On Site Optimization Myths Myth One: Just Put Up Meta Tags to Get Your Ranking I didn't want to put this one here at first because everybody else mentioned this in their articles, so I thought that it was an open secret. Then I met a businessman who optimizes his blog via writing key word meta tags and doesn't do much else as far as SEO. I told him to "try and read a bit more about SEO," then I cleaned up his tags for free and offered to help with linking (for a fee). 28.The SEO Analysis: What it is and Why You Need it One of the very first things we do when we start working with a client on a search engine optimization project is perform a head to toe site analysis. In fact, more often than not, we won’t actually even quote a price for SEO unless we’ve already done an analysis. Implications to SEO firms SEO firms should spend time and clearly explain to clients the SEO techniques and methodologies that they would use. Some SEO firms might fear that they would expose their “top secret” techniques. Again, a rating scale of 1-5 was employed, with 5 means Very important and 1 means very unimportant. The respondents expressed that they concerned the possible high cost (4.8), potential fraudulent clicks (4.9), delivery of message to right persons (4.7), and time required to manage the campaign (4.2).About Meta tags -- please DO write relevant keyword and description Meta tags into your code. It gives spiders something to cache in the database. Without them, you will be left with no description when listed in the search engines. If your key word Meta tags are irrelevant to your content you may get penalized. I addressed this question first because it is the foundation of all SEO myths. It comes from the idea that "SEO is easy, just submit your site to so and so directory and so and so search engine and you are on a roll." Do-it-yourself SEO gets its processes crossed. We will come back to common myths that exist about SEO professionals (although some have been discussed in previous articles on SEO professionals).SEO firms should assist clients to devise a measurement matrix for the campaign. This helps the decision maker to make judgment and explain to his/her colleagues and boss. Clients would feel more comfortable to do business with you. Moreover, SEO firms should define clearly what would be delivered to clients and the delivery schedule, e.g. how many ranking reports, keyword research result, etc. Most business firms lacked the knowledge and tempted to use an SEO firm. However, quality of SEO firms varied. In order to select a good SEO service, business firms should define clearly their objectives. E.g. some firms might simply define that they wanted a better ranking than their rivals or that they wanted a better conversion rate. Then, it was suggested that the business firms talk with the SEO candidates and try to differentiate which one was more knowledgeable. Moreover, business firms should discuss with the selected SEO firm in order to get an agreement on the number of deliverables and project schedule. While this might appear at first to be not a particularly earth-shattering revelation, it surprises me how many so-called SEOs don't actually do an initial site analysis. But first, I want to show you a few so-called SEO analyses that quite frankly have me hopping mad.Please also check whether your website has broken links. They may stop search engine spiders to crawl other web pages in your website, it may result in loss of hundreds or thousands website traffic per month, and waste your search engine optimization effort. What Does SEO Really Do? Some SEO professionals don't help because they get mysterious and go cloak-and-dagger about the whole thing. That's pretty absurd when everybody over here at SEO Chat is willing to blab SEO state secrets. Obviously some people think if you tell the client what you do, they would do it themselves. I sometimes wish it was that easy.In addition, search engines are not good at understanding Java Applet and Flash. If you have Flash or Java applet navigation menu, make sure to duplicate somewhere and include HTML links as well. I am a firm believer in looking at the entire SEO picture. There is no magic formula to optimizing a website for search engines; no secret formula to that winning combination. There are, however, a few foundational aspects of good, basic SEO. One of those is the analysis. Redirect example and conclusion Here is a quick example to illustrate how quickly this task can be performed. At the same time, however, blogging isn't for everyone. One SEO says that he looks for three things in a potential blogger: special knowledge, passion for a subject, and good writing skills. However, a good blogger needs one more thing to make it work: time. Having the time to blog is all-important. When you get the bulk of your traffic through non-search sites, there’s less chance the bully’s tactics can hurt you.”Don’t be put off, however, by companies that prefer to handle contacts via email or trouble tickets. This is a good practice for even a smaller firm, because it creates a written record of activity, and not just verbal communication. 6) Sitemap - Always offer a site map to your users with all the important links of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may break the site map into separate pages. It’s not fun when your site starts dropping in the SERPs, especially if you’ve checked everything pertaining to your site and you’re absolutely certain it isn’t your fault. I hope I’ve given you some ideas as to what you can do about it.All skilled web designers should have a solid grasp of CSS and should be putting all the main formatting into this file(s). Way too often we're getting sites with dozens of font tags, color tags, size tags, etc. etc. etc. This article deals with "myths," "fallacies" and "pseudo experts" on search engine optimization professionals and search engines themselves. First I will address the popular sentiment that "search engine optimization can be done by anybody," then I will look at varying myths that exist about search engine optimization. You will be surprised at what people believe about SEO to this day. But first, let's get the heavy stuff out of the way before we start talking about the common myths. I frankly don't have time to optimize it well. But I'm not really looking to gain a bunch of visitors to my site from the search engines; it's just my own outlet for personal stuff. So usually I ask for an analysis on this site. I also dabble in some web design, and occasionally, I'll want an analysis on that site, too. I usually reserve asking for the analysis on the last one for when I run across a particularly obtuse company who may not notice the many blurbs or links I have to my SEO site. Strangely, people who spread myths about SEO professionals and search engines leave me relatively unmoved. I feel no need to defend myself against anyone who believes that hiring an SEO is totally unnecessary. Still, some myths can be harmful, and those are the ones I hope to address here.Web business owners sometimes forget the importance of great content, and how they should create fresh content. Doing so will greatly benefit their online business since search engines will reward websites that offer fresh content to their visitors, regardless of its format. In my own research and desire to streamline my own analysis efforts, I have compared my information over the span of a few months. These are just a few of my findings.Being a writer myself who is always on the prowl for more excellent resources, I really like the list in their right column (though you need to scroll down to get to it) of the blogs that they read and suggest to others. If this were the case, in this situation, it might indicate that in-house marketers fall into two groups, one of which is paid more on average than the other. SEO MYTHS Some things annoy me and some things amuse me. I seriously wonder about things that leave me unmoved. For example, hidden charges annoy me, and so does poor customer service. A site that is always selling me stuff while pretending that its sales pitch is content annoys me (though I am guilty of doing the same sometimes). Domain name resellers annoy me (growl, gnash, need I say more). Bloggers can be amusing, and forums moreso. 3. What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly? SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including: * Reviewing and providing recommendations on your site content or structure * Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript * Content development * Managing online business development campaigns * Keyword research * SEO training Generally, most of travel websites are dynamically driven and need more creative search engine optimization solutions. In travel website optimization, SEO needs to be quicker at On-page optimization as changes in travel deals and packages are common in travel portals. With regular updations on website, optimized content, press releases and continuous link building to relevant and quality sites, we can expect good placements in search engines. Sponsor listings (PPC advertising) and exciting newsletters will also help to make good online conversions.9.Network Solutions: Unethical SEO Network Solutions displays a real talent for tripping itself up with unethical behavior. Always choose a company that has extensive experience in travel SEO and web promotion of travel websites and web portals like Neuro SEO Services which can help for success in this highly competitive area. Nearly 50% of respondents (of any type) recommend the use of the nofollow attribute for links, while nearly 40% do not recommend the use of nofollow. However, the number of respondents who are unsure of the use of nofollow is higher among in-house marketers than among the rest of our respondents. The SEO Analysis: What it is and Why You Need it - What a Site Analysis Should Include 1. Statistical Data - The biggest part of an SEO analysis is the research. Research results in statistical data. This is not just information you have in your web stats program, but other information you may not have access to, such as how many people do a search every day on your particular keyword, or what your competition is doing, and how they are doing it. There can be endless reports and data that an SEO could provide, so be aware you can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers provided. An SEO might consider creating the analysis as an overview, with the statistical data in addenda or reports to back up the information. Keep in mind that the content of your website is more important than the design, which is why people who invest too much money on site designs primarily instead of focusing on its content will only end up wasting it since this will only bring in a few people to visit their website. Instead, try to invest in copywriting initially, and only spend money on the site design later on. Some Web business owners tend to overlook this aspect, and they do not implement this in their websites, causing their website to not generate the desired amount of traffic. The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", terms adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Site Analyzer is not limited to scanning your Web site and creating a report. After the scan is complete, the product already knows about your Web site and pages. Why not put this information to good use? After scanning your Web site, Site Analyzer can make a perfectly valid XML sitemap for Google completely automatically. You can also create an additional HTML sitemap for your own visitors. 21.SEO Myths Every professional field has its own set of "myths" -- things that people either within or outside the profession (or both) take to be true about it. SEO is no exception. If anything, the field is a little more prone to myths because something that worked last week, last month, or last year may no longer yield results. In this article, we take a look at some of the more common SEO myths. "Assumption is parent to all failures." -- Politically correct rendition of popular maxim 2. Explanations of Terminology - You may end up with a huge analysis with lots of data, findings, and reports, but if you can't make heads or tails of it, then it may not do you much good. Some SEO firms put the analysis on paper for you, and then offer a free consultation with it to go over anything you may not understand. This is a good idea if the SEO firm doesn't explain the results in the analysis directly. Doing so will leave tons of format clutter in your HTML code. If you must use Word, you should save the file as an HTML file. Then you can clean up the code with the Word-cleaning tool in your HTML-authoring program. As a last resort, you can also clean it manually using “search and replace” in a text editor (Notepad). 4. Screenshots or Other Evidence - If you get an analysis with a bunch of recommendations or percentages, keyword densities or whatever statistics you are provided without any corroborating evidence, then the analysis provider could just be pulling numbers out of a hat as far as you're concerned. A good analysis will have additional information that will back up the analysis findings.Now, let us consider some of SEO methods / practices - 1) SE Friendly Design - Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Making a website according to guidelines by major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Live will definetly help in search engine index, find, and rank your website. 2) Content - Website content should be relevant to the particular page and should be optimized with the targeted keywords. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking" which is an unethical way. The .htaccess file needs to be uploaded in ASCII mode. This is true for other server-side scripts such as CGI and Perl. A nice free piece of software, and used by yours truly for some time, is FileZilla. It is straightforward to configure and has a great WYSIWYG style interface. Furthermore, does your site’s hierarchy or information architecture make sense? You can certainly have a link leading off the home page called “Products,” but if you have a lot of products you might even want to group them under logical subheadings: “Home Widgets,” “Automotive Widgets,” “Office Widgets,” 5. Detailed Findings - It is not enough just to show you what your meta tags say. You can find that information out yourself, so why would you need someone else to do that for you? You need specific research customized to your site that digs pretty deep. You will want to look for a search engine simulation (what a search engine would see if it were to crawl your site), a list of broken links, site structure, navigation crawlability, which pages and how many of them are being indexed, when the last search engine crawl was, and so on.Each and every Web page and outgoing link will be analyzed and accounted for. Your Web pages Google PageRank will be checked and included into the report. 7. Site Recommendations - If you pay for an analysis, you should be able to take that analysis and change some of your site elements yourself with that SEO's recommendation. Therefore, the inbound link is regarded as a "positive vote" to your website. The more inbound link you have, the higher is your link popularity. This can boost your search engine ranking. Tip 3: Redirecting Old Links to New Pages Hyperlinks should also be allocated the relevant keywords relating to the site theme. This is why search engines like Yahoo will eventually find the site pages by using sophisticated crawlers. These crawlers will follow the links to and from other sites that share traffic. Link sharing plays a big part in traffic diversion and distribution of site visitors. From time to time, however, there is the need to redirect traffic from old pages still showing on the search engines. Also, it may be necessary to move a site to a different server. The search engine crawlers need to know where the pages are located or they will find those outdated and dead links. The SEO Analysis: What it is and Why You Need it - What a Site Analysis Should NOT Include 1. Solicitation - An SEO obviously wants his or her analysis to lead to your purchasing their services. But if your analysis is littered with endorsements, sponsored links or even too much of the company's own propaganda, then you may want to reconsider hiring that company. For example, a client showed me an analysis he received from another company. Even though the analysis was free, it was only about four pages; and of that, only a half a page was even any kind of analysis whatsoever, and it was so general that it honestly was just a waste of paper, and could have applied to just about any site on the Web. The rest was that company's advertising and solicitation of its own services. Needless to say, this was a major turnoff for the client, who hired me instead. Great places to insert relevant keywords are: 1.The first paragraph of the site content; it should contain a relatively high number of keywords. 2.Page titles and hyperlinks. 3.Inside tags e.g. 4.Inside H1 and H2 tags that are placed close to the content. 2. Irrelevant Statistics - While this one may on the surface seem like a no-brainer, let me explain what I mean. Obviously if you are looking for keyword analysis, and you have a site about breeding pug puppies, you don't want statistics regarding celebrity car auctions. This is not what I mean here. What I mean is that many SEOs will fluff up your analysis with statistics regarding your competitors, or even its search engine findings. If these numbers don't help you understand how to improve your search engine standing or improve your site, then you don't need them in your analysis. While we always include reports with many of these findings as addenda for reference purposes, we don't usually put them directly into the analysis.
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