SEO 101 : IS IT RIGHT? (part 2)

In my last post in this series (TAGS’n'STUFF), I talked about three of the most import parts of a web page: the title, description, and page link. By going to Google’s home page and typing in site:www.[your site name].com (or whatever), you can see what Google has in it’s database relating to your site.

One of the interesting things to do is check each page on your site against Google’s index. So, if you have a page on your site called www.[your site name].com/realestate.html, and the purpose of that page is to show off your real estate stuff, then what you see in Google should relate.

To get the exact address of a page on your site, simply visit your home page and navigate to the page in question. Then copy the entire link in the address bar as your search term (putting site: in front of it).

You may be surprised at what you see.

There are many "template" type sites that allow you to build your own web pages. Many of these allow you to put your own titles and "meta tags" in them. They don’t always tell you what these should be, or even what they are. We’ll go into "meta tags" in the near future, but the "description" of the page, limited to 150 characters, is one of these. These are so important to search engine placement and yet they’re so often overlooked.

Allow me to illustrate.

I have a (pretend) page on my site called "widgets". On this page, I’m advertising my widget products. My website is in Google because when I typed in site:www.jdemarketing.com it told me so. But I’m curious to see how my widgets page is doing. So I’m going to type in site:www.jdemarketing.com/widgets.html, which is the address of my widgets page.

Huh?

As you can see (above) in the "title" area, all Google has is "Welcome" and in the description it says "put your description here". The link is correct, because I can see the link points to my widget page.

What’s happened here is that although Google has found and indexed this particular page on my site, the fact that I don’t have any meaningful title or description makes it about as useless as a screen door on a submarine. Now, there might be some content on the page that helps people find it, but without a good title and description, my odds on being found have been greatly reduced. After all, who is going to search on "welcome" to find "widgets"?

My "phoenix small business marketing products" page, on the other hand (site:www.jdemarketing.com/marketingproducts.aspx) shows up nicely (see below). In the "title" area I have "phoenix small business marketing products and services". In the "description" tag I have "phoenix arizona small business marketing products and services | marketing materials | marketing training | marketing plans". The link points to the right page.

Now, in theory, when I type "phoenix small business marketing products" into Google, my page should appear. In this case it does, near the top.

Having relevant search terms in your title and description doesn’t guarantee you a page 1 listing on Google overnight, or on any other search engine for that matter, but it certainly helps you get listed and stay listed. Another thing to point out is how relevant my particular search term is. Yes, it’s five words long, but there is little doubt about what someone wants when they enter "phoenix small business marketing products".

So, to conclude

Relevant words in the title and description help search engines understand what your page is about. It also helps web surfers find what they’re looking for. While, in my case, I could have used "small business marketing products", I’m trying to keep my terms as narrow as I can because I’ll have more chance of getting the people I want. While I’d love a marketing client in New York, they’re more likely to look for " new york small business marketing products"…

Relevance is also important when it comes to moving up the ranks. If I were to use "Phoenix Accounting Services" as my description and title, but my page content were about marketing, I’m going to upset people who found my site and thought they were finding a CPA. It doesn’t help your marketing cause to be dishonest.

Finally, use something that makes sense to people and machines. Don’t "stuff" the title and description with single words.

So, check your titles and descriptions. If they look right, put those search terms into Google, Yahoo and Bing (MSN) and see where you rank. If you’ve just changed them, expect a couple of weeks to go by before any changes are noted; sometimes longer.

Check to ensure that the page content reflects what’s in the titles and descriptions.

Next we’ll look at other tools and techniques to help you get the most out of your own SEO.

SEO 101 : TAGS ‘n’ STUFF (part 1)

I’ve always argued that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is part art, part science and part black magic. Certainly, the “black magic” part applies at times, especially when it comes to Google who keep their algorithms close to their chests.

Yet there are some basic things you, as a website owner, can do to help yourself get in and stay in the search engines.

What’s that? You’re already in the search engines? Cool!

Are you sure?

It doesn’t hurt to check. Don’t assume that just because you’ve got a site that any of the search engines know about it. A quick test is to go to Google’s home page (www.Google.com) and type in:

site:www.[your site name].com (or whatever).

So, in my case, I’d type:

site:www.JDELtd.com

The results will show you how Google “sees” your site. The results can sometimes be quite surprising, especially if it comes back “not found”…

The results of this search tell you a couple of the things about how your site is viewed by Google. For example, several of the results that come back when I put in my search include “Phoenix Web Design Company” in the title. This is good. I am a web designer and want to be relevant when it comes to web design related searches. Looking at your results, what shows? Is it relevant?

The text above the line (the link) is what is called a “Title” tag. When you’re on a website, the title tag is what displays at the top of the page. This is also used by Google (and others) to help web surfers find useful sites. The title tag is generally limited to 60 characters and should be relevant. Google has become very efficient at weeding out titles and content that aren’t relevant to what the site is trying to say.

The text under the line is what is called the “Description” tag. This is 150 characters long. You may have heard the term “meta tags”. Well, the description is one of these. In 150 characters, the description should expand on the title tag, and provide a little more information about the page in question. Again, like the title, it should relate to the content.

Are you with me so far…?

If what you see in the title or description results returned by Google are just your company name, or something less relevant, then you might want to consider changing them. This is where the “part art” comes in. You don’t want to “stuff” search terms into your title and description. That can be just as damaging as not having anything. The title and description must be relevant, but also should be useful because these two items are used, in conjunction with a page’s content, by the search engines to index your site.

Depending on your web master or hosting company, you should be able to tweak these, just be sure to understand how to do it properly.

The third part of the text is the link to the apge that the title and description is talking about.

Of course, in the interests of shameless self-promotion, you could contact me

In part 2, I’ll go into more detail about relevant page content.

Staving off Doomsday : 10 money saving tips to keeping your PC going a little longer…

I remember, several years ago, working on the trading floor at a Wall Street company. There was an old IBM PC XT in a closet. No one knew what it did, but no one dared switch it off because it did something important and had been doing so for about 10 years.

They don’t make them like that any more.

The life expectancy of a PC is three to five years. There are many out there that have been around longer, I know, but software does tend to force upgrades.

When times are tough, people tend to cut back, and I speak from experience. Unfortunately, there is a semi-constant demand from your computer for your time and money. Consider license renewals, Internet costs, online memberships etc…and of course, the computer always seem to get slower and slower…

Here’s a list of 10 things you can look at that may help save you some money in the short run by improving your computer’s performance and extending it’s life a while longer.

1 Give your PC a RAM boost. RAM (Random Access Memory) is where the work takes place when your computer is on. When you switch on your PC, Windows is loaded into RAM, as are the programs and data you use to work. When RAM is filled up, Windows uses the hard drive to store temporary data and switches back and forth between the hard drive and RAM as needed. This can seriously slow you down, especially if you run many programs at once. Some new memory will boost this work space and speed up your computer. Windows XP does have a (just over) 3 gigabyte limit. So, if you’ve already got 3 gigabytes in your PC, any more won’t be used, it’s over to Vista for you. Many people don’t have that much and upgrading is very easy and inexpensive. If you visit www.crucial.com, they have a little utility you can run that will test your computer, figure out what memory you have and what you can do to expand it. Upgrading RAM isn’t a long-term for speed, but if it means not buying a new computer for another year…?

2 Lose the Bells and Whistles. Desktop tool bars, web browser addons, weather updates and anything that has to go out to the Internet for updates can slow down both your computer and your Internet speed. Do you really need three tool bars and the weather in two places and a cute little changing photo on your desktop?

3 Clean it Up. Delete or archive what you no longer use. Check to see if there are any online services you’re paying for that you don’t use. Those small amounts add up!

4 Free is Good. Last time I checked, the basic Microsoft office was over $200. OpenOffice.org is free. OpenOffice.org is a collaboration between Sun Microsystems and web programmers. It’s fully Office compatible and, did I mention, free. It doesn’t come with an email package, but Outlook is available as a standalone product. OpenOffice does take a little getting used to, like any new software, but it will read and save your Excel, Word and PowerPoint files just fine.

5 Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance. Keep up your basic computer maintenance, including defragmenting your disk, compressing old files and archiving emails. I posted a blog entry 7.5 Ways to a Faster PC.

6 Too Much Going On? Check the system tray, that’s the box in the lower right corner of the Windows tool bar How many icons are there and what do they do? Move your mouse pointer over them to find out. Many programs, in an attempt to be helpful, may load themselves into memory even though you use them once in a blue moon.

7 Email. If you use Outlook, how often are you sending/receiving? If it’s every couple of minutes, consider changing the interval. Outlook is notoriously heavy on the computer at send/receive time.

8 Security Software. Many people use security “bundles” such as McAfee’s Total Protection. Right now, you can get 3 PC coverage from them for $39.99 for one year. That includes firewall, spam protection, surfing protection and anti-virus. If you are a Cox high speed Internet user, in some places (such as here in Arizona), you get the whole McAfee suite for free as part of your service. Just log into your Cox.net account (if you don’t have one, you’ll need a bill for information) and select “Internet Tools”. It’s the same product that you pay for if you buy from McAfee. While “free” is good, I personally am a little hesitant about free security products, but that’s just my own opinion. But free is better than none.

9 Daily Exercises. Do your “Windows Updates” on a regular basis. Microsoft and many hardware manufacturers release updates to improve the performance of Windows.

10 Unclogging the Drains. Consider a registry optimization tool such as RegistryFix.com, but I urge caution if you’re not particularly technical. Any time you touch the registry there is some risk, so run the software with due caution or speak to a computer professional.

Dave

PS – Remember that old computer hardware should disposed of properly, as much of it contains elements that cannot go in the trash or is considered hazardous waste.