How to make Search Engine Friendly Site

Well it is never ending topic actually. Every search engine has its own strategy most of them are title and content based but consider all other aspects as well like meta and off page optimization.

Search Engine friendly websites are those websites which are developed by keeping in mind the standards of search engine tools and strategies. this will make easier for you to achieve early better ranking in SERPs. Search engine sends crawler to visit the pages and index them within database. Crawler is a tool developed by search engines to provide updated information from websites.

We can communicate with crawler to get better ranking in search engine result pages.

Here are few important practices one should never ignore:

HTML Suggestions:

HEAD
In head area the title tag should be placed at first before all other tags, otherwise the crawler may overlook it and this will damage your ranking in SERP.

Title must not longer than 7 to 9 words. It should be relevant with the content and must contain keyword in it.

Meta section within head of page should be well defined. Meta keywords and Meta descriptions are most important factors for crawlers.

Use H1 heading and keyword should appear in this heading. Use H1 in the beginning of page.

ALT image attributes are most important. In first three images of your page at least they must have ALT tag with them.

Keyword
Keywords should be bold. This tells your emphasis to crawler. It is suggested that please put your keyword bold one or more times to show the importance.

Keep in mind the keyword density which is 5~7%.

Avoid Keyword Cannibalization and follow a proper rule to achieve required popularity of targeted page.

Your keyword should appear at least once in text links. It is recommend to use it in such links up to 6 times.

The keyword should be present in the last of your page too. Your page will be more relevant if your keyword appears at the end of the page. Put your keyword in the last 50 words of the web page.

The page should contain the keyword in heading of your page. Use H1 heading and keyword should appear in this heading. Use H1 in the beginning of page.

Write Content of every page in search engine friendly manner.


Sitemap should be self descriptive and informing the crawler about change frequency of web page so that crawler should visit as per your requirement otherwise crawler will set its own visit frequency which may or may not suite your requirement.

No link should be broken or ambiguous.

Search Engine will always display the most relevant content containing websites on top of its SERPs. It will redirect the visitor and customer to highly relevant website.

Importance of Content in SEO

Content is all text, images, sounds everything on the page. It is called king for the visitor. Content provides the information about web page.

During writing the content, the given information should be accurate, to the point and in proper ethics of linguistics.

Content is very important for the search engine. Majorly most of the search engines give importance to the content. Crawler of search engine checks the pages frequently to find any updates in content. In sitemap we can tell search engine to send crawler or depute spider.

While writing content for the web page identify the descriptive title, plot the purpose of the page and the targeted visitor in mind. Always keep audience in your mind while writing content in web page. Because search engine strategies are directly dependent on the interest of searcher. If content is good in description and attractive for visitor to open the link to find details. Bingo! You are a good content writer.

In search results you might have noticed that the keyword is highlighted in SERP.

Here in the image you can see the keywords are also shown in description of the link. This description is usually acquired from meta of the page but sometimes content is also used to get such information. Some SEO experts claim that Google considers content not meta.

Thus content should be written in an informative way because it challenges the ranking of search engine given to a page. Content must be relevant with the links, title and targeted visitor for every web page. Relevancy in your description about the website attract the targeted customers.

Always write quality content. Quantity content may lose a visitor. Use info graphics to let the user experience the information rather interpretation.

Content updating in SEO is the process of editing a web site's content and code in order to improve visibility within one or more search engines. Frequent updates in content engage the crawler of search engine on the website. This improves the quick visibility of your website in SERPs.

Content comes under On Page Optimization.
The keyword must be used in good proportion and density should not be greater than 7%.
Title should not be longer than 7 to 9 words.



Also see

What is search engine ranking
How to make Search Engine Friendly Site
Link building in On Page Optimization
Link Building in Off Page Optimization

Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword Cannibalization means internal competition within Website among its pages to appear in SERPs of search engines. In more simpler words, it starts when certain keyword is used in many pages of website and all pages start competing with each other thus search engine gets confused to rank which page better.

Most of the SEO professionals and experts ignore or do not understand this phenomenon in depth. This results in to poor SEO for a website. One page starts eating the popularity of other page and may be you forgot to focus on your targeted page in actual.

This is website's internal structure problem which is directly related with information. Sub-pages start targeting same or similar keyword used in content or title.

Lets understand this problem by an example: If a person is selling bicycles, probably he will name it alongwith its model. For example Sohrab 101, Sohrab Junior, Sohrab Race, Sohrab Scooty etc. Now the keyword sohrab is being repeated in all of its products. It is also his brand name thus making it unavoidable too. Now 4 or 5 of its web pages are showing different models of its bicycle brand. Now which page is important? Which page you want to be displayed in search result? Thus an internal competition within webpages have been developed. Search Engine crawler or spider will be confused among the pages targeting similar keyword. This will show that website is quite unfriendly with search engine. If being SEO professional you forget about this internal competition all your SEO hard work may get you unsatisfactory results.

This issue should not be taken lightly because

It makes the website unfriendly for search engines.

It confuses the crawler to rank pages.

May be the important or targeted page do not reflect in search result.

Crawler may not go in depth among your pages.

Here is the solution of keyword cannibalization. Make separate pages having title of Kids Bicycles, Racing Bicycles, Scooty and Bicycles. Link every page to one main page named Bicycle. This will actually work for search engine to rank better and get target customer on specific page. If customer is interested in buying a sports bicycle, the SERP will directly take him to the targeted page. This will result in to quality traffic on targeted pages.

It is bad to place important keywords to all pages. It is false thinking that more usage of keyword will force the search engine to rank the page better.

Sometimes we place all of the important content on one page. Remember not everything is equally important for everyone. So identify similar products and classify them in to pages. Make separate pages for similar content. This will help you in getting rid of content duplication. Keyword density will also be under control.

In doing SEO do not follow or focus on getting number 1 in ranking only. This will make you following red light of truck always. Go through other long trail processes as well. If search engine changes its strategy you would be completely out! So focus on all other tips and techniques as well. Set priorities to your own skill set and include whatever comes to you. This will help your work to stay longer.

Also See


Search Engine Strategies in 2011
What is Search Engine Friendly Website
Tool to Calculate Keyword Density

Link Building in Off Page Optimization

Link building means creating links of your website on other websites by placing Anchor links, ads, link exchange, link farming, one way linking, two way linking, reciprocal linking and three way linking.

You can place your links on social networking sites, search engine listing sites, search engine submission, relevant sites, promotional websites and blogs.

Link building is done to achieve maximum traffic towards your site. Now the question comes which traffic? The answer lies in the concept and motive behind the link building. If the purpose of link building is to generate high traffic volume by any means it comes under Black Hat SEO.

One Way:       Site A link is on site B.
Two Way:       Site A link on site B and site B link on site A. It is called reciprocal as well.
Three Way:     Site A link on site B. Site B link on site C. Site C link on Site A.
Link Farming:    Site A link on multiple relevant or irrelevant sites to divert traffic towards site A.

Link Juice: If your link is placed on sites the juice transfers to your site. It means high PR and higher chances of visibility in SERPs of search engines.

Some high PR social websites allows anchor links on their websites. Link exchange is done by web masters to promote their websites on a deal of give and take. It may come under black hat seo.

Link building comes under off page optimization. Back links are created on other websites to bring more traffic towards your site. Link building should be done on relevant, authentic and authoritative sites. Avoid spamming it is Black Hat SEO.

Search engines ban the website in SERPs and stop the crawler to visit banned website. Always be careful while doing backlinks or link building. Try not to fool the crawler or the search engine by showing the fake popularity of your website. This will result in to disappearance of your website.

Also see:
Backlinking in Off page Optimization
Web 2.0 in SEO training
Social Search in Google
Pagerank in 2011
Inbound Link building SEO Training
On page Optimization SEO training

Backlinking in Off page Optimization

Backlink is basically a hyperlink of your website on some other website. It means that website sends the visitor to your website. Backlinks are incoming links. More number of backlinks on different sites mean more popularity or the importance over the Web.

"If content is the king then backlink is the queen" -(Abdul Wahab)

Placing backlinks on high PR (Page Rank) sites means instant ranking in search engines.If your website's link is placed on a social networking site whose PR is high or on some relevant site that has similar content as of yours it will stimulate the process of high ranking in SERPs. Search engines assume some specific sites as authentic sites like .gov, .edu, .tv etc.

Having your backlink on some sites improves your own page ranking as well. To check the ranking of your page you can install google toolbar. This tool bar can tell you the ranking of any website or its page. Similarly placing others links on your website will lower down your PR.

In toolbar you can see the page rank

You can search high PR sites over Internet further you can verify it by using google toolbar for the current status of PR. To get information about high PR sites please drop your queries in comments.

Selling or purchasing backlinks is Black Hat SEO. Link exchange among webmasters is called two way exchange or reciprocal and is also Black Hat SEO. Placing links everywhere with improper keyword density, irrelevant content containing websites and spam sites is also Black Hat SEO. This is called Link Farming again a Black Hat SEO technique.

Backlink should always be placed on relevant website. This comes under White Hat SEO.

Backlinking is done on other websites that is why it comes under off-page optimization in SEO. Keeping in mind while placing your link on other website that the content of that website should be quality content and that website if authentic is a plus point. To sum up the concept we should discuss the outcome of backlink. More backlinks mean more crawler visit on your website. Thus this will result in to higher ranking in searches.


Backlinks are also known as incoming links, inbound links, link building, inlinks, and inward links.

Important to note that pagerank and search engine result page SERP ranking has no relationship neither similar in phenomenon.


Also see
Pagerank in 2011
Search Engine Strategies in SERP 2011
Pagerank by search engines
Social Search in Google
Web 2.0 in SEO training

Web 2.0 in SEO training

Web 2.0 has changed the face of business. It  has brought revolution in WWW. Web 2.0 is the newer version of Web 1.0. The phenomenon behind the concept of Web 2.0 is participation of user in the website by posting and interacting with other users. Traditional concept in web was a user opens a website and remained a passive user. He may get the option to leave comments in Guest Book of website if available and usually the content kept private from other users. But  now minds are broaden and people do not mind if others read what the wrote.

The output of Web 2.0 is social media networking sites. Where users come and spend time in fact it would be more appropriate to say they spend lives. They talk with the wall. They get to know what others and their connections and their connections are sharing. Thus resulting in to more people around and sharing information. Lets cash this concept in terms of Web Marketing or Search Engine Marketing.

Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites. Place your flag on each of these sites. You will be absolutely visible in search results.

Web 2.0 is "read-write-web". It is developed for the user. There is no change in technical specification but just accumulating the links together and bringing them to a platform where everyone can speak with or without permission. This concept gives more than the retrieval of information. User browse and can ask a question. The interactive feature enables other to participate. Thus users are syndicated.

Podcasting
Blogging
Tagging
Contributing to RSS
Social bookmarking
Social networking

This is all about Web 2.0. Nothing technical just placing your footprints of existence over Internet.

Lets have an example: a person is selling a hydraulic jack for cars. He needs to improve his sales. Of course he needs to. He should start a blog about it, a website, should create account on every popular social media networking website, give comments, providing support to users, upload a video about how it works and link all of them together. That is it. His existence is proven. Sooner not only his geographical location but he can be seen all over the world. Don't forget to use SEO techniques in your website and other web based applications like blogs. He can target his own area of sales or services by customizing his product in search result. This concept comes under being search engine friendly. Tell your search engine that you focus on some particular geographic location so the true searchers could reach you and you get better sales in contrast with traffic hitting on your site. How to tell a search engine that I am search engine friendly?

Web 1.0		Web 2.0
DoubleClick	-->	Google AdSense
Ofoto	-->	Flickr
Akamai	-->	BitTorrent
mp3.com	-->	Napster
Britannica Online	-->	Wikipedia
personal websites	-->	blogging
evite	-->	upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation	-->	search engine optimization
page views	-->	cost per click
screen scraping	-->	web services
publishing	-->	participation
content management systems	-->	wikis
directories (taxonomy)	-->	tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness	-->	syndication

Google is promoting the Web2.0 by implementing concept in its strategies and applications

Social Search in Google

The Search Engine giant Google has turned organic search into social search by weaving the linked information through social networking sites in SERPs. This trend shows the tendency towards its strategic move towards most influenced culture of social networking or e-communities.

Google is converting the web search into social search by displaying the posts from Twitter, Flickr, blogger and other social networks. It was initially introduced by Google in 2009 later its expansion is called Google Social Search

The concept is to bring relevant posts of user's friends in to search results, this will enhance the importance of social networking as well. The world is getting more electronic and virtual. The concept of global village and virtualization is getting mature.

But this feature will only be available to those who are having Google account. Google profile can accomodate the other social media accounts by linking them together. Here you can show your rigid and flexible existence over the Internet. Now you just need to bring a product over Internet place it on every social media networking site and then link all sites to each other. Use appropriate keywords and invite others to comment or retweet. Here you go!

Linking social searching will actually bring you more closer to your network instead of wandering among strangers. On other hand the authenticity will be a question mark. A user uses the search engine to reach its destination. But this feature may bring him to some useless or ambiguous information. Google need to sort out the spam and authentic content among these social networking sites. Or this could result in to a big failure as the SERP will display junk and useless comments or posts rather taking the searcher to its desired websites.

As the search engine requires the websites to be more search engine friendly then same applies to the search engines as well. Google should ask whether to link posts from friends social networking accounts before displaying results. If the user is loggin in the Google account then his choice can also be accommodated on nature of his interest.

Google will not display the input from Facebook. Shocking! Yes. As once Facebook declined to share data with Google. But Google displays the profile information of facebook in search results.

Read also Page Rank in 2011 and Search Engine strategies in 2011.

Search Engine Strategies in SERP 2011

Does all search engines provide the same results? Absolutely NOT. It shows the difference in tendencies of search engines while ranking them in SERP. If a person is optimizing website for Google he is lacking the support of Yahoo.

Different search engines present different results against same keyword. The results of most queries confirm this difference of strategies among search engines.There is a minor overlap in search engines while displaying results on SERPs. Even keeping in mind the same required keyword provide identical variant of the keyword to same search engine and compare the results. You will again amazed to see the results shown. Search Engine guru says it depends on your geographical location and trend of keyword.

Search Engine optimization is an on-going long process. Every search engine has its own strategy. Some search engines consider the linking, some consider the meta and some consider the popularity among other social networking websites. Here I am discussing about the ranking of SERP for same keyword in different search engines. It shows the strategies vary and thus the result. To see the trend of page rank in 2011 please click here

One must follow primarily the standards and recommended measures while optimizing the website and then further he should tune it to some possible extent as per every search engine's strategy. Everyone is not using Google or Yahoo for searches. There are many other users who use other famous search engines like MSN, Bing etc. No doubt one must focus on favorite search engines to optimize the website.