Basic Seo Tips For Dummies
SEO or Search Engine optimization is the practice of optimizing a website by promoting and improving its position in organic search rankings on major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing. The prime objective is to prove yourself better than your competitors so that search engines can rank your website on the top in their search results.
According to a research almost 88% of world population prefers using one or the other search engine to find out what they are looking on the Internet. All the search engines use well-defined algorithms which check for many factors to search the best website for the search query. The job of an SEO services provider is to perform all the possible activities that requires for better rankings in search results. There are many factors that a search engine uses to create their result page. Though the algorithm varies from one search engine to another but there are some points, which are generally followed by most of them. Some of these points are:
The content used in the page – the content should be unique and relevant throughout the website and the keywords should be smartly used on the site pages. But care should be taken as using it more than required can make search engines consider that as spamming. So a proper ratio should be maintained between the words used. Also the search engines cannot properly read images and flash animations. What they can read is text. So more and more text is in your webpage, higher is the chance of you being given importance by search engines.
The title tag is the most important on-page optimization techniques. Google gives it great importance while ranking a website. Ideal size of a title tag should be 65 characters or less (including blank spaces).
The URL is also important and should relate to what a website is designed for. For example a domain named, healthypeople.com selling toys is what will not go with search engines algorithm.
Proper keywords used in the webpage should be highlighted. This makes it clearly visible to visitors and also helps search engine bots to locate the important keywords in the page.
The anchor text should be properly researched and used. This text will be used by search engines to land on your website. Most of the search engines gives great importance to anchor text which is closely related to what the website is doing.
One more important factor is the age of your domain. All the major search engines contain this factor in their algorithm.
The number of back-links to a website is a very important point. The major work of a SEO expert is to build good quality back-links. Good quality back-links basically mean back-links from high PR (Page Rank) sites. If a high PR site has your link then it acts as a assurance for the search engines that your site is good as you are referenced by a good quality website.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization for Dummies
Optimizing Your Website the Easy Way
Search Engine Optimization sounds difficult to most. One reason being that search engines are very technical things and the other being that the word optimization has five syllables. But in truth Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science, even though the companies that advertise this service will make it out to be. The steps that are outlined in this article will help you to optimize your site correctly at the design stage of your website.
Selfish of me I know but when I design a site I think of the Search Engines first and people second and I set out to design a site that search engines appreciate. Optimizing the site as much as possible anyway I can without cheating my way to a first position or over optimizing. To be quite honest I’m not upset if I don’t hit first place but I do expect to hit the top half of the first page, as most people are too lazy to scroll down.
The following steps should be taken after you have taken care of your Keyword Research.
The Pyramid Method
The Pyramid Method is a term which I like to use to describe the way that I optimize a website to amplify my chosen keywords so that the search engine gives me a nice placing among or above my leading competitors. The Pyramid Method starts up at the top in your title, spreading through your description and Keywords then onto your page body, headline tags, first words, links and then onto the pages that you link to.
The Head region
Page Title
When writing your page title remember that a good page title doesn’t have to be 100% grammatically correct but should be a readable sentence, while using as little stop words as you can. Stop Words are words that are not important to a search engine’s search i.e. and, if, on etc. These words should be used as little as possible.
The title should be no more than 12 words long, descriptive and clear involving as many of your chosen keywords as you can cram in. When submitting your links to certain sites if your description is too long to be allowed on the link submission site then your title can be used it’s place.
On www.itandwebdesign.com we used this as our title.
‘SEO Bangkok, Web hosting, Thailand. Website Design Consultants and Website Design Courses.’
Meta Tag Description
A grammatically correct description of no more than 24 words is needed here involving all your main keywords that you used in your Title tag plus 12 more keywords or your main keywords again in different collocations (different word order).
On www.itandwebdesign.com we used this as our description.
‘SEO/website design consultants Bangkok, Thailand. Web design, search engine optimization, Adobe CS3 training courses, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash lessons and private computer classes’
Meta Tag Keywords
No more than 48 words should be used here in as many different collocations as possible. If you do have more than 48 keywords or too many keywords to put on one page then put the appropriate keywords on the appropriate pages.
We used 48 Keywords in 17 different phrases, but only 24 niche words were used.
Finally your Title and Meta Tags should be in the following order.
1. Title2. Description3. Keywords
Not!
1. Title2. Keywords3. Descriptions
As most people are lead to believe.
Headline 1 Tag
A nice descriptive text title in h1 at the top of your page or under your banner containing your main keywords is needed to catch the search engines attention. Headline tags show the search engines the importance of these words. A grammatically correct title is needed on your page as humans will be reading this one too. All subtitles on the page I wrap with h2 tags over use of h1 tags can have a negative effect. The problem with Headline tags is that the text is massive and it leaves a leaves an automatic line break underneath. These problems can be quite easily solved using CSS styling.
Our h1 heading on our index page reads like this.
‘Itandwebdesign.com Computer Training Bangkok – Thailand Website Design, Web Design Courses, SEO Company and Link Campaigns’
First Words
There’s no point opening your page up with a bunch of words that sound really good to read but contain nothing but your company name and a bunch of adjectives. The first words on your page should be a nice paragraph that contains your main keywords which is very important for the search engines so take advantage of the first words on your page. Make it a readable correctly punctuated paragraph not just a bunch of keywords separated by commas; this would get your website penalized for being over optimized. Repeating your description with a few extra keywords all wrapped up in nicely written sentences would be a good idea here.
Body Text
The niche words you have used in your Title, Description and Keywords mean nothing if they are not referred to in your body text. Google does not like liars so do not throw keywords into your Meta tags and Title if you are not going to refer to them in your body text, we only used 24 niche words so it ‘s not an impossible task. Optimizing your web page should be as smooth and simple as possible and keeping everything related holds the page together and improves performance. Break the text up into small descriptive paragraphs with a hyperlink close by to point to the different sections or products on your site. An h2 sub heading for each paragraph can be added if you choose to do so this will also help to increase performance.
Anchor Text, Link Labels and Hyperlinks
Last but not least. Anchor text (or Link Labels) is ranked highly by search engines, because the linked text is usually relevant to the landing page. The objective of search engines is to provide highly relevant search results; this is where anchor text helps, as more often than not, hyperlinked words are relevant to the landing page. However I also suggest that there be anchor text on each page pointing to the page that it is on. On our site www.itandwebdesign.com we solved this problem by using the same navbar on every page, meaning that every page has a link pointing to itself. When creating a hyperlink use a title for your link which will create an alt text description on mouse hover and will also be picked up by the search engine spiders.
For more information on how to resize your Headline tags and correct use of hyperlinks using Dreamweaver please check out our article ‘Optimizing in Dreamweaver for Dummies’.
Mark A SmithChief SEO and Area Manager
IT and Web Design – SEO Training Programs and Web Developer Courses, Bangkok, Thailand
 So youâve taken the plunge. Youâve remortgaged your home, persuaded yourself you need one, and convinced your wife/husband/girlfriend/flatmate that you canât live another second without the Hi-Def beauty found in the latest range of LED TVs. To help you navigate through the complicated world of contrast ratios and refresh rates, weâve put together this quick guide to help you choose the LED TV which is right for you.
Unless youâve been living on the moon for the past few months, chances are youâve seen Samsungâs marketing campaign proclaiming brighter colours and deeper blacks. They want you to be concerned with the three Cs â contrast, colour and clarity. Whilst these are important when choosing a TV â no doubt the Samsung LED TVs have them all â we reckon you should be more interested in the three Ps â price, presentation and personality.
Unless youâre an early adopter (nothing to do with Madonna), itâs probably neither wise nor possible to pay through the nose for a brand new TV. Youâve got food to buy and possibly children to support. In the time of a recession, splashing out on lavish luxuries is akin to sending out an open invitation to all your local bailiffs. However from what weâve seen, since early 2009 prices have been steadily falling.Â
At the time of writing, you can pick up a 32â LED TV for just £720 â so it neednât cost the earth if you know where and when to buy. Prices are likely to fall further in the run-up to Christmas, so it may be worth controlling your urges for a little while. Money can be saved on costly delivery (up to £45 at some stores) by choosing a retailer that allows you to buy or reserve online and pick-up in your local store. And donât be fooled by bundle offers, which tempt you in with the promise of a free Blu-Ray player or HDMI cable â in many cases the prices of these TVs are ramped up above the norm, so itâd work out cheaper to go elsewhere and buy the items cheaper from separate retailers.
Tell most of the population that your TV has a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, and theyâll look at you with a blank face. Is that good, bad, or simply indifferent? Whilst you can get wound up in all the figures and statistics, the only way to really experience the picture quality is to see one for real. Before buying blindly online, itâd probably be worth popping into your local audio-visual store to have a demonstration. After all, youâre going to have to live with this investment for at least a good couple of years (unless youâre the proud owner of a money tree). Take the time to do your research, so you can be confident youâre getting the most for your money.
Not only is on-screen presentation important, but also the design of the TV itself, if youâre aesthetically minded. Unless youâre sitting at home all day watching Jeremy Kyle, a lot of the time the TV will be turned off, so it needs to look good turned off as well as when itâs on. Larger TVs can become a main focal point in the room you put it in, so itâs worth paying a little more for a stylish TV to match your impeccable interior design. And try not to put on the blinkers and aim for the largest TV money can buy â thereâs no point having a 55â LED TV if you live in a caravan, and the only place you can attach it is to the outside. A quick search on Google will bring up a table which shows the optimum TV size for your chosen room. If you think these extra features will benefit and enrich your life, go for it and choose one of the higher end models.
The personality of your TV needs to match your own personality. If youâre a bit of a geek who gets excited by huge contrast ratios and ridiculously fast refresh rates, itâs worth shelling out for a top-end LED TV to show off to your (limited number of) friends. Alternatively if youâre an MP, we recommend you get an LED TV from the lower end of the spectrum, to help stem some of your constituencyâs hatred when it appears on your expenses bill at the end of the year.
Good luck with your buying choice, weâre sure that youâll make the right decision for you, and that itâll be a worthwhile investment. Now all you need to do is wait for the TV channels to produce something decent to watch on it.
SEO is the art of making websites search engine friendly, which eventually helps websites to rank higher for certain keywords.
This is no rocket science, but it can be very complexed, given the fact that it is believed that there are numerous factors or paramters set by Search Engines within their Algorithm, that decides which websites are most relevant to keywords being searched on their search engines.
However, there are some very basic and do it yourself SEO techniques that one can apply to achieve a better ranking if not to the top. SEO for dummies is quite achievable by doing getting the basics right of your website design, preparing your site for SEO, and then further maintaining it.
Mentioned below are a few effective techniques of SEO which are simple, understandable and effective.
To keep your site ranking high for certain keywords, you have to convince search engines that your site is most relevant to that keyword being searched. Always remember, Contents on your site play a major role in keyword ranking, which is one of the most important parameter of SEO and thats why search engines will give your site importance. t’s not all about linking, or buying lots of inbound links. It’s more about having relevant & keyword rich contents on your site.
While writing good quality contents for your website, you need to keep a focus around the keywords you wish to optimise for search engines (for SEO). You should stay away from using words that may be similar to what you do, but are not going to be searchable. Example would be, rather than using words like ‘Flowers’ in your website if you’re a Florist you should add words like ‘Florist’ which is a keyword most likely to be searched if someone is looking for a Florist.
Do specify geographical areas that you’re targeting. So if you’re a Magician in Sydney, then focus your keywords around these words.
Make clear to search engines what you do, about your business, products & services. Don’t forget to add meta tags (this may not influence search engine ranking considerably). Make sure your page is well structured, focus around the products or services you offer. Avoid dynamic urls and focus on static urls.
Stay away from linking to bad neighbourhood (websites) and stay with the good ones. Linking to good quality websites will eventually give your website a boost to some extent.
Design websites that are legible to search engines, or where search engine spiders can read through your contents. In the recent past, contents like Flash based websites or images could not be legible by search engine spiders. If for some reason you have to use a Flash site for a presentation, that’s ok, as long as you also have a parallel text-based web pages on similar contents for spiders to read and understand what your products or services are about. Having said that, it is believed that Google has made inroads in indexing dynamic contents like PDF (portable document format) and Flash files. Adobe has been working along with search engines to make its Flash file format searchable.
Keep Blogging, as Blogs are yet another way to give search engines more information and your visitors can communicate with you through blogs, or it keeps visitors updated. This eventually gives boost to your website
Focus on humans reading your website, and not only search engine optimisation (SEO), as you may forget that the website is mainly designed for humans and not only for search engines. Nonetheless, keep a balance to please both, humans & search engines. In essence, if you’re aware of how to design your website for search engines, then the users will get a be able to find it. Your focus on writing the contents and maintaining the information flow on the site should be planned efficiently for humans, which will also give search engines a good understanding about your site.
A big No No. Do not stuff your site with too many or unneccsary Keywords, as this can be detrimental to your site being banned by search engines. Even adding too many internal links with certain keywords may be unethical & alarming to search engines. Search Engines are smart enough in picking up repetitive keywords or unnecessary internal linking.
Buying inbound links may work for some sites, but not recommended, unless if you’re exchanging links from quality or content-related websites.
An enthusiastic person who enjoys helping people on the internet with information that may be of some assistance, which may or may not make a difference in their lives.
I guess, as an author, one should get the information out on the internet, make sure its right and has integrity, and help people in some way or other.
A passionate person who works with businesses as Website Marketing SydneyConsultant, in addition to copywriting website & advertising contents.
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