The document provides 5 tips for search engine optimization (SEO): 1) Use search engine friendly URLs (SEF URLs) that include keywords; 2) Optimize title, description and keyword tags while avoiding stuffing; 3) Write content for humans rather than focusing overly on keywords; 4) Use text links for navigation rather than frames or Flash; 5) Include an XML sitemap to inform search engines of site structure. Following these tips can help improve a site's rankings in search engines.
4. SEF URLs
(Search Engine Friendly Uniform Resource Locators)
http://wines.com/dry-red-wine/barkan-merlot-2004.php
vs
https://checkout.store.com/catalog/index.jsp?cat_id=1013
5. SEF URLs
● Use keywords in the domain, directory names
and filenames
6. SEF URLs
● Use keywords in the domain, directory names
and filenames
● Do not use generic or structural words (catalog,
about-us)
7. SEF URLs
● Use keywords in the domain, directory names
and filenames
● Do not use generic or structural words (catalog,
about-us)
● Have short content-related URLs
8. SEF URLs
● Use keywords in the domain, directory names
and filenames
● Do not use generic or structural words (catalog,
about-us)
● Have short content-related URLs
● Use lowercase URLS
9. SEF URLs
● Use keywords in the domain, directory names
and filenames
● Do not use generic or structural words (catalog,
about-us)
● Have short content-related URLs
● Use lowercase URLS
● Do not mix www and non-www in internal links
(use relative links if possible)
10. SEF URLs
● Use keywords in the domain, directory names
and filenames
● Do not use generic or structural words (catalog,
about-us)
● Have short content-related URLs
● Use lowercase URLS
● Do not mix www and non-www in internal links
(use relative links if possible)
● Google recommends that you punctuate with
hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) in your
URLs
11. SEF URLs
● Only have one Domian
– Use no follow links and 301 redirect
– Use Apache's htaccess guide
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/misc/rewriteguide.html
12. SEF URLs
● Be Aware of Problematic URLs
– Search Results
– Calendars
– Use cookies instead of session Ids
13. SEF URLs
● Be Aware of Problematic URLs
– Block Indexing in your robots.txt
For a site like
http://www.wine.com/wine-search-results.jsp?Ne=292&N=461+4294967240+4294967270
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /wine-search-results.jsp
14. SEF URLs
● Be Aware of Problematic URLs
Google suggests add a nofollow attribute to
dynamically created links.
However, if these are linked from other sources,
search engines will find them.
Block pages with a no index meta tag in the template
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, FOLLOW">
as opposed to
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, FOLLOW">
15. SEF URLs
● Check your site for broken URLs (links).
Test with GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOL
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
● Creating a Google-friendly URL structure:
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=76329
16. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
● Google uses title and description tags
– They do not say they use the keyword tag.
META TAGS
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=79812
17. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
● Google uses title and description tags
– They do not say they use the keyword tag.
● Use keywords in tags but avoid keyword
stuffing
META TAGS
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=79812
18. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
● Google uses title and description tags
– They do not say they use the keyword tag.
● Use keywords in tags but avoid keyword
stuffing
● Use "Old Words"
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/search-keywords.html
META TAGS
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=79812
19. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
● Google uses title and description tags
– They do not say they use the keyword tag.
● Use keywords in tags but avoid keyword
stuffing
● Use "Old Words"
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/search-keywords.html
● Be Descriptive and Accurate
META TAGS
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=79812
20. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
● Title tag is used by Google for indexing
TITLE TAG
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=7092
21. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
● Title tag is used by Google for indexing
● Title tag is displayed in search results
TITLE TAG
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=7092
22. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
● Title tag is used by Google for indexing
● Title tag is displayed in search results
● Each page title should be unique
TITLE TAG
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=7092
23. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
● Title tag is used by Google for indexing
● Title tag is displayed in search results
● Each page title should be unique
● Site name should be secondary, if at all
TITLE TAG
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=7092
24. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
Avoid: <title>Home</title>
Better: <title>Webmaster Central home page</title>
Best:
<title>Webmaster Central home page | Search engine tips and tools for
webmasters</title>
To be avoided (may cause your site to be perceived as spam):
<title>Webmaster Central seo optimization search engine search engine
google websearch google searchresults improve search results seo optimize
search searching serps</title>
TITLE TAG
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=7092
25. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="">
● Description used by Search engines
26. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="">
● Description used by Search engines
● Should be no more than 150 characters, no less
than 70 characters
27. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="">
● Description used by Search engines
● Should be no more than 150 characters, no less
than 70 characters
● Different descriptions for each page
28. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="">
● Description used by Search engines
● Should be no more than 150 characters, no less
than 70 characters
● Different descriptions for each page
● Use appropriate format
<meta name="Description" content="Author: A.N. Author,
Illustrator: P. Picture, Category: Books, Price: $17.99, Length:
784 pages">
29. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="">
● List your keywords by priority, separated by a comma
30. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="">
● List your keywords by priority, separated by a comma
● Maximum characters: 874
31. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="">
● List your keywords by priority, separated by a comma
● Maximum characters: 874
● Ideal is 10 keywords (or phrases) 255 characters
32. Guidelines for
Title, Description & Keyword Tags
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="">
● List your keywords by priority, separated by a comma
● Maximum characters: 874
● Ideal is 10 keywords (or phrases) 255 characters
● Keywords should not be repeated more than 3 times
– NOT all search engines separate by commas. With some
search engines this may be considered "word spamming".
– If you write "Jewish, Jewish Sites, Jewish Celebration" you
are wasting resources. There is no need to repeat the same
word. Instead write "Jewish,sites,celebration"
33. “Word Spamming,” “Keyword
Stuffing,” “Keyword Density”
Best strategy: Write good relevant content for humans
34. “Word Spamming,” “Keyword
Stuffing,” “Keyword Density”
Best strategy: Write good relevant content for humans
● Be aware of single keywords and keyphrases of two or
three terms
35. “Word Spamming,” “Keyword
Stuffing,” “Keyword Density”
Best strategy: Write good relevant content for humans
● Be aware of single keywords and keyphrases of two or
three terms
● Keyword Density should not exceed 6%
36. “Word Spamming,” “Keyword
Stuffing,” “Keyword Density”
Best strategy: Write good relevant content for humans
● Be aware of single keywords and keyphrases of two or
three terms
● Keyword Density should not exceed 6%
● Online Tools
– http://www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/keyword-
density.html
– http://www.keydensity.com/
– http://www.keyworddensity.com/
37. SEF Navigation
● Use Text links with descriptive text, URLs and title tags
38. SEF Navigation
● Use Text links with descriptive text, URLs and title tags
– Do not depend on jscript dropdowns or Flash
navigation
39. SEF Navigation
● Use Text links with descriptive text, URLs and title tags
– Do not depend on jscript dropdowns or Flash
navigation
● Do not use frames
40. SEF Navigation
● Use Text links with descriptive text, URLs and title tags
– Do not depend on jscript dropdowns or Flash
navigation
● Do not use frames
● Do not use graphics for navigation
41. SEF Navigation
● Use Text links with descriptive text, URLs and title tags
– Do not depend on jscript dropdowns or Flash
navigation
● Do not use frames
● Do not use graphics for navigation
● Use Breadcrumbs
42. SEF Navigation
● Use Text links with descriptive text, URLs and title tags
– Do not depend on jscript dropdowns or Flash
navigation
● Do not use frames
● Do not use graphics for navigation
● Use Breadcrumbs
● CHECK YOUR SITE IN LYNX
46. SEF Navigation (Flash)
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=72746
Note that while Google can index the content of Flash
files, other search engines may not be able to.
If your site uses JavaScript to load a Flash file, we may
not be able to discover & index the contents of that file.
We don't attach content from external resources loaded
by Flash files such as an HTML file, an XML file, or
another SWF file - we may index the contents, but we
won't consider it to be part of the content in a Flash file.
47. SEF Navigation (Flash)
google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=72746
Note that while Google can index the content of Flash
files, other search engines may not be able to.
If your site uses JavaScript to load a Flash file, we may
not be able to discover & index the contents of that file.
We don't attach content from external resources loaded
by Flash files such as an HTML file, an XML file, or
another SWF file - we may index the contents, but we
won't consider it to be part of the content in a Flash file.
We're currently unable to index the bidirectional language
content (for example, Hebrew or Arabic) in Flash files.
48. Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps
● Text file called sitemap.xml in your root directory
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8467
49. Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps
● Text file called sitemap.xml in your root directory
● A list of URLs or sitemaps
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8467
50. Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps
● Text file called sitemap.xml in your root directory
● A list of URLs or sitemaps
● Specify all URLs using the same syntax
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8467
51. Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps
● Text file called sitemap.xml in your root directory
● A list of URLs or sitemaps
● Specify all URLs using the same syntax
● Do not include session IDs in URLs
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8467
52. Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps
● Text file called sitemap.xml in your root directory
● A list of URLs or sitemaps
● Specify all URLs using the same syntax
● Do not include session IDs in URLs
● Do not include URLs of images
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8467
54. Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps
Definitions for each URL in a Sitemap
● Location (URL)
● Time it was last modified
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8467
55. Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps
Definitions for each URL in a Sitemap
● Location (URL)
● Time it was last modified
● How often it is updated
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8467
56. Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps
Definitions for each URL in a Sitemap
● Location (URL)
● Time it was last modified
● How often it is updated
● Priority
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8467
58. Webmaster Tools: Sitemaps
➢ Sitemap generators
On-line: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
➢ Software: We use RAGE Sitemap Automator (For Mac)
http://www.ragesw.com/products/googlesitemap.html
➢ Submit your sitemap after verifying your site on Google
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
➢ On-line services submit to Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, MSN (Live.com) and
Moreover.com.
http://www.sitemapwriter.com/notify.php
➢ Submit using your robots.txt file
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
59. Let's Continue The Conversation
Charlie Kalech
Charlie@J-Town.co.il
Tel: (02) 671-9918 ext 203
LINKED IN
http://www.linkedin.com/in/charliekalech
FACEBOOK http://j-town.co.il/facebook
TWITTER http://twitter.com/CharlieKalech