September 25th, 2008 by Richard Lee
Ten Things You Need to Know About Search Engine & Findability – Blog World Expo 2008
Ten Things You Need to Know About Search Engine & Findability
Speaker: Dave Taylor DaveTaylorOnline.com
Search Engines can only use semantic and contextual analysis to figure out THEMES and TOPICS
Semantic = What are you saying? What words are you using, and how frequently do they ocur?
Contextual = Who links to you? How do they link?
Five Easy Pieces:
- The overarching importance of titles
- Thinking about keyword density
- Smart image filenames and filenames in general
- The ALT and TITLE attributes can be your friend
- “more…” is definitely less (this anchor text is dumb) (don’t hyperlink non keyword text)
Make Your Titles Work! (Article Titles)
Is the title good enough to draw in traffic (usability)
Does it have the right keywords
Google Adsense is one way to see your keyword density (Ads served up related to your content). Use the title of the product instead of “it” when referring to your product.
Image name = use keywords in the image file name
“Each is a grain of sand, but all things put together becomes a sand castle”
Secret Attributes
Image Alt tag = text for non-graphical browser
i.e. alt=”Nintendo DS”
Image Title tag = info that can “title” a link
i.e. title=”Sony: Home of Bravia TVs”
Instead of home, use the website name.
Additional Tips:
-Use savvy permalinks
-Use HTML too, not just CSS
-Minimize exit links
-Use internal links to corss-promote conten
-Encourage easy commenting
Use Good Permalinks:
Not Good: index.php?id=6409
Good: askdavetaylor.com/how_to_keep_track_of_company_buzz_online.html (keywords in URL)
Google links HTML
Use <H1>, etc. not just fancy CSS
Don’t just use CSS but with HTML tags
H tags invented at Boeing separating out content
Too many blogs have <div class=”qst3″>This is really important</div>
Six Apart (Hybrid HTML with CSS)
<h1 class=”page-title”>Six Apart news Evens</h1>
<h2 class=”entry-title”>…
Interweave your internal links
Cross Promote Entries (WordPress related entry Plugins)
Invite & Encourage comments
Users help your page be fresh. (add text too)
When created, when last modified
Mechanical Turk = Transcribe your video ($10)
ONE BONUS TIP:
Don’t be afraid of keyword research
Keyword Discovery.com
Used for Category Name, Article Titles
One word versus two words (Cell Phones)
Search Engines are your friends
SEO is a win, win, win:
It helps readers find your high quality material
It helps you gain more readers
it helps the search engine deliver optimal results
Keyword Density Rule:
5% to 8%
Enough but not having too much
Read out loud to make sense
Err on the less density and more content