There
are lots (and lots) of 'experts' out there, on lots of topics. There
are even more folk who declare themselves to be experts but who, well...
aren't. This can be even more prevalent in fields where there is a
large element of 'mystery' and/or where opinions or belief are involved
as much as actual fact. Anything from astrology to economics can apply
here. But Search Engine Optimization (SEO) also has its share of
experts.
It's easy to find people who'll claim to get your web site at some
arbitrary ranking on search engines, and will tell you all about their
latest tricks to do so. On the other hand, there are more earnest and
honest folk who will share with you that much of SEO can seem like
something of a 'black art' that sometimes changes day-to-day, as search
engines change to react to the 'tricks' used by the aforementioned
types. Such people will share that SEO is about a lot more than just
pulling a couple simple tricks.
I'm No Expert
So, let me get this out of the way first: I am not an expert on SEO. I
can not magically cause your site to show up at any particular place in
search engine results. But, I do have some general recommendations that
seem to make good sense to me, as both a software developer and as
someone who has had some sites with good and bad search engine rankings.
I try different things I read about which seem to make sense, or at
least apply some 'uncommon sense' to them.
Here, then, are some broad opinions and ideas to consider as you
develop a site for which search engine ranking could be important.
SEO: Content is King
I firmly believe this; the absolute best thing you can do for SEO is
to have content. Good, original content in decent quantities. No matter
what 'tricks' are being used (and counteracted by the search engines),
having quality content will always be worth something. That
'something' goes far beyond the simple calculations that go into page
ranking, though: Lots of great content means people will like your site.
If people like your site, they are much more likely to do things that
not only could help your ranking (such as sharing your URL on social
networking sites), but it also means that visitors are more likely to
convert to sales or regular readers.
What constitutes good content depends on what is the purpose of your
site. This is the part where I stop, because I'm no expert. But I
can offer some technical pointers related to that content, very
briefly.
- Try to keep content semantic. This means
trying to keep the body HTML of your pages as free of 'extraneous'
material as possible, such as style and layout information. Using HTML
that is as clear and semantic as possible helps search engines figure
out what your pages are really about. Read "Semantic Content Markup"
on the Web Style Guide; 3rd Edition (link).
- Make the content express your 'keywords'. By 'express
your keywords', I do not mean pack your content with keywords to the
point that it becomes comical. But your content should be created with
an eye toward what important search keywords apply, and those terms
should be used whenever logically possible.
- Use the
meta-data.Yes, that does include the <meta> tags, but I'm
talking even more about other tags throughout the document. Heading tags
(<h1>, <h2>, etc) should be used appropriately and
semantically; search engines see those tags and give their contents
extra weight. Attributes such as title and alt also help
search engines understand what is being linked or attached on a page.
- Use URLs that make sense. Ideally, your web site's URLs
should make some sense to someone reading them. If the topic of a page
is actually contained in the page's URL, that can never hurt. It's sure
more useful than meaningless numeric IDs. URLs that make sense includes
not only having key words in them, but also not having a
confusing volume of other information. Generally speaking, try to avoid
(if at all possible) having more than two (2) levels of directories
and/or query string parameters.
Avoid Being Watered-Down
Some things can cause your
ranking to be lowered somewhat by your content appearing to be in
multiple places at once. It is generally understood that if some
particular set of content (say, an article) appears on hundreds of
different sites, that content likely is not as valuable as other content
which only appears on a comparatively small number of sites. Search
engines also are believed to try to recognize content that is
cross-posted on many sites specifically to game the system; say, a long
forum post that contains links to a site, posted many times on many
forums. On the other hand, press releases are one form of content that
may legitimately be posted in many places verbatim. So, the exact
methods used to recognize the tricks here may not be known at all.
However, there are a couple small things you can do which may help SEO.
Basically,
you should try to reduce the number of URLs from which the exact same
content is seen. Whether from alternate domain names (www.yourcompany.com
and www.yourcompany.biz) or via URL rewriting (/2010/04/28/News_Release
and /Releases.php?id=20394) what is actually a single page could
possibly appear to search engines as two, four or even more pages with
the exact same content. Search engines may take these common
things into account, or they may not. When possible, try to use 301
(Moved Permanently) redirects on alternate forms of URLs to point to the
primary, preferred URL for each page. Not only could that help avoid
unnecessary ranking dilution, it could also help with user-based
settings/authorization scheme bugs that happen due to the user visiting
part of the site at one domain name, but another at a different one, and
not realizing it.
I have even seen suggestions to forward on the
difference between www.yoursite.com and yoursite.com.
While it is my opinion that this one is so basic that search engines
almost have to be taking that into account, I still believe it to
be a good thing to do because it can't hurt SEO, and could help the
settings/authorization issues mentioned above. A few years ago, there
was even a bit of (somewhat silly, IMHO) debate on the Internet as to
whether "www" was necessary at all. (link: no-www.org)
This
can be done in a web application's code, which checks the host name by
which it is called, and issues HTTP 301 forwards for all 'incorrect'
ones to the 'proper' one, with the exact same path, file and query
string. Such an option would take a tiny amount of processing on all
requests (even 'correct' ones), and would not cover non-dynamic
portions of the site, though. Another option would be to have a single
site set up as a virtual server for all of the 'alternate' host names
for the site. There would be no content on this site at all; it would
simply be configured to issue HTTP 301's to the exact same URL at the
correct host name.
Use Social Media
By 'use', I mean - really use it. Again, this goes back to the
'Content is King' idea. Tweeting links to your content constantly, while
offering no value at all, won't help, since people won't follow you.
Creating a Facebook page and inviting everyone you know to it, and then
posting updates constantly with links to your site... Spamming comments
on everyone else's blogs with links to your site... You get the idea, I
hope.
On the other hand, do be sure you are prepared to engage
appropriately. Understand what the expectations would be of a blog, a
Facebook profile or a Twitter account. How frequently should you post?
What should you post? How explicitly should you try to 'sell' in your
posts? The answers to those questions vary depending on the media and
what kind of organization you represent. But you absolutely need to be
prepared to offer value to the persons you hope will follow you online.
If you do not offer them value, they will not follow you.
But if
they do follow you, you will gain benefits, and not just SEO-related.
Just being able to share about what you do is a benefit all on its own.
But SEO-related, you gain benefits because good, related content posted
elsewhere (on a site other than your own) which is unique will
only help your site's ranking. Do not simply re-post your site's
content; that could actually hurt you. But it's OK to summarize and
link, provided the summary is worded uniquely.
Do not consider
only the obvious choices like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, though.
Are there industry-related social sites you could share expertise on?
Perhaps there are locale-related social sites available to you. Don't
forget sites where you can share video and photo content publicly, as
well; YouTube, Flickr and Picasa Web, for example. But again; always
learn how to utilize the network properly or it will at best be a waste
of your time.
Get Others to Talk About You
This really could be included in the above in a way, where I told you
that a link from another site to yours can help your own site's
ranking. Of course, beyond potentially helping your search ranking, such
links can actually bring you more visitors directly. The work required
to get someone else's site to link to yours is beyond the scope of this
entry. Here are some thoughts to keep in mind when seeking such
opportunities, though:
- The page linking to you should be relevant. The amount of
benefit you gain from a link to your site from another site is going to
be based on how relevant that site is to your intended audience/topic.
- The ranking benefit you gain is dependent on the ranking of the
site linking to you. A site which has low ranking is not going to
help you as much as one with high ranking. Sites of certain low quality
will likely only be a waste of time.
- Avoid 'mass linking' of any sort. 'Directories' where
anyone can simply post any link and site description to be listed with
everyone else don't help you at all. This is not the same as submitting
your site to legitimate directories, such as the Open Directory Project
at DMOZ.org (link)
This isn't as big a thing anymore as it was at one time, but I actually
have recently had a client show me a mass-link-submission site and ask
if they should submit their link there.
- Do submit your site to appropriate, closed lists, though. If
there is a site with good content that has a 'links area' to which you
can submit, that might be worth considering.
Just Some Un-Common Sense
Most of the very basics of SEO come down to just-slightly-uncommon
sense. To really fine-tune what you are doing, a real expert who can
demonstrate a long track-record of results is definitely worthwhile. But
the above are some principles that should be able to help a web
designer or developer get the basics down in the meantime.