SEO 2

Soft 404 HTTP status code

404 pages that are mishandled; page no longer exists but is still returning status of 200 - Can happen when content of the page is removed, but the page was locked in place (e.g., commerce sites when product no loner exists; real estate when listing is no longer available) - Bad for SEO; likely to be several pages with this error message and no other content; search engines see it as duplicate content and thin content - Google Search Console shows Soft 404s

Head element

A container for meta data; located at the top of a page

Web crawler

A crawler is a tool that crawls or spiders your website, just like a search engine would; lets you get large-scale view of information - e.g., screaming frog

robots.txt

A protocol file that allows you to specify which pages should or should not be indexed and specify the rate and which files are accessed by search engine robots; simple text file that can be uploaded to your server - Publicly viewed file - Robots can ignore these instructions; google tends to respect this file, but some people create bots to scan the web for vulnerabilities (hack websites, harvest emails, sell info)

XML sitemaps

A simple page that contains links to important pages within the site; a general overview - created for search engines; a file intended to be read by search engine robots - includes a lot of behind-the-scenes activity of the webpage - e.g., unique info about each URL, which will provide search engines with additional data about that page; when the page was last updated; how often the page changes; how important the page is in relation to other pages on the site - especially useful for new sites that haven't been discovered by search engines (upload to google search console) - tends to be 1pg for smaller sites - split into different categories for larger sites

Social media's influence on SEO

Correlation =/= causation The link between social media usage and rankings could mean there's an indirect influence on SEO through growing and engaging your online user base - Good SEO strategy increases brand visibility online, helps earn better reputation, and leads to more site traffic

PageRank

Created by Larry Page; algorithm that analyzed links throughout the web to help determine the relative importance or popularity of a website - If website A linked to website B, this would count as website A endorsing website B's usefulness and importance - More votes --> better page rank --> better rankings in search engines - Based on number and quality of links pointing to that page (scored between 0 and 10); as you gain more PageRank, the level of effort required to gain the next level of PageRank increases - Was public - We now don't track the authority of a site by its PageRank, but the concept of gaining authority through off-site SEO is similar

Meta data

Data that describes other data; made up of individual meta tags

Title tag

Describes the title or name the webmaster gave to a specific page

Elements of a robots.txt file

* Asterisk: works as a wildcard; means all robots should follow the below instructions Crawl delay: how many seconds a robot should take before accessing a new page on your site; prevents overload of server resources, which could crash site # Pound symbol: used to make a note; for humans to read (not read by robots) Disallow directive: instructs robots not to crawl the content it is referencing

404 pages best practices

- If you have 404 pages containing a significant amount of backlinks and authority or pages which received a high amount of traffic, preserve authority of these pages by redirecting them to a more appropriate page - Present friendly 404 page that will help avoid user immediately leaving site (also good for robots so they can find their way out) - Maintain overall site theme - Display error message that lets users know why it's not available (i.e., "page not found") - Call to action: what step to take next; link back to homepage and include search box

Google's analysis of backlinks

Google looks at... - amount of links - quality of links (spammy or authoritative?) - relevance of link (same field or theme?) - placement of links (footer/sidebar is usually where spammy or paid links are, often near words like "sponsor" or "follow") - reciprocal links look like a link exchange; considered spammy and invalidates both links

Examples of longtail keywords and head terms

Head terms: "textbooks" or "textbook rentals" Mid- to longtail: "online textbook rentals" Longtail: "rent college textbooks online: Really longtail transactional: "rent 'the art of seo' textbook online"

Sitemaps

Help point search engines to existing pages on your site which help ensure pages are not overlooked or missed by crawlers - refers to either HTML sitemap or XML sitemap; ideally, a website should have both available - sitemaps are an inclusionary file; they tell search engines which info you want included

Crawl delay - robots.txt

How many seconds a robot should take before accessing a new page on your site; prevents overload of server resources, which could crash site

Disallow directive - robots.txt

Instructs robots not to crawl the content it's referencing To exclude bots from entire site... user-agent: * disallow: / To allow bots full site access... user-agent: * disallow: Not including robots.txt file automatically makes all info public

Pinterest and SEO

Many pins and boards are indexed in Google and can rank highly for related search queries - Ranks well for long-tail niche keywords (i.e., "decorating ideas for small living room") - Boards with a lot of followers rank better in search

Types of queries

Navigational, informational, transactional

307 HTTP status code

Newer version of the temporary redirect; less common

Meta refresh

No HTTP status code; redirect is executed at the page level rather than by the server itself - Slow - Users likely to notice ("if you are not redirected within 5 seconds, click here...") - Not recommended because they do not provide clear signals to search engines about what happened on the previous page - Poor UX

500 HTTP status code

Server error; usually temporary and will restore itself

503 HTTP status code

Service is unavailable; code that should be present when server is down, overloaded, or going through maintenance - Lets search engines know there is a problem, but it is temporary, and they should revisit later

Meta tags

Small snippets of text that help search engines identify important info about the page; this info is contained within the source code of a page (not viewable unless you view the code that makes up the page)

200 HTTP status code

Success (OK); page loaded properly

Link Juice

The more PageRank a page has, the more PageRank it passed on to your site (also flowed throughout your own site based on what internal pages you were linking to) - This concept is now referred to as page authority, and it is made up of many things (including links)

Technical (on-site) optimization

The more technical aspects of improving the website as a whole - goes beyond keywords and content - how well the site is seen and understood by search engines - improve code used within site, structure of site, etc.

On-page optimization

The practice of optimizing elements of a page or a group of pages throughout a site to improve the SEO of the site as a whole - focused on various elements within a page or the code of a page - i.e., content on the page, keyword choice for the page, optimizing the page's meta data

Creating an XML sitemap

Use tool like screaming frog to generate sitemap; save and upload to server

Meta keywords

Used to be major component of SEO strategy; now only in international search engines

Pound symbol - robots.txt

Used to make a note; read by humans, not bots

Navigational queries

User has specific website in mind; brand search pulls up your site, your social media, and news stories

Informational queries

User is looking for more information; middle stages of the buying funnel; most likely to notice other search queries

Transactional queries

User is ready to "buy" (doesn't have to be a financial purchase; can be signing up for a newsletter, creating a free account, etc.)

Off-site (off-page) optimization

What actions you can take outside your website to improve optimization - very similar to public relations; developing good relationships with other webmasters - historically meant acquiring links from other websites pointing to your website (now also encompasses things like social media)

Off-site SEO

What you can do outside of, or off your site, to help ensure the success of your on-site and technical SEO efforts - e.g., building links to your site & increasing brand recognition and visibility through social media

Redirects

When a webmaster removes a page from their website or replaces it with a new, updated page, they send users through a redirect from the old page to the new page - Most of the time, users don't notice a redirect occurred - HTTP status code is presented; provides search engines with instructions on how they should handle the page going forward - Many people redirect old pages to homepage, but this isn't helpful; redirect to next-best page; only redirect to homepage if there's no better option

Asterisk - robots.txt

Works as a wildcard; means all robots should follow the below instructions

Heading tags

h1 is most important, h2 is semi important, h3 not looked at by search engines - one h1 per page, subsequent h2 - to view: highlight text, right click, inspect elements; will show section of source code

301 HTTP status code

Permanent redirect - In most cases, you'll want to use permanent redirect - Search engines will eventually credit the new page with the trust the old page has built up (link juice), but ~5% of authority will be lost

Search query questions

"How" questions are most popular, followed by why, where, which, and what - 50/50 split between fragments and specific phrases - 27% use query in form of a question

Stages of search

1. Awareness stage: organic search helps customers gain awareness of your brand/product/service; users have identified the need and are seeking a resolution 2. Evaluate choices 3. Develop specific preference 4. Look into that preference 5. Make final decision 6. Purchase / resolution

robots.txt scenario

1. Robot wants to visit page on site example.com/bluewidgets 2. Robot will first go to the site's robot.txt file at example.com/robots.txt 3. Search robot will check to see if there are any instructions prohibiting it from crawling that page (can ignore)

Anchor text

Clickable text of a link

Links within social media

Considered "no follow links"; pass no authority from one site to the next - BUT tweets are crawled and indexed; can show up in search, increase referral from social channels, and build better brand recognition

URL optimization

Place keyword at beginning of URL; less important than it used to be https://www.extension.ucdavis.edu/areas-study/winemaking/winemaking-certificate program - subfolders (subdirectories) help categorize documents - keep out url parameters (letters and numbers) - changing a page's URL loses the history and authority it has built up - if URL is changed, use 301 or permanent redirect

Longtail keywords

Difficult to optimize for (can't always predict exact long tail a customer will use); very specific - Majority of your traffic will naturally come from longer tail phrases - Higher probability of conversion (later stages of the buying funnel and search cycle) - Less competitive because more specific; easier to rank highly and attract more traffic

Goal of backlinks

Earn backlinks that appear as natural and non-manipulative as possible - Best way to do so: provide excellent UX and create great content - Important to have diverse backlink profile that appears natural to Google - Best type of link to acquire: link in content surrounded by words relevant to your site

HTML sitemaps

Easily read and understood by viewers

HTTP or HyperText Transfer Protocol response status codes

Error codes; each error has a specific status code attached to it, which helps search engines and developers understand what went wrong in attempting to load a page - If a search engine or user requests to view a page and the web server is unable to return that page, it will return a 3-digit code in response - two main groups of codes: 1) those starting with 4 followed by two numbers, 2) those starting with 5 followed by two numbers

Optimizing title tag

Keywords for info - describing page at front of tag | brand name at end of tag - make sure title tag is np longer than 60 characters (55 is best) - search engines will read title tags longer than 60 characters, but additional characters will be cut off in search results and lead to poor UX - don't focus on more than 1-2 keywords

Head terms

Not long tail; very competitive; lots of search volume; broad (i.e., "textbooks" or "textbook rentals")

Chain redirects

Not recommended; Page A redirects to Page B, then Page B redirects to Page C. Instead, redirect Page A to Page C and redirect Page B to Page C.

404 HTTP status code

Page not found; page removed from server and no longer exists; search engines recognize these pages are no longer available and don't include them in their index

302 HTTP status code

Temporary redirect - Tells search engines that the redirect is only in place for a limited time and not to transfer any trust to the redirected version (i.e., for site maintenance)

Website address

The URL of a page; not actually part of the meta data that you can define; search engines will pull the URL from the page its analyzing

Meta description

The block of text describing the content you will find on the page; bolded words (keywords) match words from search query - doesn't help with site rank but can be used to direct website traffic - cannot be seen on the page or within the browser; only displays publicly in search results <metaname="description"content= - if meta description is different in search than in source code (or mozbar), google deemed original meta description as not optimized (i.e., too long), so they created their own - keep under 160 characters - use call to action