StepForth SEO News Blog

Thursday, August 31, 2006

When I sit down with new clients and discuss the status of their new or existing site they are often shocked when I am forced to inform them that their site is not search engine friendly. Encountered with a blank but slightly shaken look I then explain that this means their site has a particular problem that is hindering search engine rankings. Often this is represented by an inflexible design, overuse of advanced web technologies, or simply a weak navigation scheme. As a result, if they were to continue with the site as it stands they are unlikely to attain competitive search engine rankings.

The following is checklist designed to help you gauge the search engine friendliness of your website and, if you are in the midst of planning a website this checklist will help you avoid the common pitfalls of unfriendly designs.

Technologies
First consider what technologies your website is using. There are certain technologies that require a little more hand holding than others to ensure search engine compatibility.

1. FRAMES
   Lets start with this oldie. Luckily, frames are becoming a way of the past what with the use of DIV layers and the slow onset of incredibly flexible AJAX coding. The long and the short of it is that if you have Frames on your website then you are starting off at a disadvantaged position that cannot be truly search engine friendly no matter what you do. There are, however, some remedial fixes that will tie you over until you can redesign your site; yes I said redesign. The fix that I recommend is to use a noframes tag whereby you place another version of your web page inside of your framed page. This ‘backup’ page is what the search engines will view; here you can place relevant content and navigational elements so that the search engines can at least navigate portions of your site that are (hopefully) not framed.
   
   More info on the no frames tags.
   


2. FLASH
   There was a big brouhaha that Flash had become search engine indexable and you no longer had to worry about its search engine issues. Frankly, I have not seen the fruits of this ‘improvement’ to a respectable degree yet so I still consider it a kiss of death for websites designed solely in Flash. If you have a Flash-only website then I recommend one of these two options; one is to design an html version of your website and make the home page of your website html rather than Flash where you can then allow users to choose between html or Flash. The second option is to redesign the site so that it mixes both html and flash together. For example, this might mean implementing Flash amidst content on an HTML page as you would an image. I realize there are certain limitations to this option but if you can create a slick site in this manner then you will have the best of both worlds; clean search engine friendly content along with an interactive, multimedia feel. Just remember that the majority of relevant text should be in HTML format for the search engines to index.
   


3. Search Engine ‘Unfriendly Dynamic URL’s
   Unfriendly dynamic URL’s are a common side effect of using a Content Management System that is not designed with search engine rankings kept in mind. Here are some examples of some unfriendly URL’s:
   
   Sample 1: http://www.mydomain.com/myproducts.php&354=prod333&subproduct
   
   Sample 2: http://www.surfboardsforyou.com/boards/filename.php?
   id=F98ZF4&productId=39222&section=wicked&brand=582&template=532
   These URLs are problematic because a search engine may consider these addresses too complex to spider. Why too complex? Suffice it to say that the more complex the URL, the higher the chance that a search engine robot will consider the content too dynamic to read; it changes too often to be valuable to a search engine.
   
   The way around these types of URLs is actually not so difficult; it may only require a small investment of time and money. The ‘time’ will be required when researching which URL fix is right for your system. The money may be required to pay a programmer to implement and test the new URLs. Here are how the URLs might look once they are fixed to be search engine friendly:
   
   Sample 1 Fixed: http://www.mydomain.com/myproducts/354/prod333/subproduct/
   
   Sample 2 Fixed: http://www.surfboardsforyou.com/boards/wickedboards/39222/board532/
   
   These URLs are better because they do not include the extraneous characters that are so telltale on dynamic websites. In addition, the URLs are designed to appear like normal website directories when in fact they are dynamic URLs.
   
   Important: it is vital that you minimize the length of the URLs that you use. Search engines may stop crawling a website if there appear to be too many subdirectories. The samples above show fixed URLs that have about as many subdirectories as I would allow (4).

Design
This section focuses on the overall layout and usability of your designs from the perspective of a search engine robot. Search engine friendly design is occasionally quite complex so I have provided a list of the most common issues to consider.

1. Menus
   Are the menus on your website spiderable? If not you may be hiding major areas of your website from search engine spiders and missing out on additional search engine rankings.
   
   The fact is there are very few menus out there that a search engine will have a problem following, but there are definitely some worth avoiding. For instance do not use a JavaScript Jump Menu (example) as the core mode of navigation of your website; search engines cannot index this type of menu. Also be careful of Flash menus, they look slick but they will impede the progress of a search engine spider especially if they are the only means of navigation within your site.
   
   General Menu Rules
   The ideal menu would be text based and each text link would include the keywords you are targeting on the destination page. Setting up a menu with this much forethought requires that you determine the layout and content for your site before web design begins. Once you have a clear picture of the content for each page you can then research the keywords that are best to target per webpage. This essential keyword research can be done in house easily enough using systems like keyword research tools that provide you with a glimpse into how your customers think by showing how many searches there are per month (or year) for a particular term.
   
   Remember, almost every page within your site has a very real opportunity to gain a top ranking; all you need to do is ensure that the design, content and site structure is optimized. Ensuring that the menu is carefully thought out and designed is a crucial step for top rankings.
   
   Finally, if you are at all uncertain whether your menu is search engine friendly then be certain to back it up with a text menu in the footer of your page using the same keyword targeting principles noted above.
   
   Tech Advice: a simple text menu may be less than desirable for you; in this case I recommend DHTML menus. These menus use text but in a manner that is quite appealing and very search engine friendly.
   


2. Sitemaps
   Sitemaps can dramatically help the visibility of your website by allowing search engine spiders easy access to all of the pages in your site. Place a link to the sitemap on every page within your site to ensure easy access no matter where a search engine or user enters your site.
   
   Sitemap Tips
   Just having a sitemap will help but how you build your sitemap will also play a role in how well the search engines catalogue it. For example, if you have a twenty-page website it would be ideal to create a sitemap where each page is represented by a title along with a short description. Ultimately, the page may be a bit long but it will have content that the search engines like to index and it will boost the relevance of the linked pages because the titles will accurately represent the content. So in effect, you will now have more than just a sitemap; you will have a table of contents for your site that has the potential of getting a ranking and provides an extra boost to the ranking worthiness of each page.
   
   Google Sitemap
   Google Sitemap is an additional design element that you should consider adding. Here is an article Scott Van Achte wrote on how to implement your own Google Sitemap.
   


3. Layout
   How you layout your page can make a significant difference in how well your site ranks and ultimately how search engine friendly it is.
   
   Tips for Layout
   Search engine robots read a webpage from the top of the source code (the programming that made your page – see “view source” in your browser) all the way to the bottom. As a result, it is important to ensure that both of the following elements are found as close to the beginning of code as possible:
   
   A) A short sentence introducing the topic using the keyword targets you have chosen for the page.
   
   B) Your text menu and other navigational aids, or if this is not possible it would be even more beneficial to start with a paragraph or two of relevant content followed by the navigation.
   
   By placing this information near to the top of the page, you will promptly present the search engine robot with relevant text that backs up the page title and backlinks. You will also provide an immediate sitemap of sorts for the search engine to spider, which includes keywords relevant to each page.
   


4. Splash Pages – ACK!
   With the odd exception Splash Pages are a kiss of death for a website because the home page (the first page seen when someone visits your domain), your most important page, is often converted into nothing but an excess entry point with little or no relevant content on it. Aside from reducing your chances for ranking, you are also making your visitors take another step to get to content or sales material in your site. Any additional steps you add will lessen the likelihood of a successful sale.
   
   Please Let Me Change Your Mind
   If you think you need to use a splash page then you need to talk to someone who will change your mind. No, honestly, give me a call if you want because there is nothing more painful to a SEO or search engine friendly web designer to see a Splash Page in use. If, in the unlikely scenario your splash page is required, there are ways to make it slightly more search engine friendly.
   
   a) Add a highly relevant and well-worded paragraph to the page so that the search engines have something to index that shows them they are in the right place.
   
   b) Either provide a link to your sitemap or implement a text menu in the footer of the page so the search engines can access the internal workings of your website without having to take an extra step.

In Summary
Creating a search engine friendly website requires a basic to advanced understanding of how a search engine works, depending on the complexity of the planned website. Complexity aside, the notes above provide a good basis for you to evaluate the friendliness of your website and make changes where necessary. If you have questions regarding your website you can call me toll-free at 1-877-385-5526 (within North America) or email me and I will do my best to help or I will direct you to someone who can.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Is Your Website Search Engine Friendly? Your Personal Checklist

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Search Engine SPAM Strikes Again

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Danny Sullivan is Leaving Search Engine Watch

Monday, August 28, 2006

Google launched a free packaged business solution for enterprises today (Sunday, August 27th) including online chat, email, calendars, and hosting. Called “Gmail for Your Domain” (a ghastly name that is only slightly better referred to as “Google Apps” within the actual admin area) this application package will allow a business owner or administrator to create a separate account per employee.

Required Setup Procedure: Requires that you shift all email protocol from your domain (i.e. www.stepforth.com) to Google so that email can be sent and received using your domain (so that your email correctly displays it came from your domain).

Google Calendar: Probably the most feature rich application within this entire package, Google Calendar provides users with the ability to share appointments or entire calendars. It also has a basic event management option that allows you to manage RSVP lists and invite associates to meetings. Check out the full Google Calendar feature list here.

Required Setup Procedure for Google Calendar and Google Talk: The only requirement is that you prove you are the legitimate owner of the domain you setup your account with. The activation process is simple; just upload a specific html file to your website for Google to verify and voila, both Calendar and Talk are enabled.

Required Setup Procedure: You must add a CNAME to your domain management configuration (usually by asking your hosting provider) which will setup a subdomain (i.e. http://site.yoursite.com) that you can upload and administer through Google Apps.

Account Administration
The account administrator using a central online Dashboard can administer all Google accounts. Within the Dashboard, the administrator can do the following:

• setup domain aliases,
• setup email catch-all addresses,
• create internal email lists (i.e. staff@yoursite.com would go to… list all in-house recipients)
• make minor cosmetic (color) customizations to the company sign in page,
• customize your Google Apps system with your company logo,
• enable or disable contact sharing; which when enabled provides a central contact list that all users will have access to.,
• create and update multiple user accounts at once by uploading a spreadsheet with username and password information,
• centrally configure individual user privileges, alternate email addresses and passwords,
• view access, and email quota statistics for each user.

Additionally, a couple of the applications are definitely in their infancy. For example, Google Calendar doe not offer any synchronization capabilities for handhelds or PC’s, so if you make the switch there is no way (currently) to update your handheld with your Google Calendar schedule. This chink alone is enough to keep me from making the switch. Oh and I must not forget Google Page Creator and the free hosting service; it is, well, pointless in its current state. After all, there is no way to upload a website other than using Page Creator, which is a website-publishing tool in its extreme infancy. I can only assume that the web-publishing facet of Google Apps was included as a frill.

• Google Notepad (more info)
  Share important notes with your staff and allow them to search notes company-wide.


• Personalized Home Page
  Okay, I cheated here, Google has already posted that this will be coming and they even have a help menu setup for this already. Essentially this option will allow you to customize the home search page for your employees to a limited degree locking certain areas of their Google start page.


• Google Reader (more info)
  This is a free RSS viewer that allows you to subscribe to and label RSS feeds such as The SEO Blog. I believe this application will be added to Google Apps, or at least should, so that Administrators can keep their employees up to date on their own company’s blog as well as their competitors’. In addition, RSS feeds are a great venue for continued education for anyone in a company; I constantly use them to keep up to date on the latest website analytics tutorials and upcoming web technologies. Ultimately, it would be great to enforce the viewing of certain RSS feeds for employees; much like locking areas of their personalized Google home page.
  
  
• Google Spreadsheets (more info)
  Create your spreadsheets online and share them across your enterprise.
  
  
• Google's Writely (more info)
  Create documents online, share them and publish them to your website.
  
  

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Launches Enterprise Software Solution

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Analytics Opened to All: Belated News from August 15th

There is a low buzz in the SEO world about a new Google patent titled: "System and method for supporting editorial opinion in the ranking of search results". You can find the actual Google patent here. As far as patents go this seems to be an odd one; there are a wide variety of interpretations of this patent and from what I can tell they all have some merit.

I don't personally have much to say about this patent now because the simple fact is that I have to give it a more thorough read. I can tell you, however, that reviewing new patents is not a priority for me because they are only *possible* indications of future updates; too much 'if' for me to consider it a concern. At any rate I do consider it a bit of a hobby to keep up on what the latest and greatest minds of search engine companies are coming up with and maybe you do to.

Here are a few sites that have posted opinions about this patent:

• Webmaster World
  
• eWeek's Google Watch
  
• Threadwatch
  
  

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Some Buzz on Google's New Patent

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Recently the world of online auctioneers saw the rates at eBay spike a little higher, and has a number of sellers very unhappy about the situation. This has also sparked a number of eBay listings surrounding this hike, like this T-Shirt "I survived the eBay Rate Increase of August '06". Wonder how many they will sell?

Finding information on the eBay rate increase was more difficult than expected. One would expect to find a press release, but a look at their PR page come up blank (). I'm curious, eBay sends out a ton of messages advertising free listing days and other various news to its users. I on the other hand did not receive a single message from them stating the rate increase. Would this not seem like a natural thing to do?

Many are turning to Google in hopes that the internet search giant will come out and develop a true eBay competitor. Today eBay has a virtual monopoly on the online auction business. While there are many auction sites on the internet, none can even come close to comparing to the immense power and spread of eBay. Where's Google? Even Yahoo has an auction site, although I have to be honest, I have yet to try it.

This does bring up the question, why has Google not come out yet and created a competitor? Google seems to have a knack for this kind of thing. It seems to me that because of the power and revenue generated by AdWords ads, they could do quite well even offering a free online auction service. The ad revenue could far exceed the auction listing fees and combined with an even stronger online presence, Google could certainly overtake eBay and profit considerably.

A search of Google Labs, or even a general internet search doesn't turn up anything official even suggesting that Google is thinking about going in this direction, but it does seem like a natural progression seeing as how they have roughly 50% of search already, and have developed a name trusted around the world.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Ebay Hikes Rates, Where's Google?

Monday, August 21, 2006

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View this Article Only: Free Word Processing, Courtesy of Google

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Search the Top SEO News Websites from The SEO Blog :: Thank You Rollyo!

Webmaster tools are becoming a hot topic in the major search engines these days. It is becoming increasingly obvious to search engine companies that they need to begin listening to webmasters and provide more tools to ensure future brand integrity. It is about time! I have been waiting for the search engines to wise up and over the past couple of years both Google and Yahoo have begun to prominently feature such tools. This article is devoted to Yahoo’s Site Explorer tool and how you can harness it to help you improve your search engine rankings and improve your odds for online success.

THEN: September 29th, 2004
Yahoo! officially launched Yahoo Site Explorer (see release). This new tool was designed to promote feedback between webmasters and Yahoo search staff. Ever since Yahoo! launched and became the powerhouse it is today it has had a rather bleak reputation for responding to customer search inquiries and ranking or directory complaints; this is another great step they took to change public opinion.

When it launched in 2005, Yahoo! Site Explorer provided a central interface for the following:

• List all subpages of a site domain (domain.com) or path (domain.com/~yourname)

• Backlinks (or inlinks as Yahoo calls them) for both site domains and paths.

• Free submission of sites not indexed yet by Yahoo. Submissions can be done either one at a time or by bulk. The bulk method requires that you identify the location (URL) of an online text file with the list of URLs to be submitted.

• Download up to 1000 search results in TSV format (TSV can be read by Excel)
  

NOW: August 8th, 2006 – New and Improved!
Yahoo has announced a fairly dramatic update to this service which provides more tools and a cleaner operating environment.

Yahoo Site Explorer has added the following new capabilities:

• Additional information about each page within your associated website(s):
  - “Last Crawled Date”: This is the last time your page was indexed by Yahoo! Slurp (Yahoo’s robot).
  - “Language”: the language of the page (a waste of space in my opinion)
  - Show pages from subdomains: this will list any subdomains that Yahoo has identified and will allow you to choose between seeing indexing results on “all subdomains” or “only this domain”. This is merely a filtering feature.

• RSS Feed Submission: submit your RSS or Atom feeds and manage them from your Site Explorer control panel.

• Automated page update notification service (info link): designed for the Yahoo Developer Network this is useful only to those that have automated applications that can interface with Yahoo!’s API. This service allows you to tell Yahoo when your pages have been updated so that it knows when to recrawl.

IMPORTANT: this new information is only available if you have authenticated your website. How to authenticate your site on Yahoo Site Explorer is covered here.

Getting Down to Business: How Yahoo Site Explorer Can Help You!

1. The “MySite” Area – Your Own Websites
This following points require that you have authenticated your website(s). Click on Figure 1.0 to see what this screen will look like if your site(s) are authenticated.

	The first and most obvious advantage of seeing your sites in Yahoo Site Explorer is verifying which pages have been indexed. If you find that many pages of your site are missing this may be a great indication that your site is not search engine friendly. Is your site search engine friendly?
	The ‘inlinks’ (aka. backlinks) option is a fantastic way to view the links pointing to your website. The best part is that unlike the linkdomain: search that Yahoo offered before, you can actually download up to 1000 results in a small file that you can then filter with Excel or your spreadsheet application of choice. Why is this helpful? First of all this is an effective means of determining which sites are providing the most links to your website. These websites are obviously very interested in your product/services so perhaps contacting them and strengthening that relationship would be a good idea.
	Again the inlinks has another advantage; determining which sites you should appear on *more* often. Let me explain by describing this review step by step because this is a little bit advanced but well worth the minimal learning curve. (If you find the following information just too much to handle keep in mind that StepForth offers professional website analytics and competitor analysis services to take the work out of your hands.)
	1) Look at the referrer information in your website statistics and write down the sites that appear to be driving a lot of traffic to your website. 2) Now, download the inlink data from Yahoo Site Explorer for your website (up to 1000 results can be downloaded) in TSV format. 3) Open the TSV file in your local spreadsheet program and sort the results by website. 4) Now that the website results are sorted alphabetically try to find any sites from your list of top referrers that are standing out as having particularly few links to your site. 5) If you have found a site that has a high ratio of traffic to backlinks then you might have just stumbled on a gold mine. Say what? Just consider what you have found for a moment. Here is the situation; a particular website has few links pointing to your site but it is still delivering a high level of traffic. Armed with this information your next step should be to figure out how to get more links from that site. Perhaps the webmaster will be interested in providing more exposure to your site freely or for a low advertising cost. You simply never know unless you research the site and/or contact the webmaster.
	And keep in mind that even if you don’t find any goldmines you are still learning a lot more about your target market such as which sites they frequent and what information appears to be of interest to them; which is always helpful.
	You can submit your RSS feed if you have a blog. This is a great way to be certain that your feed is being spidered by Yahoo.
	Are you curious why a particular page in your website is being used as an access point? Try typing in that page’s address into the search bar in Site Explorer and if that page has been indexed by Yahoo it will appear. Now click on the inlinks report for that page and you will have a complete listing of the websites that are linking to that page. Look at each inlink page and you will get a better idea of why your site page is becoming an entry point. This research method is nothing new but this quicker approach is slick.

2. The “MySite” Area – Your Competitor’s Website
The following points focus on the analysis of your competitors so site authorization is not required. Figure 2.0 provides an example of the screen when you are viewing a site you have not been authorized for.

Are you curious what your competitors are up to? Recently I wrote an article on how to conduct your own competitor analysis and I wish I had included Site Explorer’s features in it. Here is how I use Yahoo Site Explorer to check in on the competition. After I have shown you how to get the information I will explain what information you can glean from it.

1. Type in the main domain of the competitor in Site Explorer.

2. From the competitor’s result screen click on ‘inlinks’ so that you have the full inlinks (backlinks) report on that competitor.

3. Now just above the first set of results you will see the following options that allow you to filter the inlink results:

The “From All Pages” means that you are seeing inlinks from any page; including links from the competitor’s site to its own site (internal pages linking to each other). So in order to remove these links that don’t provide you with any useful information you want to change this to “Except from this domain” so that you are not getting internal links showing up. This is how it will appear:

4. The resulting list will now show only external sites linking to your competitor; a much more valuable report since you have now removed backlink information that is useless to your research.

5. Next you have two options; one is to download as many results as you can using the “Export Result to TSV” command (usually only 50 or so will download) or you can begin reviewing the sites visually, page by page. I would start with the first step and then move on to manually reviewing the sites within Site Explorer after you have exhausted the first 50 that are handily provided in spreadsheet format.

Okay you have this report… now what? Here 3 key pieces of information you may find valuable:

1. Benefit from their Work: You can now create a list of sites that your competitor(s) have managed to get links from. Next try to match these links by contacting each site’s webmaster and asking if they would consider linking to your website. This is a great method for in-house link building.

2. Advertising Revealed: Have you noticed that a large number of backlinks seem to be coming from a particular domain? Look into this domain closely; it could be that your competitor is paying for a link which is directly converting to beneficial backlinks. It may be worth contacting these site(s) and requesting pricing for advertising of your own. If advertising is not possible then at the very least you now have a part of the equation for your competitor’s ranking successes (if they have any).

3. Forums and Blogs: Keep an eye out for backlinks from forums or blogs. These backlinks may indicate a particularly useful forum that could drive business to your website. It also cannot hurt to benefit from the forum interaction by placing a backlink in your post signature (same as an email signature). Just don’t expect much of an advantage from signature backlinks because rampant spam from unimaginative spammers has rendered such links less important.

Yahoo Site Explorer is Now Unavoidable
For those that like to do research by hand you may be asking “why would I use Site Explorer when I can perform my own research by hand?” Yahoo Site Explorer has made itself somewhat unavoidable since it began redirecting most searches for “link”, “site” or “linkdomain” to Site Explorer which in-turn requires that you have a free Yahoo account.

Summary
The tools provided within Yahoo’s Site Explorer tool may not be ground breaking but they sure make certain forms of research much easier. By making queries that used to be entirely manual (link:, linkdomain:, site: etc.) available automatically they have certainly made the world of competitor analysis that much easier to experience for the average site owner.

Kudos Yahoo! I think you guys are definitely on the right track; you have certainly earned thumbs up from me for this innovation.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Examining Yahoo!'s Site Explorer Tool: How it Can Help You

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google May Soon Tell You Where Your Picture Was Taken

Friday, August 11, 2006

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google's Home Page Functionality Updated

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Sitemaps Changes Names

Google XML Sitemaps have been around for a while now and many webmasters are starting to become familiar with them. They can help you to achieve up to date indexing in Google, and, in a round about way, play a small roll in assisting with rankings. Sitemaps are not needed by everyone, but can be of significant use for many website. This article will touch on the basics of what they are, who can use them, and how to implement them.

What is a Google XML Sitemap?
In short a Google XML Sitemap allows webmasters to submit a master list of all their site's pages to Google for indexing. This information is stored in an XML file along with other relevant information where specified by the webmaster. It can be as simple as a list of URL's belonging to the site, or can include, last modified date, update frequency, and priority. The purpose of this Sitemap is to have the most recent version of your URL's indexed in Google at all times.

Who needs a Google XML Sitemap?
XML sitemaps can generally help any site needing to be indexed by Google; however, small sites may not see the need for this. For example, if you have a small 10 page website that seldom sees any of its pages updated and your entire site is already in Google's index, the XML Sitemap is not necessarily going to help much. It is best used when trying to keep the latest versions of your pages current in Google. Large sites with an extensive list of URL's will also benefit, especially if 100% of their pages are not appearing in the index. So a general rule of thumb, if you have either a dynamic or large site, Google XML Sitemaps just may benefit you.

Will using XML Sitemaps improve my Google Ranking?
In most cases this will not improve your rankings, however it can help. By having the most current version of your site in Google's index, this can speed up your movement in the results pages. This is because if you make an update to a page for optimization purposes, Google's index will have this page updated more quickly than without the XML sitemap. What this essentially means is that with more frequent spidering you can help influence what version of your site is in the index, and ultimately, help with rankings by decreasing response time.

How do you create the XML Sitemap?
If you have a very small site, or a lot of time on your hands you can create your XML sitemap manually, but for the vast majority of webmasters, automated tools are an absolute must. There are a number of available solutions for this. One of the simplest methods of creating XML sitemaps is through the use of VIGOS GSitemap This is a free, easy to use tool that will help you create your XML sitemaps with ease. There are also number of downloadable and online tools listed on Google's site which cater to both beginners and seasoned professionals alike.

Submitting your XML Sitemap to Google is relatively straightforward. After the file has been created the first thing you want to do is upload the file to your server, preferably at the root level. Log into the Sitemap console using your Google account login. From here you can add a site to your account. Simply enter your top level domain where it says "Add Site" (see fig 1.0). This will add the domain to your account and allow you to then submit the XML sitemap

(Figure 1.0)

Clicking here will take you to a screen to enter the online location of the XML sitemap. (see fig 1.1). Click "Add Web Sitemap" and you are on your way.

(Figure 1.1)

Once this is complete you have the option of verifying your Sitemap. This can be done by placing a specific meta tag on your home page, or by uploading a blank html file with a file name provided by Google. Verification will allow you to access crawl stats, and other valuable information regarding your Google listing.

Implementing an XML Sitemap is generally straightforward and worth the effort. Taking the time to implement them is well worth it as there is no negative down side to this tool provided by Google. Every little thing adds up in terms of obtaining site rankings and frequent spidering by Google is certainly one of them.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google XML Sitemaps - The Basics

No, it is not a STD but to some they are worse. After all, stats, better known as statistics, conjure up bad memories for many who unhappily sat through this post-secondary statistics course. Hey, let’s face it; pouring over statistics is not for everyone.

Oh Yeah, That Thing!
All too often my clients say ‘huh?’ when I ask them if they have access to web statistics or traffic reports for their website(s). But the fact is that if you have a website you more than likely have access to traffic ‘stats’ that provide a glimpse into the minds of your website visitors. Simply put, I think there are some readers out there that could use a brief tutorial on just how useful those website statistics reports can be.

To Start: Get Access to Your Statistics
If you have statistics for your website open them up and check them out while or after you read this article; you just might learn something about your site that you never knew.

If you are unsure whether you have statistics just give your web hosting company a call and ask them. Chances are that you were provided access to this information when you signed up for your service and you just need to get the proper access information again. Don’t worry if you are concerned about complexity, normally getting access to your website statistics is a totally painless process.

If you don’t have access to a report right now, try using this sample I found online.

A Mini Analytics Glossary
Before you delve into the world of analytics I want to provide you with a brief outline of the more popular analytics terms that you will often encounter. Please note that these are all very basic definitions for the purposes of this article.

“Unique Visitors” or “Visitors”: the number of different physical people that visited your site. This statistic is far from perfect (curious? read here for why) but it is used often.

Visits: each new visitor that has not been to your site within the last 60 minutes.

Page Views: generally known as the most accurate statistic, this information tells you how many times your pages were viewed in total.

Hits: never use this term! This term was used ages ago interchangeably (read that confusingly) to describe visitors when in fact it meant something entirely different. Here is an extreme example; a site with 1,000,000 hits per month may only have 1000 visitors per month if the only page they visit has 1000 images on it. In other words, a hit is registered every time an image loads. As you can imagine, this statistic can be very misleading.

Here are some more terms defined.

Exactly What Are Website Statistics?
Website statistics, more appropriately known as website analytics are defined as “the measurement of visitor behaviour on a website.” (see full definition of “website analytics”). In other words, the analytics are meant to provide you with insight into how a visitor reacts within your website so that you can improve your site; ultimately improving their experience and your return on investment.

How Can Website Analytics Help Me?
Analytics can provide you with information about your website that you may never have even considered possible. I find this subject simplest to explain by example:

	Identify Killer Pages One of the most common statistics that is found in any analytics program is ‘Top Exit Pages”. If you have seen an analytics report before then you have likely come across this statistic. Now what? Exit pages are an extremely revealing statistic because it shows, from the worst offender downwards, which pages are influencing your visitors to leave your website. (TIP: See “Navigation” + “Viewed” + “Exit” in sample). Consider this for a moment. A report that the majority of website owners have access to may actually provide solid clues as to why their website is not making them more money; but many of them have never sent these reports. How do can you act on this information? Well that depends on the complexity of your analytics software. For the simplest of analytics solutions you will not have much more to go on other than a specific page is driving away potential business and it must be fixed! In that scenario it is best for you to examine the page closely and search for anything that might be driving away business. The possibilities are limitless but here are some common offenders: > Low content relevancy: if your page is supposed to have tips on how to look after their snowboard and you have only 2 tips then this maybe disappointing your viewers who were expecting a better resource. > Poor usability: can your viewers find what they are looking for? If they have to look hard, they will likely leave. Make it as simple as possible for them to navigate your site and ultimately purchase your product/service. Contact me for more information on website usability. >The visitor is directionless: have you crafted your pages so that the next step in your visitor’s progress is clear? The content on your website is the key to your online success; if you leave your visitor without a clear path they may leave looking for a better site.
	Sometimes Clients Arrive at the Back Door More often than not there are a number of pages within a website where visitors enter; it isn’t only the home page. The “Top Entry Pages” report will outline which pages are being used as entry pages. These statistics can mean huge dividends for just about any website but especially ecommerce sites. For example, if you know that your “snowboard care” page is an entry point you may want to place your list of specials (usually reserved for the home page) on that page in order to entice viewers to check out your inventory.
	Who, When, Where? Who? = Who are your viewers? Most analytics programs will show you the geography of your visitors. This information will give you a better idea of which countries, and in some cases cities, seem to be providing the most visitors. (TIP: See “Who” + “Countries” in sample) When? = On average what time of day are your visits the highest? This isn’t generally the most useful statistic for the basic user but it can be a huge benefit if you are in a pay-per-click campaign; dayparting allows you to specify the time of day you want your ad to be shown and this feature is available in some PPC programs. (TIP: See “When” + “Hours” in sample) Where? = By far one of the most useful statistics! Where did your visitors come from? The Referrer Report is available in 100% of analytics reports. It provides you with a valuable list of the websites that are sending you traffic. Just take a moment and imagine the possibilities that this report can provide. > Discover which search engines are providing you with the most traffic. You may be surprised when a lesser known search engine provides a decent amount of traffic. Knowing this information you can have your SEO review your rankings on that search engine and improve them where necessary. > Discover which websites are providing you the most traffic. You might find a website that you are promoting on is providing you with more traffic than you had dreamed. In this case it would be a no-brainer to enhance your promotions on that website and potentially make a killing in additional sales! (TIP: See “Referrers” + “Referring Sites” or “Referring Search Engines” in sample)
	Which Keywords Deliver? The keyword report will show you which keywords are driving the most traffic from the search engines. This is another great tool because it will provide you with an indication of how important a keyword is. For example, if you have a #1 search engine ranking on Google for “snowboard care” and you only receive 500 visitors per month from Google then it is an indication that something is wrong. Either the title or description found on the search engine results page is not alluring clicks OR there simply isn’t enough traffic on this phrase to warrant your time. Conversely, if you find that you are getting a huge amount of traffic from that phrase, you can tell your SEO to fortify that ranking because you don’t want to lose it. Your SEO will also be able to research other phrases along the same lines that you should target (i.e. “snowboard maintenance”). (TIP: See “Referrers” + “Search” + “Search Keyphrases” in sample)
	Errors If you haven’t run a broken link check on your website for a while this report might be a nasty awakening. The Error Report will show how many errors your website has logged in the last while (whatever time frame the report is set for); predominantly a result of your visitors accessing pages that are no longer available from broken links on your site. This is sure to drive traffic away from your website so fix these immediately! In addition this report may identify pages that are no longer found under the same name but were bookmarked from other sites. In this case, be sure to provide a redirect from the old page to the new one; see this article for a quick tutorial.

Is There More?
There is much more that can be done using web analytics, even with the more basic reports that are generally provided free with hosting packages. The information that you can drag out of an analytics report is gold, you just need to know how to mine it. Here is a list of additional tutorials I was able to find online for some of the basic packages more frequently used by hosting providers.

But It Can Be Even Simpler
If you are reasonably intrigued by this whole prospect of understanding your visitors I highly recommend you check out our site at www.stats.stepforth.com. This stats site talks about a more advanced but even simpler-to-use analytics tool that will provide you with the information you need in spades. I can’t say enough good things about ClickTracks but here are some immediate bonuses you can expect from using this program:

1. Track where your visitors go, step by step, throughout your website.
2. Learn which keywords people used to find any page within your website.
3. Separately track the behavior of visitors sent to your website through a pay-per-click campaign; you can even track your return on investment.
4. Simply and effectively track the quality of traffic that each search engine sends to you.
5. The list literally goes on and on.

I highly recommend checking out ClickTracks.com for more information. They have great tutorials and some short but highly informative video demos.

Time to Review Your Statistics!
In closing, whatever you do please take some time to reflect on the analytics for your website; it is an absolute shame that such fantastic data is sitting untapped. If doing this yourself is not an option ask your SEO or Webmaster to do the work for you; you can even contact me for help. The fact of the matter is spending a little time with your stats can mean a world of difference for your bottom line and your visitor’s experience.

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Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Did You Know You Had Stats?

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Thank you to those that sent in their SEO questions from the last few search engine newsletters. I would also like to again request that you take a moment and submit your own questions; it is paramount that I answer the questions that are important to you. Just email me your question, it is that simple!

What Exactly Are Good Backlinks?
Question in Response to Article: SEO Strategy for a Struggling Site on a Limited Budget

My Reply:

I agree completely with your sentiments and I hope my response sets your confusion to rest.

To answer your question I need to break it into two parts; the first covering backlinks that require reciprocal links and the second being ‘organic’ (and more powerful) backlinks that were provided naturally by site owners because they like your site.

1. Artificial Backlinks (ones that require you link back to them in return)

These backlinks must be very carefully obtained. It is important to remember that major search engines like Google will scrutinize these links the most because they appear to be links obtained versus being provided non grata. As a result you should ensure that the links you obtain are from extremely relevant sites. The “relevance” factor is usually where the confusion sets in when I am explaining this to clients so I will try to be clearer. The best way to provide clarity in this matter is to place ourselves in the position of a machine… which a spider essentially is. Always consider this question when evaluating relevance; if you were a ruthlessly logical entity would you see a clear relevance between your site and the site you are considering linking to? If the answer is clearly and undoubtedly ‘yes’ then this is a link that you should consider further. If you are unsure then you can be reasonably certain that a search engine will not be impressed with the link and you will be wasting your time attaining the link.

Considering the link further now places you in a position of evaluating the quality of the backlink site. Is it currently listed in Google and other search engines? Does the site have a decent Google PageRank? Look at the source code of the page and check within the hyperlink of other backlinks to make sure there a “no follow” tag is not present; this tag will nullify the link’s benefit. The “no follow” hyperlink tag was instituted by Google partly to allow webmasters to avoid passing on the advantage of their page rank to linked sites.

Please note, this is not to be confused with the robots “no index” tag that may appear within the header of the page or the robots.txt file; you should check these as well to ensure that the page is being indexed by Google.

2. Organic Link Building

The more organic links you obtain from relevant websites the better your site will do – without a doubt. Many find organic links the toughest to obtain but in most cases this is not true; unless their website does not inspire a person to link back to it. The fact is that many websites offer something of value that is worthy of linking to, such as, great original content or useful and compatible services/products. The key is to understand this value and pitch it in a manner that inspires positive feedback.

For example, when StepForth does link building we educate the webmasters we contact on the benefits of linking to a 9 year old SEO company with free, up-to-date and original search engine news articles. If we contacted a design firm the benefits are an increased perception that they care for their client’s online success by freely providing them with such high quality content and tutorials. We would also allow the design firm to republish the content we write in their own newsletters which would again provide more value to their clientele. Each of these benefits in turn provide additional links to StepForth without us having to provide a reciprocal link.

Also consider becoming active in online blogs, forums and newsgroups. Each of these realms is indexed by search engines and you will build more relevant links by having a link to your site within the signature of each post. Just make sure that the places you post in are relevant to your business; that should not be hard considering how many vertical discussion groups there are out there.

Further Information on Organic Link Building from the Guru: Eric Ward

In addition there are other ways to create links that can provide powerful dividends. To this I bow to the link guru, Eric Ward. Here is an excerpt from his “Content Publicity Strategic Plan” service; yes it is a mouthful but it looks like a very effective method.

A Free Link Building Tutorial:

There is an extremely detailed article on Search Engine Watch that outlines “131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies” that I highly recommend you review if you want more information on this subject.

What Are Good and Bad URLs and How to Fix the Bad Ones.
Question in Response to Article: Demystifying Your Competitor’s Ranking Success

My Reply:

Great question and one that I get quite often; hopefully I can lay this question to rest for many of my readers. First of all you are correct, Google and many of the top search engines would not have a problem indexing the link that you provided. In fact, I can say right now that your links will be perfectly fine for all of the search engines out there that matter in the world of traffic.

For comparison purposes, here is a BAD URL:
http://www.surfboardsforyou.com/boards/
filename.php?id=F98ZF4&productId=39222&section=wicked&brand=582&template=532

This would be a BETTER URL:
http://www.surfboardsforyou.com/boards/wickedboards/39222/board532/

OR you could get away with the following URL because it only has a single variable which provides no issue for search engines to index.
http://www.surfboardsforyou.com/boards/wickedboards/39222/?prod=board532

The Tweak I Mentioned

The tweak I was speaking about is used to modify your dynamic URLs in order to make them appear static. Essentially this is a customization that needs to be done to a server to ensure that dynamic URL’s (where lots of “?&=” appear) look like static URLs. By creating static URLs you can be reasonably sure that the search engines will index your website deeper and in a quicker fashion.

• Apache Servers: Mod Rewrite
  In Apache servers and it is called Mod Rewrite. Here is a link to a search engine watch forum thread discussing this.

• Windows Servers: ISAPI Rewrites
  This is a tool especially designed for Windows IIS servers and it operates essentially the same as the Apache Mod Rewrite. More information on ISAPI Rewrite.

• Windows: .Net Rewrite
  Ok, I am no programmer or system administrator so I am getting out of my depth here but I believe this is another tool that would work for rewriting URLs for websites using .Net (this link is definitely for techies only!)

SEO Friendly URL Guidelines

Here are a couple general rules for URL’s:

1. Even with mod rewrite it is vital that you do not have too many subdirectories. If there are too many then the search engines may limit their indexing. See this video from Google Engineer Matt Cutts where he describes this very issue. As a general rule I would not have any more than 3 subdirectories within a URL.

2. Use keywords within your URLs; if you see the opportunity to create a subdirectory using a keyword related the topic of that subdirectory go for it. Just ensure not to get repetitive. i.e. /Mercedes-benz-2006/Mercedes-benz/Mercedes.php. That just looks horrible and it may not go over very well with the search engines.

3. Avoid session tagging on websites that you want to have indexed. Session tags will be applied to search engine robots just like any other person and these id’s are stop signs for search engine spiders.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: The Good and the Bad: Backlinks and URLs

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Search Engine Ranking Problems? Validate Your Robots.txt File

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: The Ask Search Engine Robot - Is It Depressed?

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: A Laugh at Microsoft's Expense - Hand Crafted Results

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

• Qualities of a Good Site
• Some SEO Myths
• Optimize for Search Engines or Users?

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Engineer Goes "Live" with SEO Answers