What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
Search Engine Optimization (abbreviated SEO) is the process of designing, writing, coding, programming, and scripting your entire Web site so that there is a better chance that your Web pages will appear at the top of search engine queries for your selected keywords.
Why is search engine traffic so important?
Most people searching for merchandise, services or information on the internet find what theyare looking for through search engines. Given that most people will only browse through the first 20 or 30 results in order to find an answer to their query, it is important that your Web site rankings are highly placed, otherwise you risk loosing the greatest amount of traffic to competitors.
What are MetaTags?
MetaTags are a part of the HTML code that is viewable only to those that are specifically looking for it. The MetaTags cannot be seen directly through a browser, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape. These MetaTags can be used in order to supply information to spiders / crawlers or other robots that are looking for alternate information. These tags may present information such as keywords, site description, title etc..
What are spiders , crawlers or robots?
The terms "spiders", "crawlers" and "robots" all refer to a computer program that is designed to browse Web sites and download information. The information that it usually downloads is the HTML source code. In the case of search engines, this source code is stored in a large database and later analysed.
Is optimization a difficult task?
Not really; It requires a great deal of work and patience. The work involves making the changes to your HTML code manually, which can be tedious. Patience is necessary to wait for the optimization results and the continuous monitoring in the search engines.
How do you optimise your Web site?
Most important is that you have the proper tools. Such tools include Keywords Density analysers, MetaTag analysers, Spider Simulators and others.
Your next step is to decide which search terms you wish to optimise for your site. It is extremely difficult to optimise a site for more than 3 or 4 search terms. Research with the keyword suggestion tool will assist you to determine which search terms will bring you the most traffic, as well which ones are the most used by web surfers.
The exact optimization procedure varies from search engine to search engine and changes are being made all the time.
How long will it take before I start ranking better?
Search engines normally update once a month. However, it can take as long as 6 to 8 weeks before changes to your site will be reflected in search engines. Some search engines, such as Google, are making some rapid changes in technology that allows them to update their database faster, sometimes within 24 hours. Sometimes you will might be lucky enough to get a quick update, and sometimes not.
Will virtual name based hosting be an issue?
No. Almost every search engine spider is capable of handling multiple domains with the same IP address. Although having a unique IP address is beneficial for some reasons, there are no serious disadvantages to using virtual hosting.
Should I use hidden text on my Web site to help rank better?
The use of hidden text, or any other form of text that is intended to be viewed by spiders only while being kept invisible to users is strongly discouraged. Many Web sites have been banned from search engines for using hidden text. Many search engines consider this to be "unethical" and it can easily be detected, so avoid using it.
Will using dynamic pages harm my rankings?
The use of straight forward dynamic pages, as in using the extensions .php, .asp, etc. will not harm rankings. Using "query strings" in the URL's will however have a negative effect on rankings. The use of "?param=yes&other=no" will make it extremely difficult for search engines to crawl your Web site, so difficult in fact, that most search engines will refuse to even crawl the Web site in order to conserve bandwidth and other expensive resources.
Do filenames and directory structure matter?
It is generally accepted that filenames do not directly matter. Nevertheless it has been proven I that they are part of the ranking algorithm in many major search engines. For optimal performance it is suggested that filenames should be no longer than 15-20 characters in length and should contain the keywords for the content of the page, with words being delimited with dashes "-". Directory structure too is important, with directory names including at least one target keyword. The directory structure should be kept as close to the root as possible i.e. www.site.com/page.htm is much better than www.site.com/folder/folder2/page.htm.
What is a "reciprocal link"?
Let us imagine there are 2 Web sitess, one is "Site A" and the other "Side B". If Site A provides a link to Site B and Site B simultaneously provides a link to Site A, then the 2 respective links are known as "reciprocal" links given that each site links to the other.
What is "PageRank (PR)"?
PageRank™ is actually a trademarked term. The trademark belongs to Google Inc. and refers to the "rank" of a Web site as determined by Google's ranking system. The PageRank (PR) of a Web site is determined by the number of inbound links a Web site has. The more inbound links exist, the higher the PageRank.
What does "cross linking" mean?
Crosslinking is the term used to define a volume of sites that provide links to each other for the purpose of increasing link popularity. The sites are sometimes owned by one person or firm and have little or no other purpose than to be part of the link farm.
What are "inbound links"?
Inbound links are nothing more than links coming to a given Web site from an external Web site. For example, any links on this Web site to Google.com are considered to be inbound links to Google.
How can I find how many inbound links I have?
In reality there is no real way to calculate the exact number of inbound links in. The best way to find inbound links to your Web site is to use either Google or AllTheWeb / FAST. With Google, it is possible to search for inbound links by using the search query "link:www.example.com", this will search for all links to the site www.example.com.
On AllTheWeb, you can check for inbound links to a site by using "link.all:www.example.com".
How important are inbound links?
Over the past 2 years or so, search engines have placed a lot of importance on inbound links. Inbound links are a good way to judge the popularity of a Web site i.e. the more inbound links a Web site has, the more important it is considered to be. Many people use words that describe a Web site in order to link to it, so the words used to the link have become very important. Ideally, all of the inbound links to your Web site should use your target keywords as the link text.
How can I tell if my site has been banned?
There is no real way to tell if your site has been banned from a search engine. If your site was listed and then suddenly disappears, it is reasonable to assume the site was banned. Normally only sites that engage in some kind of spamming or poor practices get banned. For example, if you have used hidden text, URL cloaking, or been part of a link farm, then it is possible your site would have been banned. Usually a site will not get re-indexed once it has been banned.
What is "Cloaking"?
Some sites have decided to cheat the search engines and deliver optimized content to the search spiders yet deliver different content to regular users. This is usually done when the site wants to use frames, java, flash or some other such media that would be difficult for search engines to read. The page is said to be "Cloaked" whenever this optimized content is delivered to search engines.
Does seodiy.com tools help me to get good rankings in Google?
Yes, seodiy.com tools will assist you in getting good Web site ranks in Google. Especially by starting a Reciprocal Link Campaign, Link Popularity Checker and other tools at seodiy.com. The seodiy.com system was designed to reach high rankings in Google as well as in all major search engines and directories. However, good rankings are not the only thing that matters. When you do a search at Google, the highest PR Web sitess are not always placed at the top. Sometimes a page with a lower PR can outrank a higher PR Web site if it is better optimized for the search terms.
What are "doorway pages" and should I use them?
Doorway pages are nothing more then pages full of spam text that are supposed to be optimized for search engines. Some times there are hundreds of doorway pages hosted on external servers, at different domains etc.. These doorway pages have links to the main Web sites. The theory is that if these doorway pages rank highly in search engines and visitors use them, they will eventually be taken to the main Web sites. Don't use doorway pages rather create good and useful content pages!
What is unethical SEO?
Unethical SEO is a term that is used to describe search engine optimisers, or the optimization of a Web site which uses any form of spamming or tricks in order to falsely improve rankings. For example, the use of hidden text or doorway pages, as mentioned above, would be considered unethical search engine optimization.
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