Monday, October 19, 2009

The basics of SEO

SEO

Listen to the Change the World U SEO Podcast (Popup window)

1. What is SEO?

2. Why is SEO important?

3. How do keywords fit into SEO?

A. “ ” keyword

B. “ “ a keyword phrase

C. “ “ is a longtail keyword phrase

D. Keywords = typical search parameters

4. How do we use keywords on our website?

A. That’s called “on-page” optimization

▪ Keywords in title

▪ Keywords in description

▪ Write for the reader = Keywords logically placed in content

5. We know we need to go outside our own shop to draw people in. So, then. How can we use keywords for “off-page” optimization?

A. Keywords in anchor text in links from other sites to your site

Back links a.k.a. In-bound links


Internet Marketing Glossary provided by the team at Change the WorldU

Anchor text:
This is the actual word used to create a back link.
Ex. Gardening Non-Profit, the words themselves are the anchor text.
Anchor text plays a large role in search engine rankings, the more websites you have linking
to you with the given anchor text you want to rank for the higher your rankings potentially
can be. One key thing to remember is the authority and relevance of the site, which is
linking to you, is very important. It is possible for a website to rank number one for a
given term even if they only have a few sites linking to them with the anchor text they are
ranking for.
Example “Change the world U”

Article marketing:
This is a great marketing technique. Write articles about topics in your niche then submit
them to Article directories such as Ezinearticles, Goarticles, and Articlecity. Writing
articles for directories and publications is an excellent way to establish yourself as an
expert in your field. For each article submitted you will be able to create a “signature
box” which allows you to write a short description of your business, website. In this
signature box you can create usually two back links with the anchor text of your choice.
Tip do a search for (“submit articles + Your niche) this will bring up the websites in your
niche which accept articles on their website for publication) Another great article
marketing technique is to do a search for your niche and contact the websites who interest
you offer them an unique article for their site as an introduction and hello. Make sure you
take a few minutes and explore their site and make some positive comments in your
introduction email. This is also a great networking technique.
Example Jim Kennard on Ezine Articles

Authority rank:

This ranking the search engines apply to all websites. Basically your website is ranked based on age of the website, who links to you and how much authority those websites have.
Example: If you had a website about Alternative Energy and a professor from a college link
to one of your pages quoting you that would increase your authority rank. It is not as
complicated as people would want you to think. It is common sense if an expert in your
field quotes you that increase your credibility. A great example of this is when Arraon
Wall’s SEOBOOK was quoted and being used by a professor from the Wharton School of Business.

Back link.
This is the actual link a person put on their website linking to yours. It does not matter
what the anchor text is it is still a back link. Things get profitable when you have the
right websites (authority rank) with the right (anchor text).

Black hat
This is all the stuff you should not do, buy links, Spam people via email, this list is
long, hidden links on your website, selling links without a “no follow”, trying to
manipulate or “game” the search engines with software. The bottom line is if your gut tells
you not to do it then don’t. There is no magic light switch this takes time and effort.
Steer clear of people promising you overnight success in most cases they are either con
artists, practice black hat techniques or both.

Cache
This is when the search engines create a copy of your web page or website to store in their
database. In theory the more you update your website the more times the search engines will
come back to your site and (spider>index>cache)

Content
Content is the key to success on the Internet there are many forms of content, Written,
Video, Pod casts, Screen capture videos, slideshow presentation, interviews.

Directory
A directory is a website that lists other websites based on topic or niche. A human versus
software usually edits high quality directories. There are literally tens of thousands of
directories on the Internet; two of the most popular are Yahoo and DMOZ.

Directory submission
This is the process of submitting your website to the directories. To quicken the process
check out our short list of directories to submit to. CTWU Directory list.

Duplicate content
This is when people use the same content on different web properties. There is no “penalty”
per se. The key thing to remember is that the original website the content is published on
will get credit for it. This can become problematic if your website does not get indexed
quickly. Example if you write an article and publish it to your website make sure the page
is “cached” before you submit the article to an article directory. WHY? Because the
article directory can get credit for the first know copy of the content.

Digg
A popular social book-marking site, which deals primarily with technology websites.

Keyword
A single word, which you want to rank for in your niche. Ex. “Gardening”

Keyword Phrase
A multiple word phrase you want to rank for in your niche. Ex. “Organic gardening” or
“Gardening Non-Profit”

Long tail Keyword phrase
A three or more word phrase, which you want to rank for in your niche Ex. “Sustainable
gardening Non-Profit”

Myspace
Popular website allowing communication among friends as well as blog, video and music
hosting.
Example Sustainable gardening Myspace page for the Food for Everyone Foundation.
Off page optimization

This is the work you do to build your SE rankings using other sites. Ex. Have other
websites link to you with your proper anchor text, write articles so people can publish them on their websites and link back to you again using proper anchor text, create press releases about events at the company submit them digitally to PRWeb.
Create videos publish them to multiple video sites using Tube Mogul.
Every tool on CTWU is suggested to help you with your off page optimization
Example take a look at the CTWU portfolio of web properties each of them
Is being used for more exposure and also for the Search Engine rankings power.
On page optimization

These are the tactics you use to maximize your actual websites pages to rank high in the search engines. Ex. Create great metatags and content using the keyword phrases you want to rank high for.

Squidoo
Powerful free website platform. Many uses and modules you can add, very beneficial for
ranking in the search engines for “long tail keyword phrases”


Youtube
Very popular site you can submit your videos for more exposure and traffic. Make the videos
fun and it seems the shorter videos actually get more views so keep that in mind. Ex. Food
for Everyone Youtube channel

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