance and it’s also another chance for you to help that other page out.
Last 10 Words of the Page - Give the bots something to remember. Be relevant head to toe.
Now, I have to be honest with you. I don’t really know the order of importance of these keyword placement techniques. I know some matter and some don’t. Some may make a difference in your rankings in one search engine but not in the others. Some may be beneficial to the user and some could actually hurt your site esthetics.
JUST DON”T SPAM!
Here are a few things to remember when placing your keywords on your webpage.
USABILITY - You have to think, if the user searches for this keyword and clicks on your site, that person should be able to identify your words right away. Keep it natural. Stay away from the obvious keyword stuffing.
DENSITY - Sometimes you may have a site that’s competing with other sites with high density of your targeted keywords. How dense should your keywords be? 6%, 16% 20+%?????? Density should probably be based on the engine & competition.
SURROUNDING CONTENT - The spiders are getting smarter. They are starting to see if you have similar, latent and relevant content surrounding your keywords. Create content that intensifies your keyword within it. I like to use Quitura to see what kind of words should be surrounding my content.
TOPIC - Ok, so your site is about commercial loans. Not only do you put commercial loans throughout your page, you make your page EVERYTHING COMMERCIAL LOANS. Commercial loan source, mortgage brokers, commercial & residential loans, bad credit loans, loan applications, etc. If the visitor just types in “commercial loans” you have to think to yourself what is the visitor trying to accomplish?
COMPETITION - Look where your competition is placing the keyword. If theirs is in the <h1>’s, put yours in the <h1>. Make the keyword more prominent in the content, title and metas. One thing I like to do is, print out the top 10 pages ranking for my targeted keywords and highlight all the places my competitors are placing those terms. Sometimes you’ll see a pattern (sometimes you don’t) and you should do what it takes to fit right in. Remember to check your competition’s link strength. You make be wasting your time on all this on page SEO.
PROMINENCE - This to me is big. I should have placed it first, but I like to save the best for last. Think of all the strongest places you place your keywords on a page. The title, the header, the url, near the top of the page… You can’t get more prominent than that. But if possible, try to make other prominent places on your page.
I hope this helps you locate more locations to place your keywords on your site. If you know of other places to place your keywords, PLEASE comment them in this post. Thanks!
I just wanted to point out real quick the power of Stumble Upon and Digg. I integrated Digg & Stumble Upon into my Wordpress blog. So every time I post a blog, I automatically submit my site to these highly popular sites.
This picture shows you how fast you can get a page indexed in Google. No more 2 months or 72 Hours before you can find your page.
This is important because websites and the pages within them have ages and the older the pages are the “better”Getting your pages indexed quit is mandatory. So go index those pages that Google can’t find.
Actually, I just went and did some research. I didn’t Digg this page, I just Stumbled it. I’ll Digg it later…
PS: You can check the times of all these post and see that Google indexed my site in a little less than an hour. SEO Hours
Part 5 of 5 - Google Webmaster Guidelings & Link Building
This is the final part of my link building strategies that follow the Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Bullet 5 in the Google Webmaster Guidelines states “submit your site to directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as other industry-specific expert sites.”
So Google states submit you site to directories “such as” ; meaning DMOZ & Yahoo! are just examples.
But you have to think, why would they suggest those two? Maybe they skim through those directories to help determine rankings. Since Google mentioned these directories, I will start off with them 1st.
“One way the search engines are probably trying to do this sort of thing is by using the Open Directory Project directory to provide some context. Because web sites listed in the directory have been put into categories, it gives the search engines a starting point to figure out what keywords and sites relate to what categories.”
Then I will search for directories relating to my keyword in other directories within DMOZ & the Yahoo! Directory and add my links to them.
Once you found your directory…
Category - Make sure it’s in the perfect section or on the perfect page.
Title - Keyword rich, similar to your website title.
Description -Similar to site description & content on page. But unique from other listings.
url - make sure page is placed on a permanent url page, not a dynamic or flash page.
Next I want to find good directories that will help me obtain links Google will recognize and find relevant to my site.
Search terms like
“weddings” “directory” or marriage directories
Link:www.competitorsite.com “directory”
Intitle:guitar “directory”
Just remember when submitting a site, make sure your title compliments your title tag, your descriptions compliments your website description and theme, and that your keywords compliment your meta tags.
Remember to think alpha numeric order. If the listings are listed in alphabetical order, you might want to consider creating a title that will show up higher on the page than your competitors.
Also, make your listing keyword rich but at the same time, make it attractive so that listing can have a good click through rate.
Keep in mind all of these link building tips Google provides us with are located in the “When your site is ready” section. So before you get started, you must complete Google’s Design and Content Guidelines & Technical Guidelines.
Bookmark this site to check out my next series on Onpage SEO - Following Google’s Webmaster Technical Guidelines
(If you don’t know what Flickr is, please enjoy the video tour of Flickr located at the end of this blog.)
Here are a few tips to help your Flickr account rank well in search engines. Having a profile with a good portion of Flickr’s PR relevant to your website could definitely help your website gain higher rankings or generate more traffic through Flickr.
Suppose you have a website for your hotel in Barcelona. You have many pictures of your hotel. Now someone goes searching for “Barcelona photos”; Flickr’s Barcelona tagged page is on the first page of the search results. If you properly optimize your profile and photos, they could show up on the first set of results in Flickr & in the engines. This could be a great form of branding.
This will also be a good way to create topical link tunneling through a authority site.
Tips I Forgot to mention in the Flickr SEO Video:
Once again I am very new to this video producing, but I have to create videos to get some type of rankings in this highly competitive internet marketing world. So, bear with me once again.
Your profile name (screen name) will be the name in the title tag, so choose wisely “I Love New York City”
If you haven’t created an account yet, when you choose a username, pick one with your main target keyword in it, this will be in your profile’s URL address. http://www.flickr.com/people/newyorkjames/
When writing your profile, some HTML is permitted. YES, you can bold your anchor texted <hx>’s and point them directly to a relevant site.
I should have played with the map a little more and showed you how you could create a little store front advertisement of your business for free on the public Flickr map. (Maybe that’s what my next video will be about.)
Also, you can give people testimonials with links that will show up on their main profile page.
Sets & Collections should match your main website’s theme and architecture with links pointing accordingly.
For the descriptions, write keyword rich descriptions surrounding links to your website.
Can you tell what this Flickr account is about???
Thanks UTechTips.com for the outstanding presentation!
Just remember; make sure you are positioned in the middle of your subject cloud.
