My CMS

Tag: page optimization efforts

  • Header Tags and SEO

    If you aren’t sure what header tags are, these are tags in HTML used to create…well…headers. They have a range in size, and can be used for header and sub-headers. Header tags are signified by the syntax, ‘x’ being a number from 1 – 6. Example as follows:

    Please note: I used an image instead of actual header tags because the header tags are changed for my blog with CSS.

    As you can see, the largest of the header tags is the H1 tag, and the smallest the H6.

    Normally, we would use these at the top of pages to let our visitors know what the page is all about. And so, the thought is, if we have a header, explaining what a page is all about, then a keyword in said header would count for a lot in our on-page SEO efforts. The debate comes from those that believe that abuse of the headers, much like the keywords tag, has forced the search engines to discount the keywords in them. There are even some who say the use of headers is needless in any fashion. I strongly disagree with this thought due to a little experience.

    Long before I was an SEO, and before I realized I haven’t the talent needed, I aspired to be a writer. I wasn’t sure of what type, but I loved to write. It was common to use a larger header at the top of a paper to signify what the paper was about, and further use the sub-headers to describe the coming paragraph or section. It only seems logical that we should do so for our websites, to help our visitors navigate.

    That being said, SEO isn’t an afterthought for me with regard to headers. But because I believe in quality content, I don’t even have to put much thought into “SEOed” headers. Think about it. If you are writing about a certain subject, and you are creating quality content, and you make use of headers in the way we were taught in school, wouldn’t you end up naturally using keywords in your headers? (the answer to that question is “yes”).

    Now, this isn’t to say we won’t tweak header now and then to target the right term with a little more specification, but it is to say we don’t stress over them. As for their SEO benefit?

    Sure, they may not be the number 1 factor in on-page optimization efforts (that I can certainly agree with), but in this field, every point counts. If we are going to be creating quality content, and we will likely be making use of headers anyway, might as well give them an SEO eye real quick.

    The thing to remember is this. Headers (and any other element on your page) will work because they stand out against the rest of the text on that page. If we over-do it, then the headers will mean less.

  • SEO Factor Blog

    The SEO Factor Blog is a supplement designed to provide up to date information on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Promotion. As a compliment to our promotion and optimization services, we also like to keep others informed so as to spawn a greater understanding of SEO and search engine placement. Read more about SEO Factor here.

    Or goal with SEO Factor is to provide an affordable service with real results. We certainly don’t mean to speak in ill manner towards other companies specifically, but there are some that are charging a lot for submissions, or some other service that doesn’t require an exchange of funds. Our goal with the blog is to share information. SEO almost sells itself in complexity and importance. Anyone can do it. But to be effective you need experience, proven methods, and time to spend on it. Most business owners can not neglect their business to achieve these. With the blog, we have an avenue where we can fully disclose any news, methods, and ideas. There should be no secrets in SEO.

    February 20th, 2007 This is a big giant collection of SEO tools and references. I want to give a great deal of credit to Webnauts of www.webnauts.net. He put 98% of this stuff together. Enjoy. I’ll try to update it as new and cool stuff comes out.

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    November 3rd, 2006 I often speak of the importance of content on a site for SEO. In these talks, the question of placing a certain term on a site a certain amount of times to prove relevancy comes up. This usually sparks in interesting conversation that I will share here…

    On-Page-Optimization. First things first. The idea of optimizing a website is taken to levels that it shouldn’t…

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    November 3rd, 2006 I can’t express how many times the ‘SEO / Flash’ subject has come up. It’s a very valid issue, and carries a lot of debate. The problem with Flash is the inability for the SE’s to read the text in the movie or animation. Well, there is a way to make this better.

    Here is an article on the whole subject at

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    November 2nd, 2006 To continue with my recent rants on alt tags, their importance, and proper use, I wanted to further my stance on this subject with Google backing me.

    Google has been, and continues to work on “Google Accessible,” a Google search engine built specifically for the seeing impaired. It will rely a lot on the same…

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    November 1st, 2006 I was recently posed the question, “Can any SEO company truly be white hat?” Though some very valid points were argued that the answer is no, I stand by my answer of “yes.” First, the definitions.

    Black Hat SEO – Search Engine Optimization techniques and methods which fall outside of the guidelines issued by the Major Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo…

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    October 24th, 2006 I recently spoke on the importance of alt tags, and how to properly implement them. The question arose, “how much weight does the alt tag have in reference to ranking?” Well, keeping with the stance I have on keyword stuffing, “a lot,” is my answer.

    One of my clients has a T-shirt sight on which one of the products page was a funny cop shirt. The home page was ranking very very…

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    October 18th, 2006 The following is a link to a post at SEOMoz. Rand started to compile information for on-page optimization efforts, and provided all of us with this invaluable information.

    Rand’s List of Search Engine Ranking Factors

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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 18, 2006 The following is a link to a post at SEOMoz. Rand started to compile information for on-page optimization efforts, and provided all of us with this invaluable information.

    Rand’s List of Search Engine Ranking Factors

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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 9, 2006 I’m really not sure where this information is coming from, but I’m getting a lot of clients asking me about poison words. This is an excellent example of a Google Myth. There are no such things as poison words. There are ‘stop’ words, but these don’t even have anything to do with your ranking as much as it does making good use of the space you have. I want to debunk this myth right now. There are tools and “experts” that say certain words in your title, description, or meta tags would get your site penalized by Google. These words include “lingerie,” “adult,” “sex,” “free,” and various school yard no no words. I’m not really sure where or why this myth started. Actually I think I do know why. Google is known for their lack of regard for porn and spammy sites. It’s not really that far-fetched to think that there would be trigger words that would mark a site as such material and ban it.

    There is indeed a service provided by Google called SafeSearch, but it doesn’t really work in the fashion described above. This is a manual filter that can be used in an attempt to omit certain types of sites from appearing on a Google search result.

    So, let’s get to the matter at hand. Google would not want to ban a site that contains the word(s) “lingerie,” “sexy,” or any variation as such. Think about the massive industry as lingerie sales in retail form. ‘Victoria’s Secret’ comes to mind. “Sex” is not exactly fair to target either, what with the ever-growing campaign for sex education and disease awareness that various organizations and government agencies that have been pushing for the last 30 years or so. “Adult,” well that’s just stupid. I could understand “free” as that is a word often used by spammers, but think of all the legitimate applications. Just too many to ban a word entirely. If you wanna test this yourself, do a search for “free lingerie” in Google. Check on the meta of all the sites on page one. I guess this post is coming to an end as I soon will be resting my case. I did mention “stop words.” Unlike poison words, these are words that a search engine like Google will ignore. Words like “and,” “for,” “the,” and words of the like. There is no penalty for including these in your meta. There is however a length to which your meta can exceed for less than satisfactory on-page optimization efforts. So it makes sense to be mindful of these words in order to conserve the space you are given for your meta.

    In closing, everything written or told about SEO should not be believed. The search engines are often a mystery, and naturally, we as humans will think of fantastic reasons and subjects for this mystery.

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