Search Engine Optimization
Robots.txt file
Decides which robots to allow in and which to exclude Site wide Directory-by-directory Page-by-page (Robots meta-tag)
Why optimize
Web Search as a navigational tool On average, 52% of visitor traffic through csun.edu use the search engine to navigate. 78% of searchers stop with the top ten search results, and 92% stop with the top 30.
Frequent queries
Web traffic analysis U Web Resources
Processing queries:
When a request for information comes into the search engine, the engine retrieves from its index all the document that match the query.
Black Hat SEO:
Unscrupulous or deceptive optimization practices intended to spam users or compete unfairly Invisible text Keyword stuffing Duplicate pages Domain cloaking: serving different content to search engine robots than to human visitors Link farms
Content Management Systems
-Dynamic URLs ;Querystring enabled ;Consistent, crawl-able URLs -Cookies and session IDs
Popularity
-Inbound links -Remote anchor links & text ;Anchor link - http://www.url.com ;Anchor text - words used in link
Optimization
-Meta-data <html> <head> <title>California State University, Northridge</title> <meta name="description" content="It was founded first as the Valley satellite campus of Cal State Los Angeles. It then became an independent college in 1958 as San Fernando Valley State College, with major campus master planning and construction. The University adopted its current name of California State University, Northridge in 1972.[5] CSUN offers a variety of programs including 134 different Bachelor's degrees, Master's degrees in 70 different fields, 3 Doctoral degrees including two Doctor of Education and a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and 24 teaching credentials.[6][7] The university has over 200,000 alumni. Cal State Northridge is home to the National Center on Deafness, and each year the university hosts the International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities. -Contents Contents ."> <meta name="keywords" content="California State University Northridge, CSUN, Northridge, University of Valley, University, Universities, Colleges, Higher Education, Academic, research, Admissions">
Reliability
.edu and .gov domains Domain age
Summary
Accessible pages Think landing pages Unique HTML page title for every landing page Content relevant keywords Avoid Black Hat SEO
How much is too much?
Competition for keywords Evaluating page rank 1Baseline 2Ongoing
Search engine basics
Crawling the web: Search engines run automated programs, called "robots" or "spiders", that use the hyperlink structure of the web to "crawl" the pages and documents that make up the World Wide Web.
Accessibility
Flash Javascript SSL - authentication Firewalls and closed ports Databases & query string URLs Forms
Optimization
Get indexed Register URL with University Webmaster Submit URL to directories
Paid Placement (PPC):
Google AdWords Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM)
Directories
Human edited search indexes (yahoo direcorty dmoz the open directory project...
Meta data
Image alt-tags H1 tags Body text title most weight ultraseek 8 body text most span detection threshold 8
Popularity
Inbound links Remote anchor links & text -Googlebombing When a web page places high in search engine results due to frequent anchor links using rude or insulting keywords. miserable failure (google search) george bush?
Otimization
Meta-data -HTML Page Title ;Number one optimization factor ;Included in results display ;Unique title for each landing page Meta-data -Meta-description tag ;50% weight of HTML Title in Ultraseek ;Included in Ultraseek results display ;Less weight given by Google ;Rarely used in Google results display Meta-data -Meta-keywords tag ;Equal to meta-description tag in Ultraseek ;Ignored by Google ;Common misspellings
Indexing documents:
Once a page has been crawled, its contents can be "indexed" - stored in a giant database of documents that makes up a search engine's "index".
Ranking Results
Once the search engine has determined which results are a match for the query, the engine's algorithm (a mathematical equation commonly used for sorting) runs calculations on each of the results to determine which is most relevant to the given query.
Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
Organic: Results based on content and keyword relevancy (as per algorithm
Evaluating page rank
Page rank calculation tools Google Toolbar www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/ www.alexa.com
Key concepts
Persistent Navigation -Orients visitor to site -Provides spiders pathway through site
Key Concepts
Target audience 1Keyword choices 2Directory submission Conversion -Web site user doing what you intended them to do ex Sales Course registration Forms & downloads Page views Conversion paths and funnels