Search Engine

Optimization (SEO)
Prepared by: Larry Stewart

Topic Outline

Introduction
How Search Engines Work
SEO Building Blocks

Keywords
Crawler
Links

SEO Tools
Black Hat Methods
Summary and Conclusion
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Introduction

Definition of Search Engine

Optimization (SEO)1
"Natural," or "organic," search engine
optimization (SEO) is designing, writing, and
HTML-coding a Web site to maximize the
chance its pages will appear at the top of
spider-based search engine results for
selected keywords and phrases
Organic Listings: Listings that search engines
do not sell (unlike paid listings)

SEO
Iterative

process
Dynamic environment
Art
Science

Why is it important?
Internet

advertising 1H 2006 : $7.9

Billion2
Search ranking more site visitors
Internet users tend not to click through
Depends on webs role in your
economic model

Variation in Approaches
White Hat
Abide by terms and conditions set forth by
search engines
Black Hat
Breaches search engine terms and conditions
May provide short-term gains
You run the risk of being penalized by search
engines
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Defining Success (Context)

Search-Friendly (SEO)

High ranking
Terms and conditions set by search engines
(Google, Yahoo, MSN Search)

User-Friendly

Site must satisfy the needs of visitors

Persuasive

Profitable for site owner

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How Search Engines Works

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Search Engine Operations

1.

Gather Content

2.
3.

Crawler or spider moves recursively

downloading content

Builds sophisticate index

Individual web searches run against
index

Results are retrieved and ordered

PageRank & Relevance

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Google Search Placement4

Placement: importance and relevance
PageRank (importance)

Counts links
Weights links
Query

matching (relevance)

sophisticated text-matching techniques

examines all aspects of the page's content
(and the content of the pages linking to it)
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SEO Optimization

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SEO Optimization Categories

Keywords

Keyword selection and keyword-rich text

Crawler

A crawler-friendly site navigation scheme

Links

Link popularity

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Keyword Recommendations1

Page title: visible HTML text ,Above the fold

Page Size: "100 KB" limit is still is still widely
held. The optimum page size is 500-3000
words (or 2000 to 20,000 characters)
Be specific
Example: Apple iPod verses iPod

exact phrase should appear generously throughout

your site copy on every page

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More Keyword
Recommendations5
Meta tags: use but dont stuff

<meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials on HTML, CSS, XML, and

XHTML">

Alt tags: use for graphics

<IMG src="star.gif" alt=star logo">

Content is king

Write good content with relevant and important keywords in mind.

Geo Targeting
Add geocentric terms to target local areas
Domain Names
Use keywords as part of domain name
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Crawler-friendly
Engine

spiders are primitive beings

choose simplicity over complexity

Goal

All your web pages seen by crawlers

Google: enter in searchbox
allinurl:utexas.edu

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Suggestions to be Crawler
Friendly5
Traditional

<a href> tag

Keywords in subfolder names
Minimize quantity of subfolders
Cross link relevant terms and phrases
within the site
Multiple paths to pages to eliminate
orphans
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Avoid or Minimize: May

Negatively Impact Crawler5
Flash

(slow to load and difficult to navigate)

Frames
Java navigation
Session ID to track visitors
exact same Title tags on every page
set to require a cookie when a visitor gets
to the page
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Link Development
Inbound Links Impact PageRank
PageRank (Popularity, importance)
Number and quality of links pointing to a
website
Measure of usefulness of site

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Link Development Tradeoffs

Advantage

it is dynamic, cumulative, and difficult to

imitate

Disadvantage

takes time (vs. advertising)

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Link Development Approaches

(White Hat)7
Quality content to start with
Cultivate quality link (not quantity)
Begin with web directories
Harness online publicity
Use Blogs and forums wisely
Investigate competitors

Understand their strategy

Online publicity, blogs and forums
See inbound links ("link:domain.com" in Google,
"linkdomain:domain.com" in Yahoo)
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SEO Tools

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Search Engine Term and

Conditions
Google
Yahoo
MSN

Search

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Vendor Tools Example:

Seo Administrator 8

Ranking monitor: site positioning in for keywords

Link popularity checker: checks inbound links

Site indexation tool: check site indexation

Server Log-analyzer: Administrator log analyzer

PageRank analyzer: analyze competitor sites

Keywords tool: suggestions, associations, competitor analysis

HTML analyzer: dissect html text in the same way that a search
engine would (syntax, keyword density)

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Black Hat Methods

Head of the webspam group at

Google
Matt

Cutts
Worked on his Ph.D Computer Science
at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. Undergrad Comp Sci and
Math (Graduated with M.S.).
Moved into information retrieval after
classes from the university's Information
and Library Science department
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http://www.searchenginegenie.com/seo-blog/images/matt.gif
http://www.searchenginegenie.com
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Link Exchange Advertisement

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Keyword Consulting Advertisement

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Black Hat Terms

Link Farming: exchanging reciprocal links

Keyword Stuffing: Hidden text, Stuffing text in every nook and cranny

Cloaking: stealth, deliver different page to a search engine for indexing

Doorway Pages: bridge, jump page, designed to appeal to search engine spiders

Fast meta refresh: used to quickly switch doorway pages to the page the user is
supposed to see

Code swapping: swap it on the server with the "real" page once a position has
been achieved. also sometimes done to keep others from learning exactly how the
page ranked well.

Bait and Switch: loads the page with a popular search words such as sex, travel or
antivirus when is irrelevant to site

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Online Resources

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Search Engine Standards

Google
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&ctx=related

Yahoo
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.html
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-17.html
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/index.html

MSN
http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOpti
mizingSite.htm

Web Robots
http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.html
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp/index.html
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8843

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Keyword Tools
Overture tool
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
Wordtracker tool [recommended]
http://our.affiliatetracking.net/wordtracker/a/12246
Google Sandbox Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox
Espotting Tool
http://www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.asp
Related Pages
http://www.related-pages.com/adwordskeywords.aspx

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Conclusion and Summary

Website Success
Search-friendly
User-friendly
Persuasive
Search-friendly Optimization components
Keywords
Crawler
Links
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Bibliography
1 Thulow, Shari. What Search Engine Marketing Does Your Site Need?

Clickz. 15 Nov. 2006

<
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3105241 >.
2 2006 Second Quarter Results (October 4, 2006) . Interactive
Advertising Bureau. 15 Nov. 2006
<
http://www.iab.net/resources/ad_revenue.asp >.
3 Event Homepage. Search Engine Strategies 2006 Conference and
Exposition. 15 Nov. 2006
<http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/winter06/index.html >.
4 Our Search: Google Technology. Google Website.
15 Nov. 2006
< http://www.google.com/technology/index.html >.

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Bibliography
Laratro, Joe. Dos and Donts of Search Engine Optimization.
MoreVisibility. 15 Nov. 2006
<http://www.morevisibility.com/whitepaper/2006/SEO_Do_and_
Donts_WP.pdf>
6 Thulow, Shari. Link Development: The Key to Successful SEO
Clickz. 15 Nov. 2006 <http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?
page=3431741 >.
7 link farming. webopedia. 15 Nov. 2006
<http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/l/link_farming.html>.
8 SSEO Tools. SEO Administrator.
<http://www.seoadministrator.com/seo-tools.html>
<http://seo-tutorial.seoadministrator.com/>
5

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Backup

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Vendor Tools Example:

Seo Administrator 8
Ranking monitor: monitor web site positioning in the major search
engines for keywords
Link popularity checker: checks inbound links across a number of
search engines
Site indexation tool: check site indexation in Google, Yahoo, MSN
and other search engines
Server Log-analyzer: Administrator log analyzer automates
(Number of unique IP addresses, Number of visitors )
PageRank analyzer: analyze competitor sites
Keywords suggestion tool: Keyword suggestion services, Keyword
Associations, search query suggestions, Competitor analysis
HTML analyzer: dissect html text in the same way that a search
engine would (syntax, keyword density)
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Black Hat Terms

Link Farming: exchanging reciprocal links with Web sites in order to

increase search engine optimization
Keyword Stuffing: Hidden text, Stuffing text in every nook and cranny
Cloaking: stealth, deliver one page to a search engine for indexing while
serving a different page to everyone else.
Doorway Pages: A Web page that is designed to appeal to search engine
spiders.
Fast meta refresh: used to quickly switch doorway pages to the page the
user is supposed to see
Code swapping: swap it on the server with the "real" page once a position
has been achieved. also sometimes done to keep others from learning
exactly how the page ranked well.
Bait and Switch: Another technique combines word stuffing with "bait-andswitch," which loads the page with a popular search word such as sex,
travel or antivirus, even though the word has nothing to do with the site
content.

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