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MASTERCLASS

www.4SEOtraining.com

Release Version 2016 April

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SEO MASTERCLASS

FOR USE AT THE LICENCED SITE(S) ONLY 2016 Cheltenham Group Pty. Ltd. - www.4seotraining.com.au

COPYRIGHT This manual is covered by International copyright and any unauthorized copying (by any means) is prohibited. The exclusive copyright holder is Cheltenham Group Pty. Ltd. DISCLAIMER The advice within this training manual is offered in good faith, but as SEO techniques are continually evolving we make no guarantees regarding the accuracy of information presented or the placement of your website within the search engine results as a result of implementing the information contained within this manual. We make no guarantees of how well you will promote your own website as we do not know you, your technical background or your business skills. Implementing decisions based on any information presented by us is entirely at your own risk. All information contained within this manual is for educational and informational purposes only. Check with your accountant, lawyer or professional advisor, before acting on any information supplied. You agree that our company is not responsible for the success or failure of your business decisions relating to any information contained within this manual. Using the information contained within this manual implies acceptance of this disclaimer. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY Under no circumstances will Cheltenham Group be liable for any incidental, consequential, or indirect damages (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, business interruption, loss of programs or information, and the like) arising out of the use of or inability to use the information contained within this manual. In case of any dispute you agree to exclusively pursue legal remedies within the city of Perth, Western Australia and you implicitly agree to exclusive Western Australian jurisdiction in all matters. E&OE – All Trademarks Acknowledged. © 2016 Cheltenham Group Pty. Ltd.

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1. WHAT IS SEO? ............................................................................................................................ 12

WHAT IS ON-SITE SEO? ............................................................................................................................ 12 WHAT IS OFF-SITE SEO?........................................................................................................................... 12 SEO – DO NOT OVERDO IT ......................................................................................................................... 12

2. OVER OPTIMIZATION & SEO GUARANTEES .................................................................... 13

SEO - TAKE IT SLOW ................................................................................................................................... 13 DANGERS OF OVER OPTIMIZATION........................................................................................................... 13 SEO GUARANTEES ...................................................................................................................................... 13

3. EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL SEO ...................................................................................... 14

ONE MORE TIME - TAKE IT SLOW ............................................................................................................... 14 MY SEO STORY............................................................................................................................................ 14 COMPUTER TRAINING MATERIALS ............................................................................................................ 14 SEO TRAINING .............................................................................................................................................. 15

4. SEO TERMS.................................................................................................................................. 16

WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION? ............................................................................................. 16 WHAT ABOUT THE CONSTANT CHANGES GOGGLE MAKES TO ITS ALGORITHMS? ........................... 16 DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT SEO TO ACHIEVE AND THINK LOCAL .......................................................... 16 SEO AND ROI ............................................................................................................................................... 17 ORGANIC VS. PAID SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS ...................................................................................... 17 BLACK HAT VS. WHITE HAT SEO ............................................................................................................... 17 ON-PAGE VS. OFF-PAGE SEO TECHNIQUES ........................................................................................... 18 HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES WORK? .......................................................................................................... 18 THE GOOGLE SEARCH ALGORITHM.......................................................................................................... 18 GOOGLE UPDATES SUCH AS PANDA AND PENGUIN .............................................................................. 19 ROBOTS, SPIDERS AND CRAWLERS .......................................................................................................... 20 THINK LIKE A SEARCH ENGINE.................................................................................................................... 20 SEARCH ENGINES DO NOT RANK WEBSITES, THEY RANK WEB PAGES ................................... 20 SEARCH ENGINES VS. DIRECTORIES........................................................................................................ 20 WHAT IS A URL OR DOMAIN NAME? ......................................................................................................... 21 WHAT IS AN IP ADDRESS? .......................................................................................................................... 21 WHAT IS A WEB SERVER? ........................................................................................................................... 21 PICTURE FILES ARE STORED SEPARATELY FROM YOUR WEB PAGES................................................. 21

5. SEO CONCEPTS ......................................................................................................................... 23

RESEARCH YOUR COMPETITORS.............................................................................................................. 23 IDENTIFY YOUR KEYWORDS – KEYWORD RESEARCH ........................................................................... 23 THINK LIKE A SEARCH ENGINE.................................................................................................................... 23 NAME EVERYTHING TO BE SEO FRIENDLY .............................................................................................. 23 USE YOUR KEYWORDS IN THE WEBSITE................................................................................................... 23 USE PICTURES, DOCUMENTS AND VIDEOS .............................................................................................. 23 USE SOCIAL MEDIA ...................................................................................................................................... 23 LINKING ........................................................................................................................................................... 24 GOOGLE WEBMASTER GUIDELINES ......................................................................................................... 24

6. PAGE RANK ................................................................................................................................. 25

WHAT IS GOOGLE PAGERANK? ................................................................................................................ 25

7. GOOGLE WEBMASTER GUIDELINES .................................................................................. 26

GOOGLE’S WEBMASTER CENTRAL GUIDELINES..................................................................................... 26

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VIEWING THE GUIDELINES .......................................................................................................................... 26 THE GUIDELINES........................................................................................................................................... 26 GENERAL GUIDELINES................................................................................................................................. 27 HELP GOOGLE FIND YOUR PAGES............................................................................................................. 27 HELP GOOGLE UNDERSTAND YOUR PAGES ............................................................................................ 27 HELP VISITORS USE YOUR PAGES ............................................................................................................. 28 QUALITY GUIDELINES ................................................................................................................................... 28 BASIC PRINCIPLES........................................................................................................................................ 29 BASIC PRINCIPLES - AVOID THE FOLLOWING ........................................................................................... 29 FOLLOW GOOD PRACTICES LIKE THESE ................................................................................................... 30 A WARNING FROM GOOGLE ....................................................................................................................... 30

8. QUALITY CONTENT & FRESHNESS ..................................................................................... 31

CONTENT IS KING.......................................................................................................................................... 31 GOOGLE LIKES FRESH CONTENT ............................................................................................................... 31 FREQUENT UPDATES EQUALS FREQUENT INDEXING............................................................................ 31 NEW CONTENT EQUALS NEW KEYWORD PROMOTION OPPORTUNITIES ............................................. 31 INCORPORATE A BLOG INTO YOUR WEBSITE ........................................................................................... 31

9. BASIC HTML................................................................................................................................. 32

WHAT IS HTML?........................................................................................................................................... 32 BROWSERS AND HTML ............................................................................................................................... 32 INDEX PAGE.................................................................................................................................................... 32 A SAMPLE WEB PAGE ................................................................................................................................... 32 VIEWING HTML CODE ................................................................................................................................. 32 HTML TAG ..................................................................................................................................................... 33 HEAD VS. BODY SECTIONS ......................................................................................................................... 34 THE HEAD SECTION ..................................................................................................................................... 35 THE BODY SECTION ..................................................................................................................................... 35 TITLE TAG ....................................................................................................................................................... 36 DESCRIPTION TAG ........................................................................................................................................ 36 META KEYWORDS TAG ................................................................................................................................ 37 HEADING TAGS (FOR BODY TEXT) ............................................................................................................. 37 PARAGRAPH TAGS ........................................................................................................................................ 39 BOLD TAGS..................................................................................................................................................... 39 LINKS TO OTHER PAGES .............................................................................................................................. 40 ANCHOR TEXT WITHIN HYPERLINKS.......................................................................................................... 41 IMG (IMAGE) TAGS ....................................................................................................................................... 42 ALT TAGS ...................................................................................................................................................... 43

10. GOOGLE POWER SEARCHING.......................................................................................... 45

BASIC SEARCHING TECHNIQUES WITHIN GOOGLE ................................................................................. 45 SEARCH FOR A PHRASE WITHIN A PARTICULAR WEBSITE..................................................................... 45 FIND DOCUMENTS USING A PARTICULAR FILE FORMAT SUCH AS PDF FILE...................................... 46 FIND PAGES THAT LINK TO A WEBSITE...................................................................................................... 46 TO DISPLAY WEBSITE PAGES THAT ARE SIMILAR TO A PARTICULAR URL ......................................... 47 TO SPECIFY THAT ALL THE WORDS IN A SEARCH QUERY MUST APPEAR IN ANCHOR TEXT OF LINKS

POINTING TO A WEB PAGE ........................................................................................................................... 48 TO SPECIFY THAT THE WORDS IN A SEARCH QUERY APPEAR IN THE ANCHOR TEXT OF LINKS

POINTING TO A WEB PAGE ........................................................................................................................... 48 TO SPECIFY THAT ALL THE QUERY WORDS MUST APPEAR WITHIN THE BODY TEXT OF A WEB

PAGE. .............................................................................................................................................................. 48

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TO SPECIFY THAT SOME OR ALL OF THE QUERY WORDS MUST APPEAR WITHIN THE BODY TEXT

OF A WEB PAGE ............................................................................................................................................. 48 TO SPECIFY THAT ALL THE QUERY WORDS MUST APPEAR IN THE TITLE OF A WEB PAGE .............. 49 TO SPECIFY THAT ONE OR MORE OF THE QUERY WORDS MUST APPEAR IN THE TITLE OF A WEB

PAGE................................................................................................................................................................ 49 TO SEARCH, SPECIFYING THAT ALL QUERY WORDS MUST APPEAR IN THE URL ............................. 49 TO SEARCH, SPECIFYING THAT ONE OR MORE QUERY WORDS MUST APPEAR IN THE URL .......... 50 ADVANCED GOGGLE SEARCH.................................................................................................................... 50

11. ADVANCED GOOGLE SEARCHING .................................................................................. 52

GOOGLE ADVANCED SEARCH.................................................................................................................... 52 NARROWING YOUR ADVANCED SEARCH RESULTS ................................................................................. 52 AND MORE … ................................................................................................................................................ 52

12. GOOGLE KEYWORDS PLANNER ...................................................................................... 53

WHAT IS THE GOOGLE KEYWORDS PLANNER?...................................................................................... 53 USING THE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER .............................................................................................. 53 CUSTOMIZING YOUR RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 56 MULTIPLE SEARCH PHRASE ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................... 60

13. SEO COPYWRITING............................................................................................................... 62

CUSTOMIZING DIFFERENT PAGES FOR DIFFERENT KEYWORDS .......................................................... 62 AMOUNT OF TEXT ON A PAGE ..................................................................................................................... 62 LOCATION OF KEYWORDS ON A PAGE, TOP AND BOTTOM OF PAGE TEXT ......................................... 62 KEYWORD DENSITY...................................................................................................................................... 62 KEYWORD FREQUENCY............................................................................................................................... 63 KEYWORD PROXIMITY ................................................................................................................................. 63 KEYWORD STUFFING ................................................................................................................................... 63

14. KEYWORDS AND BOLD TEXT ........................................................................................... 64

BODY TEXT AND KEYWORDS ...................................................................................................................... 64 BOLD TEXT ..................................................................................................................................................... 64 LARGE TEXT AND COLORED TEXT.............................................................................................................. 64

15. LIST FORMATTING & SEO................................................................................................... 65

USING BULLETED OR NUMBERED LISTS.................................................................................................... 65

16. KEYWORDS AND ANCHOR TEXT ..................................................................................... 66

ANCHOR TEXT AND KEYWORDS................................................................................................................. 66 EXPLOITING KEYWORDS IN ANCHOR TEXT LINKS ................................................................................... 66 DON’T USE ‘CLICK HERE’ FOR ANCHOR TEXT WITHIN A HYPERLINK................................................... 67

17. EVALUATING KEYWORD PHRASES AND INVESTIGATING YOUR ONLINE COMPETITORS .................................................................................................................................... 68

MAKE A LIST OF THE KEYWORD PHRASES YOU THINK ARE IMPORTANT............................................. 68 USE KEYWORD PHRASES RATHER THAN A SINGLE WORD .................................................................... 68 USE A LOCALIZED PHRASE.......................................................................................................................... 68 ASK EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS FOR KEY PHRASE IDEAS .............................................................. 68 USE GOOGLE TO SEARCH USING YOUR CHOSEN KEYWORDS AND CHECK OUT THE COMPETITION.......................................................................................................................................................................... 69 USE GOOGLE AUTO-SUGGEST TO SUGGEST MORE POPULAR KEYWORDS ...................................... 69 RELATED SEARCHES IN GOOGLE .............................................................................................................. 69 TURN THE CACHE OFF WHEN REPEATING LOCAL SEARCHES............................................................... 70 LISTING THE KEYWORDS THAT YOUR COMPETITORS THINK ARE IMPORTANT .................................. 70

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WORD STEMMING......................................................................................................................................... 72 USE THESAURUS.COM FOR RELATED KEYWORD IDEAS OR THE MICROSOFT WORD THESAURUS.......................................................................................................................................................................... 73 USING LONG TAIL SEARCH PHRASES ........................................................................................................ 73 ADVANCED GOOGLE SEARCH TECHNIQUES ............................................................................................ 73 VIDEO SEARCHES......................................................................................................................................... 74 WHAT GOOGLE HAS TO SAY ABOUT BUILDING KEYWORD LISTS ......................................................... 75

18. PICTURES AND SEO ............................................................................................................. 76

PICTURE FILE NAMES .................................................................................................................................. 76 ALT TAGS ....................................................................................................................................................... 76 META DATA .................................................................................................................................................... 77 OPTIMIZE PICTURE FILE SIZE ...................................................................................................................... 77

19. THE HTML TITLE..................................................................................................................... 78

TITLE ............................................................................................................................................................... 78 KEYWORD POSITION WITHIN A TITLE......................................................................................................... 78 USE UNIQUE TITLES FOR EACH PAGE WITHIN YOUR WEBSITE ............................................................. 78 THE PAGE TITLE CAN BE DISPLAYED WITHIN THE SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS ................................... 79 WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A TITLE OR HAVE A BAD TITLE?.............................................. 79 CTR (CLICK THROUGH RATE) AND SEO ................................................................................................ 79 TITLES AND MATCHING HTML HEADINGS ................................................................................................ 80 KEYWORD POSITIONING WITHIN YOUR TITLE .......................................................................................... 80 LOCALIZATION OF YOUR TITLES ................................................................................................................. 80 GOOGLE WILL ONLY DISPLAY AROUND 64 CHARACTERS BUT MAY INDEX UP TO 250 CHARACTERS.......................................................................................................................................................................... 80 TITLES AND BRANDING................................................................................................................................. 80 KEYWORD PROXIMITY WITHIN THE TITLE ................................................................................................. 81 THE ORDER OF WORDS WITHIN YOUR KEY PHRASE ARE IMPORTANT ................................................ 81 SINGULAR VS. PLURAL VERSIONS OF YOUR KEYWORD......................................................................... 81 STOP WORDS................................................................................................................................................. 82 SEPARATORS................................................................................................................................................. 82 USING SMALLER WORDS ............................................................................................................................. 82 CALL TO ACTION (CTA) ............................................................................................................................... 82 USING EXACT KEYWORD MATCHES ........................................................................................................... 82 USE NATURAL CAPITALIZATION .................................................................................................................. 82 DIFFERENT TITLE AND DESCRIPTION TEXT .............................................................................................. 82 DO NOT USE MULTIPLE TITLES WITHIN A SINGLE WEB PAGE ................................................................ 83

20. THE HTML DESCRIPTION .................................................................................................... 84

THE META DESCRIPTION ............................................................................................................................ 84 DESCRIPTION SYNTAX................................................................................................................................. 84 DESCRIPTION AND CLICK THROUGH RATE (CTR) ................................................................................ 84 GOOGLE MAY IGNORE THE DESCRIPTION................................................................................................ 84 UNIQUE DESCRIPTIONS ON EVERY PAGE ................................................................................................ 84 DESCRIPTION LENGTH................................................................................................................................. 84 THE DESCRIPTION AND PAGE CONTENT ................................................................................................. 85 THE DESCRIPTION AND THE OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT................................................................... 85

21. META KEYWORD TAG .......................................................................................................... 86

THE META KEYWORD LIST .......................................................................................................................... 86

22. HEADINGS ................................................................................................................................ 87

USE SIMILAR TO USE WITHIN MICROSOFT WORD .................................................................................. 87

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HEADINGS AND STRUCTURE ....................................................................................................................... 87 USE HEADINGS FOR SEO NOT STYLING ................................................................................................. 87 USE RELEVANT KEYWORDS WITHIN YOUR HEADINGS ........................................................................... 87 ONLY ONE H1 PER WEB PAGE.................................................................................................................... 87 NO GAPS IN MULTIPLE HEADING HIERARCHY .......................................................................................... 87 USE RELEVANT HEADINGS ......................................................................................................................... 88 HEADING SYNTAX ......................................................................................................................................... 88

23. FILE NAMES AND KEYWORDS .......................................................................................... 89

USING KEYWORDS IN FILE NAMES ............................................................................................................. 89 USING KEYWORDS IN FOLDER NAMES ...................................................................................................... 89 USING KEYWORDS IN IMAGE FILE NAMES................................................................................................. 89 USING KEYWORDS IN YOUR DOCUMENT FILE NAMES ............................................................................ 89

24. KEYWORDS AND DOMAIN NAMES .................................................................................. 90

KEYWORDS IN THE DOMAIN NAME ............................................................................................................. 90 OUTSIDE THE USA USE .COM OR LOCAL DOMAIN? ............................................................................... 90 THINK ABOUT DOMAIN NAMES THAT DESCRIBE YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE.................................. 90 HOW TO SEE IF A DOMAIN NAME IS AVAILABLE ....................................................................................... 90 IF YOUR PREFERRED DOMAIN NAME IS TAKEN …................................................................................... 90 CONSIDER PURCHASING A NUMBER OF DOMAIN NAME ALTERNATIVES ............................................. 91 USING THE 4 OR 2 TRICK WITHIN URLS ................................................................................................... 92

25. THE POWER OF DOCUMENTS........................................................................................... 94

TYPES OF DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENTS ................................................................................................ 94 DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENTS AND SEO ................................................................................................ 94 DOCUMENTS AND KEYWORD CONTENT.................................................................................................... 94 HEADINGS WITHIN DOCUMENTS ................................................................................................................ 94 DOCUMENT META DATA.............................................................................................................................. 94 DOCUMENT KEYWORD META DATA.......................................................................................................... 94 DOCUMENT FILE NAMES ............................................................................................................................. 95 HTML AND DOCUMENT CONTENT ............................................................................................................ 95 CONSIDER BOTH MICROSOFT WORD AND ADOBE ACROBAT FORMATS ........................................... 95 USE SEO FRIENDLY ANCHOR TEXT TO DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENTS ............................................ 95 LINKING FROM DOCUMENTS TO YOUR WEB PAGES................................................................................ 95 SEEING WHICH OF YOUR DOCUMENTS GOOGLE HAS INDEXED ........................................................... 95

26. MULTIPLE WEBSITE ISSUES ............................................................................................. 96

WHY CONSIDER HAVING MORE THAN ONE WEBSITE? ........................................................................... 96 SPECIALIZE BY GEOGRAPHICAL AREA ...................................................................................................... 96 SPECIALIZE BY PRODUCT OR SERVICE TYPE........................................................................................... 96 SPECIALIZE BY OFFERING A WHOLESALE SITE AND SEPARATE RETAIL SITE..................................... 96 SPECIALIZE BY DIFFERENT VERSIONS FOR EXPERT AND NON-EXPERT VISITORS............................ 96 MATCHING THE DOMAIN NAME TO YOUR KEYWORD PHRASE, USING A SPECIAL TRICK .................. 97 MULTIPLE DOMAINS REDIRECTED TO A SINGLE WEBSITE ..................................................................... 97 DEDICATED AND SHARED IP ADDRESSES ................................................................................................ 97

27. WEBSITE CREDIBILITY ........................................................................................................ 98

MOBILE FRIENDLY ........................................................................................................................................ 98 YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS ARE LOOKING FOR REASSURANCE.............................................................. 98 FULL CONTACT DETAILS .............................................................................................................................. 98 EMBED A MAP ON THE CONTACTS PAGE .................................................................................................. 98 CLIENT LISTS AND CUSTOMER FEEDBACK ............................................................................................... 98 INDEPENDENT REVIEWS.............................................................................................................................. 99

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PUBLISH FULL PRICES ON YOUR WEBSITE RATHER THAN ASKING FOR A QUOTE............................. 99 GUARANTEES AND ‘TERMS AND CONDITIONS’ ....................................................................................... 99 RETURNS POLICY.......................................................................................................................................... 99 FAQS PAGE................................................................................................................................................... 99 ALWAYS USE ENCRYPTION TO TAKE CREDIT CARDS ........................................................................... 100 INTERNATIONAL ISSUES............................................................................................................................. 100 TAKE ACCOUNT OF LOCAL SENSIBILITIES, ESPECIALLY PICTURES ................................................... 101 PRIVACY POLICY ......................................................................................................................................... 101 WEBSITE ACCREDITATION SCHEMES ...................................................................................................... 101 KEEP YOUR CONTENT UP TO DATE.......................................................................................................... 101

28. BROWSER & HARDWARE ISSUES ..................................................................................103

DIFFERENT BROWSER ISSUES ................................................................................................................. 103 BROWSERS VERSION ISSUES ................................................................................................................... 103 SCREEN RESOLUTION ISSUES .................................................................................................................. 103 MOBILE WEB ISSUES .................................................................................................................................. 103

29. DOMAIN NAME ISSUES .......................................................................................................104

BUY UP DOMAIN VARIATIONS AND ALSO INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS OF THE URL ........................ 104 CONSIDER OTHER DOMAIN TYPES........................................................................................................... 104 BEWARE OF PURCHASING AN EXPIRED DOMAIN ................................................................................... 104 PURCHASING AN EXISTING WEBSITE....................................................................................................... 104 BUYING A PREMIUM WEBSITE DOMAIN.................................................................................................... 105 FINDING RECENTLY EXPIRED DOMAINS THAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO PURCHASE ............................ 105

30. WEB HOSTING ISSUES .......................................................................................................106

USE A SERVER BASED IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY ................................................................................... 106 CHECKING TO SEE IF YOUR WEBSITE HAS BEEN HACKED................................................................... 106 CHECKING HOW MANY SITES ARE SHARED ON A WEB SERVER ......................................................... 106 RECOMMENDED HOSTING SERVICES ...................................................................................................... 107

31. SERVER UPTIME ...................................................................................................................108

SERVER UPTIME MONITORS...................................................................................................................... 108

32. WEBSITE LOADING SPEED ...............................................................................................109

WEB PAGE LOADING SPEED...................................................................................................................... 109 CACHING....................................................................................................................................................... 110 GZIP .............................................................................................................................................................. 110 MONITOR WEBSITE BANDWIDTH USE AND PEAK PERIOD USAGE....................................................... 111

33. GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE – FORMALLY THE GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS ...................................................................................................................................................112

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE .................................................................................................................... 112 SIGNUP AND VERIFICATION ...................................................................................................................... 112 DASHBOARD ................................................................................................................................................ 112 MESSAGES ................................................................................................................................................... 113 DATA HIGHLIGHTER.................................................................................................................................... 113 SITELINKS..................................................................................................................................................... 113 LINKS TO YOUR SITE.................................................................................................................................. 114 MANUAL ACTIONS....................................................................................................................................... 114 INTERNATIONAL TARGETING .................................................................................................................... 114 MOBILE USABILITY...................................................................................................................................... 116 INDEX STATUS ............................................................................................................................................. 116 CONTENT KEYWORDS ............................................................................................................................... 117

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BLOCKED RESOURCES .............................................................................................................................. 117 REMOVE URLS ........................................................................................................................................... 117 CRAWL STATS ............................................................................................................................................. 118 FETCH AS GOOGLE .................................................................................................................................... 119 ROBOTS.TXT TESTER ................................................................................................................................ 119 SITEMAPS ..................................................................................................................................................... 120 SECURITY ISSUES....................................................................................................................................... 120

34. USER GENERATED SPAM..................................................................................................122

WHAT IS USER GENERATED SPAM? ........................................................................................................ 122 WORDPRESS AND COMMENTS ................................................................................................................ 122 MONITOR YOUTUBE FOR SPAM............................................................................................................... 122 PRECAUTIONS IF YOU WANT TO USE COMMENTS................................................................................. 122 GOOGLE AND USER GENERATED SPAM ................................................................................................ 122

35. GOOGLE PENALTIES & MANUAL ACTIONS ................................................................124

WHAT ARE MANUAL ACTIONS?................................................................................................................ 124 MANUAL ACTION TRIGGERS ..................................................................................................................... 124 HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A MANUAL ACTION AGAINST YOU? .................................................. 124 RECONSIDERATION REQUESTS ............................................................................................................... 124

36. HTML MARKUP VALIDATION SERVICE .........................................................................125

USING THE W3C VALIDATOR ................................................................................................................... 125

37. REPORTING SPAMMERS TO GOOGLE ..........................................................................126

DON’T GET MAD – GET EVEN! ................................................................................................................... 126 FILING A SPAM REPORT ............................................................................................................................ 126

38. BROKEN LINKS & 404 ERRORS .......................................................................................127

WHAT GOOGLE SAYS ABOUT BROKEN LINKS ........................................................................................ 127 CHECKING YOUR WEBSITE FOR BROKEN LINKS .................................................................................... 127 WORDPRESS BROKEN LINK CHECKERS ............................................................................................... 127 WORDPRESS 404 ERROR REDIRECTS ................................................................................................... 127 CREATE CUSTOM ERROR 404 PAGE WITH LINKS TO IMPORTANT PAGES ........................................ 127

39. BAD NEIGHBORHOODS ......................................................................................................129

BEWARE OF BUYING LINKS....................................................................................................................... 129 DO NOT LINK TO BAD NEIGHBORHOODS – AVOID PENALTIES .......................................................... 129 HOW TO IDENTIFY BAD SITES (SO CALLED ‘BAD NEIGHBORHOODS’) ............................................. 129 DO NOT USE AUTOMATED LINK BUILDING SCHEMES........................................................................... 130 LINK EXCHANGES ....................................................................................................................................... 130 TAKE CARE WHEN CONSIDERING FREE LINK PAGES ........................................................................... 131

40. FOLLOW AND NOFOLLOW LINKS...................................................................................132

LINK JUICE AND PAGE RANK .................................................................................................................... 132 CONTROLLING INDIVIDUAL LINKS WITH THE NOFOLLOW TAG ............................................................. 132 NOFOLLOW WORDPRESS PLUGIN .......................................................................................................... 132 PAGE LEVEL NOFOLLOW........................................................................................................................... 133 MOST SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS WILL BE NOFOLLOW – BUT STILL VALUABLE ......................................... 133 EXAMINING LINK TYPES USING SEO QUAKE......................................................................................... 133

41. LINK BAITING .........................................................................................................................134

LINK BAITING - QUALITY CONTENT ATTRACTS LINKS......................................................................... 134 FREE E-BOOKS............................................................................................................................................ 134

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DOWNLOADABLE TUTORIALS, FACT SHEETS OR REPORTS............................................................... 135

42. ATTRACTING LINKS .............................................................................................................136

QUALITY CONTENT ..................................................................................................................................... 136 LINK BAITING – CREATE QUALITY CONTENT TO ATTRACT LINKS .................................................... 136 LINK BAITING – TOP 10 LISTS ................................................................................................................. 136 USE ORIGINAL CONTENT ........................................................................................................................... 136 FREE E-BOOKS............................................................................................................................................ 136

43. MORE LINKING IDEAS .........................................................................................................138

ASK FOR LINKS ........................................................................................................................................... 138 ANALYZE BACK LINKS TO COMPETITOR SITES ..................................................................................... 138 TAKE PART IN FORUM DISCUSSIONS ...................................................................................................... 138 POST COMMENTS TO BLOGS OR GUEST BLOGGING............................................................................ 138 JOIN LOCAL INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS AND GROUPS ......................................................................... 138 OFFER EDUCATIONAL DISCOUNTS .......................................................................................................... 138 ASK FOR A MENTION IN A NEWSLETTER OPERATED BY A SIMILAR, BUT NON-COMPETING

WEBSITE ....................................................................................................................................................... 139 PRODUCE REGULAR ARTICLES FOR OTHER PEOPLE’S NEWS LETTERS.......................................... 139

44. YOUR WEBSITE LINKING ...................................................................................................140

GOOGLE LIKES TEXT BASED HYPERLINKS.............................................................................................. 140 COMPLEX INTERNAL WEBSITE LINKING................................................................................................... 140 LINK ALL PAGES WITHIN YOUR WEBSITE BACK TO YOUR HOMEPAGE ............................................... 140 USE BOTH TEXT AND GRAPHIC LINKS...................................................................................................... 140 BEWARE JAVA MENUS AND FLASH MENUS ............................................................................................ 140 INSERT LINKS FROM EACH PAGE TO YOUR IMPORTANT PAGES ......................................................... 141

45. DOORWAY PAGES ...............................................................................................................142

WHAT ARE DOORWAY PAGES? ................................................................................................................ 142 EXAMPLES OF DOORWAY PAGES............................................................................................................. 142 DOORWAY PAGES CAN GET YOU BANNED FROM GOOGLE................................................................. 142

46. GOOGLE DISAVOW TOOL..................................................................................................143

USING THE GOOGLE DISAVOW TOOL..................................................................................................... 143

47. OUTGOING LINKING & SEO...............................................................................................148

OUTGOING LINKS FROM YOUR WEBSITE MAY HELP SEO ................................................................... 148 CHECK ALL YOUR OUTGOING LINKS FOR LINKS TO BAD NEIGHBORHOODS ..................................... 148

48. DIRECTORY SUBMISSIONS ...............................................................................................149

WHY USE ‘PAID DIRECTORIES’? ............................................................................................................. 149 PAID DIRECTORIES..................................................................................................................................... 149 BUSINESS.COM PAID LISTING............................................................................................................. 149 ‘BEST OF THE WEB’ PAID DIRECTORY LISTING................................................................................... 150 AUSTRALIAN DIRECTORY SUBMISSION ................................................................................................. 150 INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORIES................................................................................................................. 151 BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS......................................................................................................................... 151 PERTH BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS & GROUPS ..................................................................................... 151 PODCAST DIRECTORIES ............................................................................................................................ 152 GREEN DIRECTORIES ................................................................................................................................. 152

49. OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT............................................................................................153

WHAT IS THE OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT (DMOZ)?........................................................................ 153

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50. THE DATA HIGHLIGHTER & STRUCTURED DATA .....................................................154

USING THE DATA HIGHLIGHTER............................................................................................................... 154

51. PLAGIARIZED CONTENT ....................................................................................................155

CHECKING FOR OTHER SITES THAT MAY BE PLAGIARIZING YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT ................. 155

52. HTML SITE MAP .....................................................................................................................156

WHAT IS AN HTML SITE MAP? ................................................................................................................ 156 DYNAMIC HTML SITE MAP – WORDPRESS PLUGINS OR TEMPLATES ............................................ 156

53. XML SITE MAP........................................................................................................................157

WHAT IS AN XML SITE MAP?................................................................................................................... 157 XML SITE MAP AND GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE............................................................................... 157 XML SITE MAP AND WORDPRESS.......................................................................................................... 157

54. SPECIFYING A LANGUAGE ...............................................................................................158

GOOGLE AND LANGUAGE SPECIFICATION.............................................................................................. 158 HTML LANGUAGE CODE REFERENCE ................................................................................................... 158 MORE INFORMATION FROM GOOGLE ..................................................................................................... 158 WORDPRESS AND LANGUAGE SPECIFICATION ..................................................................................... 159

55. WEBSITE ENCRYPTION ......................................................................................................160

RECOMMENDED IN GOOGLE WEBMASTER GUIDELINES..................................................................... 160 WHAT IS HTTPS AND HOW DOES IT WORK?......................................................................................... 160 IMPLEMENTING WEBSITE ENCRYPTION................................................................................................... 160 COMMON ISSUES WHEN USING HTTPS AND TLS ............................................................................... 160

56. INTERNATIONAL VISITORS ...............................................................................................161

SEARCH USING DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS OF GOOGLE............................................... 161 INTERNATIONAL SPELLING AND MEANINGS............................................................................................ 161 ESTABLISH JURISDICTION FOR DISPUTES .............................................................................................. 162

57. MONITORING YOUR SEO CAMPAIGN ............................................................................163

IMPARTIAL FEEDBACK ON YOUR WEBSITE.............................................................................................. 163 GOOGLE PAGERANK.................................................................................................................................. 163 SIMPLE WEB HIT COUNTERS ..................................................................................................................... 163 MONITOR THE BACK LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE...................................................................................... 164 SEE HOW MANY PAGES YOU HAVE LISTED IN GOOGLE ....................................................................... 164 MANUALLY CHECK YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS ........................................................................... 164 BEWARE OF USING AUTOMATED SEARCH ENGINE POSITION CHECKERS ........................................ 165 GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE (FORMALLY THE GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS) ............................. 165 GOOGLE ANALYTICS .................................................................................................................................. 165 BING WEBMASTER TOOLS ........................................................................................................................ 167 MONITOR COMPETITOR SITES FOR CONTENT CHANGES .................................................................... 168 WHAT ARE WEB LOGS?.............................................................................................................................. 168 TOOLS FOR ANALYZING WEB LOGS ......................................................................................................... 169 SITE ANALYSIS TOOLS............................................................................................................................... 169 SEARCH ENGINE COMPETITOR RANKING TOOLS - COMPETE .......................................................... 170

58. CANONICALIZATION ............................................................................................................171

CANONICALIZATION (SETTING PREFERRED URL) ................................................................................ 171

59. SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION........................................................................................172

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MAKE SURE YOU ARE LISTED IN THE MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES ....................................................... 172 HOW TO SUBMIT A WEBSITE TO GOOGLE.............................................................................................. 172 INTERNATIONAL SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION .................................................................................. 173 AUSTRALIAN SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION........................................................................................ 173

60. ROBOT.TXT FILE ...................................................................................................................174

WHAT IS ROBOTS.TXT USED FOR? .......................................................................................................... 174 GOOGLES ADVICE ABOUT THE ROBOT.TXT FILE................................................................................... 174 ROBOTS.TXT AND WEB PAGES................................................................................................................ 174 ROBOTS.TXT INSTRUCTIONS MAY BE IGNORED .................................................................................... 174 WORDPRESS AND THE ROBOTS.TXT...................................................................................................... 174

61. THE .HTACCESS FILE ..........................................................................................................175

WHAT IS THE .HTACCESS FILE? ............................................................................................................... 175 THE .HTACCESS FILE AND SEO ............................................................................................................... 175 WARNING...................................................................................................................................................... 175

62. FOLDER STRUCTURE ON YOUR WEB SERVER .........................................................176

SEO FRIENDLY FOLDER NAMES ............................................................................................................. 176 GOOGLE RECOMMENDS STRUCTURED WEBSITES ............................................................................. 176

63. USING FTP ...............................................................................................................................177

WHAT IS FTP? ............................................................................................................................................ 177 INSTALLING AN FTP PROGRAM ............................................................................................................... 177 USING FTP TO TRANSFER FILES TO AND FROM YOUR WEB SERVER .............................................. 177

64. THE GOOGLE COMMUNITY ...............................................................................................178

WHAT IS THE GOOGLE COMMUNITY?..................................................................................................... 178

65. GOOGLE WEBMASTER BLOG ..........................................................................................179

GOOGLE WEBMASTER CENTRAL BLOG ................................................................................................... 179

66. DELETING PAGES ON YOUR WEBSITE.........................................................................183

HOW TO REMOVE PAGES FROM GOOGLE .............................................................................................. 183

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1. What is SEO?

What is On-Site SEO? On-site SEO are techniques that you can apply to the actual website itself, such as

optimizing the title and keyword content.

What is Off-Site SEO? Off-site SEO is a collection of techniques that you can use to optimize your website

in the search engine results that involves making the best of incoming links and also using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

These days good SEO is a mixture of on-site and off-site SEO.

SEO – Do not overdo it Too much SEO can result in your website being penalized by Google

Search using the phrase ‘Google webmaster guidelines’ and read Google’s own guidelines BEFORE starting to apply SEO techniques.

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2. Over Optimization & SEO Guarantees

SEO - Take it slow It is important that you take your time with SEO. If you already have a website, then

you should slowly improve the search engine optimization rather than take this course and fix everything overnight. If you had a site with no search engine optimization and then all of a sudden Google sees that you have applied every technique in the book Google may regard this as an attempt to spam the index.

Dangers of Over Optimization search engine optimization as the name implies is about optimizing everything on

your website so that your website shows up as well as possible within the search engine results. However, there is now a Google penalty for over optimizing your website. It’s a bit like tax avoidance and tax evasion one is legal the other is not legal. It is hard to know where to draw the line with search engine optimization but certainly these days the guidance is take it slow.

SEO Guarantees if you are outsourcing your search engine optimization to a third party be very wary of

any guarantees may be offered. Google warns you to avoid any companies that guarantee to get you at the top of the first page. If you think about it no company can guarantee this is only one website can be at the top of the front page for a particular search phrase.

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3. Examples of Successful SEO

One more time - Take it slow It’s worth repeating that with search engine optimization these days you take it slowly

or risk being penalized for over optimization. You have been warned.

My SEO Story I created my first website way back in 1996 and I have always start my own search

engine optimization. I now have a number of companies and the only thing in common is that I have never employed any salespeople and I do virtually no traditional sales or marketing. Almost all my business originates through successful search engine optimization.

Computer Training Materials My original online company which is still going after all these years sells computer

training materials to companies that deliver training, such as schools colleges universities corporate training departments and third-party training companies. Almost immediately my website dominated the search engines and as you can see from the screenshot below this remains true today. If you search in Google using the phrase computer training materials as you can see to put it mildly I show up pretty well.

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As normal the adverts are displayed at the top of the page then I show up in the first four positions within the organic search engine results. My original company was called www.cctglobal.com. I later created to other domains one for North America and one for Australia/Asia.

SEO Training In the following screenshot I’ve searched Google using the phrase SEO training.

Again as you can see I can up first within the organic search engine results.

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4. SEO Terms

What is Search Engine Optimization? Search engine optimization also known as SEO is a collection of techniques that you

can use with the goal of promoting your website within the search engine results pages.

What about the constant changes Goggle makes to its algorithms? Do not get obsessed by the almost daily changes to the Google algorithm. Study the

Google Webmaster Guidelines and stick to Googles rules. Do not over optimize and you should be OK. Do not get obsessed about keeping up to date in the SEO world. If you really want to subscribe to the Google channels on YouTube and keep an eye on nay important tips or announcements. Remember that major changes to the Google algorithm are designed to catch spammers and people trying to game the system. Play by the rules and you are unlikely to be penalized.

Decide what you want SEO to achieve and think local It sounds obvious, but before performing any SEO work on your website you should

have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. You need to understand what is possible with SEO and also what is not possible.

You need to understand that proper SEO will take time and effort and you should not expect instant results.

In most cases when we talk to our customers and ask for a list of their important keyword phrases, then if they are a plumber in Perth, they would come up with a list that looks something like this. Plumbers Plumbing Commercial plumbers

However, if you are a local business then these are the wrong phrases. A local plumbing business in say Joondalup in Perth should be thinking of keyword phrases like this. Plumbers Perth Plumbing Perth Commercial plumbers Perth Plumbers Joondalup Plumbing Joondalup Commercial plumbers Joondalup

You get the idea. Your local customers will use a local place name to limit the search that Google performs so that local results are displayed. People in Perth have no interest in contacting a plumber based in the northern suburbs of Sydney!

Think local when thinking what SEO can do for you. Google also encourages you to think local and many of the new enhancements from Google will help you dominate local searches, if used correctly.

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Remember that you want more customers, not just more website visitors, many of which will be based abroad and may not be interested in your local service.

SEO and ROI Properly applied SEO techniques can produce a spectacular Return on Investment

(ROI). Many companies with a website will engage in Google AdWords campaigns, which is a system that allows you to advertise on Google, but you get charged every single time somebody clicks on your advert.

For some companies this may be an efficient form of advertising; however, it can work out to be very expensive on a monthly basis.

The great thing about SEO is that if you get it right you are not charged every time someone clicks to view your website, and the investment required in terms of both time and money can be far lower than alternative forms of advertising, such as newspaper, radio or television advertising.

Organic vs. Paid Search Engine results When you search for something in Google, normally paid-for results are shown at the

top and to the right. These are so called ‘pay per click’ advertisements and have nothing to do with SEO.

The organic results are listed under the paid-for adverts and these are there as a result of successful SEO. The goal of everyone with a website is to be listed at the top of the organic listings within the Google results.

The screen below shows the result of searching for the phrase “computer training materials” and as you can see the website listed first within the organic listings is www.CheltenhamCourseware.com.au.

Black hat vs. white hat SEO There are two types of search engine optimization often called ‘black hat’ and ‘white

hat’ SEO.

White hat SEO uses techniques that are approved of by the search engines such as Google and these are the sort of techniques that will be used within this course.

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Black hat SEO uses underhand techniques to try and artificially boost the position of a Web page within the search engine results pages. Using Black Hat SEO may gain short-term success within the search engine results but in the longer term you risk the possibility of your search engine results being demoted or in extreme cases you may be banned altogether from the search engine results.

BMW in Germany was at one point banned from the Google search engine results because either BMW or a third-party working on their behalf, used search engine techniques that Google disapproved of. If this can happen to BMW it can happen to you, so be warned.

On-page vs. off-page SEO techniques Website search engine optimization divides into two separate areas.

On page SEO: On page SEO refers to anything that you do within your web pages. As we will see a good example of this is optimizing the title of each web page within your website. There are numerous items that can be tweaked within each web page to help that web page show up better within the search engine results. This is called on-page SEO.

Off-page SEO: This refers to SEO techniques that do not directly relate to the content and structure of your website. For instance, gaining links from other websites that point towards your website is an example of off-page SEO.

Also called off-site SEO.

How do search engines work? Search engines work by looking at each page within your website and then trying to

work out what your website is about. Once the search engine has an idea of what the website is about it then needs to rank the pages within your website against other pages displaying competing information.

The Google Search Algorithm In order to rank the web pages within your website against web pages on the other

websites, Google uses something called the Google algorithm.

This sounds complicated but all it means is that Google will have a checklist of things to look for within your web pages and also within your off-site SEO efforts. The better a page scores on the algorithm checklist the more highly that particular page will be ranked within the search engine results.

As we will see, some items within the algorithm are more important than others, for instance a correctly formatted title is vitally important. Other items may carry less weight within the search engine results, but it is important to get absolutely everything right, as the cumulative effect can result in a huge increase in your search engine visibility.

As we will see later there are some things that Google doesn't like, and if you use techniques that Google doesn't approve of, this can undo your SEO efforts.

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Google Updates such as Panda and Penguin Google Panda

Google Panda was a major change that Google made to its search algorithms. It is estimated that this affected the search engine result positioning for at least 35% of all web pages worldwide.

The idea behind the Google Panda algorithm change was to try and get rid of the increasingly large number of low quality pages that were showing up in the search engine results. Many websites had been written using low quality content, with the sole intention of displaying adverts which would make money for the website authors each time someone clicked on one of the adverts.

While a lot of website designers were very upset about the introduction of Google Panda, this is good news for people creating and maintaining websites with high-quality content.

Google is on record as saying they wish to promote good content websites which means that this is what you should concentrate on when designing your website.

Google Panda affects the ranking of an entire site not just individual pages on a site.

Google have stated that it will only take a few poor quality pages or duplicated content affect a site and recommend poor quality content pages be ideally removed, blocked from being indexed by the search engine, or rewritten. However, any rewriting must add value to the original content.

Google Penguin

The Google Penguin algorithm update rolled out in April 2012 and impacted a lot of search engine results.

The algorithm was designed to demote the search engine rankings of websites that violated Google’s Webmaster Guidelines using so called black-hat SEO techniques and the use of dodgy linking schemes. Google Penguin affected around 3 percent of all English search queries in English,

In May 25, 2012, Google announced Penguin 1.1 with the declared goal of penalizing websites using manipulative SEO techniques to boost the search engine rankings, such as doorway pages created solely to boost rankings.

Penguin 2.0 was released in May 2013 and affected over 2% of search queries.

Penguin 2.1 was released on October 2013, affecting around 1% of search queries,

Page Layout Algorithm Update

In January 2012, Google launched the ‘Page Layout Algorithm Update’ (also called the ‘Top Heavy Update’ which targeted websites with too many advertisements, or too little content ‘above the fold’, i.e. towards the top of the page.

Google Hummingbird

Google Hummingbird was introduced in August 2013

Hummingbird allows Google to more accurately determine what they are searching for using context and synonyms.

To take advantage of the Hummingbird update try to determine why people are looking for information about your product or service, rather than what they are looking for. Try to write content that is designed to answer needs, not just providing facts.

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Make your content more natural sounding using conversational language.

Hummingbird examines each word used in the Google search query and also the context of each word, so that the pages displayed in the results have much more to do with meaning that just matching keywords used in a search phrase.

Hummingbird may cause more relevant pages on your site to be displayed rather than just your home page, so you should look at the use of context and similar meaning words on every single page of your website.

Hummingbird has most effect on so called long tailed keyword search phrases.

Robots, spiders and crawlers A search engine such as Google has automated software referred to as robots,

spiders or crawlers, which will search the Web looking for new websites, or new pages within websites.

The search engines will also search for pages that have been updated and modified since the last time they were crawled by the search engines.

For this reason, it is a good idea to update your website with new content every so often, because this is exactly what the search engines are looking for.

Think like a search engine When writing a website, you need to think like a search engine. If you play by the

rules and make it easy for the search engine to figure out what your website is about you will find that you get listed more prominently within the search engine results.

For example, if your website contains a picture, then on its own, Google has no idea what the picture is about.

In this case (as we will see later) if you go to the bother of including special information for the benefit of search engines, you can tell Google exactly what a picture is about and Google may reward you by making your web page more prominent in the search engine results pages.

Search engines DO NOT rank WEBSITES, they rank WEB PAGES Most people fail to grasp this simple point. As we have seen the Google PageRank

index applies to each page within your website, not to your website as a whole.

When you think about it, this is great news for search engine optimization. It means that every single page within your website is a fresh opportunity to get your web pages ranked higher than those of your competitors.

You need to concentrate on every single page within your website, so that every page is optimized to the fullest extent in order to help Google understand what the page is about, and index it correctly within the search engine results.

Search Engines vs. Directories There is a certain amount of confusion concerning the difference between a search

engine and directory.

A search engine will send out crawlers (also known as spiders or bots) to explore the Web, index what it finds and then list particular web pages in a ranking order within the search engine results pages.

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A directory on the other hand, is more like an online version of the Yellow Pages. Directories are normally divided into sub-categories and if you own a website you can submit information about your website to a directory and have it listed in a specialist category.

As we will see later directories are an important component of off-site SEO. Some directories are free while others will charge to list information about your company.

What is a URL or domain name? URL is short for ‘Uniform Resource Locator’ and is simply the address of your

website. Thus the URL for Microsoft is: www.microsoft.com

In many ways the URL is similar in concept to a telephone number. Once people know your URL, they can simply type this in to the Web browser and then press the Enter key to view your website.

What is an IP address? Many people are used to the idea of website URLs. The URL is what people use to

find websites. Behind the URL is what is called an IP address and this is like a more technical version of the URL and consists of a series of numbers.

What is a web server? A Web server is simply a computer connected directly to the Internet which is always

on and which houses your website.

When you write a website you will normally create this on the hard disk of your computer and once you're ready to publish the website or to update new pages within your website, you will upload the new pages to your particular Web Server.

How this all works technically is not important. If you are writing and maintaining a website all you need to know is how to upload to your particular Web Server.

In some cases, the programs used to write websites have a built-in capacity to upload to your particular Web Server. In other cases, you may use specialist software called FTP software to copy the web content on your hard disk up to your Web server.

As I said, you do not need to worry unnecessarily about how to configure a Web server because in most cases this will be done for you, all you have to worry about is uploading to the server.

Another similar expression is a ‘hosting service’. A hosting service, as the name implies, will host your particular website on their Web servers.

Picture files are stored separately from your web pages If you create a document using a word processor such as Microsoft Word, then you

can insert your text and pictures within the document, and when you save the file to your hard disk the entire document, pictures and all, will be saved within a single file.

It is important to realize that if you insert a picture into one of your web pages, that when you save the web page, the web page will be saved typically as an HTML file

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and all the pictures within a particular web page will be saved as separate individual picture files.

If you look at the code behind a web page you will see that whenever a picture is displayed within the web page, the code will show a link to that particular picture, which is stored in a particular folder location.

A very common error when creating web pages, is that these links for one reason or another may become broken and instead of a picture being displayed within the web page, you will often see a small red cross which indicates a broken link to that particular picture.

As we will see search engines such as Google do not take kindly to broken links and your SEO efforts will be hindered by any broken links within your website. You should always check your live website for broken links on a regular basis.

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5. SEO Concepts

Research Your Competitors Research is the key to good SEO

Identify your keywords – Keyword Research Compile a list of your important keywords and phrases

Think like a search engine If you were a search engine what would you look for from a web site?

Name everything to be SEO friendly Whenever you can name something, potentially it can be given an SEO friendly

name BUT don’t overdo it.

Use your keywords in the website Make sure you embed your keyword phrases within the body of your content as well

as using all the other techniques within this course.

Use Pictures, documents and videos Use text, documents, pictures and videos for best results

Use Social Media Use social media and link to your website

And also link from your website to your social media

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Linking Create quality content and use ‘link baiting’ to create organic linking to your website

Google Webmaster Guidelines Stick to the rules

Give Google what it wants.

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6. Page Rank

What is Google PageRank? The Google PageRank is an indication of the importance that Google attaches to

every web page within your website.

As we will see later you can easily view your Google PageRank by installing the Google toolbar. It is important to realize that the Google PageRank is just one component within the Google algorithm, however it is a good indication of what Google thinks of your website, and the higher the PageRank, all other factors being equal, the better a particular web page will show up in the Google search engine results.

Google PageRank is measured from 0 to 10 and you should realize this is a non-linear scale. Hardly any web pages have a Google PageRank of 10 as this is extremely hard to achieve.

You should also be aware that the PageRank as displayed within the Google toolbar was only publicly updated every few months, so. IMPORTANT: Google looks like they are no longer updating PageRank publically, but it may play some part in accessing your website listing in the search engine results.

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7. Google Webmaster Guidelines

Google’s Webmaster Central guidelines Google does not publish information on exactly how to get your website listed first at

the top of the search engine results. However, Google does publish a series of guidelines explaining what Google likes and also just as important, what Google does not like.

Viewing the Guidelines Search Google using the phrase Google Webmaster Guidelines.

The Guidelines Display the Google Webmaster guidelines and read through the entire information a

few times until you are familiar with the contents. There is also an introductory video you can watch.

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General Guidelines There are three sections here each of which can be expanded to display more

information.

Help Google find your pages This section deals with ways to make sure Google can properly read and index your

site.

Help Google understand your pages This section has advice regarding specific techniques that you need to apply to your

website.

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Help visitors use your pages This section includes advice on improving the user experience.

Quality guidelines Provides advice against abusing the Google indexing system.

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Basic Principles includes advice from Google searchers primarily making sure that you create

webpages for users not for search engines.

Basic principles - avoid the following techniques you should avoid

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Follow good practices like these Things Google likes.

A Warning from Google Ignore this at your peril.

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8. Quality Content & Freshness

Content is king The most important thing to concentrate on when writing new content on your

website, is to remember that as far as Google is concerned, content is king.

This means that Google is looking to reward high-quality websites that provide genuine information to website visitors.

Google likes fresh content The other thing that Google is looking for is fresh content.

Your entire SEO effort will be helped by regular updates to your website content.

If your website is packed with high-quality content, you will find that over time other people will link to your website, and as we will see, having quality inbound links to your website will really help with your SEO.

Frequent Updates Equals Frequent indexing The more often you create new content the more frequently the Googlebot will revisit

your website

New content equals new keyword promotion opportunities Focus each new page on a different keyword phrase

Incorporate a blog into your website Combine your blog and website

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9. Basic HTML

What is HTML? HTML is short for ‘Hyper Text Mark-up Language’ and is the language used to create

most web pages you'll find on the web. Traditionally HTML uses what are called ‘tags’. These tags can be used to make part of a sentence appear in bold or in italics.

Browsers and HTML The function of a Web browser is to interpret the HTML code. What you see within

the web browser, for instance Microsoft Internet Explorer, is the effect of those tags.

Index page The homepage for a website normally has a special name called index. The

homepage is the page that you normally see first when you type a base URL into your web browser. A base URL is a URL such as www.Microsoft.com.

A sample web page The illustration below shows a very simple website for a plumbing company based in

Perth. We will now look in detail how this web page is actually coded.

Viewing HTML code Within the Internet Explorer browser, in order to view the code, simply right click on

an empty part of the page, and from the pop-up menu that is displayed, click on the View Source command.

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In this case the HTML source code will look like this.

If this is the first time you have looked at HTML code, it probably looks incomprehensible. However, as we will see, understanding HTML is not that difficult.

HTML tag The first thing to understand are the HTML tags.

There is an opening HTML tag at the top of the page which looks like this. <HTML>

There is the corresponding closing HTML tag at the bottom of the page which looks like this.

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</HTML>

If you look at the example web page code, you will find all the other items appear between the opening and closing HTML tags.

Head vs. Body sections The next thing to note is that the area between the two HTML tags is divided into two

sections. The upper section is called the Head area and the lower section is called the Body area.

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The Head Section The start of the head section is defined by the following (opening) tag.

<head>

The end of the head section is marked by the following (closing) tag. </head>

You will see this idea of ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ tags a lot when you start looking at HTML code. Generally, the closing tag has a forward slash within it.

Within the Head area you can define things that as we will see are important for search engine optimization, but anything within the head area is not actually displayed when you view the HTML code within your web browser. The exception being the title, as we will see later.

The Body section Within the Body section you can enter and format the text and pictures that will

actually be displayed within your web page, when viewed within a Web browser. SAMPLE

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Title tag The title is always contained within the head area.

In this case the title of the web page is ‘Welcome to my Perth Plumbing website’.

The start of the title line begins with the following opening tag: <title>

At the end of the title line is the following closing tag: </title>

As we will see later the keywords that you can place within this title are of vital importance to your search engine optimization.

Description tag The description is always contained within the Head area, as illustrated below.

As you can see the structure of the description line is a little bit different from the title line. The description is what is called a ‘Meta tag’. The example we are using is illustrated below. <meta name="description" content="Perth Plumbing company based in Joondalup, with 24 emergency call out" />

It is not really important to understand why the description is formatted like this, just simply understand what the description is, and remember that the important part of the description, is the text description that describes a page.

In this case the important phrase is as follows.

“Perth Plumbing company based in Joondalup, with 24 emergency call out”

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Meta Keywords tag The ‘meta keywords tag’ is always contained within the Head area. An example is

illustrated below.

The important part of the keyword Meta tag is the list of keyword phrases that are displayed, each word or phrase, separated by a comma. In the example illustrated the keywords are: Perth plumbing, Perth plumbers, Plumbers Joondalup, Perth, Western Australia

You can of course specify any keyword phrases that you wish. As we will see later, this list of keyword phrases used to be very important for search engine positioning. However, these days many search engines such as Google will completely ignore your list of keyword phrases within the keyword Meta tag. However, it is still worth inserting the keyword Meta tag as some search engines may still use them and it won't do your SEO efforts any harm.

A lot of people still think the keyword Meta tags are important for SEO and as we will see you can use this to your advantage by investigating the keywords that your competitors have inserted into their keyword Meta tags. This can be an excellent way of performing keyword research that will help you to build up your own list of important keyword phrases.

Heading tags (for body text) Heading tags are always contained within the Body area. If we look at our example

web page below you can see that the first line has been formatted to stand out because it has been formatted as a heading.

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If we take a look at the underlying HTML code for this web page, you will see the following.

As you can see this line has been formatted as an H1 header. The opening tag to mark the start of the H1 heading is simply: <h1>

At the end of the line you have the corresponding closing tag which is: </h1>

The H1 heading simply means the main heading that can be used within your document. You can use different levels of sub-headings using the following opening and closing tags. <h2> </h2> <h3> </h3> <h4> </h4>

You can use heading tags within your web pages, in exactly the same way that you would use headings within say a Microsoft Word document. For the visitor, they are a

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convenient way of breaking up the text within a long page. From a search engine optimization point of view, they are an opportunity for you to insert your important keyword phrases into the heading code and get the search engines take note of the text within the headings.

Paragraph tags Paragraph tags are always contained within the body area. They are the Web page

equivalent of pressing the Enter key.

Take a look at the highlighted line within the sample Web page. As you can see at the end of this line the next paragraph is dropped down the page.

If we take a look at the underlying HTML code used to display this line you will see the following.

As you can see at the start of the paragraph there is an opening paragraph tag that looks like this: <p>

At the end of this line is the corresponding closing tag which looks like this: </p>

Bold tags Bold tags are used to display text using bold formatting and are always contained

within the Body area. If you look at a sample Web page, you will see that the highlighted text is displayed using bold formatting.

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If we look at the underlying HTML code to see how this was achieved, you will see the following.

As you can see the opening bold tag marks the start of the text that will be displayed within bold and looks like this: <b>

The corresponding closing bold tag will look like this: </b>

Links to other pages One of the great features of a website is that you can use hyperlinks to link all the

pages together.

When you view a page within a Web browser, you can simply click on a hyperlink and the hyperlink target page will be automatically displayed within your browser.

If we look at our example web page, you can see it contains a hyperlink as highlighted below. SAMPLE

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If we look at the underlying HTML code for this page, you will see the following.

The important part of the highlighted area is a bit that defines where you will link to within a hyperlink. In this case clicking on the hyperlink will take you to a different web page called about-us.htm.

Anchor text within Hyperlinks If you look at the HTML code of a hyperlink in detail, you will notice that as well is

specifying which page the hyperlink links to, there is some text also contained within the hyperlink.

The text within the hyperlink is called the ‘anchor text’ and is the text that will be displayed within the Web browser that marks the hyperlink area. If we switch back to view the web page in a web browser the default format for a hyperlink within a web page looks like this.

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As you can see the hyperlink text displayed is exactly what you to find within the anchor text in the HTML code.

As we will see later the text within your anchor links are extremely important from a search engine optimization point of view.

In the case illustrated the website belongs to a local plumber in Perth and as you can see we have used a hyperlink using three important keywords for the owner of this website.

IMG (Image) tags Another great feature of the Web is the fact that you can display both text and

pictures. In order to display a picture within your web page you need to use an image tag.

Before we go any further, it is important to realize how images are displayed within a web page. If you are creating a Microsoft Word document, you may be used to typing in your text and inserting clipart or other images, when you are satisfied with the document you simply save the document which will contain both text and pictures within a single file.

Web pages’ work in a different way. A Web page can only contain text. This means that when you display a picture within a web page, when you save the web page file it is saved as a normal HTML document while any pictures you have inserted are saved as separate image files.

The function of the image tag within a web page is to tell your Web browser to link to a particular picture, using a particular file name, in a particular folder and also to display the picture using a specified height and width.

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Our sample Web page contains the highlighted picture.

If we look at the underlying HTML code you will see the following image tag which is used to define which picture file will be displayed, and also the size that it will be displayed, within the web page.

In this case you can see that the source file for the picture is a file called: happy-plumber.jpg

Also in this case the height and width (measured in screen pixel units) is defined as illustrated below:

ALT Tags If you look carefully at the image tag line you will see some words, in this case,

‘Perth Plumbing Company’ which is called an ALT statement.

ALT is short for alternative.

Remember that Google can read and understand the text that you type into a web page but has no clue as to what a picture is about.

As we will see for search engine optimization purposes we need to give Google as many clues as possible as to what a picture is about.

This is where the ALT tags come in handy. In fact, the ALT tags allow you to tell Google what the picture is about. In this case we have used the words Perth Plumbing Company. As we will see later, the ALT tags offer you another

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opportunity to insert a keyword phrase relevant to your products or services.

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10. Google Power Searching

Basic searching techniques within Google This Search term

Will display web pages containing the following:

Website+SEO

The words Website and SEO

On-page SEO

All forms of the term, including Onsite SEO and On-page SEO

Website SEO OR SEM

Information on Website SEO or Website SEM

"SEO companies in Australia"

The exact phrase SEO companies in Australia

SEO –UK

The word SEO but NOT the word UK

SEO ~glossary

Glossaries about SEO

define:SEO

Displays definitions of the word SEO

Search for a phrase within a particular website. To search for the phrase SEO tips within a website called:

www.websiteseoaustralia.com.au

You would search for the following within Google. “SEO tips” site:www.websiteseoaustralia.com.au

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The results of this search are illustrated below.

Find documents using a particular file format such as PDF file. To search for a PDF formatted file called SEO-Tips you would search Google using

the following. SEO-Tips filetype:pdf


Find pages that link to a website To find all pages that link to a website called www.cctglobal.com you would use the

following search. link:www.cctglobal.com

The results of this search are illustrated below. As you can see this website has 67 other websites linking back to it.

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To display website pages that are similar to a particular URL To see websites that are similar to, or related to the IBM website, you would search

using the following. related:www.ibm.com


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To specify that all the words in a search query must appear in anchor text of links pointing to a web page

In this example we are looking for anchor text containing the following: allinanchor:SEO Joondalup

To specify that the words in a search query appear in the anchor text of links pointing to a web page

For example, to search for web pages relating to ‘SEO Perth’, which are linked to using the word ‘Ethical’ in the anchor text. SEO Perth inanchor:Ethical

To specify that all the query words must appear within the body text of a web page.

allintext:White Hat SEO Perth The results of this search are illustrated below.

To specify that some or all of the query words must appear within the body text of a web page

To find pages that mention the word Perth in the body text, but also include one or more of the following words White Hat SEO. White Hat SEO intext:Perth

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To specify that all the query words must appear in the title of a web page

allintitle:SEO Training Perth

To specify that one or more of the query words must appear in the title of a web page

For instance, to search for pages containing SEO Perth in the body text, that also have the word Training in the title. SEO Perth intitle:Training

To search, specifying that all query words must appear in the URL

allinurl:SEO Training Joondalup The results of this search are illustrated below.

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To search, specifying that one or more query words must appear in the URL

For example, to search for web pages containing Joondalup in the body text and which have SEO Training within the URL. Joondalup allinurl:SEO Training

Advanced Goggle Search

Available at: https://www.google.com.au/advanced_search SAMPLE

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11. Advanced Google Searching

Google Advanced Search Go to:

https://www.google.com.au/advanced_search

Narrowing your advanced search results Experiment with the following:

And more … Check out the following:

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12. Google Keywords Planner

What is the Google Keywords Planner? The Google Keyword Planner is primarily used by people who are paying to advertise

on Google. The idea is that these people can research what potential customers will actually search for when using Google.

First you need to sign up for a Google AdWords account however you do not actually need to advertise on Google in order to use this tool.

To find the correct web address for this tool simply search within Google using the phrase Google Keywords Planner.

Using the Google Keyword Planner Go to:

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

The best way to use this tool is to sign in using your Google account.

Once you start the Google Keyword Planner tool program your screen will look something like the illustration below.

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Click on the item illustrated below.

You will see the following screen.

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Within the first text box enter a search phrase such as Rent a car Perth.

Customizing your results You will notice that there are other options towards the bottom on the screen.

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In the example shown I have set the tool to focus on search results only within Australia. You can change this to focus on a different country, such as the USA or UK.

You can also set the language even use the ‘Negative Keywords’ to exclude results containing specified words.

You can use the Keywords Filter section to customize the results to broaden the results to show related searches.

When you click on the Get Ideas button you will see the following.

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Click on the Keyword Ideas tab to see the following.

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As you can see you can view the average number of searches for each search phrase.

You can click on any of the column header, such as the Avg. monthly search header to sort the results.

In the example shown we can see that the most useful related search, with the highest search count would be Car Rental.

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Use this tool to do your keyword research. Don’t just focus on the obviously search phrases as some of the lower volume phrases might be much easier to rank for within Google.

Also check out variations of long tailed phrases.

Multiple search phrase analysis If you wish to search using multiple keyword phrases, separated by a comma, as

illustrated below.

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The results will then look like this.

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13. SEO Copywriting

Customizing different pages for different keywords Many companies make the mistake of trying to cram all the alternative keywords into

the homepage. By doing this, you will have a homepage that in many cases does not read well for your visitors, and if you over optimize a page Google may notice this and penalize the website for attempted spamming.

When you were compiling your list of keywords, you should have grouped the keywords into associated themes, you can then use these groupings to apply particular keywords to specific pages within your website.

Let's say you have a product that you both rent and sell. You can optimize one page for product rentals and optimize another page for product sales.

Using the same technique if you are interested in promoting your product or service across a number of different cities, within reason, you can set up different pages catering for different locations.

It is important that you do not overdo the use of this technique, as Google may see it as an attempt to spam the search engines. A good criteria is: could you justify the creation of multiple pages when talking to your customers, rather than simply creating them to get extra search engine visibility?

Amount of text on a page You should take care not to cram too much text onto a single web page.

If after writing or modifying a web page, you think it is getting too long remember you can always split one web page into two separate web pages of a more reasonable length.

There is no set rule about how much text a single web page should contain. Use the criteria of what your visitors would find reasonable.

Always remember that if you split a single web page into two web pages you have doubled your SEO opportunities and each page can be optimized to a slightly different variant of a particular keyword phrase.

Location of keywords on a page, top and bottom of page text It is important to realize that Google pays particular attention to the text at the top and

also the bottom of a web page. These are the two areas where it is essential to enter your keywords and phrases. Try and use a slightly different variant of the keyword phrase in the bottom section compared to the top section.

Keyword Density Keyword density refers to the percentage of times a keyword or phrase is displayed

within a web page, compared to the total number of words on the page.

You should be careful not to overuse keywords within a web page as this is called keyword stuffing and this could harm your search engine optimization efforts.

There is no set keyword density that you should use but most people recommend a density of between 1 and 5%.

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Keyword Frequency The keyword frequency refers to the number of times a particular keyword or phrase

is displayed within a single web page. If the keyword phrase is repeated too much within a single page, then you may be penalized by the search engines for attempting to spam the search engine listings.

Keyword Proximity Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two or more keywords as

displayed within a web page. In terms of search engine optimization, the closer the two words are displayed the better.

Keyword Stuffing This term applies to overusing keywords and phrases in an effort to get a higher

search page ranking. Google will eventually find you and it will hurt your SEO in the long term. Do not do it.

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14. Keywords and Bold Text

Body text and keywords When you write the body text content within your web pages, you should always use

natural sounding paragraphs, but try and build these paragraphs around your list of essential keywords and phrases.

Bold text When humans read a page of information their attention will be drawn to any text that

is highlighted in bold. The same applies to many of the search engines. If you highlight a short portion of text containing your keywords Google will pay attention to this.

You can use this technique frequently throughout your website but you should limit its use within each single web page.

Large text and colored text As well is highlighting a keyword phrase as bold you can also select a keyword

phrase within a web page and format it using extra-large text, or a different colored font, or even a different type of font, to draw attention to the selected keywords. Again do not over use this technique within a single web page.

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15. List Formatting & SEO

Using bulleted or numbered lists Another nice way of drawing attention to a particular item of text is to format the item

using a bulleted list. Your human visitors will be attracted to focus on a short bulleted list and Google may also pay extra attention to any text formatted this way, which should always contain your important keywords or phrases. It does not matter whether you use a bulleted list, or a numbered list, the effect will be the same.

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16. Keywords and Anchor Text

Anchor Text and keywords Anchor text is the text you can use within a text link on your website. It is amazing

how often you see hyperlinks within a website using text such as ‘click here’. Instead of using the text ‘click here’ you can insert a keyword phrase which will greatly help you with your website SEO efforts.

Look at the example below which shows part of the list displaying tips about common website errors. As you can see in each case, the hyperlink text that is displayed is highly relevant to the item that the hyperlink is linking to.

If you already have a web site go through every page and if necessary, improve the anchor text within your existing hyperlinks.

Exploiting keywords in anchor text links Anchor text is the text you see displayed within a hyperlink. Using anchor link text

that is rich in your keyword phrases will greatly help with the SEO efforts for your website.

For instance, let's say you want to create a hyperlink on a site that is related to a chiropractor practice in Perth and you want a hyperlink to link to a page about prices. In this case the ideal anchor link text would be something like this: Perth Chiropractic Prices

By default, the link will look something like this. Remember that if you are using CSS to format your web pages, the link may not be displayed in blue and may not be underlined.

You can combine this technique of using keyword rich anchor text with the use of an intelligent name for the target web page. In this case you could call the target web page something like Chiropractic-PricesPerth.html.

By combining the actual hyperlink anchor text with an intelligent target page file name, you get 2 opportunities to insert your keyword phrases into a single hyperlink.

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Don’t use ‘Click Here’ for anchor text within a hyperlink Remember always use hyperlink anchor text as an opportunity to insert your keyword

phrases. If you start examining other people’s websites, you will find that time and time again the anchor link text, which remember is the clickable text within the link, will display something like the words ‘click here’. In this case you are telling Google that the phrase click here is an important keyword phrase for your site, and you are getting no SEO benefit whatsoever.

To see the effect of this try searching Google using the phrase ‘Click here’ and you will find that the top ranking search will be the website for the free ‘Adobe Acrobat Reader’ program. This is because an enormous number of websites offer downloadable PDF files and most of them would include a link to the free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader containing the ‘click here’ phrase within the anchor text of the link. A typical example is illustrated below.

This shows the importance of good keyword text use within anchor links.

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17. Evaluating keyword phrases and investigating your online competitors

Make a list of the keyword phrases you think are important Before you start any SEO activity you need to start compiling a list of your important

keywords and phrases.

It is vital that you take as much time as necessary compiling your initial list of keywords, otherwise you may start search engine optimization on your website using keywords which turn out to be the wrong keywords.

Use keyword phrases rather than a single word Rather than single words, you should think of short phrases that you expect your

customer to type into a search engine to find your products or services.

Use a localized phrase In most cases you will need to think about localizing your search phrase. For

instance, if you run a plumbing company in Perth then an obvious search phrase would be Plumbers Perth.

Other related phrases would be: Plumbing Perth Plumbers in Perth Plumbing services Perth

When localizing your search phrase, you should think about the name of your suburb, the nearest city and the State name.

If you are interested in countrywide sales and you live in Australia, you would want to use the country name in some of your search phrases. In this case you would want to use the word Australia and also Australian.

Ask employees and customers for key phrase ideas As well as compiling a list of the words that you consider important, you should also

ask the help of family, friends, employees and customers.

In many cases, what you consider to be your important keyword phrases may not actually be the keyword phrases that your customers really use to search for your product or service.

For instance, you might use technical terms, while your customers may use more general terms. It is best to use a mixture of specialist and general terms in your search phrases.

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Use Google to search using your chosen keywords and check out the competition

The next step is to start using Google to investigate your online competitors.

Using some of the search phrases that you have identified as important to you, try a simple search within Google and take a look at the first three pages of results. If you do not yet show up within the first three pages in Google, then you have just identified all the websites that you need to beat in order to get towards the top of the front page.

Take a quick look at each competitor website in turn, read the information displayed on the important pages within each website. This might give you a few more important keywords you have not yet thought of.

Use Google Auto-suggest to suggest more popular keywords Once you have typed a word into the search text box within the Google search

engine, you will notice that a drop down menu is often displayed with a list of suggested phrases. The illustration below shows what happens when you type in the word ‘Plumbers’ if you live in or near the city of Perth in Western Australia.

This drop-down list of auto suggestions from Google can be an excellent indication of the right keyword phrases to use for your products or services.

Related searches in Google When you enter a search phrase into Google, such as ‘Perth chiropractor’, if you

scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see that Google will display a list of recommended related searches.

Make a note of these related searches and add them to your list of possible keyword phrases.

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You can click on any of these suggested related searches, if you then scroll down to the bottom of the search page results, you will find that yet more suggested searches are displayed.

Turn the cache off when repeating local searches Because of the way that Google works, if you make repeated related searches you

will find that the results that are displayed initially will differ from those displayed after making multiple searches.

This is due to the fact that the results are cached in an effort to help you, and make the searches more relevant to you.

You should turn the caching off within your browser, so that you see true results, not results that may be customized to the way that you use a particular search engine.

Listing the keywords that your competitors think are important As well is reading the text displayed on competitor websites, you can also look

behind their web pages and see details of keywords that your competitors consider important.

This will change slightly from one Web browser to another, but in the case of Microsoft Internet Explorer all you need to do is to right click on an empty part of the Web page, and from the pop-up menu displayed select the View Source command.

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This will display the HTML coding behind the website page you are viewing.

If you have never looked at HTML code before, initially it will look a bit frightening, but you need to get used to examining some of the code behind your competitor’s web page.

Typically, you will see a Head section at the top of each web page an example of which is illustrated below.

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The three important items within the Head section are called the title, the description and the keywords.

If you are not a Web designer, you do not need to worry about the way that these items are structured and presented within the head section. All you need to know is how to look at this code and see if there are any keywords or phrases listed within the head section that you can take advantage of.

Quite often within the keyword section is a long list of keywords separated by commas and you can simply copy and paste these to your list of keywords.

In many cases you will find that your competitors have thought of an important keyword phrase that you have not previously thought of. This is a great way of investigating your competitor’s keywords. You should use this technique to examine all the websites belonging to companies that you consider to be your competitors online.

Word Stemming The phrase ‘word stemming’ basically means thinking of related alternative keywords

and phrases.

For instance, do you think your customers would use the word plumber or the word plumbers when searching for a plumber within a particular location? This is an example where you should consider using both the single and plural versions of the word within your keyword strategy.

In some cases, people might use different spellings or different combinations of words. For instance, they might use the words: website web site web-site.

Try to think of all possible combinations for phrases or words that are important to you and ideally make sure that you include all these different combinations into your website.

You do not have to cram them all onto a single page. It will be better to distribute the variations across different pages within your website.

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Use Thesaurus.com for related keyword ideas or the Microsoft Word Thesaurus

You can use a thesaurus to widen the list of alternative keyword phrases. To do this you can use a traditional printed thesaurus.

If you are using Microsoft Word, you can select a word within your document and then press the Shift+F7 keys. This will display the inbuilt thesaurus within Microsoft Word and you can examine alternatives to the selected word.

For example, if you type in the word computer into your Microsoft document and press the Shift+F7 keys you will see the following alternatives displayed.

Alternatively, you can use an online thesaurus such as www.thesaurus.com

Using long tail search phrases A long tail search phrase is simply a search phrase that uses more words.

For instance, if you are running a plumbing company in northern Perth a long tail search phrase maybe something like the following: Plumbing services in Perth's northern suburbs

There will be far less people searching using a long tail search phrase but by optimizing particular pages within your web for that particular phrase, you're pretty much guaranteed to get the attention within the search engine results.

Advanced Google search techniques As well as simply typing a phrase into Google and searching for the results, there are

a number of tricks you can use that take advantage of the advanced searching features within Google.

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Video Searches Display the Google homepage and type in a search phrase. For example, type in

SEO training Joondalup. In the example shown below we have clicked on the down arrow next to the More command and selected the Videos command.

The results will then be displayed as illustrated below.

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You can then click on each video and you may hear or read words or phrases that you can use to help with the SEO of your website.

What Google has to say about building keyword lists You should read the information supplied by Google about how to construct a

keyword list.

They have a Web page on this website entitled “How do I build the best keyword list?” which you can find at the following address. support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6763. The web page will look something like this.

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18. Pictures and SEO

Picture File Names Rather than having an image file with a name something like image0284.jpg you

could use the file name Fixing-a-leaking-tap.jpg.

Alt Tags One of the great things about the web is that as well as displaying text you can also

display other items such as pictures.

Unfortunately, when you insert a picture Google will not understand what the picture is about.

There is a way of telling Google what a picture is about.

You can use what are called ALT tags.

The ALT is short for alternative, and you can use the ALT tag to insert keywords or phrases that are relevant to that particular picture.

For instance, if you have a picture of a telephone you could use an ALT tag text such as ‘cordless telephone’.

The Google Webmaster Guidelines asks you to use Alt Tags.

Inserting ALT tags is very easy.

Each time you use your Web authoring software such as WordPress whenever you insert a picture just make sure you also insert an appropriate ALT tag.

If you look at a web page within the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser try moving the mouse pointer over a picture within a web page, after a short delay you may see a pop-up displayed which will display the contents of the ALT tag associated with that picture.

You can see an example of this where we have a button about SEO pricing and when you move the mouse pointer over a button you will see the ALT text within a pop-up.

You should create ALT tags for every single picture within your website.

One reason for this is to help with your SEO and the other reason is to help visitors who have impaired vision.

People who find it hard to read a web page can use special software which will read the text displayed within a web page, and also read the ALT tag text behind any pictures.

An easy way for you to examine whether or not all the pictures within your website have had associated ALT tags created is to turn off the picture display within your browser.

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Once you have done this, pictures will no longer be displayed and you will normally see a border outline illustrating the size of the picture within which the ALT text will be displayed (if there is any).

If you use this technique remember to re-enable the displaying of pictures within your browser when you have finished examining all the pages within your website.

To turn off the displaying of images within Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Meta Data Many picture editing programs will allow you to insert hidden information within a

picture file, called meta data. Google can read some types of meta data so use your keywords within the meta data tags

Optimize picture file size Optimize your picture files so that the file size of each picture is as small as possible,

while still retaining a decent image quality when viewed on screen.

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19. The HTML Title

Title The title is the single most important SEO factor in terms of on-page website

optimization. If you do nothing else, make sure that you get the title right. It is generally recognized that Google will only list the first 64 characters of your web page title.

Remember that the title is the first thing that somebody will read about your website when looking at the search engine results, it is vital that it describes as fully as possible what the web pages are about.

Google will often display the title that you specify within your title tag, however it is important to realize that Google uses relevancy rather than simply relying on the contents of the title tag.

If Google determines that your title tag does not fairly represent the contents of the web page then Google may create its own title which is displayed in the search engine results, based on what Google thinks your web page is about.

If your title tag is too long, or too short then it is more likely that Google will use its relevancy algorithm to display a title more relevant to page content.

You can watch a video from Google explaining how they use titles within the search engine results. www.youtu.be/NlJiLDn9-38

In many cases when you are using a Web creation package the software will automatically insert a default title such as “home page”. Whenever you create a new web page on your site you should always remember to check the title and make it as relevant as possible to the contents of that particular web page.

Other disastrous variations on the home page title are titles such as: - new page - title goes here Or in some cases no title at all.

Keyword position within a title You should include your keyword phrase as close to the start of the title line as

possible.

Use unique titles for each page within your website Over and over again, we see examples of websites where every single page within

the website has exactly the same title.

Bearing in mind the importance to SEO of a Web page title, if every page on your website has the same title you are missing a huge SEO opportunity.

You should try and optimize every single page on your website to a slightly different keyword phrase. Using a different title gives you a wonderful opportunity to indicate

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to Google what each page is about, Google will respond by looking at the title and using that as an indication of how each page should be ranked in response to a particular search engine request.

Do not try to spam the title with your keywords. It is much better to use a single keyword phrase on each title, you may be penalized by Google if you simply use a repetitive keyword over and over again within the title.

As an example, if your website relates to a plumbing service in Perth, an ideal title would be something like this.

Perth plumbing service | Qualified plumbers available 24/7

The page title can be displayed within the search engine results It is important to realize that the title is often displayed first within the summary

snippet in the search engine results when a search is performed using Google.

For instance, if you search Google using the phrase SEO training Joondalup the following is typical of the sort of listing that is displayed within the results. In this case the highlighted title has been taken directly from each web page listed in the results.

What happens if you do not have a title or have a bad title? If you have no title at all specified for a particular web page, Google will use other

factors such as page content to try and construct a title that will be displayed within the list of search engine results for a particular search phrase.

If you have a really bad title such as the words ‘No Title’, ‘untitled’ or ‘Title goes here’, then again Google may try to create a relevant title for you

CTR (Click Through Rate) and SEO The more enticing your title looks within the page of search engine results, the more

likely that you will have a better CTR (Click Through Rate).

The better your click through rate, the more Google will like a particular Web page, and this can increase your prominence within the search engine results page.

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Titles and matching HTML headings To increase the relevancy of your title you should always try and use important

keywords in your titles also within your headers.

For instance, if your title included the keyword phrase ‘Plumbers in Perth’ then you should try and use an ‘H1’ heading within your document containing the text ‘Plumbers in Perth’. You can also try and use similar keyword phrases within an H2 or H3 heading.

Keyword positioning within your title You should use your keyword phrase at the very start of your title of the home page.

On the other pages within your website you can recycle the most important keyword phrase towards the end of the title. Even though Google may only display the first 64 characters within the search engine results, it will actually read and take account of keywords within a title that is longer than 64 characters.

Localization of your titles If you are after local business, it is important to mention your local area, suburb,

region or state within your title.

Also remember that different countries use different spellings, so for instance within Europe or Australia, the word organize will be spelt with an S, while within North America it will be spelt with a Z.

Google will only display around 64 characters but may index up to 250 characters

If you look at the search engine results page, you will see that generally roundabout 64 characters are displayed within the title area. However, it is important to realize that Google may index as much as 250 characters within the title, even though it does not display these long titles within the search engine results.

You can use this knowledge to construct the ideal title using the first 64 characters as this is information that will be displayed within the search engine results, but you can create a second area of keyword phrases within your title which although they may not be displayed within the search engine results may in some cases be used to help index your page. This gives you an extra capability to include additional keywords within your title. Towards the end of a long title you could include keyword variations such as plurals and synonyms.

Titles and branding Many websites may want to include the brand name within the title. If your brand is

well known this maybe a good idea, however if your brand is less well-known, then displaying your brand name will eat into the crucial 64 characters that are used to display your Web page title within the search engine results.

If branding is less important to you, then you should consider using the brand name within a long title, after the first 64 characters of your title, which you can use to focus on your keyword phrases.

The following shows the search engine results when searching Amazon.com for information about Australia. As you can see in each case the brand name

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Amazon.com is displayed at the start of the title. site:amazon.com Australia

Keyword proximity within the title If you have two words that make up an important keyword phrase it is important to

have these keywords next to each other within the title. For instance, if you determined that the most important keyword phrase is something like ‘plumbing services’, then do not use a title containing a phrase such as ‘plumbing local services’.

The order of words within your key phrase are important Often you will find that when you do your keyword research there is sometimes a

huge difference between using one keyword phrase and then searching again using the keyword phrase in reverse order.

For instance, you might find that ‘Plumbers Perth’ has a different number of monthly searches compared to the phrase ‘Perth Plumbers’. In this particular case it might be a good idea to use each version of the keyword phrase on a separate page.

Singular vs. plural versions of your keyword You should not repeat the same word more than twice within your title and to be on

the safe side you may wish to use one version without the ‘s’ and another version with the ‘s’, i.e. one singular version of the keyword and one plural version of the keyword.

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Stop words Stop words include words such as ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘in’ and other similar words. Normally

the search engines will ignore stop words within the title.

Remember that normally Google will only display the first 64 characters of your title so you should try to avoid using stop words within your title.

Separators A title separator is used to separate information within the title. Commonly used

separators within a title are the pipe (|) sign, commas and hyphens.

Do not use the underscore character, brackets or quotation marks within the title. See what Google says about separators within your title. youtu.be/jHSqLYUPq8w

Using smaller words If you are desperate to get extra information into your title, try using abbreviations or

other shorter words with the same meaning as your original word.

Consider replacing words such as ‘AND’ with the ‘&’ symbol and the word ‘copyright’ with the ‘©’ symbol.

Call to action (CTA) Remember that as well as optimizing your titles for the search engines you are also

writing them for people, who will view your titles in a page of search engine results when they are searching for your product or service.

Compare the title you write with the other titles that your competitors display in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

Using exact keyword matches If your research indicates that a particular search phase is searched for more than a

similar, but different search phrase, then consider using the exact phrase that is searched for most. Use the same words in the exact order.

Use natural capitalization All caps usage can look like spam to people browsing through the search engine

results and may also be interpreted as spam by the search engines. Stick to natural capitalization. It is OK to capitalize abbreviations, such as SEO.

Different title and description text Make sure that you do not have exactly the same text for the title and the description.

The description can be longer and is a great place to insert extra information both for the search engines, and also to show up within the search engine result page.

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Do not use multiple titles within a single web page Sometimes by accident you may end up with two title lines within the head section of

a web page. Always check for this sort of basic error before publishing a web page.

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20. The HTML Description

The Meta Description Displayed within the <HEAD> section of each webpage.

Description Syntax The correct syntax for the HTML Description tag is:

<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Your description">

Description and Click Through Rate (CTR) A good description can greatly increase your click through rate, when people are

viewing search engine results.

Google may ignore the Description The description may be used in whole (or in part) within the search engine results

page snippet describing a particular webpage.

Even when displaying the same web page within a website, Google may display a different description, depending on how a search was made. If you perform a search using an exact URL then Google will often use the exact description contained within the header of the web page.

Sometimes you may find that the search engines almost completely ignore the description specified within the Head area of the web page and instead create their own description which they have produced using content displayed within the web page.

An easy way to see how Google is displaying descriptions of each page on your website is to search Google using the site command as illustrated below. site:www.cctglobal.com

Unique Descriptions on every page Again make each description unique making sure you have a different description for

each web page within your website.

Description Length In the case of the description Google will generally display around 20-25 words, so

as you might expect the description can be longer than the title.

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The Description and Page Content Each description should carefully match the contents of the body text within a web

page.

The Description and the Open Directory Project If your website is listed in the Open Directory Project (DMOZ), then Google may

use the description specified here rather than the description specified within the header area of a particular web page.

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21. Meta Keyword Tag

The Meta keyword list The original idea of the keyword Meta list within the Head section of your Web page

was to tell the search engines which keywords should be used to rank that particular page. This feature has been spammed so much that Google now ignores the keyword Meta list, however some other search engines may still use it for clues as to what a particular Web page is about.

It is still worth listing your keywords and phrases within the Meta keyword list.

You should list the most important keyword phrase first, with other keyword phrases being listed in order of importance.

Each keyword or keyword phrase should be separated by a comma.

As with the Title and Description customize the keyword Meta list to the actual contents of each page so that ideally each item within the keyword meta list is displayed as a text item within that web page.

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22. Headings

Use similar to use within Microsoft Word The concept of using headings within a web page is very similar to the way you'd use

headings within a Microsoft Word document. If you are creating a new web page you would simply type in your heading and then use your web creation software to mark that line of text as a heading 1, heading 2 or heading 3.

Headings and structure You should use headings within each web page to add structure to your document

which will help your visitors.

The text within headings will also be used by the search engines to gain a greater understanding of what the web pages are about and if you populate each heading with appropriate keyword phrases this will improve your web page SEO.

Ideally you should use 2 or 3 levels of headings within each web page. At the very least you should have a top-level H1 heading.

Use Headings for SEO not Styling Remember that you can use cascading style sheets (CSS) to format the appearance

of your headings and this will not affect the SEO benefits in any way.

Use relevant keywords within your headings Don’t make the mistake of using an H1 heading that displays the text WELCOME or

WELCOME TO OUT WEBSITE.

DO not inset your company name into the headings, insert information about your product or services.

Only one H1 per web page You should only have one H1 per web page, but you can have as many H2 and H3

headings as you like.

No gaps in multiple heading hierarchy If you have multiple heading levels such as H1, H2, H3 and H4 that is fine. In fact,

you can have all the way to H6.

However, I would recommend no more than that three levels.

Also do not miss out a level. For instance, do not have an H1 and then an H3 with no H2

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Use Relevant Headings You should use headings containing a keyword phrase that is relevant to that

particular web page.

Heading Syntax The typical HTML syntax for a heading will look something like this.

<h1>heading text goes here</h1> <h2>heading text goes here</h2> <h3>heading text goes here</h3>

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23. File Names and Keywords

Using keywords in file names You should get into the habit of remembering that every time you create a new web

page the name of the HTML web page is an opportunity to showcase a particular keyword or keyword phrase.

Using keywords in folder names You can also create folders on your website with SEO friendly names.

For instance, within many websites, all the images are contained within a folder called images. From an SEO point of view rather than using the folder name ‘images’ you could use one of your keywords or phrases.

For instance, if your website relates to plumbers in Perth you could call a folder containing your website images something like: Plumbers-Perth-Images

Using keywords in image file names Rather than having an image file with a name something like image0284.jpg you

could use the file name Perth-SEO-Company.jpg.

Using keywords in your document file names If your website contains downloads for Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF files, use

meaningful file names that will help promote your product or service within your particular location on the search engines.

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24. Keywords and Domain Names

Keywords in the domain name The actual name of the URL is an SEO factor.

The URL should be as short as possible and ideally describe exactly what your company does. For instance, if your company provides a plumbing service in the city of Perth, the very best possible URL would be something like www.plumbingperth.com.au

Avoid the use of a hyphen within the URL name.

Outside the USA use .com or local domain? Within Australia, it is best to have a .com.au if possible for your company's website.

In many cases it is easier to get a .com.au domain towards the top of the search engine results.

Think about domain names that describe your product or service You do not have to use the company name as your website domain name.

How to see if a domain name is available There are many places on the web where you can search for available URLs and

within Australia a popular place to search would be the domain website Crazy Domains. www.crazydomains.com.au

With this and similar services you enter the domain you wish to create and it will tell you whether it's been taken or not and in many cases will offer alternative variants of the URL.

If your preferred domain name is taken … In many cases you will find that your preferred URL has already been taken by

somebody else so you need to get creative and find a variant of the URL that is still available.

In the case of Australia, if the .com.au version is already taken then you may be able to purchase an alternative domain type.

In the example shown below as you can see the different variations of Australian domain types have largely already been taken for this particular keyword phrase.

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You would need to consider another keyword phrase based domain such as www.perthplumbingservice.net.au as illustrated below.

In this case the net.au version of the domain is still available and you can register it and use it as your company's domain.

Consider purchasing a number of domain name alternatives Another good tip is to buy up all the matching alternatives of the domain name that

your competitors might find useful. So in this case if I was looking to set up the .com.au version of the domain for my actual website, I would also purchase the .net.au and the .com versions.

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If you buy extra domains like this you do not have to setup a website on each domain, it merely means that the domains belong to you and your competitors can not use them.

The cost of buying domains is inexpensive and I would highly recommend you do consider purchasing alternative domains which may annoy your competitors, but are a useful investment in helping to protect the integrity of your own company's Web domain.

You may wish to actually set up multiple websites using different domains and this is a trick that a lot of people use when trying to get to the top of the search engines.

If you do have multiple websites to your company, you should use this technique with caution as Google may see multiple websites with similar content as an attempt to spam the search engine results.

Do not use identical content on multiple websites belonging to you as Google will detect this and you may be penalized.

Using the 4 or 2 trick within URLs If you are particularly keen to have a short domain matching your keyword phrase a

trick you may want to consider is to include a number 4 at the start of your desired website domain name.

In this case we would use the domain name 4plumbingperth, and we try searching for availability of this particular name you will see it is available (at the time of writing this).

Incidentally using the trick of having the 4 in front of the main URL does not seem to affect how Google will list your website in the search engine results.

A variation on this naming trick is to use the number 2 rather than 4. For instance, if you are looking to start an SEO website of your own, you could use a domain based on a variation of the following. www.2getfoundongoogle.com.au

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Note this particular example uses a long tail domain name and it is always best to have a domain name as short as possible.

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25. End of the free preview …

The full version of this manual also includes …

25. THE POWER OF DOCUMENTS........................................................................................... 94

TYPES OF DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENTS ................................................................................................ 94 DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENTS AND SEO ................................................................................................ 94 DOCUMENTS AND KEYWORD CONTENT.................................................................................................... 94 HEADINGS WITHIN DOCUMENTS ................................................................................................................ 94 DOCUMENT META DATA.............................................................................................................................. 94 DOCUMENT KEYWORD META DATA.......................................................................................................... 94 DOCUMENT FILE NAMES ............................................................................................................................. 95 HTML AND DOCUMENT CONTENT ............................................................................................................ 95 CONSIDER BOTH MICROSOFT WORD AND ADOBE ACROBAT FORMATS ........................................... 95 USE SEO FRIENDLY ANCHOR TEXT TO DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENTS ............................................ 95 LINKING FROM DOCUMENTS TO YOUR WEB PAGES................................................................................ 95 SEEING WHICH OF YOUR DOCUMENTS GOOGLE HAS INDEXED ........................................................... 95

26. MULTIPLE WEBSITE ISSUES ............................................................................................. 96

WHY CONSIDER HAVING MORE THAN ONE WEBSITE? ........................................................................... 96 SPECIALIZE BY GEOGRAPHICAL AREA ...................................................................................................... 96 SPECIALIZE BY PRODUCT OR SERVICE TYPE........................................................................................... 96 SPECIALIZE BY OFFERING A WHOLESALE SITE AND SEPARATE RETAIL SITE..................................... 96 SPECIALIZE BY DIFFERENT VERSIONS FOR EXPERT AND NON-EXPERT VISITORS............................ 96 MATCHING THE DOMAIN NAME TO YOUR KEYWORD PHRASE, USING A SPECIAL TRICK .................. 97 MULTIPLE DOMAINS REDIRECTED TO A SINGLE WEBSITE ..................................................................... 97 DEDICATED AND SHARED IP ADDRESSES ................................................................................................ 97

27. WEBSITE CREDIBILITY ........................................................................................................ 98

MOBILE FRIENDLY ........................................................................................................................................ 98 YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS ARE LOOKING FOR REASSURANCE.............................................................. 98 FULL CONTACT DETAILS .............................................................................................................................. 98 EMBED A MAP ON THE CONTACTS PAGE .................................................................................................. 98 CLIENT LISTS AND CUSTOMER FEEDBACK ............................................................................................... 98 INDEPENDENT REVIEWS.............................................................................................................................. 99 PUBLISH FULL PRICES ON YOUR WEBSITE RATHER THAN ASKING FOR A QUOTE............................. 99 GUARANTEES AND ‘TERMS AND CONDITIONS’ ....................................................................................... 99 RETURNS POLICY.......................................................................................................................................... 99 FAQS PAGE................................................................................................................................................... 99 ALWAYS USE ENCRYPTION TO TAKE CREDIT CARDS ........................................................................... 100 INTERNATIONAL ISSUES............................................................................................................................. 100 TAKE ACCOUNT OF LOCAL SENSIBILITIES, ESPECIALLY PICTURES ................................................... 101 PRIVACY POLICY ......................................................................................................................................... 101 WEBSITE ACCREDITATION SCHEMES ...................................................................................................... 101 KEEP YOUR CONTENT UP TO DATE.......................................................................................................... 101

28. BROWSER & HARDWARE ISSUES ..................................................................................103

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DIFFERENT BROWSER ISSUES ................................................................................................................. 103 BROWSERS VERSION ISSUES ................................................................................................................... 103 SCREEN RESOLUTION ISSUES .................................................................................................................. 103 MOBILE WEB ISSUES .................................................................................................................................. 103

29. DOMAIN NAME ISSUES .......................................................................................................104

BUY UP DOMAIN VARIATIONS AND ALSO INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS OF THE URL ........................ 104 CONSIDER OTHER DOMAIN TYPES........................................................................................................... 104 BEWARE OF PURCHASING AN EXPIRED DOMAIN ................................................................................... 104 PURCHASING AN EXISTING WEBSITE....................................................................................................... 104 BUYING A PREMIUM WEBSITE DOMAIN.................................................................................................... 105 FINDING RECENTLY EXPIRED DOMAINS THAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO PURCHASE ............................ 105

30. WEB HOSTING ISSUES .......................................................................................................106

USE A SERVER BASED IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY ................................................................................... 106 CHECKING TO SEE IF YOUR WEBSITE HAS BEEN HACKED................................................................... 106 CHECKING HOW MANY SITES ARE SHARED ON A WEB SERVER ......................................................... 106 RECOMMENDED HOSTING SERVICES ...................................................................................................... 107

31. SERVER UPTIME ...................................................................................................................108

SERVER UPTIME MONITORS...................................................................................................................... 108

32. WEBSITE LOADING SPEED ...............................................................................................109

WEB PAGE LOADING SPEED...................................................................................................................... 109 CACHING....................................................................................................................................................... 110 GZIP .............................................................................................................................................................. 110 MONITOR WEBSITE BANDWIDTH USE AND PEAK PERIOD USAGE....................................................... 111

33. GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE – FORMALLY THE GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS ...................................................................................................................................................112

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE .................................................................................................................... 112 SIGNUP AND VERIFICATION ...................................................................................................................... 112 DASHBOARD ................................................................................................................................................ 112 MESSAGES ................................................................................................................................................... 113 DATA HIGHLIGHTER.................................................................................................................................... 113 SITELINKS..................................................................................................................................................... 113 LINKS TO YOUR SITE.................................................................................................................................. 114 MANUAL ACTIONS....................................................................................................................................... 114 INTERNATIONAL TARGETING .................................................................................................................... 114 MOBILE USABILITY...................................................................................................................................... 116 INDEX STATUS ............................................................................................................................................. 116 CONTENT KEYWORDS ............................................................................................................................... 117 BLOCKED RESOURCES .............................................................................................................................. 117 REMOVE URLS ........................................................................................................................................... 117 CRAWL STATS ............................................................................................................................................. 118 FETCH AS GOOGLE .................................................................................................................................... 119 ROBOTS.TXT TESTER ................................................................................................................................ 119 SITEMAPS ..................................................................................................................................................... 120 SECURITY ISSUES....................................................................................................................................... 120

34. USER GENERATED SPAM..................................................................................................122

WHAT IS USER GENERATED SPAM? ........................................................................................................ 122 WORDPRESS AND COMMENTS ................................................................................................................ 122 MONITOR YOUTUBE FOR SPAM............................................................................................................... 122

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PRECAUTIONS IF YOU WANT TO USE COMMENTS................................................................................. 122 GOOGLE AND USER GENERATED SPAM ................................................................................................ 122

35. GOOGLE PENALTIES & MANUAL ACTIONS ................................................................124

WHAT ARE MANUAL ACTIONS?................................................................................................................ 124 MANUAL ACTION TRIGGERS ..................................................................................................................... 124 HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A MANUAL ACTION AGAINST YOU? .................................................. 124 RECONSIDERATION REQUESTS ............................................................................................................... 124

36. HTML MARKUP VALIDATION SERVICE .........................................................................125

USING THE W3C VALIDATOR ................................................................................................................... 125

37. REPORTING SPAMMERS TO GOOGLE ..........................................................................126

DON’T GET MAD – GET EVEN! ................................................................................................................... 126 FILING A SPAM REPORT ............................................................................................................................ 126

38. BROKEN LINKS & 404 ERRORS .......................................................................................127

WHAT GOOGLE SAYS ABOUT BROKEN LINKS ........................................................................................ 127 CHECKING YOUR WEBSITE FOR BROKEN LINKS .................................................................................... 127 WORDPRESS BROKEN LINK CHECKERS ............................................................................................... 127 WORDPRESS 404 ERROR REDIRECTS ................................................................................................... 127 CREATE CUSTOM ERROR 404 PAGE WITH LINKS TO IMPORTANT PAGES ........................................ 127

39. BAD NEIGHBORHOODS ......................................................................................................129

BEWARE OF BUYING LINKS....................................................................................................................... 129 DO NOT LINK TO BAD NEIGHBORHOODS – AVOID PENALTIES .......................................................... 129 HOW TO IDENTIFY BAD SITES (SO CALLED ‘BAD NEIGHBORHOODS’) ............................................. 129 DO NOT USE AUTOMATED LINK BUILDING SCHEMES........................................................................... 130 LINK EXCHANGES ....................................................................................................................................... 130 TAKE CARE WHEN CONSIDERING FREE LINK PAGES ........................................................................... 131

40. FOLLOW AND NOFOLLOW LINKS...................................................................................132

LINK JUICE AND PAGE RANK .................................................................................................................... 132 CONTROLLING INDIVIDUAL LINKS WITH THE NOFOLLOW TAG ............................................................. 132 NOFOLLOW WORDPRESS PLUGIN .......................................................................................................... 132 PAGE LEVEL NOFOLLOW........................................................................................................................... 133 MOST SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS WILL BE NOFOLLOW – BUT STILL VALUABLE ......................................... 133 EXAMINING LINK TYPES USING SEO QUAKE......................................................................................... 133

41. LINK BAITING .........................................................................................................................134

LINK BAITING - QUALITY CONTENT ATTRACTS LINKS......................................................................... 134 FREE E-BOOKS............................................................................................................................................ 134 DOWNLOADABLE TUTORIALS, FACT SHEETS OR REPORTS............................................................... 135

42. ATTRACTING LINKS .............................................................................................................136

QUALITY CONTENT ..................................................................................................................................... 136 LINK BAITING – CREATE QUALITY CONTENT TO ATTRACT LINKS .................................................... 136 LINK BAITING – TOP 10 LISTS ................................................................................................................. 136 USE ORIGINAL CONTENT ........................................................................................................................... 136 FREE E-BOOKS............................................................................................................................................ 136

43. MORE LINKING IDEAS .........................................................................................................138

ASK FOR LINKS ........................................................................................................................................... 138 ANALYZE BACK LINKS TO COMPETITOR SITES ..................................................................................... 138

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TAKE PART IN FORUM DISCUSSIONS ...................................................................................................... 138 POST COMMENTS TO BLOGS OR GUEST BLOGGING............................................................................ 138 JOIN LOCAL INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS AND GROUPS ......................................................................... 138 OFFER EDUCATIONAL DISCOUNTS .......................................................................................................... 138 ASK FOR A MENTION IN A NEWSLETTER OPERATED BY A SIMILAR, BUT NON-COMPETING

WEBSITE ....................................................................................................................................................... 139 PRODUCE REGULAR ARTICLES FOR OTHER PEOPLE’S NEWS LETTERS.......................................... 139

44. YOUR WEBSITE LINKING ...................................................................................................140

GOOGLE LIKES TEXT BASED HYPERLINKS.............................................................................................. 140 COMPLEX INTERNAL WEBSITE LINKING................................................................................................... 140 LINK ALL PAGES WITHIN YOUR WEBSITE BACK TO YOUR HOMEPAGE ............................................... 140 USE BOTH TEXT AND GRAPHIC LINKS...................................................................................................... 140 BEWARE JAVA MENUS AND FLASH MENUS ............................................................................................ 140 INSERT LINKS FROM EACH PAGE TO YOUR IMPORTANT PAGES ......................................................... 141

45. DOORWAY PAGES ...............................................................................................................142

WHAT ARE DOORWAY PAGES? ................................................................................................................ 142 EXAMPLES OF DOORWAY PAGES............................................................................................................. 142 DOORWAY PAGES CAN GET YOU BANNED FROM GOOGLE................................................................. 142

46. GOOGLE DISAVOW TOOL..................................................................................................143

USING THE GOOGLE DISAVOW TOOL..................................................................................................... 143

47. OUTGOING LINKING & SEO...............................................................................................148

OUTGOING LINKS FROM YOUR WEBSITE MAY HELP SEO ................................................................... 148 CHECK ALL YOUR OUTGOING LINKS FOR LINKS TO BAD NEIGHBORHOODS ..................................... 148

48. DIRECTORY SUBMISSIONS ...............................................................................................149

WHY USE ‘PAID DIRECTORIES’? ............................................................................................................. 149 PAID DIRECTORIES..................................................................................................................................... 149 BUSINESS.COM PAID LISTING............................................................................................................. 149 ‘BEST OF THE WEB’ PAID DIRECTORY LISTING................................................................................... 150 AUSTRALIAN DIRECTORY SUBMISSION ................................................................................................. 150 INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORIES................................................................................................................. 151 BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS......................................................................................................................... 151 PERTH BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS & GROUPS ..................................................................................... 151 PODCAST DIRECTORIES ............................................................................................................................ 152 GREEN DIRECTORIES ................................................................................................................................. 152

49. OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT............................................................................................153

WHAT IS THE OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT (DMOZ)?........................................................................ 153

50. THE DATA HIGHLIGHTER & STRUCTURED DATA .....................................................154

USING THE DATA HIGHLIGHTER............................................................................................................... 154

51. PLAGIARIZED CONTENT ....................................................................................................155

CHECKING FOR OTHER SITES THAT MAY BE PLAGIARIZING YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT ................. 155

52. HTML SITE MAP .....................................................................................................................156

WHAT IS AN HTML SITE MAP? ................................................................................................................ 156 DYNAMIC HTML SITE MAP – WORDPRESS PLUGINS OR TEMPLATES ............................................ 156

53. XML SITE MAP........................................................................................................................157

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WHAT IS AN XML SITE MAP?................................................................................................................... 157 XML SITE MAP AND GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE............................................................................... 157 XML SITE MAP AND WORDPRESS.......................................................................................................... 157

54. SPECIFYING A LANGUAGE ...............................................................................................158

GOOGLE AND LANGUAGE SPECIFICATION.............................................................................................. 158 HTML LANGUAGE CODE REFERENCE ................................................................................................... 158 MORE INFORMATION FROM GOOGLE ..................................................................................................... 158 WORDPRESS AND LANGUAGE SPECIFICATION ..................................................................................... 159

55. WEBSITE ENCRYPTION ......................................................................................................160

RECOMMENDED IN GOOGLE WEBMASTER GUIDELINES..................................................................... 160 WHAT IS HTTPS AND HOW DOES IT WORK?......................................................................................... 160 IMPLEMENTING WEBSITE ENCRYPTION................................................................................................... 160 COMMON ISSUES WHEN USING HTTPS AND TLS ............................................................................... 160

56. INTERNATIONAL VISITORS ...............................................................................................161

SEARCH USING DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS OF GOOGLE............................................... 161 INTERNATIONAL SPELLING AND MEANINGS............................................................................................ 161 ESTABLISH JURISDICTION FOR DISPUTES .............................................................................................. 162

57. MONITORING YOUR SEO CAMPAIGN ............................................................................163

IMPARTIAL FEEDBACK ON YOUR WEBSITE.............................................................................................. 163 GOOGLE PAGERANK.................................................................................................................................. 163 SIMPLE WEB HIT COUNTERS ..................................................................................................................... 163 MONITOR THE BACK LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE...................................................................................... 164 SEE HOW MANY PAGES YOU HAVE LISTED IN GOOGLE ....................................................................... 164 MANUALLY CHECK YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS ........................................................................... 164 BEWARE OF USING AUTOMATED SEARCH ENGINE POSITION CHECKERS ........................................ 165 GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE (FORMALLY THE GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS) ............................. 165 GOOGLE ANALYTICS .................................................................................................................................. 165 BING WEBMASTER TOOLS ........................................................................................................................ 167 MONITOR COMPETITOR SITES FOR CONTENT CHANGES .................................................................... 168 WHAT ARE WEB LOGS?.............................................................................................................................. 168 TOOLS FOR ANALYZING WEB LOGS ......................................................................................................... 169 SITE ANALYSIS TOOLS............................................................................................................................... 169 SEARCH ENGINE COMPETITOR RANKING TOOLS - COMPETE .......................................................... 170

58. CANONICALIZATION ............................................................................................................171

CANONICALIZATION (SETTING PREFERRED URL) ................................................................................ 171

59. SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION........................................................................................172

MAKE SURE YOU ARE LISTED IN THE MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES ....................................................... 172 HOW TO SUBMIT A WEBSITE TO GOOGLE.............................................................................................. 172 INTERNATIONAL SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION .................................................................................. 173 AUSTRALIAN SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION........................................................................................ 173

60. ROBOT.TXT FILE ...................................................................................................................174

WHAT IS ROBOTS.TXT USED FOR? .......................................................................................................... 174 GOOGLES ADVICE ABOUT THE ROBOT.TXT FILE................................................................................... 174 ROBOTS.TXT AND WEB PAGES................................................................................................................ 174 ROBOTS.TXT INSTRUCTIONS MAY BE IGNORED .................................................................................... 174 WORDPRESS AND THE ROBOTS.TXT...................................................................................................... 174

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61. THE .HTACCESS FILE ..........................................................................................................175

WHAT IS THE .HTACCESS FILE? ............................................................................................................... 175 THE .HTACCESS FILE AND SEO ............................................................................................................... 175 WARNING...................................................................................................................................................... 175

62. FOLDER STRUCTURE ON YOUR WEB SERVER .........................................................176

SEO FRIENDLY FOLDER NAMES ............................................................................................................. 176 GOOGLE RECOMMENDS STRUCTURED WEBSITES ............................................................................. 176

63. USING FTP ...............................................................................................................................177

WHAT IS FTP? ............................................................................................................................................ 177 INSTALLING AN FTP PROGRAM ............................................................................................................... 177 USING FTP TO TRANSFER FILES TO AND FROM YOUR WEB SERVER .............................................. 177

64. THE GOOGLE COMMUNITY ...............................................................................................178

WHAT IS THE GOOGLE COMMUNITY?..................................................................................................... 178

65. GOOGLE WEBMASTER BLOG ..........................................................................................179

GOOGLE WEBMASTER CENTRAL BLOG ................................................................................................... 179

66. DELETING PAGES ON YOUR WEBSITE.........................................................................183

HOW TO REMOVE PAGES FROM GOOGLE .............................................................................................. 183

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