January 2, 2009 at 11:22 am · Filed under SEO
Before we explore the world of search engine optimization, it is vital that you know a little about how search engines work and their relative market shares. It will help you to prioritize your activities later!
(a) What are Search Engines and who powers them?
There are essentially four different parts to a typical large search engine; the crawler, the directory, sponsored results and the search engine itself.
Crawlers (e.g. Google) automatically visit web pages to compile their listings, making use of a so-called robot or spider (eg. Googlebot), which follows links from one website to another, ultimately compiling an index of all the pages and sites on the internet. These crawlers provide an index, which can then searched by the search engine. You may find that several or all of the pages on your site are indexed in thisway. Some search engines have their own crawler and others buy-in crawler results from others.
Human-powered directories, such as the Open Directory, rely on submissions from the public, which are reviewed by editors for inlusion in the directory. If you get included in a directory, generally only one page from your site (usually your home - or index - page) will be listed.
Crawled results are combined with sponsored results, supplied by pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers, and the results from human-maintained directories to complete the search engine index. Check out the Search Engine Reationship Chart at Bruce Clay inc. for the latest picture on who powers whom. You will note a couple of things right away. Firstly, the dominance of the Google and Yahoo! crawlers and secondly the importance of DMOZ directory results as a back-door for many search engines.
(b) How do Search Engines find and rank sites?
Search engines do not really search the web directly, but rather an index database of the full text of web pages, which itself is drawn from the billions of web pages on the internet’s servers. Search engine databases are selected and built by computer robot programs called spiders.
If a web page is never linked to by any other page, spiders cannot find it, unless the (usually new) site is submitted manually by a human at the search engine’s “add URL” page. All search engine companies offer ways to do this.
After spiders find pages, they pass them on to another computer program for “indexing.” This program uses an “algorithm” to assess the text, links, and other content in the page for “key words” that might be searched on at the engine. This allows the search engine to order results served by their “relevancy” to the search terms used. As each search engine has a different algorithm, it will index sites in a different way and thus serve up different relevant results.
Some types of pages and links are excluded from most search engines by policy. Others are excluded because search engine spiders cannot access them. Generally, the use of frames, flash graphics and dynamic URLs all get in the way of effective spidering and should thus be avoided.
In addition to indexing pages, most algorithms seek to establish the “authority” of a site. A site which is linked to by many other sites (using keyword-rich anchor text) is assumed to be of greater merit than one with no links at all. This activity is called “ranking” and helps search engines to sort otherwise similar results into ever-more relevant and authoratative results.
(c) Which Search Engines are the most popular?
Based on US analysis in January 2005, the top search engines (by share of total searches at home and work) are as follows:
Google Search - 47%
Yahoo! Search - 21%
MSN Search - 13%
All Others - 19%
These shocking figures do not convey the true dominance of the top players, as you have seen from the interdependence of search provision in section (a) above. You could be searching at AOL (part of the “other” 19%) and viewing Google results, for example.
There is also strong anecdotal evidence that Yahoo! and MSN tend to send more searchers through to their sponsored (or paid) results than do Google (due to the prominence of these results on their results pages). As such, for a typical small webmaster who does not use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, they might get up to 80% of all their traffic from Google’s various sites across the world.
Now you understand the market a little better, you will perhaps understand the obsession many webmasters have with Google! A top-10 position at Google for your key search terms can make your online business fly. If you drop out of that top-10, your business can literally collapse overnight!
Don’t forget these key stats as you embark on your optimization journey…
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David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the SEO Expert Guide; how to get to the top of the search engine rankings and stay there.
Find out more about David’s SEO services or purchase the full copy of the book from the SEO Expert site.
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December 21, 2008 at 1:06 pm · Filed under SEO
In parts 1 - 6 you learnt how to develop your proposition, identify your key words and optimize and promote (for free) your site and pages. You were also introduced to our mythical Doug (who sells antique doors, door handles, knockers, door bells or pulls and fitting services) in Windsor in the UK.
Now we turn our attention to paid site promotion, which will be relevant to those of you trying to enter an already crowded marketplace, where your key words are saturated!
(a) Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising
Run a search on Yahoo or Google for a popular consumer product like “MP3 players”. In the results, you’ll see a set labeled as ‘Sponsored Links’ or ‘Sponsor Results’. Some results will appear in colored text boxes along the site of the page, whilst others may appear in the same format as the main search results. All these results are paid advertisements from the sites listed within the ads.
The ranking order is a product of the bid amount (CPC) and the popularity of the ad (CTR%) and are purchased through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising suppliers. The largest two are Google’s Adwords (displayed on Google, AOL, Ask Jeeves) and Yahoo’s Sponsored Links - run by acquired company Overture (appearing on Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista, and others). MSN are planning to release their own PPC scheme soon.
If you have tried and failed with free promotion tactics, the chances are that you are operating in a highly competitive area (where a PPC campaign may well be justified). After all, if you can make more money from a converted click-through than it cost you to buy the click-through, why wouldn’t you look at PPC?
Look at your A-list of keywords. Refer back to your research on Overture. How many searches are conducted per month on your keywords? How much are you - and your competitors - willing to pay for those keywords?
For your first campaign, use a large number of relevant search phrases, so that you can test and learn what works best. Build unique ads for each search phrase, as this will help to optimize your click-through rate or CTR% (defined as clicks - or unique visitors - divided by page impressions on the ad pages - expressed as a percentage). This in turn means more targeted traffic, in some cases paying less per click (due to the methods by which advertising is priced).
Make sure you use a suitable (and perhaps even a dedicated) landing page for each campaign. Simply sending people to your homepage (from where they have to navigate your site) will not help your conversion rates (defined as sales divided by unique visitors, expressed as a percentage)! Help them to buy, as they are likely to be in a hurry!
The PPC providers give you useful interfaces with which to track the effectiveness of your campaign and overall return on your investment. Pay close attention to which keywords are delivering for you and make notes for future campaign planning.
Whilst there is no hard and fast rule, a CTR% of 1.8% - 3.5% is in an acceptable range (and anything over that represents a very good performance). On Google, if your ad achieves less than 0.5% CTR, your ad may well be de-listed. The lower your CTR%, the more you will have to pay in cost-per-click (CPC) to get into the top 3-4 results in your chosen keywords (vital if you want to appear on partner sites like AOL).
(b) Paid Directory Submission
I mentioned earlier that Yahoo! Express Submission is the best way to get a listing on Yahoo! Directory. With a node-level PR of 10, Yahoo! Directory carries much weight with Google and the $299 fee (whikst steep and not absolutely guaranteeing a listing) is probably worth the cost.
Do not submit to Yahoo! until you have really tested which site description works best on the free search engines.
(c) Express Search Engine Submission
In the past, it was only worth doing a paid submission with Ask Jeeves, as this engine continued to enjoy a small but loyal following but did not grow it’s index as aggressively as the big boys. This meant paid submission was the only way to guarantee a good placement.
However, Ask Jeeves withdrew this service in 2004 (in favour of a strategy that mirrors the larger players). As such, I would not recommend paid listings with any search engines now.
Next we turn to tools you can use to monitor your ongoing optimization effectiveness…
Navigate the guide
Previous:
SEO Expert Guide - Free Site Promotion (PR) (part 6/10)
Next:
SEO Expert Guide - Black Hat SEO - Activities to avoid (part 8/10)
David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the SEO Expert Guide; how to get to the top of the search engine rankings and stay there.
Find out more about David’s SEO services or purchase the full copy of the book from the SEO Expert site.
Tags: engine, expert, key, optimization, page, rank, searh, SEO, services, tips, traffic, tricks, wordsengine, expert, key, optimization, page, rank, searh, SEO, services, tips, traffic, tricks, wordsShare This
November 19, 2008 at 7:53 pm · Filed under SEO
In parts 1 - 5 you learnt how to develop your proposition, identify your key words and optimize your site and pages. You were also introduced to our mythical Doug (who sells antique doors, door handles, knockers, door bells or pulls and fitting services) in Windsor in the UK.
Now we turn our attention to site promotion, starting with free techniques. In marketing parlance, we are talking about PR here. My key message is that free publicity opportunities abound on the web, but that people tend to invest their time in the wrong areas!
If people spent even half the time they generally spend on reciprocal link requests and invested it evenly across all the other tips and tricks I am going to tell you about, they would do much better!
(a) Google PageRank
Much has been written - and obsessed about - PageRank (a ranking given by Google to web pages on a scale from 0 to 10). To find out the PageRank of any site, the best way is to download the Google Toolbar or use the Top25Web Google PageRank Calculator.
What you need to remember - above all else - is that PageRank is only relevant in ordering search results, where sites have a similar search relevancy for the words searched upon. In other words, PageRank is only likely to be (very) important to you if you are seeking to enter a very crowded marketplace (eg. real estate) where there are already hundreds of established, optimized sites.
Google explain Pagerank as relying on “the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B”.
So, to increase Google PageRank, one needs to get links from other sites to yours - and lots of them. Also, links from sites with higher PageRanks are worth more than ones with little or no PageRank. As an example, just one link from a PR10 webpage (if it’s the only link on that page) would be enough to earn your linked page a PR8, but you might need nearly 350,000 links from PR3 pages to achieve the same result!
(b) Inbound links
I hope my point on PageRank has not been lost on you! You will have to work very hard indeed to get your PageRank up to a decent level. Investing your time wisely is most important, or you could spend the rest of your natural life getting nowhere fast!
You should only really seek inbound links from pages ranked 6 or better (as then the odds become playable and worth the effort). Just beware that (as loads of other people know this too) your average PR6 website owner gets inundated with polite linking requests.
Also be aware that PageRank works in reverse too for outbound links (see below). If a PR6 site links to a PR0 site (such as your new one) it will dilute slightly it’s own PageRank. Now who is going to do that just to help you out?
If you must send out reciprocal link requests to other sites, there is a protocol to observe. Firstly, you should only seek links with related sites as anything else amounts to unethical behaviour. Secondly, put a link to their site on your own site first. Thirdly, send a polite note to the webmaster of that site, pointing out what you have done and inviting her to reciprocate. If the email address of the webmaster isn’t obvious from the site, look up the technical contact from the site’s domain name record (which you can bring up at Domain Search).
Be specifc about what link - and key word rich link text - you would like them to use and send them the HTML code ready-made, so they don’t have to think too much!
Just take my advice though; this is likely to be a largely fruitless and very time-consuming activity. You are far better off focusing your efforts on getting a few key links from a very small number of key site types, which I outline below.
(c) Directory Submission
Web directories are a brave attempt to create a human-maintained taxonomy of the entire web. Such sites are given much authority by the search engines, with a PR8 for the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) and for Looksmart, and PR10 for Yahoo Directory.
As directories are in the business of giving sites like yours outbound links, they would seem a good place for you to start your promotional activities! Directories like DMOZ also sell their results to hundreds of other sites (including Google) so one link can quickly become several hundred!
Firstly, you should create a summary description of the site in less than 30 words. This should be similar to what you came up with for your Meta-description tag (see part 5) and loaded with the right keywords. My advice is to create a very slightly different version for each directory submission you make (so that you can later track the effectiveness of each submission, when they show up search engines fed by that directory). Doug opts for:
“antique-door-knockers.com - Antique doors and door fitting from Doug Chalmers of Middlesex, UK. Old door knockers, door bells and other door hardware in brass and iron, shipped worldwide.”
Secondly, you should research the various topic categories to find the most appropriate area to submit to. Do a search on your top four keywords - and on your competitors’ URLs - at the top directories. Make a list of the most popular categories returned. In chosing between the categories, take two things into account; (a) is the category actively maintained by an editor (better if it is) and (b) is your site targeted at a specific regional market (in which case you should favour a regional category).
Thirdly - once you have selected your category - pay close attention to the style & submission guide for each directory (and adjust your description accordingly).
I am going to treat submission to Yahoo! as a paid inclusion (and cover it in the next part of the guide) as, in my experience, it is very hard to get listed in Yahoo! Directory on the basic submission. That leaves Looksmart and DMOZ as the other two big ones.
DMOZ is run entirely by volunteers and each site is reviewed by hand in a process which can take many months. Start by submitting your site. Then wait three months before sending a polite chasing email to the category editor. If you hear nothing after a further three months, send an escalation email to the category editor above your category. If, after a further three months you have had no response, ask for assistance in the Open Directory Public Forum (http://resource-zone.com) then (shortly afterwards) escalate to DMOZ senior staff.
Looksmart works in a similar way (although you make your submissions via http://www.zeal.com) and should generally find you get a quicker answer. Since MSN stopped using Looksmart directory results, this directory has become slightly less critical (but alliances can change quickly in SEO, so I would still recommend giving this some attention).
An excellent list of more minor directories (that are still SEO -friendly) can be found at Info Vilesilencer. Do work your way through this list if you have the time (as this is still time much better spent than chasing reciprocal inks).
One final point. Do not keep re-submitting to (for example) DMOZ, in the hope you will get a faster turnaround. You will not. Each time you submit, it is like going to the back of the queue. If you really overdo it, you may simply be ignored as a spammer. Patience is a virtue here!
(d) Search Engine Submission
Do not use search engine submission software! Many of them do not work properly (as their links are out of date) and some search engines will actively block or blacklist such submissions. Google, in their Guide for Webmasters, say “don’t use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our terms of service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold
Tags: engine, expert, key, optimization, page, rank, search, SEO, services, tips, traffic, tricks, wordsengine, expert, key, optimization, page, rank, search, SEO, services, tips, traffic, tricks, wordsShare This
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