SEO Blog Notes
Today I'd like to talk to you about a "Optimizing" the source code that frames the content that sits on your site. To do this, first we have to analyze the Google search algorithim (A true test would consider other search engines, but Google's the only one that counts, right?). Ok, so here we go
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html" title="The Anatomy Of A Search Engine">The Anatomy Of A Search Engine
Description of PageRank Calculation
Academic citation literature has been applied to the web, largely by counting citations or backlinks to a given page. This gives some approximation of a page's importance or quality. PageRank extends this idea by not counting links from all pages equally, and by normalizing by the number of links on a page. PageRank is defined as follows:
We assume page A has pages T1...Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links going out of page A. The PageRank of a page A is given as follows:
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
Note that the PageRanks form a probability distribution over web pages, so the sum of all web pages' PageRanks will be one.
PageRank or PR(A) can be calculated using a simple iterative algorithm, and corresponds to the principal eigenvector of the normalized link matrix of the web. Also, a PageRank for 26 million web pages can be computed in a few hours on a medium size workstation. There are many other details which are beyond the scope of this paper.
JOKE
HILARIOUS
IDK About you, but that' so entirely over my head. I get it, in a sense, the same way that I understand electricity. Yes I'm very familiar with it, have spent an enormous amount of time with it, using it, would not really look forward to never having it, and yet still understand so very little about it.
Leave that to the scientists.
LETS TALK ABOUT WHAT GOOGLE DOES AFTER THEIR ALGORITHIMS
what google does
After their PageRank process is complete:
Hypertext-Matching Analysis: Our search engine also analyzes page content. However, instead of simply scanning for page-based text (which can be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), our technology analyzes the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of each word. We also analyze the content of neighboring web pages to ensure the results returned are the most relevant to a user's query.
THEMES
Findability
POSH Markup
A feat of architectual engineering begins with a solid foundation,
Great SEO starts in source code, and reverberates content/keyword goodness throughout/
POSH Markup
POSH Markup is the most basic, easiest aspect of web design to utilize for your site.
POSH (Plain Old Semantic HTML) - that's it. Read it again, yup, that's it.
Can you look up a word in the dictionary, define said word and then employ that word into your vocabulary? Congratulations, you are now a POSH Master. Seriously, if you are confused or have questions, you can look up the definitions of HTML Elements. Then you apply them.
POSH Requirements from wikipedia
* POSH pages should be validated, which can be done automatically via the W3C Markup Validation Service
* All presentation should be handled by Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), not done in HTML (this means Tables should be used only for tabular data, not for page layout; similarly, spacer GIFs should never be used)
This is known as seperation of behaviors, which plays a vital role in POSH, as well as Findability, SEO, ROI and site speed.
* Emphasis tags, such as
, are presentational, so should be omitted; the same applies to
* All links (anchor tags) should point somewhere—a link which has an empty href attribute (linking to nowhere) should not be used
* Class names should describe what the data is—not the way it should appear
ONE MORE - POSH: Plain Old Semantic Markup
Great SEO starts with great markup and great markup starts with POSH markup. Plain Old Semantic HTML,
When it comes to SEO, content is king, right? duh? What's beyond that? Most people don't think to look beyond that, however you can optimize your source code.
Semantically correct markup uses html elements for their given purpose. Well structured HTML has semantic meaning for a wide range of user agents (browsers without style sheets, text browsers, PDAs, search engines etc.)
By using semantic HTML to mark up your pages, you can create pages that are more accessible, both to people with disabilities, as well as to search engines.
Good semantic markup helps search engines to determine what the topic of a page is, and if used together with a good site structure, allows you pushy up your web site rankings!
SEO friendly HTML exhibits characteristics of POSH.
Optimizing POSH will improve SEO for your site.
SO AS YOU CAN SEE
SEO and Semantic HTML are closely related
- purpose of SEO is to help search engine spiders understand what your content is, the message you are trying to get across
- spiders typically have less capabilities than a screenreader, and needs even more guidance than a screenreader, good semantic HTML provides that structure.
- HTML tags provide the structure of your content, Semantic HTML tries to convey meaning throught the HTML tags that are providing your structure.
Applying POSH Characteristics in HTML
DOCTYPE
use correctly
ensures validity?
TITLE
META TAGS
Using robots.txt
- robots.txt tells search engines they can or cannot have access to your site, or rather, whatever page they are trying to access. If you were to put nofollow on your index, then access to your site would apply.
- use nofollow if the page is not useful to you in SERPS EXAMPLE?
- you can get a robots.txt file at Google WebMaster Tools
- use nofollow if you link to a site that you do not trust and do not want your reputation tied to.
- use nofollow on comments on your blog that are spam links
Use ON EVERY PAGE.
Appear on SERPS page.
Bolded from regular text.
dublin core
On links, that's <a> NOT <link>
use content friendly text in your text, not click here.
"our technology analyzes the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of each word" - google
On headings, thats <h1> - <h6> NOT HTTP Headers and NOT <head>
Use heading elements and use them appropriately
- Good document structure has good headings: easier to determine the topic of a page
- appropriate placement of headings make the page more nagivable/accessible and also create a solid structure (framework)
ON THE ELEMENT:
- MYTH: You can only use one
FACT: You should use sparingly and only to convey the most relevant topic/meaning of that particular page.
"From a semantic perspective that might be weird, from an SEO perspective, it's great."
The keyword your page is optimized for should appear at least once in an h1 tag, and related keywords should be used in the other headings
On paragraphs
- markup paragraphs as
On lists
three types of lists: ol dl ul
ordered, as in first, second, third
definition as in semantic:
se-man-tic /s-mænt-k/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [si-man-tik]
1. of, pertaining to, or arising from the different meanings of words or other symbols:
you can also argue for using a dl instead of a table, however if you are using tabular data, table is not only the correct xhtml element to use, it also provides many benefits to said data that a dl does not.
unordered - practically anything can be argued as an unordered list. highly recommend using them for your navigation(s)
you can argue -
is so undervalued. practically everything is a list.
On Images
- use the alt="" attribute on all of your image tags.
these are indexed as your text when you have ![]()
Images
Images are used in all sorts of ways within documents, and you should apply the proper semantics to them. The only really useful semantic variable on an img tag is the alt attribute, and it should only be used if the image adds meaning to the document. If the image is there only for decorative purposes, leave the altattribute empty. Otherwise, describe what the image is showing in the alt attribute.
If you're using images to replace text, because you want the text to look nicer (image replacement,) make sure that you're using normal text in your HTML, and that you replace that text with images by using CSS. You have to do this because both people with visual impairments and search engines cannot read the text in your images. My own preferred method of doing this is through applying the image with CSS background-image, and then hiding the HTML text using a large text-indent (about -1000px or so does the trick.) Be careful though: the text in the image should be exactly the same as the text in your document. If it's not, you risk losing a lot of ranking value from the search engines.
- make sure you give your ![]()
a meaningful name. Not 123.jpg.
- they are indexed for image search
On Structured Test
1. Phrase elements: EM, STRONG, DFN, CODE, SAMP, KBD, VAR, CITE, ABBR, and ACRONYM
EM STRONG B I
Search engines give more weight to any words marked up using any of these four tags. Overusing them can do more harm than good, and actually cause a loss of emphasis, but if treated with care, they can apply an extra dimension to your documents.
ACRONYM AND ABBR
The best thing to do is to avoid using acronym and just stick to using abbr throughout your code. If you need to apply some visual styling to the abbr, you can place a span inside it and target that instead of the abbr so that all browsers will get the visual styles applied. More details will appear in a later article on “styling text”.
2. Quotations: The BLOCKQUOTE and Q elements
3. Subscripts and superscripts: the SUB and SUP elements
Placing the proper emphasis, instruction, description, etc on content items where applicable.
NOTES:
- use when appropriate. avoid . do not use .
- use when appropriate. avoid . do not use .
Use Mostly Text For Navigation
IFRAME
don't use them. Search engines don't get them, and screenreaders have quite a hard time using them as well.
On FLASH & JS OR SHOULD THIS SAY OTHER TECHNOLOGIES?
don't use flash except for style/ambience?
exception - if you don't need seo (janet jackson, me)
NOW LETS GO BACK TO THAT
By using semantic HTML to mark up your pages, you can create pages that are more accessible, both to people with disabilities, as well as to search engines.
Semantic HTML makes it easier for screenreaders to interpret
Applying POSH Naming Conventions
lower case
in URLs
file names
markup
Names should be applied to functionality
23123545-45346.jpg says nothing at all except that it is of file type .jpg
http://images.thumbs.domainname.com/va/virginiabeach/oceanfront-1.jpg
says
Improve the structure of your ???
Friendler URL's
so others can easily guess and link (Facebook example)
instant gratitude - u don't have to think
branding
URL is ALSO ON SERPS
URL with key words is also BOLDED
Once you've created your new site structure, you can go forth and create the URLs for this structure. Each page's URL should describe the content of that page, yet be as short as possible. If you have determined what keywords you want to rank for, you might include the most important ones in your URLs.
Things to keep in mind while implementing your new URLs
* If you're using multiple words, separate them with hyphens.
* Mixed case URLs are an absolute no-no, as Unix and Linux servers are case sensitive. Having mixed case URLs drastically increases the possibility of typos - have you ever tried remember a URL that /LoOks/LiKe/ThiS/ ?
* Numbers might be easy for your CMS, but not for your users. Remembering a URL with a number in it is hard, so the chance people will remember it and link to it is smaller - don't use numbers in URLs.
* Make URLs guessable if you can. If people can remember your URLs they can also talk about it with their friends more easily.
* Make sure you redirect all your old pages to their new equivalents using 301 redirects. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect, and this way search engines will move all the link value from the old URL to the new one. For example, Make sure http://example.com 301 redirects to http://www.example.com, or the other way around, so people always link to the same "version" of your site.
* Make sure content is available under one URL and one URL only, for example by implementing print stylesheets on your pages. There's no valid reason anymore to have a different page for printing purposes because all major browsers support print stylesheets.
Create search engine friendly URLs that don’t require a query string, reflect your navigation
structure, and are predictable
Take steps to resolve the Google canonical URL problem.
Create a sitemap.xml file and notify all major search engines that support the format
of its location. Include a directive to your sitemap.xml file in robots.txt.
Use An XML Sitemap on a HTML sitemap page
google will make you one here -
submit it to major search engines
Keep presentation (CSS) and behavior (JavaScript) external so search engines aren’t
required to download them when indexing your pages. (Optimizing Performance
for Efficient Indexing)
Use microformats to markup contact, event, resume, and review content to make it more
portable and findable. Tag content with rel=”tag”. (Findability Benefits of
Microformats)
Create text transcripts of audio and video content.
"Let Go of the Past to Embrace the Findable Future”
Use a link validator to locate broken links that need to be fixed (http://validator.w3.org/
checklink). (Hunting Down Broken Links)
Make sure your blog is set up to notify all major ping services when new content is published.
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/15-marking-up-textual-content-in-html/
ON Validation:
Validation is a process of checking your documents against a formal standard, like those published by the W3C. A document that has been checked and passed is considered valid.
BECAUSE
* Valid code will render faster than code with errors
* Valid code will render better than invalid code
* Browsers are becoming more standards compliant, and it is becoming increasingly necessary to write valid and standards compliant HTML
ON Accessibile code/using Accessibilities:
* Allows your site to be accessible to a larger audience (vision impaired, motor skill impaired, cognitive impaired)
* Allows your site to be accessed by wider range of devices (hand helds, screen readers, text browsers, search engines)
* Is a requirement for Federal and State Government sites
HOW?
* Provide text equivalents for non-text elements
* Use accessible data tables (identify row and column headers)
* Use accessible forms (label for, id, fieldset, legend)
* Use markup rather than images to convey information.
* Provide visible skip menus
* Provide access keys
* Use style sheets with relative units to control layout and presentation
* Make sure documents can be read without style sheets
* Provide metadata to add semantic information
How do your VISITORS benefit from Web Standards?
* Files will download faster (less code, no overall tables, valid code)
* Content is accessible to wider range of users (normal users, blind users, vision impaired users, dislexic users, motor skill impaired users etc)
* Content is accessible to wider range of devices (screen readers, browsers, text based browsers, hand helds, search robots, printers, fridges etc)
* Allows users to customize site appearance (style switchers)
* Provides print friendly versions for all pages
How do your YOU benefit from Web Standards?
* Easier to maintain (less code, modular code)
* Cheaper hosting costs (less code)
* Better search engine ranking
* Content can be restyled easily without changing code
* Provides users with customization
* Provides print versions without replicating content
* Improves accessibility (essential for Government clients)
CANONICAL URL
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/" title="SEO Advice: URL Canonization | Matt Cutts">
What is a canonical url? Do you have to use such a weird word, anyway?
A: Sorry that it’s a strange word; that’s what we call it around Google. Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls:
* www.example.com
* example.com/
* www.example.com/index.html
* example.com/home.asp
But technically all of these urls are different. A web server could return completely different content for all the urls above. When Google “canonicalizes” a url, we try to pick the url that seems like the best representative from that set.
So how do I make sure that Google picks the url that I want?
A: One thing that helps is to pick the url that you want and use that url consistently across your entire site. For example, don’t make half of your links go to http://example.com/ and the other half go to http://www.example.com/ . Instead, pick the url you prefer and always use that format for your internal links.
Q: Is there anything else I can do?
A: Yes. Suppose you want your default url to be http://www.example.com/ . You can make your webserver so that if someone requests http://example.com/, it does a 301 (permanent) redirect to http://www.example.com/ . That helps Google know which url you prefer to be canonical. Adding a 301 redirect can be an especially good idea if your site changes often (e.g. dynamic content, a blog, etc.).
So when you say www vs. non-www, you’re talking about a type of canonicalization. Are there other ways that urls get canonicalized?
A: Yes, there can be a lot, but most people never notice (or need to notice) them. Search engines can do things like keeping or removing trailing slashes, trying to convert urls with upper case to lower case, or removing session IDs from bulletin board or other software (many bulletin board software packages will work fine if you omit the session ID).
CONCEPT OF FINDABILITY
FINDABILITY
The fundamental goal of findability is to persistently connect your audience with the stuff you write, design, and build. When you create relevant and valuable content, present it in a machine readable format, and provide tools that facilitate content exchange and portability, you’ll help ensure that the folks you’re trying to reach get your message.
Findability is a multifaceted subject that touches every sub-discipline of our industry. Because each member of a web production team has a part to play in making a website more findable—including project managers, information architects, copywriters, designers, developers, and usability experts—it can’t be put off to the end of a project and it can’t be pawned off on uncle SEO, who will micro-focus on search. To do so is a waste of time and money. There’s more bang for your buck in educating everyone on your team about the boons of findability, and their role in achieving its goals.
FINDABLE CONTENT = INCREASED PROFITS
Web standards and findability have a closely intertwined, symbiotic relationship. Semantic markup helps define the information hierarchy of your content so search engines can more accurately understand your message and direct users your way. The mass of redundant formatting code that web standards eliminates from pages improves the ratio of content to code, which can provide a modest search engine ranking boost to your site and expedite indexing.
Building content to be accessible to disabled users and those on alternative platforms helps ensure that roadblocks do not impede search engine indexing. A progressive enhancement approach to building interfaces that use JavaScript or Flash is an important part of clearing these roadblocks. Search engines won’t be able to see content loaded or hidden by JavaScript, and won’t as accurately understand the information hierarchy of content trapped in Flash movies.
Microformats are a powerful tool developers can use to make content portable to other platforms and devices. For example, event and contact information marked up with hCalendar and hCard respectively can be migrated to applications such as Google Calendar or downloaded to desktop software using the Operator toolbar. Portable content can be kept at your audience’s fingertips to be found when it’s needed most.
Tim Berners-Lee’s grand vision for the web was to keep it open to all users and accessible to the scripts and machines that serve us. That’s the path on which we’ve placed ourselves as advocates of web standards, and it’s one that will also move us towards a more findable Web.
To determine whether your site is currently included in Google's index, do a site: search for your site's URL. For example, a search for [ site:google.com ] returns the following results: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Agoogle.com .
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="CTL1zditwlHqO7t2XqfffySfwZfYwqV7U_CNm1-O-3U" />
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="CTL1zditwlHqO7t2XqfffySfwZfYwqV7U_CNm1-O-3U" />