The Basics of Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Marketing Search Marketing

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The Basics ofSearch Engine OptimizationSearch
Engine MarketingSearch Marketing

• Dr. S. Ann Becker
• College of Business
• Florida Tech

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Search Engine Optimization

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Increase
  volume and quality of Web site traffic from
  search engine results.
• This is important because most users click on the
  links that are shown at the top of the search
  results list.
• The links in the top of the search results list
  have a higher rank than other links that appear
  lower in the search results list.

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Robots Deliver Listings

• A robot or spider gathers text on your site to be
  analyzed by a search engine.
• Often referred to as crawling or spidering.
• Stored in a database for future reference.
• There are millions of pieces of text being
  searched at any point in time.
• What sets a search engine in motion?
• A user enters a search criteria.
• Search engine goes through text looking for
  matches.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
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How Are Results Generated?

• Search engines include Google, Yahoo, MSN, and
  others.
• Search engine is the software
• Search site displays results.
• HTML text is what feeds the search engines.
• HTML links are the paths to the text.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
5
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

• How it works
• Open an account with a PPC (e.g., Google).
• Decide on search words for which your site will
  be displayed.
• Write your own listing (or listings) to
  correspond with selected terms.
• When a user clicks on a listing, you pay the PPC
  engine a fee.
• You will determine how much to spend on each
  click (bid).
• The amount spend is a big factor in the placement
  of your listing.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
6
Site Feeds

• Site feeds are becoming more popular as a means
  of search engines to receive information without
  the use of spiders.
• You may be familiar with site feeds when you are
  notified of blogs or Web site postings.
• A site can use site feeds to put content out
  there for both end users and search engines.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
7
Meta Search Engines

• Meta search engines compile and display results
  from several search engines and rank them
  according to their own algorithms.
• Examples include Dogpile.com and Mamma.com.
• Higher rankings of your site or blog by Google
  typically means higher rankings on meta search
  engines.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
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Algorithms Change

• The algorithm of how a listing is ranked is
  unknown and constantly changing.
• The algorithm uses multiple factors to determine
  a ranking.
• Keyword repetition
• Age of the site
• Inbound links
• Page titles
• Other

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
9
Algorithms Change (cont.)

• The impact of changing and keeping secret the
  algorithms is significant.
• Traditional marketing
• Phone book rank order is by alphabetical listing.
  
• Billboards are permanently placed in geographic
  location.
• TV and radio ads are aired during specific times.
• The paradigm has changed making it very important
  to keep up with changes to the algorithm.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
10
Why The Secrecy?

• MSN, Google, Yahoo and others keep the algorithm
  a secret to prevent manipulation of rankings.
• If everyone knew how to rank 1, then all sites
  would be ranked 1.This would defeat the purpose
  of search engine listings.
• In fact, parts of the algorithm that become known
  are typically changed or dropped to prevent
  manipulation by one or more sites.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
11
What is Best for the User

• The objective of search engines is to maximize
  value to the end user.
• Your objective is to identify your users and
  target them in terms of rank order of search
  engine listings.
• If your site sells vanilla bubble gum, then you
  would want to rank high when searches are done on
  bubble gum, vanilla gum, vanilla flavored
  gum and related terms.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
12
What Can Be Done?

• What can be done even when the algorithm is
  unknown?
• Meaningful HTML titles
• Quality body copy
• Targeted content
• No roadblocks to crawling
• Successful Web sites have been relying on these
  strategies since the beginning of search engine
  capability.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
13
Searching Isnt That Simple

• Take a look at your file cabinet, multiply it by
  about a billion, and imagine someone throwing you
  a couple of words and then hovering impatiently
  behind you, tapping a toe, expecting you to find
  exactly the right document in the blink of an
  eye (Grappone and Couzin, 2007 p. 45).

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
14
The Search

• Search engines must deal with ambiguity,
  misspellings, acronyms, and punctuation, among
  other factors.
• There is a trade-off on speed and accuracy of
  search results.
• What can be done?
• Combinations of results from multiple sources
  both machine (Google) and human (Dogpile.com).
• Ranking algorithms include votes from humans.
  This is still in an experimental stage in
  improving search engine results.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
15
Some Ideas

• Count inbound links- Links from other Web sites
  can be counted as votes.
• Count click throughs on search engine results
  User clicks on search results can be counted as
  votes.
• Social bookmarking and collaborative tagging-
  Show interest in sites.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
16
It is All About the Text

• Web searches are totally text-based.
• This is why it is important to have meaningful
  text on your site.
• Keyword selection becomes critical.
• Keywords are repeated throughout site.
• Site is checked regularly for relevance of
  keywords.
• Keywords updated as products or services change.
• Check competitors site for keyword opportunities.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
17
Keyword Placement Opportunities

• Visible Text that appears on your Web site.
• Content
• Page title
• Text inside links
• Navigational text how to use the site (e.g.,
  click the thumbnails for a full size image)
• Invisible In the HTML code (gathered and
  analyzed by robots).
• Meta keywords tag
• Meta description tag
• ALT image tag

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
18
Its All About The Text

• Text needs to be clearly written, well-focused,
  and targeted towards customers.
• Text needs to be formatted so robots can read it.
• HTML text
• Not graphical text (robots cant read it)
• Some Web sites display text as gif files.
• Robot wont find any text.
• It appears as a blank page.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
19
HTML Title Page

• Susans Apple Pies, Melbourne, Florida
  
• Title appears in the results displayed by search
  engine
• This text is very important in drawing customers
  to your site. It compels the customer to click
  through for more information.

Susans Apple Pies, Melbourne, Florida Homemade
apple pies like Mom used to make using quality
ingredients and a mix of Gala, Delicious, and
Granny Smith apples. www.SusanAppliePies.com /
Cached Save
Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
20
Meta Description Tag

• The meta description tag is invisible text.
• HTML code appears as
• apple pies like Mom used to make using quality
  ingredients and a mix of Gala, Delicious, and
  Granny Smith apples.

Susans Apple Pies, Melbourne, Florida Homemade
apple pies like Mom used to make using quality
ingredients and a mix of Gala, Delicious, and
Granny Smith apples. www.SusanAppliePies.com /
Cached Save
Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
21
Meta Description Tag

• The meta tag description may be passed over and
  only a piece of it displayed in the search
  results.
• The meta tag description should be unique for
  each page.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
22
Meta Keywords Tag

• Meta Keywords Tag is also invisible text.
• Include both correct and incorrect spellings.
• HTML code appears as
• desserts, pie, apple pie, appel pie
• Seldom do the keywords appear in search results.
• Written specifically for the robots not the
  customers doing the search.
• Doesnt carry weight in ranking of results.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
23
Links From Other Sites

• Human help in ranking comes in the form of links
  put on a site to other sites.
• The search engine looks for links to your site.
• It also looks at the link text for descriptive
  words.
• A site has a link to Susans Apple Pies with a
  link description of Click here to find the best
  apple pies ever!
• This tells the search engine that Susans site
  has something to do with pies.
• The search engine may also check the site for
  related words (e.g., deserts, pies) for support
  that Susans site is about pies.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
24
(Organic) Ranking

• Many companies are focused on the ranking of
  their site.
• Keep in mind, high ranking doesnt necessarily
  mean a high conversion rate.
• A company could rank high with a nonsensical
  phrase. But, would someone type it in to search
  for that site?
• For example, you could achieve first ranking for
  the text, ,dogfrothing turtles, because no one
  else is using it.
• But, who would search for this phrase?

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
25
(Organic) Ranking

• One thing for certain is that ranks change.
• What might cause a nose dive in your ranking?
• Competition May improve visible and invisible
  text, get links on other sites.
• Server performance Search engine visits your
  site and it is down. If the search engine cant
  find the site, then there may be no ranking.
• Note search engines repeatedly visit a site.
  Nothing can be done until another visit occurs.
• Different search engine results There are
  billions of pieces of data from millions of
  sites. Chances are that your site rank will
  fluctuate over time.
• Algorithm changes At any time, a search engine
  algorithm may change.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
26
Holistic Approach

• SEO requires more than focusing only on organic
  rank.
• Get others to link to your site.
• Use niche directories. There are directories for
  just about everything.
• A PPC campaign. When a site cant get a decent
  ranking, a pay-per-click strategy may be the way
  to go.
• Quality content and usable site.
• The bottom line is that conversions make a site
  money.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
27
Search Engines Dont Like Tricks

• Your rank may be downgraded or the site banned if
  you do the following
• Cloaking
• Duplicate content
• Keyword stuffing
• Invisible text

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
28
Cloaking

• A robot expects to see what a human would see on
  a Web site.
• Cloaking is a method of identifying a robot when
  it visits and showing custom-made pages different
  than what a human sees.
• This tricking the robot could result in a ban.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
29
Duplicate Content

• Search engines dont like duplication of content
  because it reduces diversity of results.
• If search engine finds duplication, may drop the
  sites ranking.
• Dont
• Copy keyword rich content and stick it on each
  page.
• Make duplicate sites with same name.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
30
Keyword Stuffing

• Keywords belong in the meta keywords tag.
• Repeating the same word or words (a lot) may
  cause the site to be penalized in its ranking.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
31
Invisible Text

• This refers to invisible text made the same
  color as the background.
• Sites that use a ton of keywords that appear
  invisible to a human would be a flag to the
  search engine.

Grappone, J. Couzin, G. (2006). Search Engine
Optimization An Hour a Day. Wiley Publishing,
Indianapolis, IN.
32
Source Alexa The Web Information Company
http//www.alexa.com/
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Reference www.seologic.com/faq/dmoz-open-director
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