Top things that you should know about search engine optimization (SEO)
The following list will help you to better understand SEO or to explain SEO to your clients:
Four things you should know about link building
- Inbound links are very important
The more websites link to your site, the easier it will be to get high rankings on Google. Google considers links to your site as votes for your site. The more votes your website has, the better your rankings will be.
If more pages link to the website of your competitor, then it is likely that your competitor will get better rankings than you on Google.
- It is important to get the right links
In addition to the number of links to your website, Google also considers the quality of the links. Links from unrelated websites won’t help your search engine rankings as much as links from related websites that deal with a similar topic as your website.
A link from a trusted website that itself has many links pointing to it will help your search engine rankings more than a link from a website with few inbound links.
- It is important to keep on link building
Many of your competitors will continue to work on their links. If you don’t keep on working on your links, your competitors will pass you in the search engine results sooner or later.
- Google doesn’t like paid links
Google considers links to your site as editorial votes for its quality. A paid link is not editorial. Google’s anti-spam team has asked webmasters to report paid links. If your competitors report your paid links, Google might penalize your website.
Three things you should know about web page optimization
- Search engines rank single pages in the search results
You should optimize a single page of your website for a single search term. Do not optimize the same page for more than one search term. It is much better if a web page is highly relevant to one search term than somewhat relevant to many search terms.
- Google considers all pages of your website
Although only a single page of your website will be listed in Google’s search results for a search term, Google will consider all pages of your website. If you optimize different pages of your website for different keywords that are all related to a certain topic, then Google will think that your website is relevant to this topic and it will be easier to get high rankings for your keywords.
- Optimized web page content and inbound links work hand-in-hand
If your website has both optimized content and good inbound links then it will be much easier to get high rankings on Google.
A web page that has been optimized for the search term "green widgets" and that has many links from other web pages that use the term "green widgets"as the link text is much more likely to get a top ranking on Google than a page that only has the inbound links or the optimized content.
Three things you should know about the technical aspects of your website
- Redirects can cause problems
Web page redirects have been used by spammers in the past. That is why search engines don’t like it much. A 301 redirect is the only server side redirect that search engines interpret as a permanent redirect.
All other redirects (except for a meta refresh redirect in some cases) don’t pass the links from the old page to the new page and they might even be interpreted as a spamming attempt.
- Search engines don’t like duplicate content
Google wants to list only one copy of a piece of content in the search results. If your web page contains the same content as another page on the web then Google will pick one version of the content for their search results.
Google considers exact copies and near copies as duplicate content. Website navigation and boilerplate are usually ignored. Google compares your page’s unique content with other pages and if it has a certain similarity to another page than it is considered a duplicate.
- You can create duplicate content by mistake
Technically, the URLs http://example.com, http://www.example.com andhttp://www.example.com/index.
php can contain different content. That is why search engines treat them as separate pages. Only link to one version of these URLs. Otherwise, the other versions might be duplicates of the other.
SEO is not a black art. If you do the right things in the right order then you will get the best possible rankings on Google and other important search engines.
How to Get Your Site Listed in DMOZ?
With all of the recent buzz about linkbaiting, social media optimization, and the wealth of new vertical search engines launching on the market, sometimes it’s easy to glance over the basic do’s and don’ts in the world of search engine optimization. We’ve discussed link building and directory submittals before in the past, and it’s time to revisit some of this discussion.
Hands down, the top three directories where a site should be submitted areYahoo.com, Microsoft bCentral Small Business Directory and theOpen Directory Project (DMOZ).
Quality sites can be added instantly into bCentral and Yahoo via payment, but a link in the DMOZ can be a little difficult, especially if you don’t know any editors.
Akash Kumar, CEO of Search Engine Optimization Company Vista Divine Inc., was awesome enough to lend the world his tips for getting listed in DMOZ:
1. Submit your site to a proper category. Most of the sites submitted to Dmoz are rejected due to having submitted to improper or wrong categories, so you must find out the most relevant category for your site before submitting it to Dmoz. If you are unsure about which category you should submit to then just do a search in Dmoz for the sites similar to yours and note down the category to which they have been submitted to. If you have done this one correctly then you are having the most relevant category for your website. Now just go on and submit to the category you have got.
2. Make sure that your site has original and quality content.People nowadays are looking for more and more quality content and they get annoyed with the sites having nothing more than a bunch of affiliate links or sales letters. If your site lacks in content then you have no chance of making into the directory as the directories nowadays are looking for the sites which have a strong base of original and quality content, if your site doesn’t has sufficient content then make sure to add a few reviews, articles and other additional information about your services and products.
3. Get your web site professionally designed. If you have done the above two steps properly then your site is already deserving a listing in Dmoz and it adds more to your credibility if your site is professionally designed. You might have seen many unprofessionally designed sites making into Dmoz, so this not really a factor for your inclusion in the directory but as we know that the editors of the Dmoz directory are also human beings so a professionally designed site does make a good impression on them and thus increases your chances for inclusion in Dmoz.
4. Be sure to put your contact information on the web site. Now just putting an email address is not enough. If you are doing a business you need people to trust you by showing them your physical address, so that they don’t think that you are a run away business. Many times the editors reject sites if they don’t see any physical contact information on the site, so it is very much necessary for you to put up at least your phone number on your contacts page, also putting your physical address would be much better.
5. Check your site for broken links and spelling errors. Before submitting your site to the Dmoz directory make sure to check your website for broken links and spelling errors, though the editors are looking for quality but they are also human beings and will be annoyed by lots of errors and clumsily designed sites, so be sure to check and correct the errors if any before you submit your site to Dmoz.
Do you have any more tips on how to get approved for a listing in the Open Directory Project? If so, please share with us below.
Tags: DMOZ listing