Search Engine Optimization And Why You Should Use It

E-commerce is a cutthroat business. You have to arm yourself with the
proper know-how and the tools to make your site stand out from the rest. Each
day, more and more sites are clambering to optimize their rankings on the search
engines and if you lose your guard, you may just get trampled on and be left in
the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by
many e-commerce sites. For the past few years and the next ten years or so,
Search Engines would be the most widely used Internet tool to find the sites that
they need to go to or the product or information they need.
Most people that use Search Engines use only the ten top search results
in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a
barometer of a sites success in Search Engine optimization. You will get a higher
ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for
your site, the more business you rake in.
But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even
better. As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to
make them selves rank higher using Search Engine optimization. It is imperative
to make your site better and better everyday.
So just what is Search Engine optimization and do you have to use it? The
answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need Search Engine
optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income
generating. Period.
With Search Engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a
high traffic volume. Let’s just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with
10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a
good turn out of sales already. If you get only ten to twenty hits a day, you only
get one or two if not any at all.

So once again, what is Search Engine optimization? Search Engine
optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in
the results of Search Engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet
in the top half of the page will ensure that you will generate public awareness of

your site’s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could
lead to potential income and business.
Search Engine optimization does require a lot of work. There are many
aspects you have to change in your site or add as well. These will include getting
lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your
sites niche or theme.
You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the
right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and
informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making
your site’s content applicable and conducive to Search Engine optimization.
You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could
get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics
generated by sites among others are one of the components Search Engines
uses to rank sites.
Try to search the Internet for useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for
Search Engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can
help you optimize your site in Search Engine results. The more knowledge and
information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high
rankings. This may require a little time and effort on your part but the benefits will
be astounding.
If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the Internet that
can help you in Search Engine optimization. There are many sites that help in
tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content
writers that have lots of experience in writing good keyword rich content for your
sites that are high quality.

robots.txt

The robots.txt file is a set of instructions for visiting robots (spiders) that index the content of your web site pages. For those spiders that obey the file, it provides a map for what they can, and cannot index. The file must reside in the root directory of your web. The URL path (web address) of your robots.txt file should look like this...

http://www.destination-tech.co.cc/robots.txt

The Robots text file open in Notepad might look like this:

 This is a screen shot of an empty (not recommended) robots.txt file

Definition of the above robots.txt file:

User-agent: *
The asterisk (*) or wildcard represents a special value and means any robot.

Disallow:
The Disallow: line without a / (forward slash) tells the robots that they can index the entire site.

Any empty value indicates that all URLs can be retrieved. At least one Disallow field needs to be present in a record without the / (forward slash) as shown above.

The presence of an empty "/robots.txt" file has no explicit associated semantics, it will be treated as if it was not present, i.e. all robots will consider themselves welcome.

The Disallow: line without the trailing slash (/) tells all robots to index everything. If you have a line that looks like this:

Disallow: /private/

It tells the robot that it cannot index the contents of that /private/ directory.

Summarizing the Robots Exclusion Protocol - robots.txt file

To allow all robots complete access:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

Important Note: The above format is the common and acceptable standard for allowing all spiders’ access to the site. We've recently learned (2002-06-09), that the practice of having just a User-agent: * and Disallow: without a trailing forward slash (empty robots.txt file) may not be recommended. Some spiders may incorrectly interpret this as blocking all content. You'll notice that we disallow the _private, css, and JavaScript folders in the below example and do not recommend an empty file.

2003-05-13 - Do not disallow your /css/ directory. Recent issues with Google may suggest that disallowing your css directory could be a flag for a manual review to see if you are using css to deceive the indexing robots (spiders).

 This is a screen shot of a robots.txt file 

To exclude all robots from the server:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

To exclude all robots from parts of a server:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /images-saved/
Disallow: /images-working/

To exclude a single robot from the server:

User-agent: Named Bot
Disallow: /

To exclude a single robot from parts of a server:

User-agent: Named Bot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /images-saved/
Disallow: /images-working/

Note: The asterisk (*) or wildcard in the User-agent field is a special value meaning "any Robot" and therefore is the only one needed until you fully understand how to set up different User-agents.

If you want to Disallow: a particular file within the directory, your Disallow: line might look like this one:

Disallow: /private/top-secret-stuff.htm

Keep in mind that using the above example excludes that specified page (top-secret-stuff.htm) but will not exclude the entire /private/ directory. If you have files that you do not want indexed, then you should put them in a private folder and Disallow: the entire directory, or put them in a password protected directory, or don't put them on the web at all!

You should validate your robots.txt file. Enter the full URI to the robots.txt file on your server. The robots.txt file always resides at the root level of your web. 

SEO Check List 2009-2010

Metatags and on-page optimization
Are the keywords in the title with a 1-word buffer (Max - 1 keyword phrase)
Are Keywords in META keywords. It’s not necessary for Google, but a good habit. Keep the META keywords short (128 characters max, or 10).
Are Keywords in META description? Keep keyword close to the left but in a full sentence.
Are Keywords in the top portion of the page in first sentence of first full bodied paragraph (plain text: no bold, no italic, no style).
Are Keywords in an H2-H4 heading
Are Keywords in bold – second paragraph if possible and anywhere but the first usage on page.
Are Keywords in italic – anywhere but the first usage?
Are Keywords in subscript/superscript?
Are Keywords in URL (directory name, filename, or domain name). Do not duplicate the keyword in the URL.
Are Keywords in an image filename used on the page?
Are Keywords in ALT tag of that previous image mentioned?
Are Keywords in the title attribute of that image?
Are Keywords in link text to another site?
Are Keywords in an internal link’s text?
Are Keywords in title attribute of all links targeted in and out of page?
Are Keywords in the filename of your external CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) or JavaScript file?
Are Keywords in an inbound link on site (preferably from your home page)
Are Keywords in an inbound link from offsite (if possible).
Are Keywords in a link to a site that has a PageRank of 8 or better (e.g. .gov or .edu
Are Keywords in an html comment tag?

Technical
What is the code-to-text ratio? (Text should be at minimum higher than the code)
How many links are pointing to the full URL (with http ://)
How many links are pointing to the domain?
What is the Domain name visibility? A count of results at Google for a search for the domain, showing URL visibility rather than incoming link count.
Number of internal pages that link to the home page?
Number of Technorati links?
Number of del.icio.us links?
What is the page size?
How long does it take to load the page?
On each page, is the top keyword density on each page between 3-7%?
Are their any redirects?
Is the page W3C Compliant?
Is their any duplicate content out on the web?
Is the site in the top 10 directories?
Is a spider seeing all of the site content?

Other Issues
Is there at least 250 words in the content?
Is the keyword density for each kw on each page between 3-7%?
JavaScript in external files?
Alternative navigation on flash or frames?
Xml and html sitemap?
Are their any broken links?
Is there a robots.txt file?
Browser Compatibility (IE, Netscape, Opera, Firefox, Mosaic and Safari)

Linking
Google backlinks
MSN backlinks
Yahoo backlinks
DMOZ listing?
Does the site have outward rss feeds?
Does the page have rss feeds for fresh on-page content?
Does the site have an SEO optimized 404 page?
PDF optimized docs in root file with a navigation page listing each doc description and link. Also a separate xml sitemap for these and separate submission.
302 redirects? (Change to 301 - Google will penalize you for these if you leave them up too long)

Search Engine Optimization SEO Life Cycle

The Search Engine Optimization industry is growing day by day all over the world. Different companies use different SEO techniques from spam to ethical Search Engine Optimization. Here we are discussing the general ethical SEO life cycle, and SEO Bank are strictly using these standards and improving all the standards according to the changes of search engines.
As SEO has become an industry itself there has also bee an increase of processes involved in whole SEO from domain name to link building strategies. Here we are discussing the general SEO life cycle and working methodology of SEO Bank.
Review.
If you already have a website, you must know about the current visibility of your website in different search engines. Look at the search terms which are good in search engines for your website. Also keep an eye on your previous stats. If you are going to completely redesign your website, all of this information will be very useful for future work.
Industry Analysis.
No SEO campaign could be successful without proper analysis of industry. For a SEO life cycle it is very important to analysis the industry and your competitors. By industry analysis a SEO will be able to define the link strategy and time frame for SEO life cycle. At SEO Bank all this is done by the professional marketing consultants and SEO experts.
Keyword Analysis.
One of the most important things in a SEO life cycle is Keyword Analysis. You need to establish a set of key words which will drive traffic through your website and also increase the visibility of your website in search engines.
Optimization.
The best way of optimization is the on page optimization. Before starting optimization it is necessary to check the keyword density and frequency. We will be going through all the pages and optimizing each page for specified keywords. With this, also rectifying the title, Meta and navigation of page, which will be more visible for search engine. If necessary also integrate new pages with the website to increase the visibility for search engines for more traffic generation.
Submission.
Once the website has been optimized, you now need to submit your optimized website in different directories and place your link in different websites. This will give great exposure to your website and increase visibility of your website. This entire submission process is done by human hand, instead of automated process. Therefore it is better to submit your website in the directories like Yahoo, DMOZ, and MSN etc.
Link Building Strategies.
All SEO agree that link strategy is the most critical part of a SEO life cycle. First we analysis your website and remove the broken links within the website and improve internal linking of website. Internal linking spreads the PageRank across the website. You also need to concentrate on the external linking. At SEO Bank we are providing the external link strategies for our clients. We submit websites in different websites with PR 4+.

Top 10 SEO Mistakes and What to Do to Correct It

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings.

This definition of SEO sounds simple, but beware! Search engine optimization is a minefield, even for professionals, and although necessary to a business, should not be undertaken lightly. Below, is a brief look at the top 10 mistakes and how to correct them.

1. Non-Relevant Linkage.

External links to your site play a large part in most of the major search engine algorithms and can be considered an endorsement of your site. But if you are being linked to from sites that have no relevance to your content, then that is now considered a negative endorsement and will not raise your ranking in the search engines. Ensure all links to your pages are from relevant sites. Be wary of link builders who acquire links from gambling, pharmaceutical or adult themed sites, especially if your site is not of the same theme. Link building is as much a science as it is an art, one we take very seriously.

2. Untargeted Keywords.

The people who use search engines are 'normal' people who are not likely to use words used in advertising brochures. Get to know how your customers ask for your services/products and use these in your content. Often times, actual keyword research will surprise you.

3. Excessive Graphics and Flash Content.

This looks good on a web page, but to search engine crawlers it means little. Search engines are looking for content, keywords, and relevancy to the search terms. By all means have some graphics, but don't forget the meat. This doesn't mean Flash designed websites are bad necessarily. In fact, some big businesses do use it. For most webmasters though, Flash sites are best avoided. Unless your Flash designer does high-end websites and knows how to integrate the content and keywords within the Flash, hybrid sites combining Flash headers with HTML content will be a good option.

4. Believing all search engines are the same.

What pleases Yahoo might not necessarily please MSN or Google. Optimize your content, keywords, inbound links, and internal linking structure so that there is something for at least one of the three top search engines.

5. Multiple Search Engine Submissions.

In the very early days of search engines, this technique may have had some success, but now it can lead to slower indexing and rankings. A site with inbound links from other sites will get indexed naturally and search engine submission is not necessary. In fact, multiple submissions may be construed as an attempt to spam the search engines. The top 5 engines account for more than 90% of all activity so it is wise not to ruin your chances of ranking naturally in the search results. (comScore Media Metrix qSearch data, August 2005)

6. Incorrect Use of Title Tags.

Most people consider the title to be for their company name or product. Not so. You must include your most important search phrases within your title tag and if you do want your company name there, keep it for the end. Keep the title tag to less than 65 characters long to avoid the appearance of title tag keyword-stuffing.

7. Use of 'Black Hat' techniques.

Techniques such as doorway pages, hidden text, and overstuffing keywords may have had success in the past but now they will earn you penalties and could even get you banned. Avoid them altogether if you are seeking long term success. Some black hat techniques can work on a short term basis, but in the long run prove very costly.

8. Expecting Immediate Results.

SEO is an ongoing process and should be treated as such by your SEO company. Good optimization will involve building good links with quality sites and this takes time.

9. Use of Unethical SEO Consultants.

Beware the consultant that guarantees rankings with no past clients to back it up with or claims of special relationships with search engines. Many such "consultants" or "experts" will probably take your money and run. Choose a reputable SEO consultant, one who will keep in regular contact with progress reports and updates.

10. Decide to do optimization in-house.

Probably possible in the past, but now with ever increasing sophistication of search engine algorithms, this is an area best left to an expert. Furthermore, the good SEO experts usually have other income streams from their online marketing activities and a regular paycheck to work full-time simply doesn't justify their time invested. We've yet to meet a good SEO who doesn't have virtual real estate bringing in a nice chunk of cash.

SEO Tools

SEO Tools

with SEO Add-Ons (1) , (2) & (3) (Density, links, code cleaner, W3C Compliance, etc.)
Google Analytics - Provides deep analysis on all traffic, including paid search.
IBP - Several tools for checking rank positions, basic SEO page analysation and link building tools
WebCEO - Site optimization, promotion and analysis.
WeBuildPages - Free software for SEO analysation, back link & Anchor text tool.
Link Building 101 - Basic Link Building Instructions and Tips.
Link Baiting - Good Link Baiting Tutorial
Google Webmaster Central – Statistics, diagnostics and management of Google's crawling and indexing of your website, including Sitemap submission and reporting.

Pay Per Click Tools
WordTracker -Data is based on the
 Metacrawler and Overture search engines.
KeywordDiscovery - Data is based on the number of search engines.
Keyword Optimizer - Enter a list of keywords and this tool will remove any duplicate entries and re-order the list alphabetically.
Google Analytics - Provides deep analysis on all traffic, including paid search.
Google Suggest - As you type, Google provides the top 10 most popular keywords that begin with the keyed-in letters, in order of popularity.
SpyFu - Find out what competitors are biding on and estimates for the cost of PPC advertising and others bells and whistles.
Hittail – Finds and easily groups the actual terms being used to find your site into an excel format. Great for finding niches and long keyword strings.
Google Trends - Graphs historical trends of various Google searches.
Google Keyword Tool External -Historical trends in keyword popularity.
BidCenter - A good tool for comparative analysis and easy to use
SEO Sleuth - Find what AOL users search for (AOL produces 2x the retail conversions as any other engine)
ROI Calculator - This calculator measures the ROI (return on investment) of a CPC (cost per click) campaign.

Site Tools
C-Class Checker - Use the Class C Checker if you own several cross-linked sites. If you do, it may be more efficient (for SEO purposes) to host them on different Class C IP ranges.
Code to Text Ratio - This tool will help you discover the percentage of text in a web page (as compared to the combined text and code).
Future PageRank - This tool will query Google's various data centers to check for any changes in PageRank values for a given URL.
Internet Officer - Checks for Redirects
Live PR - The Live PageRank calculator gives you the current PageRank value in the Google index, not just the snapshot that is displayed in the toolbar.
Keyword Cloud - This tool provides a visual representation of keywords used on a website.
Keyword Difficulty Check - Use the Keyword Difficulty Check Tool to see how difficult it would be to rank for specific keywords or keyword phrases.
Page Size - This tool will help you to determine HTML web page size.
Site Link Analyzer - This tool will analyze a given web page and return a table of data containing columns of outbound links and their associated anchor text.
Spider Simulator - This tool simulates a search engine spider by displaying the contents of a web page in exactly the way the spider would see it.
URL Rewriting - This tool converts dynamic URLs to static URLs. You will need to create an .htaccess file to use this tool.
Keyword Misspelling Generator - allows you to generate various misspellings of a keyword or phrase to match common typing errors. Useful for creating keyword lists around your most important keywords to bid on.
Keyword Density Analysis Tool - finds common words and phrases on your site.
Hub Finder - finds topically related pages by looking at link co-citation. post about tool
Page Text Rank Checker - tool allows you to check where your site ranks for each phrase or term occurring on the page.
XML Sitemaps - makes free Google sitemaps for sites up to 500 pages in size. Sells a cheap and useful script to build sitemaps for larger site sizes.
PageRank Toolbar For Mac - A widget to show PageRank for the site you are on.

Google Tools
  Google Webmaster Central *Tool
  Google Labs*Tool
  SpyFu for Google Bidding*Tool
  Google Future PR *Tool
  Google Sandbox *Tool
  Google Dance Watch
  Google Page Rank Formula and Sandbox Explanation
  Google Google Information and FAQ
  Google Reinclusion Request *Tool
  Banned by Google? *Tool
  Google Advanced Search *Tool
  Google Data Center Pages Indexed Check*Tool
  Google Page Rank Check (All DC's)*Tool
  Google Keyword Ranking Check*Tool
  Google "Need-To-Know" Info
  Beginner Adwords Tips *Instruction
  How Google Analytics Work *Instruction
  Check Google Keyword Prices *Tool
  Hit Tail *Advanced Adwords Tool
  Hit Tail Documented

And Even More SEO Tools

  Getting into DMOZ *Tool

  Meta Tag Generator *Tool
  RoboForm - A MUST-HAVE! *Tool
  Keyword Density *Tool

  Web CEO - SEO Software *Tool

  IBP Pro - SEO Software *Tool

  Robots.txt Generator *Tool

  Link Popularity *Tool

  Domain Age Check *Tool

  Code-to-Text *Tool

  Spider Simulator *Tool

  Who Supplies Who with Search Results*Tool
  Adwords Click Fraud Study *Information

  Abuse IP Checker *Tool

  IP Information *Tool

  IP, City and reverse IP Lookup *Tool

  Ping *Tool

  Traceroute *Tool

  PPC Hijacking *Information
  PPC 101 *Instruction

  PPC 102 *Instruction

  Comprehensive Link Building 101 *Tool

  Link Baiting *Instruction

FaQ's

Getting Listed with Search Engines

 

If you want people to visit your page, you must register it on search engines.

 

This is because about 80% of people, who search the Internet, use search engines. If your site is not registered nobody can find you. The Internet is not your local newspaper or a billboard on the corner of a busy main road. In fact, your website is no different than building a home in the middle of a desert. For people to see it, you must build a road to it. The search engine provides a road enabling people to find you.

• What is a search engine?
• Why should I submit my web site?
• Why should I submit every month?
• Which search engines and directories do you submit to?
• When will I see my site listed on search engine sites?
• What are the best keywords to use?
• What is a Meta tag?
• Do I need Meta tags?
• What Meta tags should I add to my web site?

What is a search engine?

Web visitors generally use search engines to find sites matching their search criteria. The visitor enters words or phrases in the search area, and the search engine produces a list of related sites. The search engine provides this information after conducting a more comprehensive search using indexing software agents, often called "robots" or "spiders".

These robots and spiders are programmed to "crawl" the Internet in search of new or updated web sites. The search engine becomes aware of a new site to visit and index when that site is submitted.

Why should submit my web site I?

Submitting your URL to a number of search engines increases the odds of potential customers finding your site through traditional online searches. You can further increase your chances of being found through a search by adding relevant keywords to your home page title and text.

Search engines are one of the least expensive and most successful forms of online marketing. If you're serious about reaching new visitors, submitting your site to search engines is essential.

Why should I submit every month?

 You want to keep your web site registration current. Link Pages move older links to the bottom of the list, and resubmitting puts you back on top. Search engines have a tendency to drop or lose sites from time to time. Resubmitting monthly ensures your site won't get lost. Some web sites offer, "What's New" sections. Each time you submit, your site gets added to these lists.

When will I see my site listed on search engine sites?

After successfully submitting your web site to a search engine or directory, it's up to those organizations to list your site. Most search engines will send a "spider" to your site within a few weeks of submission. The spider will read and index your web site and schedule your site to be listed. It usually takes 6-8 weeks before your site appears on major search engines.

What are the best keywords to use?

The best way to determine your keywords is to step out of your shoes and imagine yourself as one of your customers or prospects. How do you think these people will search for sites like yours? What keywords do you think they will enter into the search engines?

Create a list of all of the words that apply to your business, including your business name, product names (both brand and generic names) and the names of the geographic regions you serve. You may also want to consider variations of these words (such as "dog, dogs, doggie, etc) and common misspellings of important keywords.

When developing your list of keywords, you should consider all of the possible keywords your customers and prospects may use. Sp end a few days thinking it over. Ask a few of your customers what keywords they would use. Build as large of a list as possible, while still keeping the keywords relevant to your business. Once you have a complete list, you can then rank the importance of them keywords to determine which are the most important to your company.

What is a Meta tag?

A Meta tag (or tag) tells the search engine what your site is about. The major search engines will review your site and read your Meta tags to determine categories for your site. Meta tags tell the search engine your site's title, description and keywords. Without these tags, it's difficult for your site to achieve a high ranking on many major search engines.

Do I need Meta tags?

Yes. If your site doesn't have Meta tags, you're missing potential traffic. A web site without Meta tags is tough for a search engine to place correctly.

What Meta tags should I add to my web site?

Title: The title is probably the most important part of your site to evaluate, as it is the most frequently searched component by search engines. It should state exactly what your site is about and include your most important keywords. An example of a good title would be, "Dave's Interior Designs – Decorating the Inside of England's Homes.

Keywords: The Meta Tag Keywords should be those words or phrases that you think people will use when trying to look for a site like yours on search engines. You should incorporate many Meta Tags within your site's first paragraphs (50 words) and repeat them throughout the text.

The right keywords for your web site should be specific enough to describe your web site's focus, yet general enough for potential customers to use as search criteria with search engines. Be sure to include your domain name, company name and product's name in the keywords.

Description: Your web site description should be a 20-word summary of the content of your site. This description should contain some of the keywords and should avoid marketing jargon. An example of a good description would be, "A full service provider of interior design services – decorating, painting, and furniture and color schemes for your home."