SEO BASICS

by eGrove systems

Definition

• Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or “organic” search results.

• Other forms of Search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings.

• In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.

WHY SEO?

• SEO involves attaining a higher ranking in search engines via changes to your site content and code to make it more relevant and therefore more search engine compatible. It involves selecting the most targeted keywords or keyword phrases that relate to your web site. 

• Since the online business in becoming highly competitive, websites who practice Search Engine Optimization have an edge over their competitors. When properly optimized, an SEO campaign can deliver long-term gains, better accessibility and cross browser compatibility.

CREATE UNIQUE ND ACCURATE PAGE TILES

• Choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page's content.

• Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from the others on your site.

• Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result.

IMPROVING SITE STRUCTURE

• Simple-to-understand URLs will convey content information easily.

• Creating descriptive categories and filenames for the documents on your website can not only help you keep your site better organized, but it could also lead to better crawling of your documents by search engines.

• Use WORDS IN URL: URLs with words that are relevant to your site's content and structure are friendlier for visitors navigating your site. Visitors remember them better and might be more willing to link to them.

• Create a simple directory structure: Use a directory structure that organizes your content well and makes it easy for visitors to know where they're at on your site. Try using your directory structure to indicate the type of content found at that URL.

Make the site easier to navigate

• The navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the content they want.

• Plan out your navigation based on your homepage.

• Ensure more convenience for users by using ‘breadcrumb lists’ : A breadcrumb is a row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the root page .

• Use mostly text for navigation: Controlling most of the navigation from page to page on your site through text links makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your site.

OPTIMIZE YOUR USE OF IMAGES

• Image-related information can be provided for by using the "alt" attribute.

• The "alt" attribute allows you to specify alternative text for the image if it cannot be displayed for some reason.

• Store files in specialized directories and manage them using common file formats.

ROBOTS.TXT

• A "robots.txt" file tells search engines whether they can access and therefore crawl parts of your site.

• There are a handful of other ways to prevent content appearing in search results, such as adding "NOINDEX" to your robots meta tag, using .htaccess to password protect directories, and using Google Webmaster Tools to remove content that has already been crawled.

How a search engine works?

• Search engines use programs called spiders, or bots, to search the internet and document their findings.

• Spiders firstly go to a webpage and analyse it– Goes through the HTML code and categorises the most

important words (keywords) in the document.• It then moves on to any pages that linked from the current

page.– This is one way how search engines find new pages.– It also visits pages that may not be linked by other pages,

but were submitted by search engines.

SEO Techniques

• Keywords are the words on a webpage that best describe that page.

• When a spider goes through a webpage, it determines the of frequently used words in the docuweightment, and considers them the most important in the document.

• The words with highest weight are more likely to bring up your web page when used as a search term.

• META TAGS: Meta tags are used to provide a description of the page, and a list of main keywords it uses.– Search engines are getting smarter everyday, so they

may penalise you for cramming.– Some search engines reportedly don’t even look at the

meta tags (e.g. Google).

• Title Tag: The text in this tag shows up on the top of your browser window.

-Quite important to include keywords here, as the title will give a general summary for what your page is about.

-Most search engines see this tag as an important tag for categorising what type of site you have.

• ANCHOR TAGS: One of the most important tags you must use for SEO.– Spiders use these to crawl your site, so you must have links to pages

throughout your site.– Other sites that link to yours will send spiders your way also.

• Google (and others) use anchor tags to rank your site in many ways:– Firstly, text in anchor tags are given a lot of importance. – If other sites link to you, this must mean your site is popular, and so

you increase in rankings.• Since anchor tags are so important, it is vital that you include

keywords in these tags– SEs think the words to describe a link should give a good indication of

what that page is about.• This is one reason why it is good to have a navigation bar that uses

links to all your sites.– Better that you use words, not images– Try and use <a> tags, and not image maps, flash, etc.

• UPDATE YOU SITE REGULARLY: Sites that are updated regularly are spidered and indexed more frequently by Ses.

• Sites that change often are considered by SEs as sites that provide current information, and must therefore (although not always) provide up to date information.

• DYNAMIC SITE: Dynamic code can make updating your site very easy.– Also useful for creating pages on the fly.

• E.g. A shopping cart with items you want to buy.

• SEs do not always look favourably on pages with dynamic data.– You have to regularly update your site if you want to do

well with dynamic pages• E.g. Forums

MEASURING RESULTS

• Once you have started your SEO campaign, you need to measure your results and make sure you are improving on SE Rankings

• When you first make changes, SEs may take up to about four weeks to scan your site for changes.– There are millions of web pages for them to crawl,

and so it takes time for them to get to you.

SEO software

• SEO software can be used to scan many SEs for phrases of your choice and produce visual results of how your website is doing.–Much faster than doing this manually.– You can run regular searches and monitor your

positioning easily and efficiently.

• Some SEO software can also help you scan you pages and make suggestions for improvements.

Click here for more Details on our SEO

Presented by eGrove Systems