Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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Topic Outline Introduction How Search Engines Work SEO Building Blocks

• Keywords• Crawler• Links

SEO Tools Summary and Conclusion

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Introduction

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Definition of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)1

"Natural," or "organic," search engine optimization (SEO) is designing, writing, and HTML-coding a Web site to maximize the chance its pages will appear at the top of spider-based search engine results for selected keywords and phrases

Organic Listings: Listings that search engines do not sell (unlike paid listings)

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SEO Iterative process Dynamic environment Art Science

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Why is it important? Internet advertising 1H 2006 : $7.9

Billion2 Search ranking more site visitors Internet users tend not to click through Depends on webs role in your

economic model

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Variation in Approaches White Hat Abide by terms and conditions set forth by

search enginesBlack Hat Breaches search engine terms and conditions May provide short-term gains You run the risk of being penalized by search

engines

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Defining Success (Context)Search-Friendly (SEO)

• High ranking • Terms and conditions set by search engines

(Google, Yahoo, MSN Search)

User-Friendly • Site must satisfy the needs of visitors

Persuasive • Profitable for site owner

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How Search Engines Works

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Search Engine Operations1. Gather Content

• Crawler or spider moves recursively downloading content

2. Builds sophisticate index3. Individual web searches run against

index• Results are retrieved and ordered

• PageRank & Relevance

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Google Search Placement4

Placement: importance and relevance PageRank (importance)

• Counts links• Weights links

Query matching (relevance)• sophisticated text-matching techniques • examines all aspects of the page's content

(and the content of the pages linking to it)

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SEO Optimization

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SEO Optimization Categories Keywords

• Keyword selection and keyword-rich text Crawler

• A crawler-friendly site navigation scheme Links

• Link popularity

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Keyword Recommendations1

Page title: visible HTML text ,“Above the fold” Page Size: "100 KB" limit is still is still widely

held. The optimum page size is 500-3000 words (or 2000 to 20,000 characters)

Be specific Example: “Apple iPod” verses “iPod”

• exact phrase should appear generously throughout your site copy on every page

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More Keyword Recommendations5

Meta tags: use but don’t stuff <meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials on HTML, CSS, XML, and

XHTML">

Alt tags: use for graphics <IMG src="star.gif" alt=“star logo"> Content is king Write good content with relevant and important keywords in mind. Geo Targeting Add geocentric terms to target local areas Domain Names Use keywords as part of domain name

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Crawler-friendly Engine spiders are primitive beings

• choose simplicity over complexity Goal

• All your web pages seen by crawlers • Google: enter in searchbox

“allinurl:utexas.edu”

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Suggestions to be Crawler Friendly5

Traditional <a href> tag Keywords in subfolder names Minimize quantity of subfolders Cross link relevant terms and phrases

within the site Multiple paths to pages to eliminate

orphans

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Avoid or Minimize: May Negatively Impact Crawler5

Flash (slow to load and difficult to navigate) Frames Java navigation Session ID to track visitors exact same Title tags on every page set to require a cookie when a visitor gets

to the page

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Link Development Inbound Links Impact PageRankPageRank (Popularity, importance) Number and quality of links pointing to a

website Measure of usefulness of site

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Link Development Tradeoffs Advantage

• it is dynamic, cumulative, and difficult to imitate

Disadvantage• takes time (vs. advertising)

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Link Development Approaches (White Hat)7

Quality content to start with Cultivate quality link (not quantity) Begin with web directories Harness online publicity Use Blogs and forums wisely Investigate competitors

• Understand their strategy• Online publicity, blogs and forums• See inbound links ("link:domain.com" in Google,

"linkdomain:domain.com" in Yahoo)

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SEO Tools

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Search Engine Term and Conditions Google Yahoo MSN Search

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Vendor Tools Example: Seo Administrator 8

Ranking monitor: site positioning in for keywords

Link popularity checker: checks inbound links

Site indexation tool: check site indexation

Server Log-analyzer: Administrator log analyzer

PageRank analyzer: analyze competitor sites

Keywords tool: suggestions, associations, competitor analysis

HTML analyzer: dissect html text in the same way that a search engine would (syntax, keyword density)

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Online Resources

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Search Engine StandardsGooglehttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&ctx=related

Yahoohttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.htmlhttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-17.htmlhttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/index.html

MSNhttp://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm

Web Robots http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.htmlhttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp/index.htmlhttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8843

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Keyword ToolsOverture tool http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestionWordtracker tool [recommended]http://our.affiliatetracking.net/wordtracker/a/12246Google Sandbox Toolhttps://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandboxEspotting Toolhttp://www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.aspRelated Pageshttp://www.related-pages.com/adwordskeywords.aspx

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Conclusion and SummaryWebsite Success Search-friendly User-friendly Persuasive

Search-friendly Optimization components Keywords Crawler Links

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Bibliography1 Thulow, Shari. “What Search Engine Marketing Does Your Site Need?”

Clickz. 15 Nov. 2006 < http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3105241 >.

2 “2006 Second Quarter Results (October 4, 2006) .” Interactive Advertising Bureau. 15 Nov. 2006 < http://www.iab.net/resources/ad_revenue.asp >.

3 “Event Homepage.” Search Engine Strategies 2006 Conference and Exposition. 15 Nov. 2006 <http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/winter06/index.html >.

4 “Our Search: Google Technology.” Google Website. 15 Nov. 2006 < http://www.google.com/technology/index.html >.

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Bibliography5Laratro, Joe. “Dos and Don’ts of Search Engine Optimization.”

MoreVisibility. 15 Nov. 2006 <http://www.morevisibility.com/whitepaper/2006/SEO_Do_and_Donts_WP.pdf>

6 Thulow, Shari. “Link Development: The Key to Successful SEO ” Clickz. 15 Nov. 2006 <http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3431741 >.

7 link farming. webopedia. 15 Nov. 2006 <http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/l/link_farming.html>.

8 SSEO Tools. SEO Administrator.<http://www.seoadministrator.com/seo-tools.html><http://seo-tutorial.seoadministrator.com/>