What will make me top? Or more precisely “What are the factors that determine my position in the natural listings for a specific keyphrase and what is their relative importance?”
Wow! Those are the questions that everyone involved in SEO, from clients to agencies, wants and needs to know. So let’s work through some answers.
Unfortunately, the number of people who can definitively answer these questions by concisely explaining the hundreds of factors, and the way they work with one another, is strictly limited to the engineers who work for the search engines.
However, through combining the experience of the authors, the review team and disclosure from the search engines and expert commentators, we have compiled a comprehensive list of the most important factors which determine position in the listings.
What determines ranking position in the natural listings?
The position or ranking in the natural listings for a particular keyphrase is dependent on a search engine’s ranking algorithm.
For the search query entered into the search engine, the algorithm uses rules or heuristics to identify the most relevant pages, based on the page’s text content and its context (which can be indicated by links from other pages and sites).
Each search engine has a different set of algorithms created by engineers who strive to produce the best relevance for its users.
However, the ranking of natural listings has evolved as a science over the past ten years, based on an even longer history of document indexing and retrieval history. As with all sciences, there are fundamental principles which apply. So to deliver relevance search engines tend to use common search engine ranking factors.
Enough with the science: get with the ranking factors…
We will soon enough. But before we do here’s a word to the wise: understanding some of the most common ranking factors is straightforward. Keyword: ‘straightforward’.
Over the past few years many bedroom cowboys and unethical agencies have raked in fees by pretending that SEO is about wearing a black hat, doing the search voodoo, etc. But there is no need for any smoke or mirrors. If your agency refuses to reveal its techniques to you then our advice would be to move on. Immediately!
Despite the mystique perpetuated about SEO it really isn’t terribly difficult to grasp the concepts. The difficulty lies in managing your keywords and optimization over the long term. Not in understanding the ranking factors.
Who in my organization needs to know about this stuff?
It is essential for your technology team / agencies to understand these ranking factors. It is also imperative that all content owners / authors / stakeholders understand how good quality content can improve search rankings. Authors need to know which keyphrases to use, otherwise you won’t have a joined up strategy.
Applying simple ‘house style’ rules can help generate visits from qualified visitors. In fact let’s coin a phrase: ‘house strategy’. You need to develop a ‘house strategy guide’ for your authors and editors.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
What is Search Engine Marketing
The practice of marketing , advertising & Optimizing a website in search engines is referred to Search Engine Marketing.
SEM methods include
Search Engine Optimization (or SEO)
Paid Placement
Paid Inclusion
Search Engine Optimization
It is process of improving quality traffic to a web site from search engines organic search results.
Search engine’s don’t see pages the same way we doe, there’s no color, no flash, that makes them go “this is a professional page” – you have to make it know what the page is about, and SEO makes sure the search engine sees your page the same way you do
Paid Placement(PPC)
It is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website. Advertisers bid on keywords they believe their target market would type in the search bar when they are looking for a product or service.
Paid Inclusion
Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing product where the search engine company charges fees related to inclusion of websites in their search index.
SEM methods include
Search Engine Optimization (or SEO)
Paid Placement
Paid Inclusion
Search Engine Optimization
It is process of improving quality traffic to a web site from search engines organic search results.
Search engine’s don’t see pages the same way we doe, there’s no color, no flash, that makes them go “this is a professional page” – you have to make it know what the page is about, and SEO makes sure the search engine sees your page the same way you do
Paid Placement(PPC)
It is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website. Advertisers bid on keywords they believe their target market would type in the search bar when they are looking for a product or service.
Paid Inclusion
Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing product where the search engine company charges fees related to inclusion of websites in their search index.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Search Engine Optimization - Basics - Domain Name
Basic Seo tips
Domain Name : Seo optimization starts right from the domain name booking. Believe it or not your domain name has a large amount to do with your ranking in Google.
Using a keyword in the domain name is only helpful if you separate the words with hyphens. General speculation is that too many hyphens might trigger a trust issue with the domain, so more than one or two hyphens is not recommended. A good brand name is always better than a keyword-filled domain.
Domain Name : Seo optimization starts right from the domain name booking. Believe it or not your domain name has a large amount to do with your ranking in Google.
Using a keyword in the domain name is only helpful if you separate the words with hyphens. General speculation is that too many hyphens might trigger a trust issue with the domain, so more than one or two hyphens is not recommended. A good brand name is always better than a keyword-filled domain.
- the length of the domain registration (one year <-> several years)
- the address of the web site owner, the admin and the technical contact
- the stability of data and host company
- the number of pages on a web site (web sites must have more than one page)
Types Of Search Engine Marketing
Two different SEM disciplines have developed to help organizations achieve visibility…
1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is aimed at achieving the highest position practically possible in the organic listings on the search engine results pages. To do this you need to define a list of keyphrases to work with.
In Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search, the natural listings are on the left as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, although there may be sponsored links above and below these results (typically differentiated to the consumer by the title ‘Sponsored Links’).
There is no charge for organic listings to be displayed, nor when a link to your site is clicked on. However, you may need to pay a SEO firm or consultant to manage optimization, and the ongoing work needed to make your website appear higher in the rankings.
Other reasons to employ SEO expertise include managing security of content, copyright ownership, reputation management and user experience management.
2. Paid-search marketing
Within paid-search marketing there are two main alternatives:
(a) Paid-search engine advertising (aka PPC / sponsored listings).
These are highly-relevant text ads with a link to a company page and some ad text, displayed when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase. These ads are displayed in the sponsored listings part of the SERPs as is shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.
As the name suggests, a fee is charged for every click of each link, with the amount bid for the click determining the position.
Google Adwords factors in a ‘quality score’ based on the clickthrough rate for each ad, meaning that an underperforming ad might not make it to the top.
The most important PPC services are:
(b) Content-network paid-search advertising
Sponsored links are displayed by the search engine on a network of third-party sites. These are typically media-owned sites such as online newspapers or affiliate marketing sites.
Ads may be paid for on the basis of clicks (this is most common) or on the number of ads served (CPM basis).
The most important content network services are:
Paid-search advertising is more similar to conventional advertising than SEO, since you pay to advertise in ‘sponsored links’.
But there are big differences…
1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is aimed at achieving the highest position practically possible in the organic listings on the search engine results pages. To do this you need to define a list of keyphrases to work with.
In Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search, the natural listings are on the left as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, although there may be sponsored links above and below these results (typically differentiated to the consumer by the title ‘Sponsored Links’).
There is no charge for organic listings to be displayed, nor when a link to your site is clicked on. However, you may need to pay a SEO firm or consultant to manage optimization, and the ongoing work needed to make your website appear higher in the rankings.
Other reasons to employ SEO expertise include managing security of content, copyright ownership, reputation management and user experience management.
2. Paid-search marketing
Within paid-search marketing there are two main alternatives:
(a) Paid-search engine advertising (aka PPC / sponsored listings).
These are highly-relevant text ads with a link to a company page and some ad text, displayed when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase. These ads are displayed in the sponsored listings part of the SERPs as is shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.
As the name suggests, a fee is charged for every click of each link, with the amount bid for the click determining the position.
Google Adwords factors in a ‘quality score’ based on the clickthrough rate for each ad, meaning that an underperforming ad might not make it to the top.
The most important PPC services are:
- Google Adwords (http://adwords.google.com)
- Yahoo! Search services (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/) / Overture (http://www.overture.com)
- MIVA (www.miva.com)
- MSN Ad center(adcenter.microsoft.com)
(b) Content-network paid-search advertising
Sponsored links are displayed by the search engine on a network of third-party sites. These are typically media-owned sites such as online newspapers or affiliate marketing sites.
Ads may be paid for on the basis of clicks (this is most common) or on the number of ads served (CPM basis).
The most important content network services are:
- Google Adsense (http://adsense.google.com) for site owners, provided through Google Adwords for advertisers.
- Yahoo Publisher Network (http://publisher.yahoo.com/) for site owners, provided through Content Match for advertisers.
- MIVA (www.miva.com).
Paid-search advertising is more similar to conventional advertising than SEO, since you pay to advertise in ‘sponsored links’.
But there are big differences…
- With PPC, a relevant text ad with a link to a company page is displayed as one of several ‘sponsored links’ when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase. So, the first difference to conventional advertising is that it is highly targeted – the ad is only displayed when a relevant keyword phrase is typed in.
- With the PPC approach, you don’t pay for the number of people who see your ad, but you only pay for those who click through to your website (hence Pay Per Click).
- The prominence of the ad is dependent on the price bid for each clickthrough, with the highest bidder placed top (except in Google, where clickthrough rate is also taken into account)।
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