SEO Course 07

Basics of Search Engine Optimization
Bob Keating
robert_keating@sra.com
Web Managers Workshop

April 24, 2007
1
Course Goals
1. Understand how web search engines

handle your content
2. Understand web design methodologies
aimed at improving ranking of web
pages on search results
2
Major Search Engines and Directories
Search Engine Producers Web Directories

 Google  Open Directory
 Yahoo! Project (DMOZ)

 Live Search (MSN)  Yahoo! Directory
 Ask.com
 Gigablast
 WiseNut
3
Bruce Clay’s Search Engine Chart:
http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginechart.pdf
4
Basics of Search Friendly Design
5
Basic SEO Concepts
 Keywords: Use text that targets your
audience; and attracts search engines
and links from other sites
 Navigation: Give users and crawlers
easy access to content
 Design Elements: Make sure bells and
whistles don’t undermine SEO efforts
 Page Rank: Develop a linking strategy to
improve your site’s “popularity”
6
Things Search Engines Like
 Text (Keyword)
 Words and phrases that match what your
target audience types into search engines
 Site Navigation
 Site navigation and URL structure that
search crawlers can easily follow
 Links to Your Site
 How “popular” are you?
7
Robots Exclusion
 Robots.txt File
 Place in server’s root directory
 Two elements: User-agent, Disallow
 Example:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /scripts/
Disallow: /images/
 Meta-Tag Robots Exclusion

<head><meta name=“robots” content=“no
index, nofollow”></head>
8
Managing Page Content
9
Keyword Prominence
 Search engines place “weight” on terms
according to where they are used
Primary Text Secondary Text

 Title tag  Alt text
 Body text
 Description tag
 Anchor text
 Domain name and
 Text near the top of the
URL elements
page
 Headings and
Emphasized Text
10
What About Metadata?
 Metadata is not a factor in most web

search engines
 Except for Title and META description tags,
crawlers ignore other META tags
 Use metadata if important for your
agency’s mission or enterprise systems
(e.g., CMS, site search engine)
11
Keywords in Text
 Choose one or two keywords or phases to

optimize for each page
 Use language of your audience
 Do not over use - avoid keyword stuffing
 Keywords in links influence relevancy
of the pages your linking to
 No “click here” links
12
Keyword Selection Tools
 Site’s Search Metrics
 Online Advertising Tools
 Yahoo!/Overture: http://inventory.overture.com/
 Google:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox
 Keyword Density
 http://www.webjectives.com/keyword.htm
 http://www.keyworddensity.com/
 Google Webmaster Tools
13
Site Navigation
14
Linking Basics
 Plan how pages link to each other
 Pages will not rank well if your site does
not have a navigation scheme
 Navigation scheme must please users
and search engines
 Create a crawler-friendly site map
 Avoid dangling pages
15
Creating Links
 Keywords in links tell crawlers about the
pages to which you are linking
 Keywords in links influence relevancy of
the page to which you are linking
 Avoid “click here” links, instead create
links like:
 Bad: Click here for more info on famous admirals.
 Good: Visit our naval history site for more info on famous
admirals.
16
Site Navigation Schemes
 Make a site with a clear hierarchy
 Text Links
 The most search engine friendly
 Use for primary or secondary navigation
 Every page should be reachable from a text link
 If using graphic navigation, use alt text
 Avoid JavaScript, unless you provide a
secondary text navigation scheme
17
Problem Navigation Schemes
 Poor HTML coding

 Image maps
 Frames
 JavaScript
 Dynamic Pages
 Flash
18
Help Crawlers Navigate
 Create a Site Map

 HTML page on your site with text links
 Create a Sitemap
 An XML file that lists your site’s URLs
 Allows crawlers to analyzes information about
your site’s architecture to improve crawling
 Google: http://www.google.com/webmasters/
 Yahoo: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
 Site Maps Protocol: http://www.sitemaps.org/
19
Managing Your Popularity
20
What is Popularity?
 A calculation assigned to a page based on the
number of links into the page
 The more popular pages that link to you, the
higher your popularity rank
 An inbound link is a vote for a page
 An outbound link is a vote for a page you’re linking
to
 All search engines have different popularity
algorithms
 Google’s algorithm is called Page Rank
 Based on a scale from 0-10
21
Popularity Factors
 Number and Popularity of Inbound Links

 Anchor Text
 Others’ use of keywords in a link to your site
 Popularity is assigned per page, not for
the entire site
 Popularity is not inherited
 Need to deliberately link internal pages to
pass on PR
22
Getting Links to Your Site
 Get Listed in Yahoo! and DMOZ

 Impact on popularity may vary
 Helps to get noticed by crawlers
 Establish reciprocal link arrangements
with agencies covering similar topics
 Reach out to state and local agencies
 Syndicate your content
 Reach out to professional communities
of interest
23
Links That Aren’t Links
 Link has been created in a manner that search engines

can’t understand
 Link actually points elsewhere, and not directly to your
site
 Example:
http://www.site.gov/ext/external.jsp?url=http://www.noaa.gov/
 Link passes through a JSP program that logs the click
and re-directs the browser to noaa.gov
 Search engines read this as an internal link to Site.gov,
not an outbound link to NOAA
 Links from these sites will not help boost your search
ranking
24
Design Considerations
25
General Considerations
 Implement bells and whistles carefully

 Use external Javascript and CSS to
decrease page load time
 Avoid using Frames
 Flash only pages – include skip link and
title and META description tag
 Omit Session IDs when requestor is a
search engine crawler
 Ensure design team understands SEO
concepts
26
Dynamic Pages
 Database-driven, created on the fly by asp,

cfm, php, jsp or cgi scripts
 Dynamic sites are comprised of templates,
but usually without original content
 When a page is viewed, the template loads
the content from the database
 Parameters are added to the URL, which tells
the template to load specific content
27
Dynamic Pages
Example:
http://smithsonianstore.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=
14273&parentCategoryId=3151&categoryId=3152
 URLs such as this are difficult for search
engines to index because they do not know
the parameters that define a unique page
 The more parameters, the less likely pages
will be indexed
 A database may continually feed data,
crashing your server and scaring off the
crawler
28
Search Friendly Dynamic Pages
 Modify URLs so they don’t look like

dynamic pages, fewer parameters
 Use URL re-write trick using
mod_rewrite (Apache)
 Create static HTML pages
29
Optimizing PDFs
 Make sure PDFs contain actual text,

not images of text
 Same rules for use of keywords and
phrases apply
 Put the most important text in the
title, headlines
 Minimize document size (> 100K)
 Create optimized HTML pages for PDFs
30
Site Maintenance
31
Re-Designing Your Site
 Plan BEFORE you embark on a re-design

 Will the site architecture change?
 Static to Dynamic?
 How is the content changing?
 Add SEO review as an activity to your project

plan
 Make sure your contractor has SEO skills
 Poor planning and execution can kill your search
rankings
 Do not wait until after you re-designed!
32
Changes to Site Architecture
 Try to keep the same filenames and
directory structure when redesigning
 Recommended: Set up HTTP 301 redirects
that point to the new site or pages
 Not Recommended: Add a meta-refresh tag
to your page header. This won’t remove
your original page from the search index
33
Removing Content
 Avoid using default 404 pages
 Custom 404 pages are more user-
friendly
 Submitting all 404 URLs to the search
engine helpful, but not essential
 Remember to change the HTTP status
code on custom error pages from 200 to
404
34
Case Studies
35
36
Case Study: Business.gov
 Page created March ‘07

 Submitted to crawlers, listed in DMOZ
 0-78 inbound links
Term: Advertising Regulations

 #6 on Google
 #8 on Yahoo
 #2 on MSN
 #1 on USA.gov
37
Case Study: Business.gov
 Text Component: page is well-
optimized for “advertising” and
“regulations”
 Link Component: All text links
 Popularity Component: Inbound
links are using title submitted to DMOZ
– “advertising” and “regulations”
38
Case Study: NOAA Fisheries
Term: Fisheries Term: Fish

 #1 on USA.gov  Doesn’t show up
 #2 on MSN on the first page or

 #2 on Yahoo subsequent pages
 #3 on Google
39
40
Case Study: NOAA Fisheries
 Text Component: page is well-
optimized for “fisheries” but not “fish”
 Link Component: “pull-down” menu
may be a problem for some crawlers.
Add search friendly navigation (e.g.,
site map)
 Popularity Component: Lots of
inbound links using “fisheries” (not
“fish”) in anchor text
41
Next Steps
1. Visit WebContent.gov Guide to Search Engines:
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/technology/search/search.shtml
2. Conduct an SEO best practices review

3. Conduct keyword analysis and determine your rank
4. Set success measures
5. Use Webmaster Tools offered by the search engines,
(e.g. Google Webmaster Tools, etc.)
Make SEO a routine in your web content

management program
42
Resources and
Recommendations
43
Recommended Reading
 Battelle, John. The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote
the Rules of Business and Transformed our Culture. New York.
Penguin, 2005.
 Kent, Peter. Search Engine Optimization for Dummies.
Hoboken, NJ. Wiley, 2004.
 Moran, Mike, Hunt, Bill. Search Engine Marketing, Inc. Upper
Saddle River, NJ. IBM Press, 2006.
 Thurow, Shari. Search Engine Visibility. Indianapolis, IN: New
Riders, 2003.
44
SEO Forums & Events
 Industry Forums
Webmaster World: http://www.webmasterworld.com/
Search Engine Watch:
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
Digital Point Forums: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/
High Rankings: http://www.highrankings.com/forum/
 Industry Events
Search Engine Strategies:
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/
45
Contact Information
Bob Keating
SRA Touchstone Consulting Group
robert_keating@sra.com
(202) 449-7132
46

SEO Course 07

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

SEO Course 07

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Basics of Search Engine Optimization

Web Managers Workshop

1. Understand how web search engines

Search Engine Producers Web Directories

 Yahoo! Project (DMOZ)

 Meta-Tag Robots Exclusion

Primary Text Secondary Text

 Metadata is not a factor in most web

 Choose one or two keywords or phases to

 Google Webmaster Tools

 Poor HTML coding

 Create a Site Map

 Based on a scale from 0-10

 Number and Popularity of Inbound Links

 Get Listed in Yahoo! and DMOZ

 Link has been created in a manner that search engines

 Implement bells and whistles carefully

 Database-driven, created on the fly by asp,

 Modify URLs so they don’t look like

 Make sure PDFs contain actual text,

 Plan BEFORE you embark on a re-design

 How is the content changing?

 Add SEO review as an activity to your project

 Page created March ‘07

Term: Advertising Regulations

Term: Fisheries Term: Fish

 #2 on MSN on the first page or

2. Conduct an SEO best practices review

Make SEO a routine in your web content

You might also like