Video Sitemaps
December 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment
In a very cool effort to help users search video, Google has introduced Video Sitemaps. Video Sitemaps is an extension of the Sitemap Protocal that helps make videos more searchable on Google’s Video Search (and also in Google Search). With this addition, you can specify all the video files on your site, along with relevant metadata.
You can create a video sitemap here, or just wait until your sitemap service builds the functionality into their applications. Either way, videos aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon…
SEO Tips Part 2- Using The Right Keywords
May 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Now you have some great keywords for your site. Things that show exactly what your website provides, but aren’t so competitive that you can’t rank for them.
I probably don’t have to tell you - this is where most people fail. Well, one of the areas. A lot of people don’t go forward with getting backlinks either, but that is besides the point. We will handle that a bit later. We are going to work in top down fashion though, starting with the domain name.Some schools of thought say that a keyword rich domain name is important for overall search ranking. I advise against that, though. Having keywords in the domain name are nice, but not essential. The highest PR ranking site on the Internet don’t have keywords in them, but they are brand names (which you could argue are keywords in a sense).
The title of the web page is important though. You want a couple of your keywords in the title. If you don’t know where to find it or how to change it, you have to look in the <title>YOUR KEYWORDS HERE< /title> part of the html coding. Change that tag, and it changes the title of your web page.
Next is the name of your webpage, or site (depending on how your are setting it up). Make sure the keywords are there, and the font is big, like <h1> big. Then you generally have a subtitle. Once again, put your keywords in there and make sure it has a <h2> tag.
From here, you have to play it by ear. You want the title of your article to have keywords in it, because it is generally in bigger font and has bold faced type. Google looks at both things as a factor for page rank. You want your keywords to be spread through the text often, but now so often it is unreadable. After all, you are writing for a client or a customer, not for Google.
You want to use variations of text; such as the key term ‘promotional marketing’ can be interchanged with marketing promotion. Yahoo like variations like this.
A couple other considerations are with your categories or tags, as is popular in blogs. Tags are one more spot that help your rank for a keyword. Sometimes, it will even give you two extra placements in the text. Categories are another. The little tag that says, this article is in ’seo’ is crucial to add some forgotten keywords to your copy.
Tomorrow, we are going to discuss linking. Hopefully, I gave you a good 50,000 foot view of search engine optimization keywords. There will be more detailed articles to come, but I thought this is a nice way to familiarize you with some terms and thoughts.
SEO Tips Part 1- Choosing the Right Keywords
May 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment
A huge part of search engine optimization is keywords, we all know that. But where do you find them? How do you use them? That is the mystery.
This also marks the beginning of article series dedicated to improving your site’s SEO, or search engine rankings. The first topic we are going to discuss is Choosing the right keywords.
Choosing Keywords
The absolute first step in search engine optimization, well after the actual web page build, is the find your keywords. These keywords are search terms users put into search engines to find you. Picking the right keywords can be tricky though.
My favorite tool to use is the Keyword Selector Tool found at overture.com. Truthfully, it has gotten a little slow over the years because almost every seo expert uses it, but it is worthwhile nonetheless.
Imagine you are a visitor, looking for a service like yours. What would you type in? Think of two or three word search terms because it is easier to rank for those. Take for example, “Online Transcription Service.” It describes a would-be business and would be semi easy to rank for in the search results.
Now, when you type something into overture, say “business” and see it is searched 14,000 times a day, don’t even try to optimize for it. How many sites on the Internet are already there? Countless. There isn’t a chance that you would be able to surpass them.
Take a lesser typed in phrase, such as “online business opportunity.” That phrase will be easier to target and easier to rank for. It isn’t that the keyword phrase is less important, just that it is lesser known. That way when someone types “online business opportunity” into Google, the chances of you being on the front page are a lot greater.
Tomorrow, we are going to talk about actually using the information you found today in your site!
SEO Tips - Promote One Page At A Time
May 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment
An article at PromotionWorld.com brings up an interesting point, “SEO success can come from promoting a single page or a few pages at most to search engines.”
This is completely true. We have done it in the past for some of our smaller clients who are still building content. Search Engine Optimization can be effective if for only one, good, targetted web page.
It is important to go back to that page and update the content accordingly, though. Take notice of some of the competitors keywords, evaluate them through various keyword research tools, and look for keyword phrases that may be beneficial. Clean up the title a bit, as well. Then link to that article from your home page and with any other sites that you operate.
One good tip in the article is to select something that is not too competitive in regards to keywords. Don’t select a keyword phrase from the top of the list. Try for something that you have a good chance of ranking well in Google or Yahoo with.
The other tip from promotionworld.com is that it is beneficial to comment on forums and blogs. Being a blogger, I can tell you this is one of the best methods to both get traffic and linkbacks. Oftentimes, bloggers have a plugin that will show on the front page the recent comment entries or the person with the most comments in a given month (or other period of time). This is nice for a quick Google spider spike and will help with getting visitors to your site.
So the next time you are looking to promote your site, but have minimal time or money, seo a couple pages and monitor the results. Then start commenting on sites in the same niche. It is a surefire way to increase traffic a bit.