Extensive SEO

Beware Search Engine Submission Offers

John Speigner — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:20:00 +0500

I got a letter in the mail today dealing with Domain Name Submission to Search Engines. They wanted $45.00 to summit my site to 20 established Search Engines and a quarterly position and ranking report for 10 keyword/phase listings from the 20 Search engines. Let us debunk this letter and see what it is that you are exactly getting and how to do the same using only the tools from the internet. [more]

Is Submission really necessary? Not Really – As long as there is an indexed site linking to your site all the major Search Engines will find you and index your pages. But for your peace of mind, here is a list of submission pages for the three major Search Engines.

Add your URL to Google

Submit your Site to Live Search

Submit your Site to Yahoo!

Little piece of advice - summiting your site to Search Engines does not guarantee inclusion.

I think that most people actually believe that all you have to do is post something to the internet and three-quarters of the population of the United States know about and have visited your web site. In reality, you have very little chance of even getting one visitor to your site without some form of a Search Engine Optimization plan. Search Engine Submission offers cannot even guarantee that the Search Engines that they submit your site to will include you in their index and most of all, even if your site is added, there is no guarantee where your site will be listed in the SERP, Search Engine Result Page. For example your site could get listed at number 185,379 out of 200,000 possible results. Do you really feel that someone is going to search threw 200,000 web pages to find yours?

Building Backlinks coupled with a high quality and ethical website is the only sure way to get listed and to ensure that your site stays listed and has a good position on the SERP. After all you can get banned from various Search Engines for using non ethical means of manipulating Search Results. (For example: cloaking, duplicate content or websites, hidden text and/or links, keyword spam and keyword stuffing, doorway pages, redirect pages, buying links, linking to bad neighborhoods and code swapping.) Our SEO Backlink Revealed Series of articles focuses on building various different types of Backlinks. This series is provided FREE of charge and will have your site indexed and performing well on the Search Engines in a relatively short time, as long as you take the time and follow the instructions.

What about the Position and Ranking Report?

The Position and Ranking Report can also be done online. All you need is a list of your Keywords and phases and a trip to a position Tool such as: SERPS Rank.

These tools are FREE and can be used as many times as you want and with as many keyword/phases that you want to.

My general rule is: Do not pay money for something that you can do for FREE! There is no magic solution out there that is miraculously going to boost your site and start giving you all the traffic that you could imagine. Building a high traffic site will take a lot of time and determination…not to mention a lot of patience.

SEO Phase Two: Attaining Backlinks from Blogs

John Speigner — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:07:00 +0500

The definition of a Blog according to Wikipedia is: "a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, description of events, or other material such as graphics or videos.

Blogs are a great source of attaining traffic and Page Rank. In respect to SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Blogs fall into two categories "nofollow" and "dofollow" Blogs. We are going to look at the difference between the two types of Blogs, developing a relationship with Blogs writers, commenting that will increase traffic, Blogrolls and attaining In-Content-Links. [more]

"nofollow" and "dofollow" Blogs

The most widespread form of Blogs is the "nofollow" Blog and it makes use of the rel="nofollow" attribute. This attribute is applied to any link that a reader might post in the comment section of the blog. The rel="nofollow" is a great way to prevent Page Rank from being distributed to just any site being advertised in the comment section of the Blog.

The second form of Blog is the "dofollow" Blog and these Blogs usually either moderate the comments to make sure that the comments are of interest and relative to the main theme or they have a high degree of advertisements from various sources which makes finding any useful information extremely hard.

Developing a good relationship with a Blog writer is the first step to attaining relative Backlinks that do not contain the rel="nofollow" tag. In general it is easy to develop a professional relationship with a blog writer. All that is required is becoming an active user of the Blog. This usually does not require any form of registration. What is usually required is to actually Read, Subscribe and Comment on the Blog.

We can look at these three areas a little closer:

Blog Reading – I find that reading specific Blogs that are of interest to me, mainly SEO, ASP.NET, XHTML, CSS, and C# help me to stay up on the current trends in my field.
Subscribing – By far one of the most useful tools on the web is the ability to subscribe to an RSS or ATOM feed. The Use of a Feed Reader such as Google Reader will help you keep track of the Blogs and when they are updated with a new article.
Commenting – The ability to interact with the Blog community by commenting seems to be the reason why Blogs have taken off in popularity. People like for their voice to be heard and they can do just that by commenting on Blogs.

Commenting to Increase Site Traffic

It is not difficult to find Blogs that have over 10,000 readers and learning how to acquire traffic from those readers is a skill easily learned. Starting with a Feed Reader, such as Google Reader, is a must. The ability to know when Blogs are updated from a glance at your Feed Reader will prove to be a most valuable tool.

The whole idea here is to comment and to comment early. Comments on Blogs are sorted from first to last, the first comment being first in the list and the last being last. Commenting as soon as the Blog article is released is a sure way to put a link in front of all the readers of that blog. Readers of Blogs usually read the first few comments and then decide whether or not to comment or, if your comments seemed interesting, then they may click through to your site. On the contrary, if you wait to long to comment, most of the readers of the blog have already read the post and made their comments. If this happens your link may be buried in a list of thirty to forty comments and have very little chance that anyone will click through to your site.

Attaining In-Content-Links from Blogs

In-Content-Links are links that target a keyword or phase within the content of a given web page. While reading a specific Blog try to identify specific keywords or phases that would link to a specific page on your site. Then you can write an email to the Blog and request for the specific keyword or phase be converted to a link. To further your chances of getting your link request approved, find some keyword(s) on your site that would be relative to the Blog that you are attempting to acquire the In-Content-Links from and make a link to a specific location on that Blog. Having Many In-Content-Links will surely boost Page Rank and these links are also great at sending your site targeted traffic.

As you can see there is a lot that goes into attaining Backlinks from Blogs, but do not feel that these links are just too hard to acquire. A handful of In-Content-Links and being added to a few Blogrolls, that are relative, can be more valuable in terms of Page Rank than a few hundred Directory links, especially if they are coming from a High PR Blog. Here is a list of some recommendations on how to implement Blogs into your Linking Strategy:

Get a Feed Reader Such as Google Reader.
Do a Search for some Blogs that are Relative to your site and allow commenting. You can also look at their Feedburner stats to see how many people actually subscribe (remember you can attain traffic just from commenting on high volume Blogs).
Subscribe and read the Blog.
Keep up with the Blog by regularly checking your Feed Reader for updates.
Comment as soon as a new Blog Post is released as long as it is relative to your site.
Request for your Blog to be added to a Blogroll of relative Blogs.
Approach Blogs writers with In-Content-Link request only after you have developed some form of relationship with the Blog writer. I would say if they know you by name, you have a pretty good chance at getting a In-Content-link from their site.
This process will become easier as your site and pages begin to rank with some PR of their own. Remember…very few Blogs will link out to a PR0 site.

Start implementing the first 5 steps now and when your site begins to rank with some PR then begin step 6. Remember Blogs are a wonderful source of gaining traffic and Page Rank. So do not give up. Keep pounding away at this and you will acquire the links necessary to boost your site to stardom.

SEO Phase One: Directories

John Speigner — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:21:00 +0500

Directories are a great way to get your total backlink count up very quickly. However the links that you get from directories are usually of low quality, so you will need to submit to as many directories as possible before you will notice any kind of real difference in page rank. Let take a look at a few different types of directories and get a few pointers on what to look for when submitting.[more]

General Directories or "free for all directories" - There are thousands of these directories online and they are very easy to find. Let’s look at a few pointers about submitting to General Directories:
1. Do not pay for submission services or inclusion. Remember these links are of low quality so I would not recommend paying money for submission services or pay for inclusion in any directory.
2. If they require a reciprocal link, by pass and go to the next one. DO NOT RECIPROCATE WITH GENERAL DIRECTORIES!
3. Set a goal of 10 to 25 general directories a week and submit them yourself.
Niche or Industry Specific Directories – This form of directories only deal with linking to sites that deal with a specific subject. Example: SEO Directories would only deal with sites related to Search Engine Optimization. Most Niche Directories do require a reciprocal link and that is OK since your site will be relative to the directory. You goal should be to submit to all the niche directories that are relative to your site as long as you do not have to Pay For Inclusion.
Blog Directories – This is by far my favorite type of directory because the sites that I create usually have a Blog installed in a Virtual Directory running under the main domain name. When Blogs are set up this way, submitting to blog directories will increase the number of Deep Links a site has.
1. Do not pay for submission services or inclusion.
2. If they require a reciprocal link then make sure that the directory would be relative to your site or do not reciprocate.
3. Set a goal of 10 to 25 blog directories a week and submit them yourself.
RSS Feed Directories – This is another good source for gaining deep links. Your Blog usually has one main feed and if you sign up for a Feed Burner account you will have an additional feed through Feed Burner. I usually use my Feed Burner feed when signing up for RSS Directories. The main reason why is so I can track how many people are subscribing to my feed. As an added bonus a lot of RSS Feed Directories will display your most current post in their description of your feed with a link to you main Blog page and the first post.

As you can see there are many forms of directories and taking advantage of them all can be of great benefit to a sites page rank. In review remember not to pay for submission services or pay for inclusion. Only reciprocate with directories that are completely relative to your site. Set a goal as to how many directories you can submit to every week and before you know it your site will be one of those sites that has thousands of backlinks.

I have composed a list of Directories that Extensive SEO has summited to. The links below will bring you to the Directory Links:

General Directories - A list of free directories.
SEO Directories - These are the Niche or Industry Specific Directories that are completely relative to Extensive SEO.
Blog Directories - A list of Free Directories that only accepts Blogs.
RSS Feeds Directories - Summit your RSS Feeds to these Directories.

Free Links - Sites that will send you traffic.

John Speigner — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:34:00 +0500

Below you will find a list of websites that will link with your site and also are great links for generating traffic. These links would fall into the category of Natural Links because they are links from actual Content pages. I am always looking to add to this List so if you know of any great sites that offer free links and those links must come from a content page, make a post below and I will review it. [more]

Wiki - Aboutus - AboutUs is a wiki for and about businesses and organizations, containing millions of editable pages about websites as well as other community created topics. As a guide to websites, AboutUs aims to provide consumers with a relevant overview of every domain.
WebbViews - is a website that is dedicated to helping website owners gather useful information about how other people see your web site. Receive evaluations, critiques, suggestions and feedback from visitors just like you and make improvements or site back and watch the comments come in! Webbviews is simply the best way to understand what works on your site and what doesnt!

Domain Names - Tips for choosing a Domain Name

John Speigner — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:15:00 +0500

The main debate in domain names is: Does it matter if I use keywords in my domain name? There are arguments among SEO professionals on this subject:. There are some that feel it does matter and some feel it does not. I personally try to use them if I can find an acceptable name using keywords. [more]

For Example: Lets take a look at Etensive SEO, just about every word in conjunction with SEO is taken as a domain name. Extensive SEO was not my first choice; after all there are much better targeted keywords to use in conjunction with SEO. I took the time to research keywords that are used in conjuction with SEO, "Extensive Seo" was the best choice that was available at the time I registered the domain name.

Helpful Suggestion when considering a domain name:

Use keywords: if you can find a two or three word phrase to use as a domain.
Do not use a dash or any other special character in your domain name.
- Most web surfers when typing in a URL will forget to use the special characters.
- It is best just to write it out as one word.
- All good search engines will still identify the URL as containing keywords.
Make it something easy to remember.
- Word of mouth is still the best method of advertising. Do not be afraid to think about your domain name for a little while. But when you think you found a good one (and it is available), buy it immediately. Do not sit on it or it will be gone! I have lost perfect domain names just by pondering over it for the day before deciding to register the name.
If you are unable to find an acceptable domain name using targeted keywords or feel that the keywords do not sound good together, then the solution is easy: Don't use keywords at all. There are many very sucessful web sites that do not have keyword in there domain names.

The use of keywords in a domain is very small in relation to the Big Picture in Search Engine Optimization. There are much more importent aspects to be considered in SEO that are a better use of your time then a domain name. Keep it simple. Just spend some time thinking about a domain name and when you think you found a good one that is available, buy it immediately. Remember that you do not want to sit on it or it will be gone.

Title Tag - Writing A good Title!

John Speigner — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:13:00 +0500

The Title Tag appears in the browser Title Bar - at the very top of the window. If you look at your browser Title Bar you should see the title of this page "Title Tag" followed by the name of your browser. The title tag should be less then 64 characters in length. Search engines use the page title as the listing name for their search engine results page (SERP) and also tend to place a lot of importance on the title tag, for obvious reasons - the title is supposed to describe the content or purpose of the page. [more]

How to write a good Title?

Use your company name as home page Title. You may also want to incorporate the main keywords for your site. For example: Extensive SEO - Free Search Engine Optimization techniques and strategies.
Use actual keyword phrases. Do your homework and research keywods that would be approiate for the page.
Write full sentences or separate phrases with a hyphen. For example:
- Search Engine Optimization and the use of Title Tags.
- Title Tag - How to write good targeted Titles for Search Engine Optimization.

Remember that the title is your first chance to to draw people in from the search engine results page (SERP). Make your title as clear as possible to what information the user is going to find on the page.

Meta Tags - What are Meta Tags and how to use them!

John Speigner — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:11:00 +0500

What is a meta tag? It is a hidden tag that is found in the head of an HTML document. It supplies additional information about the document.

Don't be misled! Meta tags are not "magic beans" that will sprout your site to the top of the search pages. They are like everything else...just a tool. The meta tags will improve your position and standing in the search engines. But only the ones that actually use them. If meta tags are used in conjunction with other SEO strategies, they will help you further your site standings. [more]

Another thing to remember: most search engines look at the body of text on your pages, as well as the page title. They take this information as higher relevance than any Meta tags. So, be sure to always have a relevant title on your pages, and relevant content in the body of the page. This will improve your rankings more than just meta tags alone.

Meta Tags will always be found in name/value pair. It can be any valid string, which you should enclose in quotes. Here are some examples of meta tags, the first two are the primary ones used for search engine optimization and the third is to tell search engines not to spirder a page.

How to Use a Meta Tag

Meta tags are included in the HEAD of an HTML document. If you are using Meta tags to improve your standing in search engines, then you should focus on your description and keywords.

The description tag - The description tag is used to describe what your page is about. Search Engines that use it will supply the content of this tag when displaying the search results.

The keywords tag - Keywords help search engines to categorize your site, and to allow people to find your pages more quickly. The Keywords should be in order from most importent to least inportent for the given page. Also don't put keywords that are not listed in your content on the page. You can even go as far as only putting the keywords that are found in the title tag and heading tags.

The Robots tag - This tag is used primarily to tell search engines not to spirder a certain page.

Heading Tags - How to use Headings

John Speigner — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:09:00 +0500

Headings are created with a <hn> tag, in which there is a number between 1 and 6

The table below shows headings as normally displayed from larger to smaller. [more]

Html:		Displayed as:
<h1>Heading 1</h1>		Heading 1
<h2>Heading 2</h2>		Heading 2
<h3>Heading 3</h3>		Heading 3
<h4>Heading 4</h4>		Heading 4
<h5>Heading 5</h5>		Heading 5
<h6>Heading 6</h6>		Heading 6

Why use Heading Tags?

Heading tags are used by search engines to identify words which are more important than the rest of the page text. The headings should sum up the topic of the page, so they are counted as important keywords. Therefore keywords should be incorporated into Headings as much as possible.

Normally there would be no need to use 6 different styles of headings. Extensive SEO only uses the first three and then uses CSS to style the headings in differnt ways.

For exemple: Lets look at the code for the logo of Extensive SEO at the top of the page.

This is the HTML code for that logo:

<div id="logo">
          <h1><a href="">Extensive <i>SEO</i></a></h1>
          <h2><i>Search Engine Optimization</i>techniques and Strategies for<i>ASP.NET and HTML.</i></h2>
         </div>

And the corrisponding CSS:

#logo {
float: left;
height: 87px;
color: #36393D;
padding-right: 0px;
padding-left: 5px;
padding-bottom: 0px;
padding-top: 0px;
}
#logo h1 {
padding: 3px 0 0 0;
}
#logo h2 {
left: 25px;
position: relative;
}
#logo a {
text-decoration: none;
}

The logo did take a good amount of CSS to style in a way that enhances usability and appearence but the end result when looking at the HTML code it is very compact and optimized for SEO for two reasons. The first is the use of heading tags in the logo and secondly is that the Keywords are italicized to add forther emphasis.

Text Links - Proper construction of HTML Text Links

John Speigner — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:07:00 +0500

Text links are the best way to link your pages together. They offer a few different option to help optimize your pages and Google says in there Webmaster Guidelines "Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link." and"Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images." [more]

Static Text Links

A "static" link is one which is normal text or html, that a bot can find and follow. It must also contain actual written text so a search engine can determine what kind of information the link is pointint to.

Some sites have all their site navigation done in Javascript, Java or Flash, which means the links are hidden from the bots, Search bots have trouble following these kind of links. Using Static Static links will ensure proper indexing by the Search Bots; Here is an example of the XHTML code for two forms of Static Text Link:

<a href="example.aspx">This is a static text link</a>

Images can also be considered Static links if they use the alt="Text Here" Property.

Link Title

The goal of the link title is to help users predict what will happen if they follow a link. The text in the title property will show up when the mouse hovers over the link.

Appropriate information to include in a link title can be:

name of the site the link will lead to (if different from the current site)
added details about the kind of information to be found on the destination page and keywords for search engines and how it relates to the anchor text.

Link titles should be less than 80 characters, however shorter link titles are better. Focus on keyword phrases of 3 words or less. It is much easier to get higher placement with more specific three word phrases then with just a word or two.

Do not just repeats the same text as is already shown in the anchor. I like to use full phrases for example: link anchor will reed SEO but the title will read Search Engine Optimization. Get creative with link titles but always center them around keyword.

Open link in new window

Target = "_blank" added to the link will cause the link to open in a new window. It should never be used for internal linking. A good place to use it is when you need to link to a external site for more information on a perticular subject.

Nofollow Links

Adding rel="nofollow" to a hyperlink instruct search engines that the hyperlink should not influrence the ranking of a given site. Be careful not to overuse this tag, many webmaster including myself shy away from any site even hinting at using them. Two uses come to mind as exemption to this rule, blogs and classifieds ads that include a url field. Extensive SEO does not use any rel="nofollow" in any of the links on this site.

Images - Optimizing images with keywords

John Speigner — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:05:00 +0500

Images are a wonderful method for making a web site more attractive and also gets the attention of the the actual users of your site. However Serach Engine bots can not read any text within an image or dertimine what the image actually is, so from stand point of Search Engine Optimization we must construct our images with an alt="Text Here" so that a search engine can have some text to help determine what the image is. [more]

Here is an example of a image properly form for search engine optimization:

The alt="keywords goes here" is a wonderful method of SEO that allows us to incorpete Keywords in our images.

Images Searches

Many Search engines also have a method of searching the web for images. So we can also utilize the actual name of the image as a means of Search Engine Optimization.

For Example:

Incorperting keywords in image names should not be overused. For example if our page contains elements such as header.jpg, footer.jpg or any image used in the actual construction of the theme of your site should not contain keywords in the actual file name. Researve this method of optimization for images that can actually be descriped with a name or short phrase.