SEO | SEO Basics

SEO Basics

April 21, 2008 By: Justin | 4 comments

Before we start on SEO basics, we need to understand why we’re doing what we’re doing. Since Google is the big daddy of all search engines, we’ll take a look at how it works. Lets go back to algebra real quick. Now, Google is MUCH more complicated than this, but we can consider the algorithm that Google uses as an algebraic equation. [Page rank is determined by fairly complex linear algebra and matrix. I won't go into that, because you don't need to understand it to rank well in Google. Yes... I've sat down and looked over pagerank's math. I don't get all of it, but I have an engineering background, so I could follow a fair bit.]

Now, lets get back to this algorithm. Its a equation that will determine the authority of your site for a particular keyword and this keyword authority is used to rank your site. Lets pretend that Google considers three factors when they rank you, lets call them X1, X2, and X3. Each one has a different weight, meaning they don’t have the same importance. X1 is the best, x3 is the least. Out of 100%, X1 is 60%, X2 is 30%, and X3 is 10%.

So, it would be:
Keyword Authority = 0.6*X1 + 0.3*X2 +0.1*X3

Now, the real algorithm is MUCH more complicated and has MANY many factors. But, we can do well because we’ve figured out the biggest most important factors that a search engine considers [the ones with the largest weight]. We then focus on improving those factors. This will give us a larger authority for a KW.

And since Google is the big daddy, we mainly SEO for Google.

IF you want an in-depth view of SEO ranking factors, please check out the ranking factors list at SEOMoz. Its a good resource. I won’t be going that in-depth here, but check it out.

Some of the most important SEO factors

  • Title Tag
  • Link Popularity
  • Links Anchor Text
  • Age of Site
  • Internal Linking
  • Content of site linking
  • Back link Authority for KW
  • On site content - KW usage
  • Authority Back
  • Header Tags
  • Domain Name
  • Outbound Links
  • Growth Rate in Links
  • Duplicate Content

Title Tag - Use of Keywords in the Title Tag

The title tag is one of the most important factors used by search engines to rank a website. You want to optimized your websites title by including you targeted keywords in the title.

Important Things About Title SEO:

  • Include your keywords
  • A unique title tag on every page!!
  • Do not spam your keywords. Once, maybe twice. Try to keep it natural. Don’t use a long list of KW.
  • Don’t get too long. Search engines only pay attention to a certain number of characters.
  • If using wordpress, use a plugin for “Title | Site Name”

Anchor Text of Inbound Links

Link building is one of the most important that’s that we do as an SEO. Links are one of the most important factors that determine a site’s rank.

I will cover links more in depth later, but links are basically a “vote”. The anchor text that is used for a link is very important. It tells Google the subject matter of the page you are linking to. So, we use this knowledge when we build links. When building links, it is important to obtain links that carry your keyword in the anchor text.

To prevent from looking spammy, it is important to use different anchor text, but keeping your keyword included.

Our site for example, might us:

  • Nashville SEO
  • SEO Nashville
  • Nashville Web Design
  • Nashville Web Designer
  • SEO Lessons
  • Learn SEO
  • Tennessee SEO
  • SEO Tennessee
  • SEO
  • Nashville

Also consider the text adjacent to the link.

Link Popularity

As I said, a link is considered a “vote”. The more links pointed to a site, the greater its popularity. Although link quality is important, having sheer NUMBERS will improve your site’s ranking. More links means a greater perceived importance by Google.

Age of Site

I’ve seen some blogs that debate this, but it seems to be a significant factor. And it makes logical sense.

The older the site, the more seriously it is taken. It has proved that it’s around to stay.
Younger sites need to “prove” themselves. The rankings of younger sites tend to fluctuate more and seem more likely to trip spam / blackhat detection.

Internal Linking

Just like the external passing of PR via a vote system, but applies to internal pages only. Proper internal linking is important, it determines value of pages within your site.

An often over looked factor. Don’t ignore this since its completely in your control.
A few suggestions:

  • Point links to home page with keyword anchor text
  • Sitemap - Improves Crawlability
  • Use nofollows - Don’t pass authority to useless pages.

A site has a certain amount of authority (link juice) that you can spread around your pages. Controlling your internal link structure allows you to manage this authority. Don’t waste your juice by passing links to stupid pages that you do not care to have indexed.

On top of this, Google only indexes a percentage of large sites. Take some control of what pages it does index. Don’t waste your listings with low value pages.

As with external links, use your keywords to give a page value for a specific keyword.

Subject Matter of Sites with Inbound Links to Your Site

The sites you’re getting back links from, what are they about? Are they related to your sites content and keywords?

Back link analysis may be more complicated than simply evaluating the anchor text. The text surrounding the link, as well as the pages theme/keywords/topic is a factor for the authority that link may pass to your site.

Back Links from Authority Sites for Your Keywords

Similar to the above point. If a site is about your niche, its holds more authority than a random link from a site about a random non-related topic.

Now if a high ranking authority site for your niche/keyword/community links to you, it is very important.

One way to help with this is to build relationships with those in your community. As you gain friends in your niche, they’ll be more willing to link your site.

Content and Keyword Usage in Your Site’s Content.

You keyword(s) needs to be included in the text on your site. And your pages need a fair amount of text. Give Google lots of words to work with, and use your keywords often without being spammy.

Include them near the start and end of your page.

DO NOT SPAM KEYWORDS.

Although you need to use your keywords, keep it natural. Also, use variations. Use related keywords, or long tail keywords associated with your main keyword.

Keyword Usage in Heading Tags

Make use of the tags provided in HTML. HTML includes header tags that are meant to note the main and sub points of a page. Google gives extra weight to words in there tags.

Include keywords in your headings!

<h1>
<h2>
<h3>

With H1 being the MOST important!

The H1 tag should be around the overall topic of a page. You should have a unique H1 header on each page of your site.

Again, do not spam.

Keyword Use in Domain Name

Keyword usage in the domain name of a website does effect your rankings, but its not a huge factor. The effect is minor, but factors like links and title tags are MUCH more important.

External Links / Outgoing Links

You need to be careful who you link to. When you link to a site, you associate yourself with that site and its neighborhood. Google won’t penalize you for sites linking to you, since you can’t control it, but you can control your outbound links. So avoid linking to adult sites, spam, casinos, pills, and scam sites.

Link to good quality and trusted sites!

The Growth Rate of Inbound Links

In addition to link volume, the rate at which you gain links is also a factor. If your competition is gaining links at a higher rank, than this may give them an advantage over your site.

Duplicate Content

Avoid duplicate content!

When Google finds multiple copies of the same content, it will attempt to pick the “best”, and then penalize the rankings of the other copies. If your site has too much duplicate content, you may get a site wide penalty.

Some CMS have serious issues with duplicate content (Wordpress for example), and extra effort must be made to prevent duplicate content.

Conclusion

That is simply the basics of how how Google ranks websites and the SEO required to rank a site. We have plenty of other posts about the basics of SEO. Check out our Search Engine Optimization guide for more SEO basics.

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Comments

4 Comments »

Comment by roger Subscribed to comments via email
2008-08-23 16:48:56

In wordpress blogs, when we use tags we don’t need sitemap. Am I wrong?

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