Search Engine Optimization for Your Web Site
300 likes | 319 Views
Learn how to improve your website's search engine ranking by strategically placing keywords in your content and code. Increase visibility and attract more traffic with these SEO tips.
Search Engine Optimization for Your Web Site
E N D
Presentation Transcript
Search Engine Optimization for Your Web Site Dr. Soe, Dr. Westfall & CIS Dept. California Polytechnic University, Pomona, March 2013 http://www.csupomona.edu/~rdwestfall/120common/searchplace120.ppt
Agenda • Introduction • Steps to take to make your pages show up higher in search engines • How do search engines work? • How do you get your web site listed? • Search engine exercise
Introduction: Search Engines • Search engines return lists of links based on search words entered by user • Most users only look at 10-20 items in search output before changing words • Placement--how high a web page is in the listings--is critically important in generating traffic from search engines
High Search Engine Placement • "We can guarantee you a top 10 ranking" • What's it worth? • How can they do it? • zapmeta.com search on Mrs. Westfall shows high rankings in Yahoo, MSN, Altavista and Teoma • Does not include Google, but see next page
High Search Engine Placement • Google searches on specified words • Mrs. Westfall • Westfall telecommuting • forget evolution • textbook ripoff
What Are "Key Words?" • Words that are what your web page is really about • Just as the words in the title of a text book are what it's about • Usually are found in your page a lot • Words that people would use to search for a web page like yours
Putting Key Words in Pages • In the text of your pages, using an authoring tool like Dreamweaver • Make sure that keywords are in the visible text of your page fairly often, especially in prominent places such as near top, in links, headers, etc. • In the code of your pages • Using an editor like Notepad • Or using authoring tool's code window
Putting Keywords in Code • Put keywords into <title> tag • Put keywords in <H1> tag at page top • Put keywords into <img alt=" "> tags • Put keywords in the text of links and in the letters of the URL also if possible • e.g., www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/
Code Examples • Include some keywords in phrases in important HTML tags, but do it in a natural phrase that describes things • Replace <title>Untitled-1</title> with a <title>[keywords]</title> in <head> area • If no <title> tags in <head> section, put <title>[keywords]</title> there • Example: <title>Cindi's Cat</title>
Code Examples - 2 • Image tags • Replace <img src="file1.jpg"> with <img src="[keywords].jpg" alt="[keywords]"> • Example: <img src="cindiscat.jpg" alt="Cindi's cat"> • Header tags (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 or h6) • Replace <p>[some words at top of page] with <h1>[keywords among words]</h1>
What Not to Do • Don’t use keywords that are not related to the content of the page • Don’t repeat keywords in any ways that don’t make sense • Not in very small text • Not in text color similar to background color • Not repeated many times in a row
Register your Web Site with Search Engines • Register individually with top sites • Yahoo! , MSN, Open Directory Project (goes into Google, etc.) • Try site submission web sites? • Manta submits business web sites for free to Google, Yahoo and Bing • But will probably send you a lot of spam • Change content, resubmit every so often?
Search Engines Deliver Indexes • User requests information via search page • Query engine searches database • Delivers list of web resources • Creates results web page based on search • Listed in order of a calculated index • Index values based on search words, and also on "popularity" of site • But usually preceded by "paid placements"
Web DirectoriesBuilt by Human Indexing • Analyze site’s purpose • Classify sites by broad subject area • Hierarchical classification schemes • Yahoo! - has many people reviewing web site submissions • Doesn't have to accept submissions • 6 week delay unless pay for priority service?
Meta Search Engines • Don't have their own databases or indexing • Instead, combine results from other search engines • Examples • Dogpile, Vivisimo • Ixquick (top 10 listings in other search engines)
Search Engines Ranked by % of People that Use Them • Google 56.3% • Yahoo 21.5 • MSN 8.4 • AOL 5.3 • Source: Nielsen/Net Ratings quoted in Wikipedia Search engine article as of July 2007
Get Site Into Directories • Directories (e.g., Yahoo!) require careful selection of search categories & keywords • Search for your keywords on Yahoo! to find appropriate categories • Yahoo! asks for a 25-word description of content • Make it really good to impress human indexers
Targeting Spiders • Pick "keywords" that people would use to find a page like yours • Make these keywords prominent in your web pages, especially in the entry page
Meta Tags • Keywords meta tag used to be important • <meta name="keywords" content= "telecommuting, research, telecommuting research, telecommute, telecommutes, telecommuter, telecommuters"> • Search engines generally ignore them now because of widespread attempts to use them to manipulate rankings
Meta Tags - Description • Even though not used much in rankings anymore, contents of following tag are shown in Google outputs • <meta name="description" content="Westfall research and papers on telecommuting, telecommuting productivity, telecommuting economic analyses, telecommuting strategies">
Keywords for Spiders • All keywords are not created equal - spiders give heavier weights to: • Keywords in the <title> (more than once?) • Keywords in <h1> and other headers • Keywords in other text near top of page • Keywords in <img alt="[keywords]"> tags • Keywords in links (seen by user or in URLs) • How Search Engines Rank Web Pages
More Keywords for Spiders • Use keywords frequently, but don't repeat same word more than once in a row • OK: pizza pizza • Not good: pizza pizza pizza pizza pizza pizza • Use variations of keywords (plurals) • Use keywords in alternate text for images • <img src "file.jpg" alt="[keywords]"> • Google Search Engine Optimization 101 My list
Links for Spiders • Number of pages linking to a site has become extremely important • Google pioneered this • If high ranking pages link to a site on the same topic, it must be good • Quality of links is also important • Need to be relevant both to page they are on and to linked page
Trying to Fool Spiders • Search Engine "Spamming": • Spiders are being programmed to detect it • Examples: • Repeat hidden keywords • in background color, or <font size=1> • Keywords not related to site content • Irrelevant links: "link farms" or "link stuffing" (ethical issues)
"I can guarantee a top 10 …" • Junk mail and web sites • True, but… • Not for your 1st choices of key words • Use relatively unique combination of several words, and put them into key parts of page (<title>, <H1>, etc.) • Probably not many people will search for this combination of words • e.g., telecommuting productivity
Guaranteed Top 10 Listing • Use misspelled words • Including 2 words ran together (no space between e.g., muhammedgonzales) • Search for these made-up words • Keep trying until you find a "word" not found on any other page • Put in page, get links to page in another page(s), submit to search engine(s)
Googlewhacks • Identify two words, NOT in quotation marks, that get only one result in Google • Examples • Exercise: find another Googlewhack
"Google Bombing" • Drives traffic to other pages by links and keywords • Early (2001) Google bombing campaign • Wikipedia Google bomb article • Wikipedia Political Google bombs article
Search Engine Exercise • Search for your keywords on any automated search engine • For top 2-4 sites, look for keywords in: • <meta...>, <title>, <h1>, <a href="…>, <img… alt="…>, etc. (use View, Source) • Words in page, esp. near top • Also use Google advanced search (Page-Specific) to find pages linking to these sites • Report any patterns you see