Websites that utilize databases which can insert content into a web page by way of a dynamic script like PHP or JavaScript are increasingly popular. This type of site is considered dynamic. Many websites choose dynamic content over Static content. This is because if a website has thousands of products or pages, writing or updating each static by hand is a Huge task.
There are two types of URLs: Dynamic & Static
Dynamic URLs:
A dynamic URL is a page address that results from the search of a Database-Driven Website or the URL of a web site that runs a script. In contrast to static URLs, in which the contents of the web page stay the same unless the changes are hard-coded into the HTML, Dynamic URLs are generated from specific queries to a site's database. The Dynamic page is basically only a template in which to display the results of the database query. Instead of changing information in the HTML code, the data is changed in the database.
Disadvantages of using Dynamic URLs:
Search Engines don't like Dynamic URLs. For those at most risk of losing search engine positioning due to dynamic URLs are e-commerce stores, forums, sites utilizing content management systems and blogs like Mambo or WordPress, or any other database-driven website.
Many times the URL that is generated for the content in a Dynamic site looks something like this:
http://www.seo.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=12345&sort=date
A Static URL on the other hand, is a URL that doesn't change, and doesn't have variable strings. It looks like this:
http://www.seo.com/forums/the-challenges-of-dynamic-urls.htm
Static URLs are typically ranked better in search engine results pages, and they are indexed more quickly than dynamic URLs, if dynamic URLs get indexed at all. Static URLs are also easier for the end-user to view and understand what the page is about. If a user sees a URL in a search engine query that matches the title and description, they are more likely to click on that URL than one that doesn't make sense to them.
A search engine wants to only list pages its index that are unique. Search engines decide to combat this issue by cutting off the URLs after a specific number of variable strings (e.g.: ? & =).
For example, let's look at three URLs:
http://www.seo.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=12345&sort=date
http://www.seo.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=67890&sort=date
http://www.seo.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=13579&sort=date
All three of these URLs point to three different pages. But if the search engine purges the information after the first offending character, the question mark (?), now all three pages look the same:
http://www.seo.com/forums/thread.php
http://www.seo.com/forums/thread.php
http://www.seo.com/forums/thread.php
Now, you don't have unique pages, and consequently, the duplicate URLs won't be indexed.
Another issue is that dynamic pages generally do not have any keywords in the URL. It is very important to have keyword rich URLs. Highly relevant keywords should appear in the domain name or the page URL. This became clear in a recent study on how the top three search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN, rank websites.
The study involved taking hundreds of highly competitive keyword queries, like travel, cars, and computer software, and comparing factors involving the top ten results. The statistics show that of those top ten, Google has 40-50% of those with the keyword either in the URL or the domain; Yahoo shows 60%; and MSN has an astonishing 85%! What that means is that to these search engines, having your keywords in your URL or domain name could mean the difference between a top ten ranking, and a ranking far down in the results pages.
The Solution
So what can you do about this difficult problem? You certainly don't want to have to go back and recode every single dynamic URL into a static URL. This would be too much work for any website owner.
If you are hosted on a Linux server, then you will want to make the most of the Apache Mod Rewrite Rule, which is gives you the ability to inconspicuously redirect one URL to another, without the user's (or a search engine's) knowledge. You will need to have this module installed in Apache; for more information, you can view the documentation for this module here. This module saves you from having to rewrite your static URLs manually.
How does this module work? When a request comes in to a server for the new static URL, the Apache module redirects the URL internally to the old, dynamic URL, while still looking like the new static URL. The web server compares the URL requested by the client with the search pattern in the individual rules.
For example, when someone requests this URL:
http://www.seo.com/forums/the-challenges-of-dynamic-urls.html
The server looks for and compares this static-looking URL to what information is listed in the .htaccess file, such as:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule thread-threadid-(.*)\.htm$ thread.php?threadid=$1
It then converts the static URL to the old dynamic URL that looks like this, with no one the wiser:
http://www.seo.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=12345
You now have a URL that only will rank better in the search engines, but your end-users can definitely understand by glancing at the URL what the page will be about, while allowing Apache's Mod Rewrite Rule to handle to conversion for you, and still keeping the dynamic URL.
If you are not particularly technical, you may not wish to attempt to figure out the complex Mod Rewrite code and how to use it, or you simply may not have the time to embark upon a new learning curve. Therefore, it would be extremely beneficial to have something to do it for you. This URL Rewriting Tool can definitely help you. What this tool does is implement the Mod Rewrite Rule in your .htaccess file to secretly convert a URL to another, such as with dynamic and static ones.
With the URL Rewriting Tool, you can opt to rewrite single pages or entire directories. Simply enter the URL into the box, press submit, and copy and paste the generated code into your .htaccess file on the root of your website. You must remember to place any additional rewrite commands in your .htaccess file for each dynamic URL you want Apache to rewrite. Now, you can give out the static URL links on your website without having to alter all of your dynamic URLs manually because you are letting the Mod Rewrite Rule do the conversion for you, without JavaScript, cloaking, or any sneaky tactics.
Another thing you must remember to do is to change all of your links in your website to the static URLs in order to avoid penalties by search engines due to having duplicate URLs. You could even add your dynamic URLs to your Robots Exclusion Standard File (robots.txt) to keep the search engines from spidering the duplicate URLs. Regardless of your methods, after using the URL Rewrite Tool, you should ideally have no links pointing to any of your old dynamic URLs.
You have multiple reasons to utilize static URLs in your website whenever possible. When it's not possible, and you need to keep your database-driven content as those old dynamic URLs, you can still give end-users and search engine a static URL to navigate, and all the while, they are still your dynamic URLs in disguise. When a search engine engineer was asked if this method was considered "cloaking", he responded that it indeed was not, and that in fact, search engines prefer you do it this way. The URL Rewrite Tool not only saves you time and energy by helping you use static URLs by converting them transparently to your dynamic URLs, but it will also save your rankings in the search engines.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
What is Web 2.0?
Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design, that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.
These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.
Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any
technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web.
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.
Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any
technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web.
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts.
Affiliate marketing is also the name of the industry where a number of different types of companies and individuals are performing this form of internet marketing, including affiliate networks, affiliate management companies and in-house affiliate managers, specialized 3rd party vendors, and various types of affiliates/publishers who promote the products and services of their partners.
Affiliate marketing overlaps with other internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, email marketing and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques like publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.
Affiliate marketing — using one site to drive traffic to another — is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search engines, e-mail and RSS capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies.
Affiliate marketing is also the name of the industry where a number of different types of companies and individuals are performing this form of internet marketing, including affiliate networks, affiliate management companies and in-house affiliate managers, specialized 3rd party vendors, and various types of affiliates/publishers who promote the products and services of their partners.
Affiliate marketing overlaps with other internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, email marketing and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques like publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.
Affiliate marketing — using one site to drive traffic to another — is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search engines, e-mail and RSS capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:
(1) Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
(2) Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.
(3) Adding advertisements in emails sent by other companies to their customers.
(4) Emails that are being sent on the Internet (Email did and does exist outside the Internet, Network Email, FIDO etc.)
Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006.
(1) Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
(2) Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.
(3) Adding advertisements in emails sent by other companies to their customers.
(4) Emails that are being sent on the Internet (Email did and does exist outside the Internet, Network Email, FIDO etc.)
Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Google AdSense
Google AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can Register in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a Per-Click Or Per-Thousand-Impressions basis. Google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service.
Google AdWords
Google AdWords is Google's advertising product and its main source of Generate revenue. AdWords offers Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both Text & Banner Ads. The AdWords program includes local, national, and international distribution.
Google's text advertisements are short, consisting of one title line and two content text lines. Image ads can be one of several different Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard sizes.
Friday, June 20, 2008
What constitutes search engine Spam?
Any optimization method or practice employed solely to deceive the search engines for the purpose of increasing rankings is considered Spam. Some techniques are clearly considered as an attempt to Spam the engines. Where possible, you should avoid these:
1.) Keyword stuffing: This is the repeated use of a word to increase its frequency on a page. Search engines now have the ability to analyze a page and determine whether the frequency is above a "normal" level in proportion to the rest of the words in the document.
2.) Invisible text: Some webmasters stuff keywords at the bottom of a page and make their text color the same as that of the page background. This is also detectable by the engines.
3.) Tiny text: Same as invisible text but with tiny, illegible text.
4.) Page redirects: Some engines, especially Infoseek, do not like pages that take the user to another page without his or her intervention, e.g. using META refresh tags, Cgi scripts, Java, JavaScript, or server side techniques.
5.) Meta tags stuffing: Do not repeat your keywords in the Meta tags more than once, and do not use keywords that are unrelated to your site's content.
6.) Do not create doorways.
7.) Do not submit the same page more than once on the same day to the same search engine.
8.) Do not submit virtually identical pages, i.e. do not simply duplicate a web page, give the copies different file names, and submit them all. That will be interpreted as an attempt to flood the engine.
9.) Do not submit more than the allowed number of pages per engine per day or week. Each engine has a limit on how many pages you can manually submit to it using its online forms.
10.) Do not participate in link farms or link exchange programs. Search engines consider link farms and link exchange programs as spam, as they have only one purpose - to artificially inflate a site's link popularity, by exchanging links with other participants.
1.) Keyword stuffing: This is the repeated use of a word to increase its frequency on a page. Search engines now have the ability to analyze a page and determine whether the frequency is above a "normal" level in proportion to the rest of the words in the document.
2.) Invisible text: Some webmasters stuff keywords at the bottom of a page and make their text color the same as that of the page background. This is also detectable by the engines.
3.) Tiny text: Same as invisible text but with tiny, illegible text.
4.) Page redirects: Some engines, especially Infoseek, do not like pages that take the user to another page without his or her intervention, e.g. using META refresh tags, Cgi scripts, Java, JavaScript, or server side techniques.
5.) Meta tags stuffing: Do not repeat your keywords in the Meta tags more than once, and do not use keywords that are unrelated to your site's content.
6.) Do not create doorways.
7.) Do not submit the same page more than once on the same day to the same search engine.
8.) Do not submit virtually identical pages, i.e. do not simply duplicate a web page, give the copies different file names, and submit them all. That will be interpreted as an attempt to flood the engine.
9.) Do not submit more than the allowed number of pages per engine per day or week. Each engine has a limit on how many pages you can manually submit to it using its online forms.
10.) Do not participate in link farms or link exchange programs. Search engines consider link farms and link exchange programs as spam, as they have only one purpose - to artificially inflate a site's link popularity, by exchanging links with other participants.
Glossary Collection
(B)
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Back Link: Any link on another page that points to the subject page. Also called inbound links or IBLs.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bot: Abbreviation for robot (also called a spider). It refers to software programs that scan the web. Bots vary in purpose from indexing web pages for search engines to harvesting e-mail addresses for spammers.
Bidding Engine: Search engines that operate a bid-listing model, such as Overture of Espotting.
Bid Listing: The use of Pay Per Click (PPC) models by search engines in a dynamic, real time auction for search listings. As the auction is never-ending and real time, your listings will change as the bidding level changes. Bids drop of as budgets run dry, or are cancelled, and new bids are added. This makes monitoring and changing of bids essential.
Bid-Listing Monitoring: The act of monitoring activity in bid engines in order to keep a bid listing campaign as competitive as possible.
Bookmarking: The action of marking a webpage in your browser, to make it easy to return to later. Most statistics packages will measure this a a new visitor, even though a loyalty relationship has been established.
Brand Infringement: The act of using another company's brand in a non-ethical way, such as inclusion in meta tags, claiming to be that company, or making false statements about that company.
Brand Intelligence: Bigmouthmedia's brand infringement detection and investigation service.
BMM: Bigmouthmedia
(C)
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Cloaking: Cloaking describes the technique of serving a different page to a search engine spider than what a human visitor sees. This technique is abused by spammers for keyword stuffing. Cloaking is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.Conversion: Conversion refers to site traffic that follows through on the goal of the site (such as buying a product on-line, filling out a contact form, registering for a newsletter, etc.). Webmasters measure conversion to judge the effectiveness (and ROI) of PPC and other advertising campaigns. Effective conversion tracking requires the use of some scripting/cookies to track visitors actions within a website. Log file analysis is not sufficient for this purpose.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): Files that instruct browsers on how to format a document (which fonts to use, how links should behave etc.) Some browsers treat CSS in different ways.
Click: Term used to describe when a user selects a link or search engine listing by pressing the mouse button while holding the pointer over the link
Client-Side: Web-coding that instructs the browser to undertake a task. Opposite to server-side
CTA: Abbreviation for Content Targeted Ad (vertising). It refers to the placement of relevant PPC ads on content pages for non-search engine websites.
CTR: Abbreviation for Click Through Rate. It is a ratio of clicks per impressions in a PPC campaign.
CPC - Cost per Click: The actual average cost incurred by the advertiser by the action of a potential customer following a link found on, for instance, a SERP.
CPM - Cost per Impression: (1,000 page views)
Cost Per Thousand (CPT)
CPM is frequently used in advertising to represent cost per thousand (where M is the roman numeral of 1000). When used in advertising it relates to the cost per thousand page impressions.
It is important to remember that when someone says something like, "our CPM is $5," this means that the Cost Per Impression is $0.005
Creative: Titles and Descriptions as they are submitted to directory editors
(D)
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Data gathering: The process of building profiles of customers by collecting data by their activity.Knowing your customers better will allow you to provide better products and customer service.
Database Presence: The inclusion of database driven content within a site
Design Technology: Technology used in the design process
Directory Creative: Text written by BMM and submitted to editors
Directory Search: A search made by clicking through directory categories without use of keywords or phrases.
Domain: All devices connected to the internet are referenced by their IP address. To make using the internet easier, most will have IP addresses have names associated with them - for instance .com. a domain can have any number of sub-domains prefixed before it, to create a complete domain name.
Domain Mapping: The server administration required to 'point' a domain at a specific location or "IP Address"
Doorway Page: Also called a gateway page. A doorway page exists solely for the purpose of driving traffic to another page. They are usually designed and optimized to target one specific keyphrase. Doorway pages rarely are written for human visitors. They are written for search engines to achieve high rankings and hopefully drive traffic to the main site. Using doorway pages is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.
(E)
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E-Commerce: The processes of selling online, via a websiteEditorial Search Engine: Engines that rank sites using human editors and not by reading meta tags
Emergency Alerts: To signal that an event that is being monitored has occured, for instance, by email or SMS.
(F)
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Featured Site: The term used by many portals, and other search properties, that incorporate some element of bid-listing results in their normal search results.Feed: A file listing a large number of pages to be indexed or items for sale which spiders can download and read automatically from a website. Some feeds can be created easily using a spreadsheet. Others, such as RSS and Google SiteMaps may require some XML expertise.
Flash: Macromedia Flash Technology
(G)
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Generic Keywords: General terms relating to subject matter, e.g. marketing (generic) search engine optimisation(specific) Goofle's own system for ranking web pages.Gateway Page: Also called a doorway page. A gateway page exists solely for the purpose of driving traffic to another page. They are usually designed and optimized to target one specific keyphrase. Gateway pages rarely are written for human visitors. They are written for search engines to achieve high rankings and hopefully drive traffic to the main site. Using gateway pages is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.
(H)
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Hit: An often mis-used word that refers to any file download from a website, including one hit for the HTML page, and one for each embedded file such as graphics, Flash movies, WAV files etc. Consequently, one page view can generate several hits. Often, the word hit is mis-used where the phrase "visitor session" would be more appropriate.HTML Coding: HyperText Markup Language is a coding Language used to make HyperText documents for use on the Web.
(I)
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IP Address: A four-byte numeral (bytes have a value between 0 and 255), which represents an exact address of an internet location, eg. 255.0.192.47. There are almost 4,300 million unique IP addresses, however this is currently not enough for global use, and often users share IP addresses through a proxy server.IP Delivery (Cloaking): A technique whereby false content is presented to search engine spiders in an attempt to gain ranking points. Search engine spiders are recognised by their IP Address.
(J)
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Javascript: A web coding language with different capabilities to HTML. Not recognised by Search Engine Spiders. Can be client-side, and sometimes server-side.JHTML: Normal HTML that includes "server-side" JavaScript instructions.
(K)
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Keyword Search: A search made by keying a keyword, or combination of words into a search box on a search engine, directory or portal.Key Phrases: Combinations of keywords, also called "search terms".
Keyword Search Frequency: Number of search requests for particular keyword.
Keywords: The actual words used to describe the site in meta tags and creatives and to find the site using "searches".
Keyword Stuffing: Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of adding superfluous keywords to a web page. The words are added for the 'benefit' of search engines and not human visitors. The words may or may not be visible to human visitors. While not necessarily a violation of search engine Terms of Service, at least when the words are visible to humans, it detracts from the impact of a page (it looks like spam). It is also possible that search engines may discount the importance of large blocks of text that do not conform to grammatical structures (ie. lists of disconnected keywords). There is no valid reason for engaging in this practice.
(L)
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Links: An electronic connection between two Web sites (also called "hyper-link").Link Farm: A link farm is a group of separate, highly interlinked websites for the purposes of inflating link popularity (or PR). Engaging in a link farm is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.
Link Popularity: A method used by search engines to determine the importance of a listed site. Based on the idea that sites with many inbound links is more credible than one without
(M)
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Message Boards: Websites that allow visitors to post messages, and for others to reply to them. Unlike email, all discussions take place in public, any anyone can join in. Usually, such discussions are themed by subject matter.Meta Search Engine: A search Engine that simultaneously refers to several other search properties to retrieve search results. Copernic and Vivisimo are examples.
Meta Tag: HTML coding embedded in the site, to provide spiders with keyword information
(N)
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Newsletter Marketing: The process of building relationships with existing customers and gaining new ones by publishing and mass distributing an email containing features and articles of interest to them.(P)
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PR: Abbreviation for PageRank - Google's trademark for their proprietary measure of link popularity for web pages. Google offers a PR viewer on their Toolbar.Paid Linking: The act of paying for another site to link to your own.
Page View (Impression): One view of a web page (or banner ad) by a user.
Partner Sites (Bid Engines Terminology): Relates to bid engines. Partner sites are sites that also display some or all of the bid listing results from that bid engine.
Pay Per Click: A charging model for search engine listings based on a set charge for users clicking on that search engine listing. This model is used by Overture and Espotting in the UK, in a bidding fashion (see bid listing)
Permission Based Email: Since late 2003, to email individuals in Europe as part of a mass distribution, the express, unequivocal permission of the recipient must be obtained first, and this should form basis of an ethical, permission based campaign.
Portals: Web sites which offer some or all of the following - search, email, news, weather, shopping
PR: Public Relations - the process of maintaining and controlling your relationship with the public and your public persona.
PFI: Abbreviation for Pay For Inclusion. Many search engines offer a PFI program to assure frequent spidering / indexing of a site (or page). PFI does not guarantee that a site will be ranked highly (or at all) for a given search term. It just offers webmasters the opportunity to quickly incorporate changes to a site into a search engine's index. This can be useful for experimenting with tweaking a site and judging the resultant effects on the rankings.
(R)
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Rank: The position attained on the Search Engines, Directories and Searchable PortalsRebrand: The process of changing the form of an established brand and managing that change effectively to avoid losing brand recognition.
Reciprocal Linking: The act of two sites linking to each other, for mutual benefit, and with no cost incurred by either site.
Robots: Programme which meta search engines send out to read the metas and/or body html of a submitted site.
Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP): Text file placed under e.g. www.example.com/robots.txt Used to prevent spider trawls of private or sensitive areas and image folders/stats files etc.
ROI: Return On Investment - A measure of the success of a marketing campaign in comparison to the money spent on that campaign.
(S)
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Search Engine: A website that provides a list of useful links (SERP's) in response to a text query. Many Search engines have gradually evolved from pure search engines, such as Google, into portals, such as Yahoo!Search Engine Optimisation: A crucial element of search engine marketing - the process of adapting web pages to maximize their effectiveness at matching (and occurring highly in the results pages for) common search phrases on search engines.
Search Engine Log Data: Actual search engine logs, from which BMM retrieve data on search frequency of particular keywords.
Search Engine Results Page: The page on which search results are displayed in response to a query submitted by the user.
Search Term Evolution: New words or phrases which are relevant to your industry.
SEO: Abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization. SEO covers the process of
making web pages spider friendly (so search engines can read them)
making web pages relevant to desired keyphrases
SEM: Abbreviation for Search Engine Marketing. SEM encompasses SEO and search engine paid advertising options (banners, PPC, etc.)
SERP: Abbreviation for Search Engine Results Page/Positioning. This refers to the organic (excluding paid listings) search results for a given query.
Semantic Web: Sometimes called Web2.0. This refers to the goal to make the information in world-wide-web understandable to computers, using technology such as XML and SOAP. Basically, web pages include information not only explaining how pages look, but what they actually mean. Search engines already make use of this in the form of information feeds, such as RSS and XML site maps
Server-Side: Web coding that instructs a server to undertake a task. Opposite to client-side
SHTML: Normal HTML that includes "server-side" instructions
Slang: The use of alternative or colloquial phrases. In terms of SEM, slang is important to take into consideration when formulating an optimisation strategy.
Spam/Spammed: General term relating to practices not approved by the engines and editors
Spiders: See Robots
Style Sheet Errors: Incompatibilities between Cascading Style Sheets designed for one browser, when viewed through another.
Submission: The act of making search engines aware of new web pages and sites. Each search engine will have its own individual process for doing this.
Spam: In the SEO vernacular, this refers to manipulation techniques that violate search engines Terms of Service and are designed to achieve higher rankings for a web page. Obviously, spam could be grounds for banning.
Spamdexing: Spamdexing was describes the efforts to spam a search engine's index. Spamdexing is a violation of the Terms Of Service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.
Spider: also called a bot (or robot). Spiders are software programs that scan the web. They vary in purpose from indexing web pages for search engines to harvesting e-mail addresses for spammers.
Spider Trap: A spider trap refers to either a continuous loop where spiders are requesting pages and the server is requesting data to render the page or an intentional scheme designed to identify (and "ban") spiders that do not respect robots.txt.
Stop Word: Stop words are words that are ignored by search engines when indexing web pages and processing search queries. Common words such as "the".
What is Robots Text File?
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.seoconsultants.com/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.
http://www.seoconsultants.com/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.
Supplemental Results
Top 5 issues you need to be aware of to keep your website out of the Supplemental Results:
Not Enough Content:
If you are serious about your rankings and facing stiff competition the first thing you need to do is evaluate how much content is available for indexing. Although many are still achieving top rankings with tricks, it won't be long before their competition will out rank them just because they have better content.
Duplicate Content Trap:
If your website is an E-commerce with thousands of pages presenting your products, chances are many of your pages may go supplemental, because the amount of "good content" is watered down by your template menus and complementary information. You can run a quick check following my advice in this post on testing your website against Google Supplemental Results.
Unique TITLES and META TAGS:
Put all your efforts into creating tailored to fit titles and descriptions for your pages - without them you are at great risk to go supplemental. It sounds pretty obvious but there are still countless websites out there all making the same mistake. Your title tag is very very important: If you cannot find the time to create title tags, don't expect the search engines to go an extra length to figure out what your page is about …
Hard to read URLs:
What do your URLs look like ?Are they easily read by a person ?Do they have session IDs in them ?Are they all looking very similar to each other ?How many pages are showing up in the site command ?You might be having problems with your content management system (CMS). Review your CMS back end to determine how you can implement a re-write strategy, possibly to make you URLs keyword rich.
Content without incoming links:
If you are running a blog you know how important it is to offer new and interesting information. What's just as important is to have people link and comment. The more your incoming links are sparse throughout your website, the better your deep linking ratio. If you create new content and there are no incoming links, it will go supplemental.
Not Enough Content:
If you are serious about your rankings and facing stiff competition the first thing you need to do is evaluate how much content is available for indexing. Although many are still achieving top rankings with tricks, it won't be long before their competition will out rank them just because they have better content.
Duplicate Content Trap:
If your website is an E-commerce with thousands of pages presenting your products, chances are many of your pages may go supplemental, because the amount of "good content" is watered down by your template menus and complementary information. You can run a quick check following my advice in this post on testing your website against Google Supplemental Results.
Unique TITLES and META TAGS:
Put all your efforts into creating tailored to fit titles and descriptions for your pages - without them you are at great risk to go supplemental. It sounds pretty obvious but there are still countless websites out there all making the same mistake. Your title tag is very very important: If you cannot find the time to create title tags, don't expect the search engines to go an extra length to figure out what your page is about …
Hard to read URLs:
What do your URLs look like ?Are they easily read by a person ?Do they have session IDs in them ?Are they all looking very similar to each other ?How many pages are showing up in the site command ?You might be having problems with your content management system (CMS). Review your CMS back end to determine how you can implement a re-write strategy, possibly to make you URLs keyword rich.
Content without incoming links:
If you are running a blog you know how important it is to offer new and interesting information. What's just as important is to have people link and comment. The more your incoming links are sparse throughout your website, the better your deep linking ratio. If you create new content and there are no incoming links, it will go supplemental.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Where you must use keyword phrases
A. Title Tag :
The title is particularly important and should include your primary keyword phrase and if possible your secondary phrase
B. Description Tag :
If your description contains the search term people enter, and it is the first text that Googlebot comes across, then you've a good chance that Google will display your description in the results
C. Headings & Subheadings :
The tags that are used throughout an article should contain keywords. So a heading of "Our new product range" is poor; "Our new range of vegetarian dog food" is better
D. Body Copy :
The writer should understand what the keyword phrases are and use them in natural language on the page.
E. Links on The Page:
The words used in live links tell the search engine what "this page" is about and also what the "linked-to page" is about.
F. Alt text :
For every image, write an alt attribute tag, good for both accessibility and optimization
Additional areas/places
G. References at the bottom of the article.
H. Add a takeaway box.
I. Link title.
J. Testimonials from satisfied customers.
K. Signature box at the end of the article.
Reference : Click here.
The title is particularly important and should include your primary keyword phrase and if possible your secondary phrase
B. Description Tag :
If your description contains the search term people enter, and it is the first text that Googlebot comes across, then you've a good chance that Google will display your description in the results
C. Headings & Subheadings :
The
D. Body Copy :
The writer should understand what the keyword phrases are and use them in natural language on the page.
E. Links on The Page:
The words used in live links tell the search engine what "this page" is about and also what the "linked-to page" is about.
F. Alt text :
For every image, write an alt attribute tag, good for both accessibility and optimization
Additional areas/places
G. References at the bottom of the article.
H. Add a takeaway box.
I. Link title.
J. Testimonials from satisfied customers.
K. Signature box at the end of the article.
Reference : Click here.
Tips for Effective Keyword Research
(A) Start with a goal in mind
As with all marketing efforts you should have a goal for what you are trying to achieve. Whether it is to increase sales, gain newsletter subscribers, or get new prospect leads, this goal will help to set priorities keyword phrase selection and impact the overall success of your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Take the time to discuss and establish goals and priorities at the start.
(B) Think like a Prospective Customer
When it comes to search sites, it is the prospective customer who initiates the dialog (query) so it is important that you select keyword phrases that reflect what a prospective customer will enter in at the search site. Users often enter phrases are the legal or proper terms for a product or service, and sometimes the phrases they enter may be totally outside industry jargon. In either case, be sure to select keywords that are naturally intuitive to the customer.
(C) Brainstorm
Brainstorming is a great way to start generating a list of possible keyword phrases. The brainstorming group should include those with direct customer access (sales reps, customer support representatives, product/content experts, and marketing - don't forget to review your own log files for additional data). Try to generate as many words as possible and then narrow your list quantitatively using industry tools and qualitatively using your industry knowledge. When you brainstorm, remember to step out of yourself and into the mindset of the prospective customer.
(D) Check your Content for Keywords
If the Keywords you optimize for are not used within the copy of your site, you will not be able to get rankings for those terms. Once you have established a list of keywords, review your site. Be prepared to add new content to your site that can be optimized to support the new mix of Keywords.
(E) Goal is Conversions not Traffic
The goal of Search Engine Optimization, and your keyword research, is not to just get traffic, but to get valuable, 'qualified' traffic that can lead to actual conversions. You will find the different keyword phrases have a large difference in conversion rates and value for your site. Don't forget that increased revenues will be the ultimate measure of your success.
(F) Avoid short, common phrases
Short phrases (1 or 2 words) that are also common phrases can be too general and are not the best to optimize for. Common phrases can lead to a large portion of the traffic that is searching on similar terms but not looking for your product or service. The amount of time and effort needed to gain valuable rankings and traffic for those phrases will also be much greater than the time required for more targeted keyword phrases. Targeted keyword phrases may generate slightly less overall traffic, but with targeted keywords you will achieve 'qualified' traffic - leading to increased revenues.
(G) Keyword Research is an ongoing process
Keyword research is a continuous process. Whatever you do, don't stop. As your SEO program progresses, examine what words perform best, enhance your keyword list based on what you learn, go back and review old keyword ideas against current data and usage trends, and continue to review your site content for synergy with your keyword list. Ongoing keyword/Keyword research will uncover new keyword phrases, while keeping you abreast of your competition, and shifts in the search site industry.
As with all marketing efforts you should have a goal for what you are trying to achieve. Whether it is to increase sales, gain newsletter subscribers, or get new prospect leads, this goal will help to set priorities keyword phrase selection and impact the overall success of your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Take the time to discuss and establish goals and priorities at the start.
(B) Think like a Prospective Customer
When it comes to search sites, it is the prospective customer who initiates the dialog (query) so it is important that you select keyword phrases that reflect what a prospective customer will enter in at the search site. Users often enter phrases are the legal or proper terms for a product or service, and sometimes the phrases they enter may be totally outside industry jargon. In either case, be sure to select keywords that are naturally intuitive to the customer.
(C) Brainstorm
Brainstorming is a great way to start generating a list of possible keyword phrases. The brainstorming group should include those with direct customer access (sales reps, customer support representatives, product/content experts, and marketing - don't forget to review your own log files for additional data). Try to generate as many words as possible and then narrow your list quantitatively using industry tools and qualitatively using your industry knowledge. When you brainstorm, remember to step out of yourself and into the mindset of the prospective customer.
(D) Check your Content for Keywords
If the Keywords you optimize for are not used within the copy of your site, you will not be able to get rankings for those terms. Once you have established a list of keywords, review your site. Be prepared to add new content to your site that can be optimized to support the new mix of Keywords.
(E) Goal is Conversions not Traffic
The goal of Search Engine Optimization, and your keyword research, is not to just get traffic, but to get valuable, 'qualified' traffic that can lead to actual conversions. You will find the different keyword phrases have a large difference in conversion rates and value for your site. Don't forget that increased revenues will be the ultimate measure of your success.
(F) Avoid short, common phrases
Short phrases (1 or 2 words) that are also common phrases can be too general and are not the best to optimize for. Common phrases can lead to a large portion of the traffic that is searching on similar terms but not looking for your product or service. The amount of time and effort needed to gain valuable rankings and traffic for those phrases will also be much greater than the time required for more targeted keyword phrases. Targeted keyword phrases may generate slightly less overall traffic, but with targeted keywords you will achieve 'qualified' traffic - leading to increased revenues.
(G) Keyword Research is an ongoing process
Keyword research is a continuous process. Whatever you do, don't stop. As your SEO program progresses, examine what words perform best, enhance your keyword list based on what you learn, go back and review old keyword ideas against current data and usage trends, and continue to review your site content for synergy with your keyword list. Ongoing keyword/Keyword research will uncover new keyword phrases, while keeping you abreast of your competition, and shifts in the search site industry.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword Research can be defined as choosing the words, which describe your product or service as, seen from the viewpoint of your target market is the most important step in the optimization process.
Keyword Research is the process of defining the right mix of keywords, which are most likely to be used by potential customers at search engines and directories.
This Keyword research consists of a variety of inputs, both qualitative and quantitative, both creative and analytical.
Keyword Research plays a Crucial Role in assuring that your prospective customers will find you when they are looking for your specific products and services.
Following are Most Useful Tools for Keyword Analysis:
Wordtracker
Overture
Google Adwords
Digital Point
Ranks.nl
Keyword Research is the process of defining the right mix of keywords, which are most likely to be used by potential customers at search engines and directories.
This Keyword research consists of a variety of inputs, both qualitative and quantitative, both creative and analytical.
Keyword Research plays a Crucial Role in assuring that your prospective customers will find you when they are looking for your specific products and services.
Following are Most Useful Tools for Keyword Analysis:
Wordtracker
Overture
Google Adwords
Digital Point
Ranks.nl
Web Site Design Guidelines
1. Your main page should specifically let your visitors know exactly what you're offering. If your potential customer can't find your product or service, they definitely won't waste a lot of time looking for it. They'll go on to the next site and probably never return. They're visiting your site for a specific purpose. They want something your site offers.
2. Create a page to display your "Privacy Policy" in regard to the personal information you collect from your visitors such as, email address, Internet Service Provider, etc.. Explain your reasons for collecting the information and let them know how the information will be used.
3. Create a page about you and/or your company. Include your name, company name, photograph, biography, address, phone number and email contact information.
4. Display your copyright information at the bottom of each page.
5. Keep in mind, your visitors may enter your site from pages other than your main, so make sure you include good navigational links on every page. Place your navigation links together at the top, bottom, left or right side of the page. Use tables to neatly align your links and maintain a nicely organized and uniform appearance throughout. Try to keep the number of clicks required to get from your main page to any other page on your site down to four and place your company logo on each page.
6. Use caution when selecting your background and text colors. Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and draw the attention away from the text. In addition, always be consistent with your background theme on each page of your site. Keep in mind, colors affect your mood and will have an affect on your visitors as well. Bright colors such as yellow and orange, cause you to become more cheerful or happy, while colors such as blue and purple have a calming effect. Dark colors such as brown and black have a depressing effect. A good rule of thumb is to use colors based upon the type of effect you're trying to achieve.
7. ALWAYS check and double-check your site for spelling errors and make sure your images and links are all working properly. If you have several errors, this will make your site appear to be unprofessional. If you are designing your site using an HTML editor, use spell check. Proper grammar is also very important.
8. If you must use frames, use them sparingly. Frames, if not used properly, can make your site look unprofessional. Avoid making your visitors have to scroll from side to side to view your content. This can be very irritating and cause your visitors to leave.
9. If you must use Java on your site, use it sparingly. Java can be slow and has a tendency to crash browsers.
10. If you're using pop-up windows to display special offers or ezine subscription information, try to use a JavaScript that utilizes cookies. This way, the window will only be displayed to your visitors the first time they visit your web site.
11. View your web site through different browsers and screen resolutions so you will see how your visitors will view your site.
Visit:
SiteOwner- Check your web pages for HTML validity and browser compatibility.
Siteinspector Site
NetMechanic - Provides a variety of free services for your web site including; browser compatibility testing, graphic file size reduction, link check, HTML check, load time check, spell check and more.
Net Mechanic Site
11. Continually add new content to your site. Give your visitors a reason to keep coming back.
Web Design Mistakes to Avoid:
1. Large fonts
2. Large scrolling text across the page
3. Large slow loading graphics
4. Large Welcome banners
5. Multiple banners and buttons
6. Multiple colored text
7. Multiple use of animated graphics
8. Multiple use of different fonts
9. No contact information
10. No Meta tags
11. Over powering music set to AutoPlay
12. Over use of Java
13. Pages scrolling to oblivion
14. Poor browser compatibility
15. Poor content
16. Poor load time
17. Poor navigation
18. Poor organization
19. Poor overall appearance
20. Poor use of frames
21. Poor use of mouse over effect
22. Poor use of tables
23. Pop up messages
24. Scrolling text in the status bar
25. Spelling/Grammar mistakes
26. Text difficult to read
27. Too many graphic and/or line dividers
28. Too many graphics
29. Too much advertising
30. Under construction signs
31. Animated bullets
32. Broken links and graphics
33. Busy, distracting backgrounds
34. Confusing
35. Different backgrounds on each page
If you've never designed a web page, it would be wise to become familiar with HTML. (Hypertext Markup Language.)
A great place to start is NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML: HTML Premier
Take some time to research and plan your web site. Your success depends upon it. The simple, well-designed sites make the sales.
2. Create a page to display your "Privacy Policy" in regard to the personal information you collect from your visitors such as, email address, Internet Service Provider, etc.. Explain your reasons for collecting the information and let them know how the information will be used.
3. Create a page about you and/or your company. Include your name, company name, photograph, biography, address, phone number and email contact information.
4. Display your copyright information at the bottom of each page.
5. Keep in mind, your visitors may enter your site from pages other than your main, so make sure you include good navigational links on every page. Place your navigation links together at the top, bottom, left or right side of the page. Use tables to neatly align your links and maintain a nicely organized and uniform appearance throughout. Try to keep the number of clicks required to get from your main page to any other page on your site down to four and place your company logo on each page.
6. Use caution when selecting your background and text colors. Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and draw the attention away from the text. In addition, always be consistent with your background theme on each page of your site. Keep in mind, colors affect your mood and will have an affect on your visitors as well. Bright colors such as yellow and orange, cause you to become more cheerful or happy, while colors such as blue and purple have a calming effect. Dark colors such as brown and black have a depressing effect. A good rule of thumb is to use colors based upon the type of effect you're trying to achieve.
7. ALWAYS check and double-check your site for spelling errors and make sure your images and links are all working properly. If you have several errors, this will make your site appear to be unprofessional. If you are designing your site using an HTML editor, use spell check. Proper grammar is also very important.
8. If you must use frames, use them sparingly. Frames, if not used properly, can make your site look unprofessional. Avoid making your visitors have to scroll from side to side to view your content. This can be very irritating and cause your visitors to leave.
9. If you must use Java on your site, use it sparingly. Java can be slow and has a tendency to crash browsers.
10. If you're using pop-up windows to display special offers or ezine subscription information, try to use a JavaScript that utilizes cookies. This way, the window will only be displayed to your visitors the first time they visit your web site.
11. View your web site through different browsers and screen resolutions so you will see how your visitors will view your site.
Visit:
SiteOwner- Check your web pages for HTML validity and browser compatibility.
Siteinspector Site
NetMechanic - Provides a variety of free services for your web site including; browser compatibility testing, graphic file size reduction, link check, HTML check, load time check, spell check and more.
Net Mechanic Site
11. Continually add new content to your site. Give your visitors a reason to keep coming back.
Web Design Mistakes to Avoid:
1. Large fonts
2. Large scrolling text across the page
3. Large slow loading graphics
4. Large Welcome banners
5. Multiple banners and buttons
6. Multiple colored text
7. Multiple use of animated graphics
8. Multiple use of different fonts
9. No contact information
10. No Meta tags
11. Over powering music set to AutoPlay
12. Over use of Java
13. Pages scrolling to oblivion
14. Poor browser compatibility
15. Poor content
16. Poor load time
17. Poor navigation
18. Poor organization
19. Poor overall appearance
20. Poor use of frames
21. Poor use of mouse over effect
22. Poor use of tables
23. Pop up messages
24. Scrolling text in the status bar
25. Spelling/Grammar mistakes
26. Text difficult to read
27. Too many graphic and/or line dividers
28. Too many graphics
29. Too much advertising
30. Under construction signs
31. Animated bullets
32. Broken links and graphics
33. Busy, distracting backgrounds
34. Confusing
35. Different backgrounds on each page
If you've never designed a web page, it would be wise to become familiar with HTML. (Hypertext Markup Language.)
A great place to start is NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML: HTML Premier
Take some time to research and plan your web site. Your success depends upon it. The simple, well-designed sites make the sales.
Logfile Analysis
Web servers have always recorded all their transactions in a logfile. It was soon realized that these logfiles could be read by a program to provide data on the popularity of the website.
In the early 1990s, web site statistics consisted primarily of counting the number of client requests made to the web server. This was a reasonable method initially, since each web site often consisted of a single HTML file. However, with the introduction of images in HTML, and web sites that spanned multiple HTML files, this count became less useful.
Two units of measure were introduced in the mid 1990s to gauge more accurately the amount of human activity on web servers. These were page views and visits (or sessions). A page view was defined as a request made to the web server for a page, as opposed to a graphic, while a visit was defined as a sequence of requests from a uniquely identified client that expired after a certain amount of inactivity, usually 30 minutes. The page views and visits are still commonly displayed metrics, but are now considered rather unsophisticated measurements.
The emergence of search engine spiders and robots in the late 1990s, along with web proxies and dynamically assigned IP addresses for large companies and ISPs, made it more difficult to identify unique human visitors to a website. Log analyzers responded by tracking visits by cookies, and by ignoring requests from known spiders.
The extensive use of web caches also presented a problem for logfile analysis. If a person revisits a page, the second request will often be retrieved from the browser's cache, and so no request will be received by the web server. This means that the person's path through the site is lost. Caching can be defeated by configuring the web server, but this can result in degraded performance for the visitor to the website.
Advantages of logfile analysis :
The main advantages of logfile analysis over page tagging are as follows.
a. The web server normally already produces logfiles, so the raw data is already available. To collect data via page tagging requires changes to the website.
b. The web server reliably records every transaction it makes. Page tagging relies on the visitors' browsers co-operating, which a certain proportion may not do.
c. The data is on the company's own servers, and is in a standard, rather than a proprietary, format. This makes it easy for a company to switch programs later, use several different programs, and analyze historical data with a new program. Page tagging solutions involve vendor lock-in.
d. Logfiles contain information on visits from search engine spiders. Although these should not be reported as part of the human activity, it is important data for performing search engine optimization.
e. Logfiles contain information on failed requests; page tagging only records an event if the page is successfully viewed.
In the early 1990s, web site statistics consisted primarily of counting the number of client requests made to the web server. This was a reasonable method initially, since each web site often consisted of a single HTML file. However, with the introduction of images in HTML, and web sites that spanned multiple HTML files, this count became less useful.
Two units of measure were introduced in the mid 1990s to gauge more accurately the amount of human activity on web servers. These were page views and visits (or sessions). A page view was defined as a request made to the web server for a page, as opposed to a graphic, while a visit was defined as a sequence of requests from a uniquely identified client that expired after a certain amount of inactivity, usually 30 minutes. The page views and visits are still commonly displayed metrics, but are now considered rather unsophisticated measurements.
The emergence of search engine spiders and robots in the late 1990s, along with web proxies and dynamically assigned IP addresses for large companies and ISPs, made it more difficult to identify unique human visitors to a website. Log analyzers responded by tracking visits by cookies, and by ignoring requests from known spiders.
The extensive use of web caches also presented a problem for logfile analysis. If a person revisits a page, the second request will often be retrieved from the browser's cache, and so no request will be received by the web server. This means that the person's path through the site is lost. Caching can be defeated by configuring the web server, but this can result in degraded performance for the visitor to the website.
Advantages of logfile analysis :
The main advantages of logfile analysis over page tagging are as follows.
a. The web server normally already produces logfiles, so the raw data is already available. To collect data via page tagging requires changes to the website.
b. The web server reliably records every transaction it makes. Page tagging relies on the visitors' browsers co-operating, which a certain proportion may not do.
c. The data is on the company's own servers, and is in a standard, rather than a proprietary, format. This makes it easy for a company to switch programs later, use several different programs, and analyze historical data with a new program. Page tagging solutions involve vendor lock-in.
d. Logfiles contain information on visits from search engine spiders. Although these should not be reported as part of the human activity, it is important data for performing search engine optimization.
e. Logfiles contain information on failed requests; page tagging only records an event if the page is successfully viewed.
Web Analytics
Web Analytics is the measurement of the behavior of visitors to a website. In a commercial context, it especially refers to the measurement of which aspects of the website work towards the business objectives; for example, which landing pages encourage people to make a purchase. Many different vendors provide web analytics software and services.
Web analytics technologies
There are two main technological approaches to collecting web analytics data. The first method,
a. Logfile Analysis, reads the logfiles in which the web server records all its transactions. The second method,
b. Page Tagging, uses JavaScript on each page to notify a third-party server when a page is rendered by a web browser.
Why is SEO Important?
The Internet has provided WAYS to revolutionize how we live our daily lives. It has crawled into the different dimensions of human lives- business, communication, information dissemination, personal relationships. People have made a paradigm shift towards using the Internet to aid them in their daily activities.With this context in mind, many people are continuously struggling to get noticed in the world of the Internet. Websites are growing like mushrooms everywhere, every time. How can one's website get past the millions of other websites and eventually be noticed by its target audience?
Search engine optimization aims to achieve the goal of getting more visitors to a website by helping it get higher rankings in the search engines. This simply means that search engine optimization's goal is to make a website appear on the first pages, if not the first page of a search done through the search engine.
There are two ways to be able to get noticed by search engines. One is through pay-per-click-advertisements. A good example of a pay-per-click system that is employed by search engines is the Google Adwords system. It has created a hype and has given Google around 5 billion dollars in terms of revenue per year. Webmasters can place their bids to be shown when a keyword is searched by a surfer. The highest bidders will get their sites to appear first when the search is being done.
The second way of GETTING high rankings from search engines is through organic searches. Search engines evaluate websites by using what they call "spiders." These programs scan the websites and collects information about them. They then collate the information and pass it on to the search engine. This area is primarily the main arena of search engine optimization. It utilizes a set of methods to be able to get search engines to list the website on high ranks.
Traffic:
The main purpose of search engine optimization is to increase the traffic generated by a website. Websites are built to be seen by Internet surfers and search engines can help it achieve this goal. The power of the search engine should not be underestimated. It is one of the building blocks of the foundation of the Internet. A survey showed that 90% of all Internet users employ search engines to aid them in their Internet-related activities. Google, the dominant player in the search engine industry, generates 70% of all search-related Internet activity.
People and Search Engines are alike:
Search engines behave like people. They like websites which contain substantive information about a certain topic. The best sites usually appear first in search engines because people like them as well as the search engines.
Search engine optimization does not only generate traffic, it helps maintain the traffic. The behavior of the search engine is indicative to the behavior of the people who visit the website. Search engine optimization leads to the optimization of a webpage or a website. It will lead to a website which is more organized and a website which contains substantive information.
The use of the Search Engine to be able to target one's target audience is one of the most effective Internet marketing strategies. It is not like other on-line marketing techniques (such as email marketing) which can lead to a lot of leakages in terms of targeting the right audience.
Search engines segment the market and connect the right people together. People search for topics which they are interested in and this is the main strength of search engines in connecting markets together.
Cost Effectiveness:
One can do search engine optimization under the ASSUMPTION that he knows what he is doing. Search engine optimization is a full-time job and has a very long learning curve. This is why most people would resort to out-sourcing the job to experts who are good at what they do. One should be cautious, however, in hiring a search engine optimization company or consultant. Factors such as pricing and service should carefully be assessed before signing a deal. If done properly, search engine optimization is a very cost effective way of getting more people to know about one's products or to know about a certain issue or event that a website is disseminating.
SEO is very important for websites since it determines the position of the website in comparison with its competitors. It does not only generate traffic from the targeted audience but is also a cost-effective way of optimizing the website.
List of Major Search Engines
A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Alta Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and Usenet newsgroups. Following is a list of some Major Search Engines.
Google has a well-deserved reputation as the top choice for those searching the web. The crawler-based service provides both comprehensive coverage of the web along with great relevancy. It's highly recommended as a first stop in your hunt for whatever you are looking for.
Google provides the option to find more than web pages, however. Using on the top of the search box on the Google home page, you can easily seek out images from across the web, discussions that are taking place on Usenet newsgroups, locate news information or perform product searching. Using the More link provides access to human-compiled information from the Open Directory, catalog searching and other services.
Google is also known for the wide range of features it offers, such as cached links that let you "resurrect" dead pages or see older versions of recently changed ones. It offers excellent spell checking, easy access to dictionary definitions, integration of stock quotes, street maps, telephone numbers and more. See Google's help page for an entire rundown on some of these features. The Google Toolbar has also won a popular following for the easy access it provides to Google and its features directly from the Internet Explorer browser.
In addition to Google's unpaid editorial results, the company also operates its own advertising programs. The cost-per-click AdWords program places ads on Google as well as some of Google's partners. Similarly, Google is also a provider of unpaid editorial results to some other search engines.
Google was originally a Stanford University project by students Larry Page and Sergey Brin called BackRub. By 1998, the name had been changed to Google, and the project jumped off campus and became the private company Google. It remains privately held today.
Launched in 1994, Yahoo is the web's oldest "directory," a place where human editors organize web sites into categories. However, in October 2002, Yahoo made a giant shift to crawler-based listings for its main results. These came from Google until February 2004. Now, Yahoo uses its own search technology.
Overture was formerly called GoTo until late 2001. More about it can be found on the Paid Listings Search Engines page. Overture purchased AllTheWeb in March 2003 and acquired AltaVista in April 2003. Now Yahoo owns these, gained as from its purchase of Overture.
Technology AltaVista and AllTheWeb was combined with that of Inktomi, a crawler-based search engine that grew out UC Berkeley and then launched as its own company in 1996, to make the current Yahoo crawler. Yahoo purchased Inktomi in March 2003.
Formerly one of Search Engine Watch's top choices, MSN Search is definitely one to watch. The service was previously powered by LookSmart results and gained top marks for having its own team of editors that monitored the most popular searches being performed to hand-pick sites believed to be the most relevant. The system worked well.
Ask Jeeves initially gained fame in 1998 and 1999 as being the "natural language" search engine that let you search by asking questions and responded with what seemed to be the right answer to everything.
Powered by Yahoo, you may find AllTheWeb a lighter, more customizable and pleasant "pure search" experience than you get at Yahoo itself. The focus is on web search, but news, picture, video, MP3 and FTP search are also offered.
AOL Search provides users with editorial listings that come Google's crawler-based index. Indeed, the same search on Google and AOL Search will come up with very similar matches. So, why would you use AOL Search? Primarily because you are an AOL user. The "internal" version of AOL Search provides links to content only available within the AOL online service. In this way, you can search AOL and the entire web at the same time. The "external" version lacks these links. Why wouldn't you use AOL Search? If you like Google, many of Google's features such as "cached" pages are not offered by AOL Search.
HotBot provides easy access to the web's three major crawler-based search engines: Yahoo, Google and Teoma. Unlike a meta search engine, it cannot blend the results from all of these crawlers together. Nevertheless, it's a fast, easy way to get different web search "opinions" in one place.
HotBot's "choose a search engine" interface was introduced in December 2002. However, HotBot has a long history as a search brand before this date.
Teoma is a crawler-based search engine owned by Ask Jeeves. It has a smaller index of the web than its rival crawler-competitors Google and Yahoo. However, being large doesn't make much of a difference when it comes to popular queries, and Teoma's won praise for its relevancy since it appeared in 2000. Some people also like its "Refine" feature, which offers suggested topics to explore after you do a search. The "Resources" section of results is also unique, pointing users to page that specifically serve as link resources about various topics. Teoma was purchased by Ask Jeeves in September 2001 and also provides some results to that web site.
AltaVista opened in December 1995 and for several years was the "Google" of its day, in terms of providing relevant results and having a loyal group of users that loved the service.
Sadly, an attempt to turn AltaVista into a portal site in 1998 saw the company lose track of the importance of search. Over time, relevancy dropped, as did the freshness of AltaVista's listings and the crawler's coverage of the web.
Compared to Google, Yahoo or even Teoma, Gigablast has a tiny index of the web. However, the service is constantly gaining new and interesting features.
LookSmart is primarily a human-compiled directory of web sites. It gathers its listings in two ways. Commercial sites pay to be listed in its commercial categories, making the service very much like an electronic "Yellow Pages." However, volunteer editors at the LookSmart-owned Zeal directory also catalog sites into non-commercial categories for free. Though Zeal is a separate web site, its listings are integrated into LookSmart's results.
Lycos is one of the oldest search engines on the web, launched in 1994. It ceased crawling the web for its own listings in April 1999 and instead provides access to human-powered results from LookSmart for popular queries and crawler-based results from Yahoo for others.
How Search Engines Rank Web Pages
Search for anything using your favorite crawler-based search engine. Nearly instantly, the search engine will sort through the millions of pages it knows about and present you with ones that match your topic. The matches will even be ranked, so that the most relevant ones come first.
Of course, the search engines don't always get it right. Non-relevant pages make it through, and sometimes it may take a little more digging to find what you are looking for. But, by and large, search engines do an amazing job.
As WebCrawler founder Brian Pinkerton puts it, "Imagine walking up to a librarian and saying, 'travel.' They’re going to look at you with a blank face."
OK -- a librarian's not really going to stare at you with a vacant expression. Instead, they're going to ask you questions to better understand what you are looking for.
Unfortunately, search engines don't have the ability to ask a few questions to focus your search, as a librarian can. They also can't rely on judgment and past experience to rank web pages, in the way humans can.
So, how do crawler-based search engines go about determining relevancy, when confronted with hundreds of millions of web pages to sort through? They follow a set of rules, known as an algorithm. Exactly how a particular search engine's algorithm works is a closely-kept trade secret. However, all major search engines follow the general rules below.
Location, Location, Location...and Frequency
One of the main rules in a ranking algorithm involves the location and frequency of keywords on a web page. Call it the location/frequency method, for short.
Remember the librarian mentioned above? They need to find books to match your request of "travel," so it makes sense that they first look at books with travel in the title. Search engines operate the same way. Pages with the search terms appearing in the HTML title tag are often assumed to be more relevant than others to the topic.
Search engines will also check to see if the search keywords appear near the top of a web page, such as in the headline or in the first few paragraphs of text. They assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention those words right from the beginning.
Frequency is the other major factor in how search engines determine relevancy. A search engine will analyze how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page. Those with a higher frequency are often deemed more relevant than other web pages.
Spice in the Recipe:
Now it's time to qualify the location/frequency method described above. All the major search engines follow it to some degree, in the same way cooks may follow a standard chili recipe. But cooks like to add their own secret ingredients. In the same way, search engines add spice to the location/frequency method. Nobody does it exactly the same, which is one reason why the same search on different search engines produces different results.
To begin with, some search engines index more web pages than others. Some search engines also index web pages more often than others. The result is that no search engine has the exact same collection of web pages to search through. That naturally produces differences, when comparing their results.
Search engines may also penalize pages or exclude them from the index, if they detect search engine "spamming." An example is when a word is repeated hundreds of times on a page, to increase the frequency and propel the page higher in the listings. Search engines watch for common spamming methods in a variety of ways, including following up on complaints from their users.
Off The Page Factors:
Crawler-based search engines have plenty of experience now with webmasters who constantly rewrite their web pages in an attempt to gain better rankings. Some sophisticated webmasters may even go to great lengths to "reverse engineer" the location/frequency systems used by a particular search engine. Because of this, all major search engines now also make use of "off the page" ranking criteria.
Off the page factors are those that a webmasters cannot easily influence. Chief among these is link analysis. By analyzing how pages link to each other, a search engine can both determine what a page is about and whether that page is deemed to be "important" and thus deserving of a ranking boost. In addition, sophisticated techniques are used to screen out attempts by webmasters to build "artificial" links designed to boost their rankings.
Another off the page factor is click through measurement. In short, this means that a search engine may watch what results someone selects for a particular search, then eventually drop high-ranking pages that aren't attracting clicks, while promoting lower-ranking pages that do pull in visitors. As with link analysis, systems are used to compensate for artificial links generated by eager webmasters.
Of course, the search engines don't always get it right. Non-relevant pages make it through, and sometimes it may take a little more digging to find what you are looking for. But, by and large, search engines do an amazing job.
As WebCrawler founder Brian Pinkerton puts it, "Imagine walking up to a librarian and saying, 'travel.' They’re going to look at you with a blank face."
OK -- a librarian's not really going to stare at you with a vacant expression. Instead, they're going to ask you questions to better understand what you are looking for.
Unfortunately, search engines don't have the ability to ask a few questions to focus your search, as a librarian can. They also can't rely on judgment and past experience to rank web pages, in the way humans can.
So, how do crawler-based search engines go about determining relevancy, when confronted with hundreds of millions of web pages to sort through? They follow a set of rules, known as an algorithm. Exactly how a particular search engine's algorithm works is a closely-kept trade secret. However, all major search engines follow the general rules below.
Location, Location, Location...and Frequency
One of the main rules in a ranking algorithm involves the location and frequency of keywords on a web page. Call it the location/frequency method, for short.
Remember the librarian mentioned above? They need to find books to match your request of "travel," so it makes sense that they first look at books with travel in the title. Search engines operate the same way. Pages with the search terms appearing in the HTML title tag are often assumed to be more relevant than others to the topic.
Search engines will also check to see if the search keywords appear near the top of a web page, such as in the headline or in the first few paragraphs of text. They assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention those words right from the beginning.
Frequency is the other major factor in how search engines determine relevancy. A search engine will analyze how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page. Those with a higher frequency are often deemed more relevant than other web pages.
Spice in the Recipe:
Now it's time to qualify the location/frequency method described above. All the major search engines follow it to some degree, in the same way cooks may follow a standard chili recipe. But cooks like to add their own secret ingredients. In the same way, search engines add spice to the location/frequency method. Nobody does it exactly the same, which is one reason why the same search on different search engines produces different results.
To begin with, some search engines index more web pages than others. Some search engines also index web pages more often than others. The result is that no search engine has the exact same collection of web pages to search through. That naturally produces differences, when comparing their results.
Search engines may also penalize pages or exclude them from the index, if they detect search engine "spamming." An example is when a word is repeated hundreds of times on a page, to increase the frequency and propel the page higher in the listings. Search engines watch for common spamming methods in a variety of ways, including following up on complaints from their users.
Off The Page Factors:
Crawler-based search engines have plenty of experience now with webmasters who constantly rewrite their web pages in an attempt to gain better rankings. Some sophisticated webmasters may even go to great lengths to "reverse engineer" the location/frequency systems used by a particular search engine. Because of this, all major search engines now also make use of "off the page" ranking criteria.
Off the page factors are those that a webmasters cannot easily influence. Chief among these is link analysis. By analyzing how pages link to each other, a search engine can both determine what a page is about and whether that page is deemed to be "important" and thus deserving of a ranking boost. In addition, sophisticated techniques are used to screen out attempts by webmasters to build "artificial" links designed to boost their rankings.
Another off the page factor is click through measurement. In short, this means that a search engine may watch what results someone selects for a particular search, then eventually drop high-ranking pages that aren't attracting clicks, while promoting lower-ranking pages that do pull in visitors. As with link analysis, systems are used to compensate for artificial links generated by eager webmasters.
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