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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 7, 2006 One of the terms used a great deal in the SEO industry is “PageRank.” PageRank is basically Google’s way of telling how “important” a page is. It is often thought that a good PageRank will inherently mean a good ranking. This is not so…sorta.

    Google’s PageRank is determined primarily on quality inbound links, sometimes called “Link Popularity.” There is a neat little explanation of the algorithm used to determine PageRank here for all you math enthusiasts out there. It’s a good read, but gets deep. One thing on this. For your PR to increase, the site linking to you will need to have a good ranking and be a relevant website.

    Now, PR does not mean that you will rank higher in Google, it just means that you have the proper criteria for inbound links, which means you will rank higher in Google. Funny huh? There is a lot of debate on whether you should consider a website’s PR before exchanging links with them. Nobody can give an exact answer for sure, because nobody knows. I can tell you that considering the algorithm, and logic, the theory is sound to me.

    I do indeed use the PR as a way of seeing if my SEO methods are working. Not the first way, and not the most important, but a way. You can check your, and other site’s PR with Google’s Toolbar.

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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 9, 2006 I promise I will write something good and original today. But first, I wanted to give props to Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall of SEO Book for an incredible list of 101 Ways To Build Link Popularity In 2006. This list is a bit to get through, but I found things that I had never thought of. Very useful.

    Link building is a very important aspect of SEO that, unfortunately, can not be ignored. It is also one of the most hated because of it’s time consumption and work required. This post At SEO Book should help out a lot.

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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 6, 2006 I was very recently asked by a friend about alt tags in reference to using them to increase keyword relevancy. I answered, and she wanted to know if it was bad to stuff them with keywords (really funny that she should use the word ‘stuffing.’ You’ll see later), and if so, how bad. I hope this helps explain it. Alt tags were created and implemented for Internet browsers that don’t see images, and used by those with seeing disabilities. So, if I am blind, and I go to a site, my computer will tell me what the picture on a site is (whatever is written in the alt tags). The code is as such: whatever Being that this is a function for the greater of the Internet, a lot of search engines looked at this tag for a number of reasons. First, no search engines can see images, so they use that tag to tell what the image is. Second, and Google is known for this, a proper alt tag would reflect positively on a website as it shows the intent of it’s creator by accommodating the disabilities of some web surfers, thus making for a better online community. Because of the search engine’s view of this tag, we used to (used to as in a long long time ago) be able to stuff the alt tag with a lot of keywords and such for higher rankings. The search engines thought that if “hey, they have a picture of a car on this website,” proving further that the site was relevant to the term ‘car.’ The search engines caught on rather quickly, and now will actually penalize for such offenses. The only thing they want to see in the alt tag is a very short, very specific description of that image. It is a common method to place the description tag, or a lot of keywords in the alt tags. This, by definition, is known as “keyword stuffing.” It’s a giant no no in SEO. The search engines are seeing a large repetition of the description tag exactly as it is written in the meta. This on copy alone is bad. They are also seeing that every alt tag is the same. So they ask, “why does this site have the exact same picture on the page so many times? Oh, I don’t think it does. Nobody would do that. So I deduce that this site is just stuffing the terms. Oh wait, it also happens to be the description tag. Let’s stamp that with our ‘Seal of Disapproval’.” Google also sees this as taking advantage and misusing a function that is in place to help those who need that help. Hence the severity in which they will sometimes penalize.

    So, Unamed Friend, to answer your question on stuffing the alt tags. It is bad.

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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 9, 2006 Often times we get so caught up in marketing our site and making it aesthetically pleasing, we forget one of, if not THE most important part of SEO. Content. The search engines can not see pictures, so the only way to tell them what your site is all about is to provide that information to them via text. But why is it so difficult to put text on our sites? During the creation of a site, we often care more about how it looks than how it functions. Flash, in my opinion, can be used to create some of the most beautiful sites out there. We get so drawn into making nice layouts with neat animations, we completely neglect the fact that we are building a site for the world, not just us. The content on your site should actually be the first thing you think of when optimizing it. You need to convey to the search engines that your site is worthy of ranking, and that you are here to offer something to the masses. I often give this advice to customers, and get a great deal of fearful feedback. I hear a lot of “I don’t even know what to write.” Well, your site is an extension of your business/service/whatever, and as such you are likely to be well versed in that area. But I think people get caught up in the idea that the text is going to be placed on the site, promoting the attention to variables such as what font to use, what color, how it will look, etc. The best advice that I can give in reference to thinking of text, is to close your site, use notepad (not Word. This creates problems when deciding to copy and paste), or a pen and paper (these do exist you know), and just put your thoughts to reality. Just write. Write about your business, yourself, your products, the history of your company, whatever. Just write. Before you know it, you will have well over 800 words of cryptic information all about your industry. As I write this, I am not thinking about my blog or my site, but only what I am trying to convey to you, the reader. Once you have all that information, organize it. Make it mean something, and make sense. Given enough thought, it will not be too difficult to come up with at least 500 words, which is a good amount of text to be placed on a website. Once the content is on the site, you can obviously tweak it here and there to make proper use of your search terms (this will most likely happen anyway. You are writing on or about the same subject as your site, right?). And once that is done, you can then figure out what the layout, spacing, font, and all the other wonderful cosmetics the online world can offer will be.

    As with all things online, this is easier written than done. But try this method out and see if it helps. To me, writing is my very weakest point, and this helps a great deal. Content is so very important to search engine optimization, and should be treated as such.

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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 9, 2006 Blogging is an ever-growing method of networking on the Internet. This one, for example, was created to help beginners that I work with in consulting on search engine optimization. It since has grown out of that, but that was the original intent. A great deal of companies are using blogs as an avenue of marketing, helping to provide updated information on products or services. But something a lot of bloggers neglect, is that it should be treated like a website in respect to marketing.

    One of the links on my sidebar go to a great Marketing Blog, and there is a great deal of information there on marketing your blog. One of the greatest thing I found on that site was the massive list of directories meant for blogs and RSS feeds. You can get to that page directly here. So check that out for all you bloggers out there, and keep mind on blog SEO.

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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 7, 2006 I just read an incredible article on keyword analyzing, and it inspired me to want to share a little about the way I conduct business with my potential clients, and how we should explore all likely options. One of the first thing I discuss with a potential client is what expectations they have. It’s very important to make sure we are on the same page with what they want from ranking, traffic, leads, etc. In the discussion in the way of ranking, we find out what search terms the client would like to be found under. This conversation then leads to a usually in depth explanation on research of these terms and relevancy of possible “like terms.” This post isn’t as much for the veteran SEO Specialist as it is for those just starting out or those looking to get an understanding on what they should be hiring and SEO Specialist to do for them. As human nature consumes us all, we tend to keep a one-track mind set on what we want and how we can acquire it, neglecting the idea that we could achieve this with a different means. This is also true with SEO in respect to what terms we are going to market. There is almost always an existing market for the desired terms, and with higher saturation of that market comes a higher consumption of time and work, and inherently my price for service will follow. Now, if I were to just say “yeah, I can do that Mr. Smith, but because of the desire, my price will be x,” and do little more, the client may end up leaving because not everyone can afford to hit with the big players. Instead, I educate the client on the possibility of shooting for terms that are relevant to the business, while still bringing a good amount of traffic, that would also be a little less complex to market for. So that’s the idea, let’s talk examples.

    Let’s say I own a small cell phone shop, and I want to make my big break on the Internet. I don’t want to stay too local, but if I optimize and market my site for the term “cell phone sales,” I’m not likely to be found in Google with my new site for a long time. Long, long time. So, let’s think about what it is I do at my shop. I not only sell cell phones, I also repair them. This brings in about 30% of my revenue. Being that you can send a cell phone to me easily and rather cheaply, it would be a good idea to market for the term “cell phone repair.” Much better results. There are a number of tools that can be used to check for searches for certain terms. Overture for example has a nice one. So I can look at how many people search for “cell phone repair” and use that number in conjunction with the number of results given when searched in Google, and that would likely push me to consider that term, and market as such. Knowing that I could rank a little higher with this term, it would also inherently bring traffic for those that may be looking to buy. If I have good prices, a person with a broken cell phone will likely want to just buy a new one anyway.

    Now I don’t want to limit myself to only one term. So I will use my God-given noggin to use this same method for finding other terms that will bring relevant traffic and provide me with ample opportunity to rank with the best of them. You can also use Google’s nifty Keyword Variation Tool to find other “like terms.”

    Keep in mind I will not have a one page site, and I can optimize other pages for other terms and or services that my company will offer, thus trying to get other pages indexed on the search engines. I want people to get to my site. As long as they aren’t getting to my site is created with a clear navigation and flow, a buyer landing on any page should be OK as they will be able to see what I have to offer from anywhere within my site.

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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 9, 2006 Sometimes I get so caught up in describing some of the complexities of SEO, I neglect the simple things. So today I think I will discuss internal links. Internal links are any links on a page that lead to another page of the same site. The idea of internal linking in reference to SEO, is to write the anchor text so that it shows a search term, and leads to a page dedicated to that specific term. Did that sound tricky? Let’s give an example So I have a car sales website. Omitting the amount of other SEO work involved in actually ranking in such an industry, let’s just say I wanted to be found using terms like ‘car sales’ or ‘used cars’ or specific models like ‘used chevy.’ I would obviously use these terms in the content of my site, and I would probably have pages dedicated specifically to each of these terms. Well, in the text, close to the beginning if at all possible, I would want to use the desired term as a link to the page that deals with that term. Ex:

    “Blah blah body text…Used Cars…blah rest of text”

    Where “Used Cars” would be a link to the used cars page. This will show the search engines a little more weight to that term, as your site must be relevant to it because there is a whole page in dedication. Now, You don’t want to overdo it. Personally, unless I have more than 500 words on a site, I really don’t like to use this method more than one time. If you have a bunch of links all over your content, not only will it look a little funny to a visitor, it will also likely smell spammy to a search engine. Also, the weight given to these links is getting lighter, but it’s still there and still a very valid and worthy SEO tactic.

    I’m going to post today (maybe tomorrow if my lunch goes wrong) about how internal links come into play with regard to link popularity. This is really fun to explain. Good luck out that.

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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 7, 2006 SEO is a sticky subject sometimes. Many people have been burned by people claiming to be SEO Specialists, and are aprehensive to give another one a shot. There are plenty of resources out there on what a “shady SEO” is, even Google has a bit to say about it here, so I’m not going to go over that right now. Today I am going to try to give some advise on overcoming some of these walls so that we can all work together and be a happy online family. First and foremost, don’t be a shady SEO. No hidden text, no doorway pages, no spamware, no fake hits. None of these things are helping the stigma of an SEO and you will only hurt yourself and your client, and recently can get into a lot of trouble with the FTC. The ‘F’ in ‘FTC’ stands for Federal. That’s a whole new kind of trouble. Anyway, be honest. If you don’t wanna be honest, get into the spam business or hacking business, there are plenty of ‘Pen Pal’ services for inmates. You won’t be too lonely. Be Honest. Let your client know exactly what you intend to do for them and what processes you will take. Don’t be scared that someone will get this knowledge and do it themselves. SEO is far easier said than done. You know this. If your potential client does indeed try to take it on themselves, wish them luck, give a pointer or two, and let them know there are no hard feelings and that you will help in any way you can. They will be calling in about a month or so. Also, be honest about what your client should expect. We know how long it can take to rank, get traffic, and so on. Don’t set expectations that you can meet. You will end up working double time for less money. Be Diplomatic: Many people already have a designer and want help with traffic. Often times you will have to work with their designer. As stated above, most designers don’t know the SE’s like you do. Be patient. It’s not a bad thing. Their whole job is to make a site that looks and functions well. Besides, they had to deal with the same customer you are now dealing with. Let’s step to the side. There is a lot of animosity between designers and SEO guys. There really isn’t a need for this, and it usually fades as soon as you start to see eye to eye. It’s just the way of things as often times sites are designed with very little text or in frames or Flash. SEO Specialists understand the need for simplicity and content. Don’t smack them or anything. Try to find a common ground and hopefully you, the designer, and most importantly the client, can all come up with something that will be beneficial to everyone. Be Patient. SEO as an idea is growing, but there are still those that really don’t understand what it is. Don’t let it get to you. Try your best to educate and be clear on what can and can not be done in a certain timeframe. Sometimes people will come to you thinking the world will suddenly turn on their clock. There are times when you have to give your best advice, and let that customer go. But it’s OK, there will be more.

    Man. I love this stuff.

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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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  • SEO Factor Blog

    October 7, 2006 In the creation of a site, many people make use of frames. Frames are a way of making one page that will stay static, but a chunk of which will be used to call information from other pages. The use of frames is often because it is a person’s first site, or their relative made it after graduating a website design program or just picked up a book. This isn’t really a bad thing because most website design/HTML books don’t even go into SEO, and the use of frames is one of the very first subjects covered. It can be a neat little method of keeping a common look throughout the site before learning CSS. More on creating frames can be found here at my favorite online tutorial, Tizag.

    The problem with frames is that some browsers don’t play well with them, and the information on the page is often within a frame that can not be seen. Here is a way to get around this problem, posted on Search Engine Watch, while still making use of the frames method. Keep in mind that most methods of using frames and making them SEO friendly, will only help so much. And it’s not really that much.

    But maybe you have talking to someone that doesn’t want to give up the frames no matter what you say. One good method is the creation of landing pages. (note: not doorway pages or anything that is a “trick.”) You can create a few pages that have the same look and feel as the framed pages, and place the bulk of relevant text on those pages. They will be the first set of pages on the site, (that means replacing the homepage) and will link to the framed pages. Then these pages can be submitted to the search engines. I also think that this is a cheap and ‘shortcutty’ method. It leaves a void when a surfer is moving from framed to unframed pages, and decreases the amount of acceptable information that the search engines can see.

    In my opinion it’s probably best to make good use of CSS if you want a common feel on the pages of your site. This will give the desired effects, and work very well with a surfer and search engine alike. Keep in mind my opinion on design should be taken lightly. I’m very analytical, so “pretty” is not a word I implement often. I am very lucky to be involved with people that have an incredible eye for design and a comparable understanding of SEO. The make the site, I make the site work. Now that’s a partnership.

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