Web Design Forums

paulanthony · 04-02-2008, 17:01

Guys, Im by no means an expert on the subject, but hopefully this post might serve as a starting guide for anyone more clueless than myself.

1) CSS CSS CSS.

If you are developing sites which aren't separating content from style, then your search engine efforts are suffering. Web spiders have a much easier job crunching content which isn't surrounded by heavy multiple embedded tables. The benefits are multiple. You will get spidered faster, as well as having less load on your servers. On heavier sites it can sometimes take multiple crawls to get your site fully indexed. Make it easy as you can on them.

2). Tag based SEO.

Ok, so you have created a beautiful CSS based site. Is it semantic? Get heading tags in the right place. Place your keyphrases inside H1, H2, H3 tags etc etc, put it in bold tags at least one. Mention your phrase once or twice in your main content, Naturally. No keyword stuffing. Place it once in the description, and have a few variations figured out for your description and meta keyword tags. Title tags are also important. Remember Title and Description tags are your "entry points". Use keywords wisely, and write these for humans. Tempt them in with Beautiful widgets perfect for x. Rather than - Beautiful widgets, sexy widgets, widgets for your granny..Looks too spammy, both for human visitors and for the search engines.

3). On site Linking.

Use keyword linking inside your site. That means cross linking heavily to alternate pages on your site internally first and foremost. Let the search engines no what keywords is relevant for what page. Link text and <a title="" are your weapons of choice here. And for anyone who doesn't know what link text is. <link>this is the link text</link>.

4). Incoming Links.

Get as many as these as is humanly possible. That means begging for them if you have to. Get your site into the major directories. DMOZ, Yahoo. etc. When you have done that, get yourself over to Vilesilencer. Start working your way through that list to start with. Do 10 directories every month. Wait two weeks, rinse and repeat. You dont want the search engines to freak out at the speed that links are appearing for your site. Alternate your link text with each directory, for example have 5-10 different phrases you wish to rank for and vary them for each link you drop. Again, you dont want the spiders to think you are Googlebombing.

5) Start a blog

Get yourself a blog. Why? Blogs are loved by search engines because they are a source of fresh content. They are the key to them breaking stories on Google news for example. Think of a blog as a realtime website which is representative of either society or industry at a particular time. Hence relevant, non stagnating content. Start trading links with other bloggers, if you can. Start reading and posting relevant comments on other peoples blogs. This gives a link back to your blog.

6) Start writing content for your blog.
One post a day. Easy does it. Make sure you are writing really really good content that is likely to attract links. Learn how to manipulate the titles of your posts to attract links from people.

7). Start writing content for other people
You can get quality backlinks from various websites by contributing quality content. If you are crap, hire a copywriter.

8) Be passionate.
If you aren't passionate about your topic, site or business. No one else is going to be, nor are you going to be able to generate worthy content. So get off your ass and start promoting. Get your site on bumper stickers (give to friends and family). Paint on the windows of your house. Do whatever it takes to get notice.

9) Build up a list.
You have a subscribe to the RSS feed button right? Or a subscribe via email? Email and RSS marketing are extremely powerful in building an audience. Audience - in the Blogosphere, means incoming links - if your content is decent.

10). Social bookmarking, and social networking.
These can be powerful in getting subscribers. Dont expect the visitors to stick around long, so optimise your landing pages. Social bookmarking can get you listed in the search engines extremely quickly, (within 24 hours). So you can only imagine how frequently DIGG gets spidered.

11). Analyse.
Get yourself Google analytics, and feed the engines with the phrases and keywords that your visitors are finding you with. Rinse and repeat.

12). Just a small note - as stated in this losing potential page rank/traffic

Make sure you point all links to the same homepage URL, or you will leak page-rank

Dont expect traffic to land at your door. If you build it they wont come. If you promote it you stand maybe half a chance at getting traffic.

Paul · 04-02-2008, 17:14

nice man

RaelRode · 04-02-2008, 17:20

Cheers. I am now a bit more enlightened to SEO.

SEO Freelancer · 04-02-2008, 18:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulanthony

Guys, Im by no means an expert on the subject, but hopefully this post might serve as a starting guide for anyone more clueless than myself.

If you claim not to be an expert on SEO then why do you offer search engine optimization on your site.

freelancr · 04-02-2008, 19:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by SEO Freelancer

If you claim not to be an expert on SEO then why do you offer search engine optimization on your site.

So Paul takes the time to write this post to help other people understand what he has been researching, and you decide to flame him because he is being honest?

I would rather he say he isn't an expert, than be arrogant like you. He seems to know a damn sight more than most individuals/companies offering SEO services. Too many cowboys in the SEO industry, and with no standards or regulation, it's no surprise.

puzzle · 04-02-2008, 19:50

Bookmarked

rustybones · 04-02-2008, 21:40

Nice one, thanks mate! I was just researching about SEO cruft today

Oh and SEO Freelancer - really mate, don't bag Paul out. Advertising your services on a blogspot site doesn't look to flash either... just saying

paulanthony · 05-02-2008, 04:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by SEO Freelancer

If you claim not to be an expert on SEO then why do you offer search engine optimization on your site.

Because I outsource. tit.

Larixk · 05-02-2008, 05:33

nice basic 12 step program.

A small comment on point 2: Using tags is a bit deprecated when not used because of typographic standards. Rather use or when emphasizing.
But this is more of a semantic mark-up/separating content from style point, not so much SEO related.

weldo · 05-02-2008, 09:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larixk

A small comment on point 2: Using tags is a bit deprecated when not used because of typographic standards.

only depending on your choice of doctype, remember ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larixk

.. not so much SEO related.

it is SEO related - using strong tags will help visually identify keywords and phrases in your copy to the user, and what's good for the user is good for the engines.

DESIGN YOUR SITE WITH THE USER IN MIND - AND THE SEARCH ENGINES WILL FOLLOW !!!

04-02-2008, 17:01	#1 (permalink)
paulanthony mingin dawg baitch Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Belfast Posts: 1,035	Seo 101. Guys, Im by no means an expert on the subject, but hopefully this post might serve as a starting guide for anyone more clueless than myself. 1) CSS CSS CSS. If you are developing sites which aren't separating content from style, then your search engine efforts are suffering. Web spiders have a much easier job crunching content which isn't surrounded by heavy multiple embedded tables. The benefits are multiple. You will get spidered faster, as well as having less load on your servers. On heavier sites it can sometimes take multiple crawls to get your site fully indexed. Make it easy as you can on them. 2). Tag based SEO. Ok, so you have created a beautiful CSS based site. Is it semantic? Get heading tags in the right place. Place your keyphrases inside H1, H2, H3 tags etc etc, put it in <b>bold</b> tags at least one. Mention your phrase once or twice in your main content, Naturally. No keyword stuffing. Place it once in the description, and have a few variations figured out for your description and meta keyword tags. Title tags are also important. Remember Title and Description tags are your "entry points". Use keywords wisely, and write these for humans. Tempt them in with Beautiful widgets perfect for x. Rather than - Beautiful widgets, sexy widgets, widgets for your granny..Looks too spammy, both for human visitors and for the search engines. 3). On site Linking. Use keyword linking inside your site. That means cross linking heavily to alternate pages on your site internally first and foremost. Let the search engines no what keywords is relevant for what page. Link text and <a title="" are your weapons of choice here. And for anyone who doesn't know what link text is. <link>this is the link text</link>. 4). Incoming Links. Get as many as these as is humanly possible. That means begging for them if you have to. Get your site into the major directories. DMOZ, Yahoo. etc. When you have done that, get yourself over to Vilesilencer. Start working your way through that list to start with. Do 10 directories every month. Wait two weeks, rinse and repeat. You dont want the search engines to freak out at the speed that links are appearing for your site. Alternate your link text with each directory, for example have 5-10 different phrases you wish to rank for and vary them for each link you drop. Again, you dont want the spiders to think you are Googlebombing. 5) Start a blog Get yourself a blog. Why? Blogs are loved by search engines because they are a source of fresh content. They are the key to them breaking stories on Google news for example. Think of a blog as a realtime website which is representative of either society or industry at a particular time. Hence relevant, non stagnating content. Start trading links with other bloggers, if you can. Start reading and posting relevant comments on other peoples blogs. This gives a link back to your blog. 6) Start writing content for your blog. One post a day. Easy does it. Make sure you are writing really really good content that is likely to attract links. Learn how to manipulate the titles of your posts to attract links from people. 7). Start writing content for other people You can get quality backlinks from various websites by contributing quality content. If you are crap, hire a copywriter. 8) Be passionate. If you aren't passionate about your topic, site or business. No one else is going to be, nor are you going to be able to generate worthy content. So get off your ass and start promoting. Get your site on bumper stickers (give to friends and family). Paint on the windows of your house. Do whatever it takes to get notice. 9) Build up a list. You have a subscribe to the RSS feed button right? Or a subscribe via email? Email and RSS marketing are extremely powerful in building an audience. Audience - in the Blogosphere, means incoming links - if your content is decent. 10). Social bookmarking, and social networking. These can be powerful in getting subscribers. Dont expect the visitors to stick around long, so optimise your landing pages. Social bookmarking can get you listed in the search engines extremely quickly, (within 24 hours). So you can only imagine how frequently DIGG gets spidered. 11). Analyse. Get yourself Google analytics, and feed the engines with the phrases and keywords that your visitors are finding you with. Rinse and repeat. 12). Just a small note - as stated in this losing potential page rank/traffic Make sure you point all links to the same homepage URL, or you will leak page-rank Dont expect traffic to land at your door. If you build it they wont come. If you promote it you stand maybe half a chance at getting traffic. __________________ Web design Ireland

04-02-2008, 17:20	#3 (permalink)
RaelRode Designers are strange :) Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Shrewsbury, UK Posts: 1,735	Cheers. I am now a bit more enlightened to SEO. __________________ If it works, it's valid.

05-02-2008, 05:33	#9 (permalink)
Larixk Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Utrecht, Netherlands Posts: 986	nice basic 12 step program. A small comment on point 2: Using <b> tags is a bit deprecated when not used because of typographic standards. Rather use <strong> or <em> when emphasizing. But this is more of a semantic mark-up/separating content from style point, not so much SEO related. __________________

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04-02-2008, 17:14	#2 (permalink)
Paul Junkie[scum] Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: location, location Posts: 1,718	nice man

04-02-2008, 19:50	#6 (permalink)
puzzle Puzzle Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: London Posts: 182	Bookmarked

04-02-2008, 21:40	#7 (permalink)
rustybones buttock racer Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sweden Posts: 196	Nice one, thanks mate! I was just researching about SEO cruft today Oh and SEO Freelancer - really mate, don't bag Paul out. Advertising your services on a blogspot site doesn't look to flash either... just saying

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