Get Your SEO Efforts Off On The Right Foot…
July 18, 2008
… Start With The Basics!
Of course, there are plenty of basic concepts that you’ll want to understand, so we’ve put together a new video series called "The SEO Whiteboard Series" with Kevin Carr and imc{search} Marketing Lab.
Last week, I gave you my top three strategies for success with the search engines (click here if you missed them).
Afterwards, I started getting emails like this:
"Derek, what the heck is a ‘natural’ search result? I know I SHOULD know the answer to this, but I don’t…"
Seems there’s a lot of people out there who don’t understand some of the preliminary concepts behind search optimization, and feel a bit embarrassed by that.
So let me start by saying this: there’s NO shame in NOT knowing the answers to the more "basic" questions about your website!
I mean, there’s a HUGE learning curve in starting your own online business, and you’re bound to have gaps in your knowledge. The WORST thing you can do for your business is NOT ask a question because you think any "smart" person should already know the answer.
But before you go thinking I’m giving you a free pass…
… I should also add that, if you DON’T understand the search engine basics, NOW is definitely the time to learn!
After all, if you don’t understand how the search engines work, how will you ever figure out a solid search strategy for your site? It’s critical to your overall success that you start off on the right foot.
So today, I’d like to continue our search engine conversation by going back to basics, and covering five of the terms that you likely hear on a daily basis, but may not fully understand.
Algorithm – Algorithm is really just a fancy word for "formula."
Whenever one of the search engines ranks your site, it uses this formula to figure out how relevant your site is for people doing the searching.
So the search engine will look at your site’s content, your keywords, your inbound links, and so on, and then calculate your position on the search results page.
The more relevant the search engines determine your site to be using the formula, the higher they’ll place you on the results page.
Algorithms are top secret, and they’re frequently being "tweaked," so it’s possible to earn a high ranking, only to suddenly lose it for no apparent reason!
Great relevant content is the sure way to not lose your spot.
Page Rank – Page Rank is calculated by Google, and is a measure of how they value your site.
Page Rank is measured on a scale of 0 to 10, with the average being 3 or 4. To calculate it, Google looks at factors like your content, and the number of one-way links pointing to your site.
The links are an important factor in the calculation. The more other sites consider you to be a good and relevant resource (and therefore link to you), the more Google will think so, too.
To see your (and other sites’) page ranks, you need to download the Google Toolbar, which you can get here.
Link popularity – Most people know what links are, but did you know that some kinds of links can help your search engine placement, while others might actually hurt it?
Take "reciprocal" links, for instance…
If you link to someone’s site, and they link back to you, that’s considered a reciprocal link… and the search engines do NOT like them.
That’s because, at one time, the search engines just looked at the number of sites linked to you, assuming the more links you had, the better your site was.
Of course, it didn’t take people long to start getting as many sites as possible to link to them, no matter whether the sites were relevant or not, just to improve their ranking…
… and the search engines figured out just as quickly that this was going on.
Nowadays, the best link is a one-way link from a relevant website to you.
Keyword Phrase — Where we used to talk about keywords, more and more, we’re talking about keyword phrases.
This is because, at this stage in the Internet’s evolution, so MANY people have already targeted most single words, that there’s not much value in going after them anymore.
So when people look for keywords to target now, they look for keyword phrases, which contain 2, 3, 4 (or more) words.
The value of using keyphrases is that you can be much more specific about what your site (or individual pages within the site) is about.
Site structure — This refers to the way your website is organized, how the pages are linked together, and how your menu works (some people refer to site structure as the "information architecture").
The structure of your site not only helps your visitors move more freely through the pages, and find the information they’re looking for more quickly, it can also help improve your rankings in the search engines.
That’s because a well structured site has all of the relevant pages carefully linked together, and the search engines love relevant and related content.
By understanding these five basic concepts, and how they effect your search results, you’ll be in a much better position to get start off on the right foot with your optimization efforts.
And finally, here’s your chance to ask me that question about SEO basics that you’ve ALWAYS wanted to know (but were afraid to ask)!
Please leave a comment, including your question, and I’ll try to answer it in a future issue of the newsletter.
To your success,
Derek Gehl
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Hi Derek!
I’ve got very good natural search engine results for my site, but I’m thisclose to really great results.
Problem is, I’m concerned that the tactics used by many of the “SEO gurus” out there can be me banned if I hire them to help me improve my rankings - and if those rankings are gone, I”m out of a business.
How can I know an SEO ‘expert’ is truly an expert - and an expert that will help my SEO efforts, not hinder them?
Chris Bryant
CCIE #12933
http://www.thebryantadvantage.com/
As always, Great tid bits of Wisdom. Thanks Guys for all your insights!
Bryan Gauthier
www.BetterPaths.com
This is insightful information of the “basics” of internet marketing and site development. Easy enough for the beginning website owner and basic enough for the seasoned internet marketer that is oftened overlooked. Great work, guys!
Thank you for the information. It is relevant and timely.
I do appreciate it. I am trying to learn all I can while I build my site.
Thanks again.
Jim
Thanks for the terrific insights.
Can you recommend a good and hopefully free, keyword/phrase tool?
Eve
Good, easy to follow video on the very bare basics of search engine optimization. Godd info for any affiliate marketing beginner
Looking forward to the follow up video
Ami
http://www.affiliatemarketingintro.com
Still unsure of what search engines are good and what to look for tell if I am getting what I want. I just want traffic drawn to my sight but not have to go through all the hassel to get them there. Also, I’m just wondering how many other candle consultants are doing the same thing.
Not good with keywords, need help with that.
Thanks, Charmaine
I speak spanish, . read English.
Can I use Bizz for the spanish speakers market?
thanks
My website is about hiking in Canada. I have focused on covering just the area that I live in and then I began to cover my province of B.C. and now I am about to create a folder for each province of Canada and am making sub domains for each major hiking topic of each province.
For example, when Alberta Hiking is clicked on my future menu, you will see information all about hiking in Alberta but the main page for Alberta and the links for each hiking topic will be linked to the sub domains like this
albertahiking.tracksandtrais.ca and then albertaprovincialparks.tracksandtrails.ca
Because the key phrasees are at the front of the URL, is it better for SEO? fortunately, with my godaddy host, I can have as many sub domains as I like.
Hi.
When is your next video?
Thanks for all the info. What course would you recommend to help me generate
leads on the site that I am building. My company lends money to companies that have poor credit but have collateral (Hard Money Loans).
Regards
Richard
http://www.ipromote.com/hardmoney temporary site
I don’t know anything about a business. I don’t have a business or a product or service. I don’t know anything about setting up a online website or how to get business or people to buy. I am subscribed to Early to Rise. I will get from them one cd and one dvd and one year money back guarentee. I get daily emails about products or services to buy from them or other companies like health products, manefesting what you want in live and trading the markets.
Hi Derek!
I purchased your Insider Secrets package a while back and after over a year, I finally have my site up and running. I was doing pretty good and was on page 2 in google for one of my keyword phrases, then all of a sudden I was no where to be found in the search results. I ran some seo tools and found that I had used a couple of words way too many times. My site is about garage sales so I have to talk about garage sales!
How do I balance this? How many times can I say the word “garage” or “sale” without being excessive?
I have edited my sales copy and got those words down from 80 each to about 30 each, but it is still telling me it is excessive, if I cut out any more it won’t make any sense!
This seo tool is also giving me a negative mark for using keyword phrases, saying they are too long and that I should use 1-2 words. Can I ignore this advice?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
P.S. Love reading your newsletter, you always have great advice and tips!
You never answered the question you got from your subscriber? So I Will.
“Derek, what the heck is a ‘natural’ search result? I know I SHOULD know the answer to this, but I don’t…”
The natural search is what comes up on the left side of the page of the search engine and BELOW the sponsored results. The pay per click is usually on the right side of the page.
“Natural search” comes from google analyzing your website to determine the keywords and relevance to what someone enters in the search box. If you have a page that is relevant to the search, you come up in the natural search. As you know this can results in millions of pages coming up so the better you do the closer to the 1st page you will be.
I don’t know about everyone else…but I have very little time to watch videos. I prefer to read since I can read 1500 words per minute.
Derek
Knowing nothing about all this and trying to get a handle on the basics..I appreciate you being down to earth and realize that yeah, there are newbies to all of this who are easily frustrated by all the lingo and tech. terms. You continue to show class and a genuine desire to catapult others to success. Thanks!
hi Derek
essamkassab here and i want to ask a question and i hope i recieve an answer from you
i want to start an internet business but i didnt know how ?
because i live in EGYPT
Essam Kassab
Hi Derek!
As a guy who cannot afford your Internet Marketing Course or your new BBiz software, I have no choice but to fully utilize your free tips and advice from your regular newsletter although sometimes I find it hard to digest due to the fact that I don’t have a college degree.
I publish my website in December 2007 but my keywords search engine ranking was not always that good. About 3 months ago applying mainly your free tips and, my website has been on the first page of Yahoo and Google search results using my main keywords. Every now and then I get results from the free advertising.
BUT as of today I am not anywhere near even in the top10 search results page in MSN. =P
I guess it proves that different search eangines are using their own Algorithm in determining the position of a website on their search results page, huh?
Your back to basic newsletter really helps a lot in understanding SEO more. Thanks!
Hi Dereck
Thanks for all your efords to help all the world with your Marketing tips and video’s what is a big help to every one.
Dereck I’m battle to get all the time needed to develop my web site I’m also busy to restucture my site but did not get any results form no where,please have a look at my site and tell me what I did wrong .
I did also have the e-bay coarse what I did buy from you via internet.
Regards
Chris du Plessis
From South Africa.
You’re talking about ‘Links’ etc in terms of SEO.
What happens when i leave a message on another Blog & place my web address in the text & my blog signature, does that count as a link to my website that Google would view positively?
@Eve: Try out http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php
It should be good enough for basic keyword research.
Yes, SEO Book’s tools section is an excellent resource for all website owners and even SEO consultants.
I also enjoyed Derek’s point of highlighting that it is not just about how many people are linking to your website, but how relevant the link is to your content. This is very important!
Derek, you mentioned that the search engines don’t like reciprocal links. I have a reciprocal link section on our website and I am constantly barraged by other folks wanting to put a link on there for their website.
Since you say that the search engines no longer like reciprocal linking, would I be better off completely removing the link section from our website?
I say ditto to the question asked by Jeff (before me) on your comment about reciprocal links. I have really been encouraged by PMI (marketing) to do a lot of revelant links as well as reciprocal links.
Please advise if when you sign up for one of the social bookmaking sites, does that count as a one way link. Also if you sign up for several sites and cant really participate in the bookmarking site that much, does that affect my one way link?
Thanks
Jeanene Stein
Great tips … Keep it up! Hope you’re going to reveal the next video soon ….
Great video Derek.
I’ve been doing SEO for years and it is always great to tap into the fundamentals again and again just to keep me on track.
discuss about link popularity, I always use free service check link pop seocentro.com, and easy getting free back link…..visit popular do follow blog and give comment, 100% you will get backlink….
Hi Derek,
It’s always interesting to get back to the basics and see what people think of it. Good post.
Derek, I’m like so many others. Limited Time and less than limited funds. As a bona fide “newbie” sometimes my learning curve looks like a mountain. So many of the free and low cost advert systems are more of a mine field than a helping hand. Your site and info., however is to be trusted. Thanks for making a mountain into a hill.
Malcolm.
www.affordablefastcash.com