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Thursday, 2 August 2012

Google SEO Starter Guide : Make Effective Use Of robots.txt



Restrict crawling where it's not needed with robots.txt :

User-agent: *
Disallow: /images/
Disallow: /search
All compliant search engine bots (denoted by the wildcard * symbol) shouldn't access and crawl the content under /images/ or any URL whose path begins with / search.

A "robots.txt" file tells search engines whether they can access and therefore crawl parts of your site . This file, which must be named "robots.txt", is placed in the root directory of your site .
The address of our robots.txt file.

You may not want certain pages of your site crawled because they might not be useful to users if found in a search engine's search results. If you do want to prevent search engines from crawling your pages, Google Webmaster Tools has a friendly robots.txt generator to help you create this file. Note that if your site uses subdomains and you wish to have certain pages not crawled on a particular subdomain, you'll have to create a separate robots.txt file for that subdomain. For more information on robots.txt, we suggest this Webmaster Help Center guide on using robots.txt files.

There are a handful of other ways to prevent content appearing in search results, such as adding "NOINDEX" to your robots meta tag, using .htaccess to password protect directories, and using Google Webmaster Tools to remove content that has already been crawled. Google engineer Matt Cutts walks through the caveats of each URL blocking method in a helpful video.

Use more secure methods for sensitive content : 
You shouldn't feel comfortable using robots.txt to block sensitive or confidential material. One reason is that search engines could still reference the URLs you block (showing just the URL, no title or snippet) if there happen to be links to those URLs somewhere on the Internet (like referrer logs). Also, non-compliant or rogue search engines that don't acknowledge the Robots Exclusion Standard could disobey the instructions of your robots.txt. Finally, a curious user could examine the directories or subdirectories in your robots.txt file and guess the URL of the content that you don't want seen. Encrypting the content or password-protecting it with .htaccess are more secure alternatives.


Avoid :
  • Allowing search result-like pages to be crawled 
    - users dislike leaving one search result page and landing on another search result page that doesn't add significant value for them
  • Allowing URLs created as a result of proxy services to be crawled


Google SEO Starter Guide : Use Heading Tags Appropriately


Use heading tags to emphasize important text:

</head>
<body>
<h1>Brandon's Baseball Cards</h1>
<h2>News - Treasure Trove of Baseball Cards Found in Old Barn</h2>
<p>A man who recently purchased a farm house was pleasantly surprised ... dollars worth of vintage baseball cards in the barn. The cards were ... in news papers and were thought to be in near-mint condition. After ... the cards to his grandson instead of selling them.</p>
On a page containing a news story, we might put the name of our site into an <h1> tag and the topic of the story into an <h2> tag.

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

Since heading tags typically make text contained in them larger than normal text on the page, this is a visual cue to users that this text is important and could help them understand something about the type of content underneath the heading text. Multiple heading sizes used in order create a hierarchical structure for your content, making it easier for users to navigate through your document.

Imagine you're writing an outline :
Similar to writing an outline for a large paper, put some thought into what the main points and subpoints of the content on the page will be and decide where to use heading tags appropriately.


Avoid :
  • Placing text in heading tags that wouldn't be helpful in defining the structure of the page
  • Using heading tags where other tags like <em> and <strong> may be more appropriate
  • Erratically moving from one heading tag size to another

Use headings sparingly across the page :
Use heading tags where it makes sense. Too many heading tags on a page can make it hard for users to scan the content and determine where one topic ends and another begins.


Avoid :
  • Excessively using heading tags throughout the page
  • Putting all of the page's text into a heading tag
  • Using heading tags only for styling text and not presenting structure


Google SEO Starter Guide : Optimize Your Use Of Images


Image-related information can be provided for by using the "alt" attribute :

Images may seem like a straightforward component of your site, but you can optimize your use of them. All images can have a distinct filename and "alt" attribute, both of which you should take advantage of. The "alt" attribute allows you to specify alternative text for the image if it cannot be displayed for some reason .
Our image wasn't displayed to the user for some reason, but at least the alt text was.

Why use this attribute? If a user is viewing your site on a browser that doesn't support images, or is using alternative technologies, such as a screen reader, the contents of the alt attribute provide information about the picture.

Another reason is that if you're using an image as a link, the alt text for that image will be treated similarly to the anchor text of a text link. However, we don't recommend using too many images for links in your site's navigation when text links could serve the same purpose. Lastly, optimizing your image filenames and alt text makes it easier for image search projects like Google Image Search to better understand your images.


Store files in specialized directories and manage them using common file formats :

It is easier to find the paths to images if they are stored in one directory.

Instead of having image files spread out in numerous directories and subdirectories across your domain, consider consolidating your images into a single directory (e.g. brandonsbaseballcards.com/images/). This simplifies the path to your images.

Use commonly supported filetypes - Most browsers support JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP image formats. It's also a good idea to have the extension of your filename match with the filetype.

Use brief, but descriptive filenames and alt text :
Like many of the other parts of the page targeted for optimization, filenames and alt text (for ASCII languages) are best when they're short, but descriptive.


Avoid :
  • Using generic filenames like "image1.jpg", "pic.gif", "1.jpg" when possible—some sites with thousands of images might consider automating the naming of images
  • Writing extremely lengthy filenames
  • Stuffing keywords into alt text or copying and pasting entire sentences

Supply alt text when using images as links :
If you do decide to use an image as a link, filling out its alt text helps Google understand more about the page you're linking to. Imagine that you're writing anchor text for a text link.


Avoid :
  • Writing excessively long alt text that would be considered spammy
  • Using only image links for your site's navigation

Supply an Image Sitemap file :
An Image Sitemap file can provide Googlebot with more information about the images found on your site. Its structure is similar to the XML Sitemap file for your web pages.


Google SEO Starter Guide : Write Better Anchor Text



Suitable anchor text makes it easy to convey the contents linked : 


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


<a href="http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/articles/ten-rarest-baseballcards.htm">Top Ten Rarest Baseball Cards</a>

This text tells users and Google something about the page you're linking to. Links on your page maybe internal—pointing to other pages on your site—or external—leading to content on other sites. In either of these cases, the better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for Google to understand what the page you're linking to is about. Suitable anchor text makes it easy to convey the contents linked Glossary

With appropriate anchor text, users and search engines can easily understand what the linked pages contain.
Choose descriptive text : 
The anchor text you use for a link should provide at least a basic idea of what the page linked to is about.


Avoid :
  • Writing generic anchor text like "page", "article", or "click here"
  • Using text that is off-topic or has no relation to the content of the page linked to
  • Using the page's URL as the anchor text in most cases - although there are certainly legitimate uses of this, such as promoting or referencing a new website's address

Write concise text : Aim for short but descriptive text-usually a few words or a short phrase.


Avoid :
  • Writing long anchor text, such as a lengthy sentence or short paragraph of text

Format links so they're easy to spot :
Make it easy for users to distinguish between regular text and the anchor text of your links. Your content becomes less useful if users miss the links or accidentally click them.


Avoid :
  • Using CSS or text styling that make links look just like regular text

Think about anchor text for internal links too : 
You may usually think about linking in terms of pointing to outside websites, but paying more attention to the anchor text used for internal links can help users and Google navigate your site better.


Avoid :
  • Using excessively keyword-filled or lengthy anchor text just for search engines
  • Creating unnecessary links that don't help with the user's navigation of the site


Wednesday, 1 August 2012

Google SEO Starter Guide : Offer Quality Content And Services



Interesting sites will increase their recognition on their own :

Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here .

A blogger finds a piece of your content, likes it, and then references it in a blog post.

Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site's reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.


Anticipate differences in users'understanding of your topic and offer unique, exclusive content :

The Google AdWords Keyword Tool can help you find relevant keywords on your site and the volume of those keywords.

Think about the words that a user might search for to find a piece of your content. Users who know a lot about the topic might use different keywords in their search queries than someone who is new to the topic. For example, a long-time baseball fan might search for [nlcs], an acronym for the National League Championship Series, while a new fan might use a more general query like [baseball playoffs]. Anticipating these differences in search behavior and accounting for them while writing your content (using a good mix of keyword phrases) could produce positive results. Google AdWords provides a handy Keyword Tool that helps you discover new keyword variations and see the approximate search volume for each keyword .

Consider creating a new, useful service that no other site offers. You could also write an original piece of research, break an exciting news story, or leverage your unique user base. Other sites may lack the resources or expertise to do these things.



Write easy-to-read text :
Users enjoy content that is well written and easy to follow.



Avoid :
  • Writing sloppy text with many spelling and grammatical mistakes
  • Embedding text in images for textual content - users may want to copy and paste the text and search engines can't read it

Stay organized around the topic :
It's always beneficial to organize your content so that visitors have a good sense of where one content topic begins and another ends. Breaking your content up into logical chunks or divisions helps users find the content they want faster.


Avoid :
  • Dumping large amounts of text on varying topics onto a page without paragraph, subheading, or layout separation

Create fresh, unique content :
New content will not only keep your existing visitor base coming back, but also bring in new visitors.


Avoid :
  • Rehashing (or even copying) existing content that will bring little extra value to users 
  • Having duplicate or near-duplicate versions of your content across your site

Create content primarily for your users, not search engines :
Designing your site around your visitors' needs while making sure your site is easily accessible to search engines usually produces positive results.


Avoid :
  • Inserting numerous unnecessary keywords aimed at search engines but are annoying or nonsensical to users 
  • Having blocks of text like "frequent misspellings used to reach this page" that add little value for users deceptively 
  • Hiding text from users, but displaying it to search engines


Monday, 30 July 2012

Google SEO Starter Guide : Make Your Site Easier To Navigate

Navigation is very important for search engines :

The navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the content they want. It can also help search engines understand what content the webmaster thinks is important. Although Google's search results are provided at a page level, Google also likes to have a sense of what role a page plays in the bigger picture of the site.


Plan out your navigation based on your homepage :

All sites have a home or "root" page, which is usually the most frequented page on the site and the starting place of navigation for many visitors. Unless your site has only a handful of pages, you should think about how visitors will go from a general page (your root page) to a page containing more specific content. Do you have enough pages around a specific topic area that it would make sense to create a page describing these related pages (e.g. root page -> related topic listing -> specific topic or from labels on blogger)? Do you have hundreds of different products that need to be classified under multiple category and subcategory pages?


Ensure more convenience for users by using ‘breadcrumb lists’ :

A breadcrumb is a row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the root page . Many breadcrumbs have the most general page (usually the root page) as the first, left-most link and list the more specific sections out to the right.

Breadcrumb links appearing on a deeper article page on our site.

Allow for the possibility of a part of the URL being removed :

Users may go to an upper directory by removing the last part of the URL.

Consider what happens when a user removes part of your URL - Some users might navigate your site in odd ways, and you should anticipate this. For example, instead of using the breadcrumb links on the page, a user might drop off a part of the URL in the hopes of finding more general content. He or she might be visiting http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/news/2010/upcoming-baseballcard-shows.htm, but then enter http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/news/2010/ into the browser's address bar, believing that this will show all news from 2010 . Is your site prepared to show content in this situation or will it give the user a 404 ("page not found" error)? What about moving up a directory level to http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/news/?


Prepare two sitemaps: one for users, one for search engines :

A site map (lower-case) is a simple page on your site that displays the structure of your website, and usually consists of a hierarchical listing of the pages on your site. Visitors may visit this page if they are having problems finding pages on your site. While search engines will also visit this page, getting good crawl coverage of the pages on your site, it's mainly aimed at human visitors.
Examples of an HTML site map and an XML Sitemap. An HTML site map can help users easily find content that they are looking for, and an XML Sitemap can help search engines find pages on your site.

An XML Sitemap (upper-case) file, which you can submit through Google's Webmaster Tools, makes it easier for Google to discover the pages on your site. Using a Sitemap file is also one way (though not guaranteed) to tell Google which version of a URL you'd prefer as the canonical one (e.g. http://brandonsbaseballcards.com/ or http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/; more on what's a preferred domain). Google helped create the open source Sitemap Generator Script to help you create a Sitemap file for your site. To learn more about Sitemaps, the Webmaster Help Center provides a useful guide to Sitemap files.

Create a naturally flowing hierarchy :
Make it as easy as possible for users to go from general content to the more specific content they want on your site. Add navigation pages when it makes sense and ffectively work these into your internal link structure.


Avoid :
  • Creating complex webs of navigation links, e.g. linking every page on your site to every other page
  • Going overboard with slicing and dicing your content (so that it takes twenty clicks)

Use mostly text for navigation :
Controlling most of the navigation from page to page on your site through text links makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your site. Many users also prefer this over other approaches, especially on some devices that might not handle Flash or JavaScript.


Avoid :
  • Having a navigation based entirely on drop-down menus, images, or animations
    - many, but not all, search engines can discover such links on a site, but if a user can reach all pages on a site via normal text links, this will improve the accessibility of your site; more on how Google deals with non-text files


Put an HTML site map page on your site, and use an XML Sitemap file :
A simple site map page with links to all of the pages or the most important pages (if you have hundreds or thousands) on your site can be useful. Creating an XML Sitemap file for your site helps ensure that search engines discover the pages on your site.


Avoid :
  • Letting your HTML site map page become out of date with broken links
  • Creating an HTML site map that simply lists pages without organizing them, for example by subject

Have a useful 404 page :
Users will occasionally come to a page that doesn't exist on your site, either by following a broken link or typing in the wrong URL. Having a custom 404 page that kindly guides users back to a working page on your site can greatly improve a user's experience. Your 404 page should probably have a link back to your root page and could also provide links to popular or related content on your site. Google provides a 404 widget that you can embed in your 404 page to automatically populate it with many useful features. You can also use Google Webmaster Tools to find the sources of URLs causing "not found" errors.


Avoid :
  • Allowing your 404 pages to be indexed in search engines (make sure that your webserver is configured to give a 404 HTTP status code when non-existent pages are requested)
  • Providing only a vague message like "Not found", "404", or no 404 page at all
  • Using a design for your 404 pages that isn't consistent with the rest of your site


Sunday, 29 July 2012

Google SEO Starter Guide : Improve The Structure Of Your URLs



Simple-to-understand URLs will convey content information easily :

Creating descriptive categories and filenames for the documents on your website can not only help you keep your site better organized, but it could also lead to better crawling of your documents by search engines. Also, it can create easier, "friendlier" URLs for those that want to link to your content. Visitors may be intimidated by extremely long and cryptic URLs that contain few recognizable words.

A URL to a page on our baseball card site that a user might have a hard time with.

URLs like above can be confusing and unfriendly. Users would have a hard time reciting the URL from memory or creating a link to it. Also, users may believe that a portion of the URL is unnecessary, especially if the URL shows many unrecognizable parameters. They might leave off a part, breaking the link.
The highlighted words above could inform a user or search engine what the target page is about before following the link.

Some users might link to your page using the URL of that page as the anchor text. If your URL contains relevant words, this provides users and search engines with more information about the page than an ID or oddly named parameter would.


URLs are displayed in search results :


A user performs the query [baseball cards]. Our homepage appears as a result, with the URL listed under the title and snippet.

Lastly, remember that the URL to a document is displayed as part of a search result in Google, below the document's title and snippet. Like the title and snippet, words in the URL on the search result appear in bold if they appear in the user's query . To the right is another example showing a URL on our domain for a page containing an article about the rarest baseball cards. The words in the URL might appeal to a search user more than an ID number like "www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/article/102125/" would.

Google is good at crawling all types of URL structures, even if they're quite complex, but spending the time to make your URLs as simple as possible for both users and search engines can help. Some webmasters try to achieve this by rewriting their dynamic URLs to static ones; while Google is fine with this, we'd like to note that this is an advanced procedure and if done incorrectly, could cause crawling issues with your site. To learn even more about good URL structure, we recommend this Webmaster Help Center page on creating Google-friendly URLs.

Use words in URLs :
URLs with words that are relevant to your site's content and structure are friendlier for visitors navigating your site. Visitors remember them better and might be more willing to link to them.


Avoid :
  • Using lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs
  • Choosing generic page names like "page1.html"
  • Using excessive keywords like"baseball-cards-baseball-cards-baseballcards.htm"

Create a simple directory structure :
Use a directory structure that organizes your content well and makes it easy for visitors to know where they're at on your site. Try using your directory structure to indicate the type of content found at that URL.


Avoid :
  • Having deep nesting of subdirectories like ".../dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/dir6/page.html"
  • Using directory names that have no relation to the content in them

Provide one version of a URL to reach a document :
To prevent users from linking to one version of a URL and others linking to a different version (this could split the reputation of that content between the URLs), focus on using and referring to one URL in the structure and internal linking of your pages. If you do find that people are accessing the same content through multiple URLs, setting up a 301 redirect from non-preferred URLs to the dominant URL is a good solution for this. You may also use canonical URL or use the rel="canonical" link element if you cannot redirect.


Avoid :
  • Having pages from subdomains and the root directory access the same content - e.g. "domain.com/page.htm" and "sub.domain.com/page.htm"
  • Using odd capitalization of URLs - many users expect lower-case URLs and remember them better

Google SEO Starter Guide : Make Use Of The "Description" Meta Tag

Make use of the "description" meta tag :



<html>
<head>
<title>Brandon's Baseball Cards - Buy Cards, Baseball News, Card Prices</title>
<meta name="description=" content="Brandon's Baseball Cards provides a large selection of vintage and modern baseball cards for sale. We also offer daily baseball news and events in">
</head>
<body>


A page's description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Whereas a page's title may be a few words or a phrase, a page's description meta tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph. Google Webmaster Tools provides a handy content analysis section that'll tell you about any description meta tags that are either too short, long, or duplicated too many times (the same information is also shown for <title> tags). Like the <title> tag, the description meta tag is placed within the <head> tag of your HTML document.



What are the merits of description meta tags? :

Description meta tags are important because Google might use them as snippets for your pages. Note that we say "might" because Google may choose to use a relevant section of your page's visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user's query. Alternatively, Google might use your site's description in the Open Directory Project if your site is listed there. Adding description meta tags to each of your pages is always a good practice in case Google cannot find a good selection of text to use in the snippet. The Webmaster Central Blog has an informative post on improving snippets with better description meta tags.
A user performs the query [baseball cards]. Our homepage appears as a result, with part of its description meta tag used as the snippet.
Words in the snippet are bolded when they appear in the user's query. This gives the user clues about whether the content on the page matches with what he or she is looking for.
A user performs the query [rarest baseball cards]. One of our deeper pages, with its unique description meta tag used as the snippet, appears as a result.
Above Image is another example, this time showing a snippet from a description meta tag on a deeper page (which ideally has its own unique description meta tag) containing an article.

Accurately summarize the page's content :
Write a description that would both inform and interest users if they saw your description meta tag as a snippet in a search result.


Avoid :
  • Writing a description meta tag that has no relation to the content on the page
  • Using generic descriptions like "This is a web page" or "Page about baseball cards"
  • Filling the description with only keywords
  • Copying and pasting the entire content of the document into the description meta tag


Use unique descriptions for each page :
Having a different description meta tag for each page helps both users and Google, especially in searches where users may bring up multiple pages on your domain (e.g. searches using the site: operator). If your site has thousands or even millions of pages, hand-crafting description meta tags probably isn't feasible. In this case, you could automatically generate description meta tags based on each page's content.


Avoid :
  • Using a single description meta tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages


Google SEO Starter Guide : Create Unique, Accurate Page Titles


Indicate page titles by using title tags : 


<html>
<head>
<title>Brandon's Baseball Cards - Buy Cards, Baseball News, Card Prices</title>
<meta name="description=" content="Brandon's Baseball Cards provides a large selection of vintage and modern baseball cards for sale. We also offer daily baseball news and events in">
</head>
<body>

A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. The <title> tag should be placed within the <head> tag of the HTML document . Ideally, you should create a unique title for each page on your site.

Page title contents are displayed in search results :


A user performs the query [baseball cards]. Our homepage shows up as a result, with the title listed on the first line (notice that the query terms the user searched for appear in bold).

If your document appears in a search results page, the contents of the title tag will usually appear in the first line of the results (if you're unfamiliar with the different parts of a Google search result, you might want to check out the anatomy of a search resultvideo by Google engineer Matt Cutts, and this helpful diagram of a Googlediagram of a Google search results page). Words in the title are bolded if they appear in the user's search query. This can help users recognize if the page is likely to be relevant to their search.

If the user clicks the result and visits the page, the page's title will appear at the top of the browser.

The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/business and could include other bits of important information like the physical location of the business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings .

A user performs the query [rarest baseball cards]. A relevant, deeper page (its title is unique to the content of the page) on our site appears as a result.


Accurately describe the page's content :
Choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page's content.


Avoid :
  • Choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page 
  • Using default or vague titles like "Untitled" or "New Page 1"

Create unique title tags for each page :
Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from the others on your site.


Avoid :
  • Using a single title tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages

Use brief, but descriptive titles :
Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result.


Avoid :
  • Using extremely lengthy titles that are unhelpful to users
  • Stuffing unneeded keywords in your title tags

Google SEO Starter Guide


SEO Starter Guide : In this series we'll teach all blogger and webmaster about some SEO tactics provided by Google.

What Is SEO : Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural," or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic"), search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.

Table Of Content :

  • SEO Basics :
  1. Create unique, accurate page titles
  2. Make use of the "description" meta tag
  • Improving Site Structure :
  1. Improve the structure of your URLs
  2. Make your site easier to navigate
  • Optimizing Content :
  1. Offer quality content and services
  2. Write better anchor text
  3. Optimize your use of images
  4. Use heading tags appropriately
  • Dealing with Crawlers :
  1. Make effective use of robots.txt
  2. Be aware of rel="nofollow" for links
  • SEO for Mobile Phones :
  1. Notify Google of mobile sites
  2. Guide mobile users accurately
  • Promotions and Analysis
  1. Promote your website in the right ways
An example may help our explanations, so we've created a fictitious website to follow throughout the guide. For each topic, we've fleshed out enough information about the site to illustrate the point being covered. Here's some background information about the site we'll use:

  Website/business name: "Brandon's Baseball Cards"
  Domain name: brandonsbaseballcards.com
  Focus: Online-only baseball card sales, price guides, articles, and news content
  Size: Small, ~250 pages


Search engine optimization affects only organic search results, not paid or "sponsored" results such as Google AdWords.



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