Header Tag:

• Search engines give more weight to the keywords present in header tag.
• You can use header tag from H1 to H6.
• Try to use the title tag keywords again in H1 tag. Don’t just put the title tag as it is in H1 tag.
• Use only one H1 header per page
• If sub-headings are there then use H2, H3 … tags. Again use next level of keywords in this header tags.
• Since search engine reads the text from top left hand side to bottom right hand side, make sure that H1 tag is placed towards top left side of the page.

Formatting Text:

• By formatting the keywords in the content with bold, italic and underline, you can emphasis the keywords which are beneficial for Search Engine Optimization and also the visitors.
• Do not highlight a particular keyword more than once per page.
• Do not overload the page with formatted text. If you do so it will be focused more for search engine and less for the readers. Remember you are making a website for your prospects.
• Use bulleted list to break the content and make it easier to read.

Do not use huge paragraphs as users may find it bore to read.

Download: 33 ways to get your message to your target audiences

Here is the list of 33 ways to get your message to your target audiences. The list includes both online and on-field methods.

Related posts:

1. Title tag – Tips and Tricks

Text Based Navigation:

• Text and CSS combination is preferred for website navigation.
• Since search engines will read only the text and if links are placed to an image then search engine can’t read the text in the images. In this way you will be losing keywords which are present in the link. And the links with anchor text become important.

Relevant URL vs. Absolute URL

There is no such proven method that suggests relevant or absolute url but the preferred method is to use absolute URL (http://www.domainname.com/)

Usually a URL can be called using different methods. Like,

Option A: http://www.domainname.com

Option B: http://www.domainname.com/ (with a forward slash at the end)

Option C: http://www.domainname.com/index.hml (including the filename at the end)

Option D: http://domainname.com (without using “www”)

Option E: http://site.domainname.com/ (using a sub-domain)

For a search engine all the above 5 urls are different. Assuming that you got 100 hits to your domain using all the options mentioned above and each option got you 20 hits. Link value gets distributed as shown in the below graph.

All hits are coming to the same page but with slight change in the URL, it divided the real link juice into 5 parts. So when you are trying to promote your website, always use only one format.

Similarly, in the files when we use relative paths like:

• ../filename
• /root/filename
• http://www.domainname.com/

It may drain your real efforts.

Video: Use Hyphen (-) to filter Google search results

If you use Google search engine to find solutions for all of your problems then watch this video on how to use hyphen to filter your search results.

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1. Tips on How to Use Keywords in Filenames
2. Importance of Inbound Links for a Website
3. Tips and Tactics: Keyword Positioning and Density in the content

Benefits:

1. If you are getting inbound links from relevant sites then you have probability to get more relevant traffic to your websites.
2. Based on number of quality inbound links you are getting, the more you have chances to be visible in search result page bringing more traffic to your website.

How Search Engine Evaluation Inbound Links?

Google follows a simple logic of evaluating website based on the inbound links. Let’s assume that you have written a book and it‘s available in library. The library is full of books on various subjects.  You made an attractive book cover and placed the book in the library. Since you are not well known to the visitors, you will get a couple of users in a week.

Similarly it happens in case of websites. Your website is well designed with good content and is SEO compatible but you get very few visitors.

Let’s go back to Library. There is a very famous writer called “Mr. A”. His books are also available in the library. You got a reference of your book title in his books. Now all his readers will see the reference note in his book and visit your book also.

Assume that there is another book similar to yours – Lets name them “Book A” and “Book B”. “Book A” gets references from 40 other writers who are not so popular. “Book B” gets reference from 4 very popular authors. So definitely anyone will trust on “Book B” because well known personalities are talking about “Book B”. Similarly search engines will evaluate how many links your website is getting and what is the quality of those links. Based on this your link will be displayed in SERP.

Note: Search engine also considers other factors like domain age, content, etc.

Conclusion is; getting 40 links from low PR websites is much better than getting links from 4 websites with good PR value.

This is how inbound links are evaluated by search engines to rate a website.

Follow these instructions while bringing any inbound link to your website:

1. You have placed your URL on a site called “website A” using direct URL. That is, <a href=” http://www.domainame.com/”>http://www.domainame.com/</a>. This means, the “website A” is saying search engine that they just know you but what exactly you do they don’t know. Putting a simple URL will decrease the value of your inbound link.
2. Similarly you have placed your URL on a site called “website A” using anchor text. That is, <a href=”http://www.domainname.com/”>SEO Training</a>. This means, the “website A” is saying Google that they know you and you provide SEO Training. With simple anchor text the value of inbound link increases.

If you are getting an inbound link in the above mentioned form from a well known website then the value of that link will be to the maximum extent. Eg: A specialist of your industry talking about you and your services will make a good impact in the market.

Note: If you provide SEO Training then bringing an inbound link from a website related to your industry is better than bringing an inbound link from Metal Manufacturer website.

Precaution:

1. There are services which provide you 100’s of links. If you want to go for that then make sure to get quality links from them. It’s better if you won’t go for them.
2. Make sure that the inbound links you are getting are not having “no follow” attribute in the anchor tag.

Download: 10 Tips to Build Inbound Links

Here are simple ideas through which you can generate quality inbound links for your website.

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1. Use keywords in Title tag.
2. Use keywords in URL (filenames).
3. Monitor keyword density to prevent the page from getting spammed.
4. Use keywords in anchor text (<a href=”#”>Keyword1</a>).
5. Use Keywords in Header tag (<H1> to  <H6>).
6. Position keywords at the beginning of paragraph.
7. Use keywords in image “alt” tag.
8. Use keywords in Meta Description tag.
9. Use keyword phrases.
10. Use LSI Keywords.
11. Use keywords misspelling but only in Meta Keyword tag.
12. Do not stuff too many keywords.
13. Links from outside should have keyword as anchor text rather than a simple URL (<a href=”#”>Keyword1</a>).
14. Get Inbound Links from good page ranked websites rather than from low PR websites.
15. Get Links from similar products/content websites. It gives more value.
16. If possible get inbound links from .gov and .edu. Such links has high value.
17. Linking pages with other pages of the website.
18. The text before and after the anchor tag also matters.
19. Get links from directories like DMOZ and Yahoo.
20. Inbound link is of less value if it is reciprocal.
21. Use keywords in anchor name (if you have to use any anchor name that is <a name=”keyword”>.
22. Do not get too many links from same IP.
23. Do not place too many outbound links on your website.
24. Do not use duplicate content.
25. Update your website regularly.
26. Format your keywords with Bold, Italic and Underline.
27. Low file size: Do not overload the pages with graphics.
28. Coding: Make sure all HTML tags are used properly and formatted correctly.
29. Do not use Black Hat SEO. Click here for more info
30. Do not use images for providing links. It’s better to use text links.
31. Avoid using Frames.
32. Use alternative text if you are using Flash objects.
33. Regularly check your server log to find any broken links or 404 errors.
34. Use Sitemap (sitemap.xml).
35. Do not burry the files in deep folder. One or two level folders are advisory.
36. Have your own domain rather than having a sub-domain on others domain. Eg: blog.wordpress.com.
37. Use Hyphens in URLs.
38. Do not use lengthy URLs.
39. Use 301 and 302 Redirect.
40. Validate your pages with HTML validation tools.
41. If you are creating multiple language websites. Then, specify language in the Meta tag.

To download the above list in PDF format, use the link given below.

Download: 41 SEO Tips for a Website

Here is a checklist which you can evaluate against your web pages to make sure you have implemented all the elements required for SEO.

Related posts:

1. Importance of Inbound Links for a Website

Lowercase vs. uppercase filename:

For example we will consider a page like http://www.domainname.com/products-services.html. While promoting the page I used the link as http://www.domainname.com/Products-Services.html.

I just changed the “P” and “S” to uppercase in the URL. If you visit both the URLs, you may be able to view the same page but search engines will treat them as two different pages. You will also get into duplicate content issue as search engine considers it as two pages. In addition the traffic which is coming to that page will be divided. That is total visits to the page is 200 but 100 visits using first URL and 100 visit using second URL.

Optimizing Images:

• Use keywords in filename of images but make sure that filename should represent the image because in Google image search, it will pull the images which Google finds while crawling the web page content. Eg: if the image is of your company logo then name it as “companyname-logo.jpg” rather than saying “tennis-ball.jpg” which is your product name.
• Always use ALT attribute to describe the image. Do not forget to use keyword phrases.
• Use Title attribute but do not use exact text which is used in ALT attribute. Use some different keyword phrases.

Download: 41 SEO Tips for a Website

Here is a checklist which you can evaluate against your web pages to make sure you have implemented all the elements required for SEO.

Related posts:

1. Tips on effective use of Hyperlinks
2. Survey: High Competition Keywords vs Low Competition Keywords
3. Tips and Tactics: Keyword Positioning and Density in the content

The term black hat is evolved from western movies in which good guys were differentiated from bad guys by wearing white hats.

On one hand it is assured to get high rank in search engines using Black Hat techniques, but on the other it is true that it has short life. Any time your rank can come down and your website can simply be banned by search engines.

Ask a simple question to yourself. Are you doing business for long term or short term? If the answer is long term then don’t ever try to look at Black hat techniques.

When you try to build link exchange or inbound links, make sure to check the website to which you are linking is not doing any Black Hat SEO. Because if search engine finds a website as Black Hat then those URLs which are related to it can also be penalized.

Some practices are by default comes under Black Hat SEO and some by mistake goes into Black Hat SEO. Here is the list of Black Hat strategies.

1. Hidden text /links

Can be implemented in following ways:

• By making the color of text and the background same(white font color on white background)
• Making the font size very small
• Hiding the text under layer and by using “no frame”
• Adjusting the DIV width and height to zero
• Placing content in “no script” sections
• Similarly stuffing links by any of the above method that is not visible to users.

2. Duplicate content

Creating multiple pages with similar content on the same domain or on sub-domain is called as duplicate content.

3. Alt tag spamming

Stuffing lot of keywords in the alt tag of images is also a spamming technique.

4. Meta tag stuffing

Stuffing lot of keywords in Meta Description and Meta Keyword tag is a spamming technique.

5. Title tag spamming

Stuffing keywords in the Title tag.

6. “Gateway” or doorway pages

This page does not have information which the users are searching for. The page will have some key phrases to get indexed in search results.

7. Cloaking

When a visitor comes to a page, a different content will be displayed and when a search engine spider crawls in the page then a different content will be displayed. This is done using server side scripting.

8. Article Spinning

Copying an article from others website and changing words with the words having similar meaning. This is also done using automated softwares. Eg: “Computer” can be changed to “PC”

9. Link Farm

Creating multiple website with multiple domains and linking domains with each other to get inbound links.

10. Purchasing expired domains

The domains which are already expired or nearly to get expired will be purchased then pages with the links to their actual domain will be uploaded on it. This is done to get page rank value. But Google seems to reset the page rank once the domain get expired. Purchasing domains are absolutely legal but trying to get page rank in this method is spamming or shortcut method.

11. Spam in comments

This is done usually in Blogs, Wiki and Discussion forums where the website accepts a comment from the user. Automated systems are used for this were it will create a comment with irrelevant content to the blog and with a link inside the content.

12. Mirror websites

Create multiple website with similar content is mirror website. Usually this is done if you have multiple keywords related to your website. The search engine gives more importance to the domain/URL having the keywords.

13. URL redirection

If the user types a URL and it is automatically redirected to another page or URL then it is URL redirection. This happens mainly when we want to update the site were some pages need to removed. If the pages have been indexed in search engine or if they got any page rank, to save that URL importance redirection is used. In place of automated redirection, you can use a message saying “this page is removed. Click here to go to home page”

You can use 301 redirection method but do not use HTML or server side scripting to do redirection.

14. Hitting trackbacks

Most of the blogs has the trackback enabled in which when someone refers to your blog; a comment will be added in the original blog with a link to the website in which the original blog is referred. This is again done to get inbound links.

Regards

Hyder

Download: List of 49 web directories

A simple way to increase your inbound links (Off-page Optimization) is to submit your website in web directories.

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• A decent web page should have at least 250 words content.
• The text should be logical and readable and not just stuffed keywords.
• Include the important and relevant keywords on the page along with keyword phrases which visitors may type to search.
• A keyword can be repeated for 5 times maximum.
• Don’t forget to use the keywords which you have used in the title tag.
• Try to start the paragraph or the sentence with a targeted keyword.
• Use lot of LSI keywords throughout the page. Again remember content should be readable not just stuffed keywords. We will cover LSI keywords in detail when we go to “Content Process” topics.
• When you interlink your website page from the content, don’t use simple words like “Click here” or “More info” in the anchor text but use main keywords or LSI keywords. Similarly while linking to other sources. This method will increase the value of the link.
• Use keywords in Header tag.
• Keywords should be used at following places:
  • Meta Tags
  • Title Tags
  • Description Tags
  • Keyword Tags
  • Image Tags
  • Web Page Content
  • URLs
  • Filenames
  • Folder names
• You can use “keyword density checker tool” to check if you are stuffing keywords beyond the limit.

Note: In “Content Process” session, I will be covering how to make keyword library for your website.

Regards,

Hyder

Video: Use Hyphen (-) to filter Google search results

If you use Google search engine to find solutions for all of your problems then watch this video on how to use hyphen to filter your search results.

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Assuming the scenario of launching a new business that has high competition and big players are already in the market.

Taking SEO and Social Networking into consideration, what is your opinion?

Please leave a comment if any suggestions.

Please make this survey successful by sharing about the blog with your connections in your Social Network.

Regards,

Hyder

Video: Use Hyphen (-) to filter Google search results

If you use Google search engine to find solutions for all of your problems then watch this video on how to use hyphen to filter your search results.

Related posts:

1. Tips and Tactics: Keyword Positioning and Density in the content
2. Tips on effective use of Hyperlinks
3. Tips on How to Use Keywords in Filenames

Do you ignore Meta Keyword tag for your webpages? Don’t do that.

Google seems to ignore Meta keyword tag but still other search engines give some value to it. And you should not ignore this because what all tags are available for SEO should be utilized under the umbrella of White Hat.

• Include keyword phrases between 12 to 15.
• Don’t use a common keyword in all key phrases. You will come under spamming.
• If you have already developed your website without using Meta Keyword tag then I suggest let it be as is. Don’t spend time to insert Meta keywords.
• Each page should have Meta keywords related to the web page content.
• Best usage of Meta keywords is inserting synonyms, misspellings and alternate words.
  • eg1:- in page content use “Web Page”. In Meta keyword use “Webpage”
  • eg2:- in page content use “Enrollment”. In meta keyword use “Enrolment”
  • eg3:- in page content use “Wordpress 2.8″. In meta keyword use “Wordpress 2.x”
  • eg4:- “Prescription” is often mistyped as “Perscription”

Meta Description Tag:

• It is an important tag that you should consider seriously because it will be displayed in the search results.
• It should describe what exactly the page all about is.
  
• Don’t stuff keywords but write the content for human eye.
• Each page should have unique Meta description with keyword phrases included in it.
• Keep the Meta description tag length between 150 – 160 characters. Because anything more than that will cut off in the search result.
  
• If you have already developed your site with title tag more than 160 characters then evaluate if the keywords are covered with-in 160 characters or not. If any keywords are placed after 160 characters then you need to fix it else you can ignore. It will not affect your SEO.
• Do not repeat same sentences and keywords which are already covered in Title tag.
• Display the fact of the content that is not covered/described in the Title tag.
• Dynamic websites that generate single description for all pages need to figure out alternative for it or any plug-in to create Meta descriptions for each page.

Note: When we cover Google Webmaster tool, we are going to see how to check duplicate Meta description in a website.

Meta Robot Tag

• Meta robot tag is used to tell the Robot which page to be indexed/ followed and which should not.
• This tag need to be included in those pages which you don’t want to get indexed. Syntax: <meta content=”noindex,nofollow”>

Robots.txt:

On a server, you may place presentation or documents which you want your prospects to access on demand. When a search engine crawls to your server, it will read all the files and folders available on server including the folder in which you have placed the files for your prospect. Since all the files got indexed in the search engine, when a user searches and the keywords get matched with the files present on the server, those presentations or documents will get displayed in result page. To overcome this issue robots.txt file is used.

• By default search engine robots will crawl in all the folders on your server.
• Robots.txt file is used to tell the search engine which files and folders to be crawled/indexed and which should not be crawled/indexed.
• Robots.txt can only prevent the robots from get crawled on your server, but your pages will be indexed if those links are found by robot on other websites.
• Place the robots.txt file on the root level.
• To write a comment in the robots.txt file use # symbol at the beginning of the line.
• If you don’t want to set robots.txt then at-least make a dummy notepad with the name robots.txt and upload it on the server. It will prevent the 404 error in the log file.
• In a database driven website, most URLs will be passing values in the form of GET methods. To avoid these pages from getting crawled, use this format: Disallow: /*?
• To avoid pages from getting crawled for a particular file extension in the URL, use this format: Disallow: /*.php$
• Use Google Web Master Tool to evaluate any errors in the robots.txt file.

Drawback: Someone can hack or try to steal the data from your website by seeing the robots.txt as all the paths are mentioned in it. Make sure your server security is strong enough.

Creating robots.txt file:

Create a file with the name robots.txt using a text editor (Notepad).

Syntax:

User-agent: Specify the robot name

Disallow: Specify the filename or the directory name

To specify all the robots:

User-agent: *

To specify all the robots starting with the letter “G”:

User-agent: G*

To stop robot from indexing any of the files or directories:

Disallow: /

To stop robot from indexing a particular file or directory:

Disallow: /showcase

Disallow:/default.asp

Simply leave “Disallow” as blank to tell robots to crawl all the files and directories

Example 1:

# Allow Google to index all the files and directories on your server.

User-agent: Googlebot

Disallow:

Example 2:

# All search engine spiders not to index specific directories.

User-agent: *

Disallow:/cgi-bin/

Disallow:/download/

If you set general rules that are common for all the search engines robots and rules for a specific robot then the specific robot will ignore the general rules.

User-agent: Googlebot

Disallow:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /

In the above case, Googlebot will crawl all the pages. Googlebot will ignore “User-agent: *” command.

Download: List of 49 web directories

A simple way to increase your inbound links (Off-page Optimization) is to submit your website in web directories.

Related posts:

1. What is Black Hat SEO and List of 14 Bad practices in SEO
2. 41 SEO Tips for a website

Title tag is the most important factor as per search engines because the title will be listed in the search results.

Title tag limit: try to keep the tag length less than 65 characters because anything more than 65 characters will cut off in the search result.

Download: 33 ways to get your message to your target audiences

If you want to be visible to your target audiences, you can do it in many ways. Here is a list of 33 ways to make you visible to your target audiences.

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1. Tips on How to Use Header Tag