Basic Search Engine Optimization techniques & tips

Tips

Gaurav Kakkar (HCL Technologies)

@gauravkakkar82

Search Engine Optimization


Importance of SEO1

2

3

4

5

Defining SEO Objectives

Keyword Research

SEO in Action

Site Audit

What is SEO

Source: Getlocalsearchmarketing.

As per Wikipedia: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results.

SEO falls under Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing

SEO explained

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo1Gh0vDVzo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo1Gh0vDVzo

Search Market Share

"Tree Falls in a Forest":

Google Penalty Hits eBay’s Bottom Line, May Cost Up To

$200 Million In Revenue

SEO Factors

On Page Optimization

Off page Optimization

Source: Dejanseo.com

SERP CTR heatmap


Importance of SEO1

2

3

4

5


Keyword Research

SEO in Action

Site Audit

Strategic Goals:

Expand ReachBeating CompetitionCustomer InteractionIncreasing Brand Value

Other Goals:

Visibility (Branding)Website Traffic

Determining Your SEO Objectives

Objective’s Percentage wise breakup

Navigational queryIf the person perform the search to reach to specific page, destination orwebsite then it is treated as Navigational query. For example, if one islooking to reach to Bloomberg website

Informational queryWeb is full of information. If the search is performed in order to get theanswer to a specific query, then it is informational query. There is no specificsource which the users wants to lands to. For example “Cloud Computing”

Transactional queryIf the search is performed with the intent to ultimately to take an action like buying the laptop, then is is transactional query.

Understanding Search Engine Traffic and Visitor Intent

Developing an SEO Plan Prior to Site Development

Business Factors that Affect the SEO Plan

1. Revenue/business model2. Target customers3. Competitor strategies4. Branding goals5. Budget for content development6. How your potential customers search for products like yours


Importance of SEO1

2

3

4

5


SEO in Action

Keyword Research

Site Audit

1. WordTracker

2. GoogleAdwords

3. Microsoft’s adCenter Keyword Generation Tool

4. KeywordDiscovery

5. Google Trends

6. Quintura

Tools for Keywords Research

Understanding the Long Tail of the Keyword

Long Tail Keyword

Source: The Art of SEO book

Step 1: Keyword research

Step 2: Site architecture

Step 3: Keyword mapping

Step 4: Site review

4 - Simple Steps ( Keyword Strategy)

Keyword cannibalization happens whencertain pages within your site competeagainst each other for certain keywords.

When this happens, one lose out on a number of rank-boosting features:

1. Internal anchor text2. External links3. Content quality4. Conversion rate

Keyword Cannibalization

Avoiding Keyword Cannibalization

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/blog

The canonical tag

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/blog


Importance of SEO1

2

3

4

5


Keyword Research

SEO in Action

Site Audit

Define the Site’s Information Architecture which depends on

Technology decisions :1. Dynamic URLs2. Session IDs or user IDs in the URL3. Superfluous flags in the URL4. Links or content based in JavaScript, Java, or Flash5. Content behind forms (including pull-down lists)6. Temporary (302) redirects

Structural decisions :1. Internal linking2. Navigational structures3. Home page Linkage4. Top-level categories5. Use anchor text6. Use breadcrumb navigation7. Minimize link depth

First Stages of SEO


Site’s Information Architecture


1. Subdomain2. Redirects3. URLs

Creating an Optimal Information Architecture


Designing site architecture


Structured Architecture


Deep Architecture


Flat Architecture


1. It helps visitors quickly find thecontent they want.

2. Help search engines understand whatcontent the webmaster thinks isimportant

3. 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

4. Ensure more convenience for users byusing ‘breadcrumb lists’.

Make your site easier to navigate

Optimization of Domain Names/URLs (1/2)


Optimization of Domain Names/URLs (2/2)


Picking the Right URLs (1/2)


Picking the Right URLs (2/2)


Improve the structure of your URLs

1. Helps the site better organized

2. Lead to better crawling of your documents by search engines.

3. Create easier, "friendlier" URLs for those that want to link to your content.

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

Source: : Google SEO guide

Don’ts

Avoid:

1. Using lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs

2. using excessive keywords like"baseball-cards-baseball-cards-baseballcards.htm"copying and pasting the entire content of the document into the description meta tag

3. Have deep nesting of subdirectories like".../dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/page.html"

4. Use directory names that have no relation to the content in them

5. Use odd capitalization of URLs


7. Don’t employ descriptions universally

Meta Description Tags


Meta Tags


Avoid:

1. Writing a description meta tag that has no relation to the content on the page

2. Using generic descriptions like "This is a web page" or "Page about baseball cards"

3. Filling the description with only keywords

4. Copying and pasting the entire content of the document into the description meta tag

5. Using a single description meta tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages

Don’ts


Heading (H1, H2, H3) Tags & Document Text

Document Text:


Use heading tags to emphasize important text . Heading tags (not to be confused with the <head> HTML tag or HTTP headers) are used to present structure on the page to users. There are six sizes of heading tags, beginning with <h1>, the most important, and ending with <h6>, the least important (1).

Use heading tags appropriately


Avoid:

1. Placing text in heading tags that wouldn't be helpful in defining the structure of the page

2. Using heading tags where other tags like <em> and <strong> may be appropriate

3. Erratically moving from one heading tag size to another

4. Excessively using heading tags throughout the page

5. Putting all of the page's text into a heading tag6. Using heading tags only for styling text and not

presenting structure

Don’ts


Title Tag


Create unique, accurate page titles


Avoid:

1. using extremely lengthy titles that are unhelpful to users

2. stuffing unneeded keywords in your title tags

3. using a single title tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages

4. choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page

5. using default or vague titles like "Untitled" or "New Page 1"

Don’ts


Image Filenames and alt Attributes

Boldface Text


Optimize the use of images


Use brief, but descriptive filenames and alt text

Avoid:1. Using generic filenames like

"image1.jpg", "pic.gif", "1.jpg" when possible—some sites with thousands of images might consider automating the naming of images

2. Writing extremely lengthy filenames3. Stuffing keywords into alt text or

copying and pasting entire sentences4. Writing excessively long alt text that

would be considered spammy5. using only image links for your site's

navigationSource: : Google SEO guide

Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link, and is placed within the anchor tag <a href="..."></a>.

Links on page maybe internal—pointing to other pages on your site—or external—leading to content on other sites.

Write better anchor text


Avoid:

1. Using the page's URL as the anchor text in most cases

2. Writing long anchor text, such as a lengthy sentence or short paragraph of text

3. Using excessively keyword-filled or lengthy anchor text just for search engines

4. Creating unnecessary links that don't help with the user's navigation of the site

Don’ts


The robots.txt file

Syntax of the robots.txt file


Example of a robots.txt file


Make effective use of robots.txt


http://www.google.com

The rel="NoFollow” attribute

http://www.google.com/

Be aware of rel="nofollow" for links


About using “Nofollow" for individual contents, whole pages


A redirect is used to indicate when content has moved from onelocation to another.

Good and Bad Redirects:

• “301 moved permanently ”This status code tells the browser (or search engine crawler) that the resource has been permanently moved to another location, and there is no intent to ever bring it back.

• “302 moved temporarily” This status code tells the browser (or search engine crawler) that the resource has been temporarily moved to another location, and that the move should not be treated as permanent.

Redirect



Importance of SEO1

2

3

4

5


Keyword Research

SEO in Action

Site Audit

1. Accessibility / Spiderability2. Search engine health check3. Keyword health checks4. Duplicate content checks5. URL check6. Title tag review7. Content review8. Meta tag review9. Sitemaps file and robots.txt file verification10. Redirect checks11. Internal linking checks12. Avoidance of unnecessary subdomains13. Geolocation14. Image alt tags15. Code quality16. External linking

Site Audit


Thanks!Contact at

@gauravkakkar82

https://twitter.com/gkakkar82

Basic Search Engine Optimization techniques & tips

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