Hitwise reports search engine traffic breakdown… Google is Killin’ it!

Google - 67.9%; Yahoo - 20.3%; Microsoft - 6.3%; Ask - 4.2%; Other - 1.4%

The summer camp I attended as a camper and counselor for many years is redesigning their website and they asked me to give them an SEO Checklist to keep their web designer on track when building the site. Here is the list of on-page optimization tips I came up with. Think I’m missing anything big?

1. Keyword Research

• While much of the language that will populate the pages of Agawam’s site is most likely pre-determined as a result of the rich tradition of the camp, it is important to know the core keywords (i.e. “summer camp”, “sleepover camp”, “boys sleep away camp”) that searchers are using to find out information about summer camps.

• Before any copy is written a list of 10 to 20 core keywords should be designated for use throughout the site’s textual content, and in strategic places that will be highlighted below.

• Each page should focus on 2-3 core keywords.

• Copy should be written for the user, and not appear to be “stuffed” with keywords. This will appear to search engines as spam, and the site will be devalued in the rankings. Synonyms should be used when possible. 3-8% keyword density per page is a good rule of thumb.

2. URL Structure

• The site’s URL structure is one of the first elements to be developed. Each file name should use descriptive text and be keyword focused when possible.

• Words in the sub-directory should be lower case, and separated with dashes (i.e. www.campagawam.org/summer-camp-activities.html)

• Every page should have its own static unique URL, as opposed to pages that are generated dynamically.

• Avoid using parameters in the URL (i.e. ?, &, =).

• Do NOT use session IDs or user IDs in the URL.

• If a URL is ever changed make sure to use a 301 redirect to tell the search engines that the page location has moved permanently.

• When the old Camp Agawam site is taken down be sure to put a 301 redirect on all the old URLs directing them to the new site.

3. Web Page Structure

• Try to avoid the use of JavaScript. Especially do not use it for the site’s navigational links on each page’s menu.

• Do NOT put textual content and links inside images.

• The higher the text appears in a page’s HTML code, the easier it is for the search engine spiders to find and index it. Save space in the HTML code by copying JavaScript and placing it in an external file uploaded to the server. Delete any unnecessary white space in the HTML code.

• Use Flash sparingly, and with a purpose if at all. If Flash animation is used on a page be sure to provide a balance of HTML formatted text.

• If possible, built PDFs into their own HTML pages.

• Build frequently updated content, such as newsletters, using Really Simple Syndication (RSS), an XML feed that is especially conducive to attracting search engine spiders. In addition, visitors can subscribe to the feed and receive an update every time new content is added to the site.

• Incorporating a blog into the site using Wordpress.org is also highly recommended from a search engine perspective.

4. Internal Linking

• Use absolute links instead of relative links.

• Make a decision on www vs. non-www and follow the same convention consistently for all links on the site.

• Create an HTML sitemap page with links to all the pages on the site. Provide a brief description of the page next to each link. A link to the sitemap should appear on every page.

• Where it makes sense hyperlink keyword focused text within the copy to other pages on the site.

5. Tagging

• The title tag is the most important tag. Each page should have a unique title tag that labels the contents of the page in a concise keyword focused way (character limit: 60)

• The meta description should provide a brief sentence or two about the contents of the page (character limit: 150)

• The meta keywords should include the page’s core keywords as well as any secondary keywords (10 keywords max)

• Descriptive ALT tags should be used on every image.

• When naming image filenames use descriptive language and keywords where possible instead of img_1, img_2.

• Use H1, H2 and H3 tags around the different header levels on the page. Try to incorporate keywords into the headers.

• On occasion, bold certain core keywords.

“Our entire site is flash…How do we SEO our site?” This is a common inquiry of many clients.  Walking the fine line between cloaking by providing a mirror description of the flash in html has always been the response. 

Google has begun to use the Macromedia Adobe Search Engine SDK tool to extract textual content from Flash files. In  Stephan Spencer’s recent interview with Matt Cutts, Google engineer and director of their webspam team, Cutts said the following:

It used to be the case that we had our own, home-brew code to pull the text out of Flash, but I think that we have moved to the search engine SDK tool that Adobe/Macromedia offers. So, my hunch is that most of the search engines will standardize on using that search engine SDK tool to pull out the text.

Cutts goes on to encourage Flash users to use the Adobe SDK tool to determine if your Flash is readable.  So, it sounds like they aren’t quite there in regards to being able to read Flash content as easily as HTML, but they are heading in the right direction.  Read some more of Spencer’s articles to get a better understanding of the topic: Flash alternatives blessed by Google, Progressive Enhancement is Good for SEO.

Its pretty much an accepted fact among SEOs and SEO minded web designers that the search engines, especially Google, have a soft spot for the Wordpress blogging platform.  We all know that the easily updated nature of blogs keep the search engine spiders frequently coming back for fresh content, but what exactly is better about Wordpress compared to Blogger or Typepad, or any other blogging software.  Something to do with the ease in which pages can be tagged with appropriate keyword labels…right?

Does anyone have a more precise explanation for this?  I was recently asked by a web designer colleague if I new of any studies or proof of Wordpress being fundamentally ideal for optimization.  He is in the process of perfecting a comprehensive web site analysis package that takes into account everything from user experience, to SEO, to conversion optimization.  The company that effectively incorporates the principles of Wordpress into their web design efforts will present a very marketable product…. Any thoughts?

When you first create a webpage, say your homepage, think of it as an empty container. When an external webpage directs a link to your homepage, think of it as them attaching a tube from their container to your container. Within that tube flows a one way current of liquid, or “link juice,” that pours into your container. When you build out your website with additional pages linked from your homepage, the link juice flows from your homepage through these tubes and into these containers (pages). By receiving more links from external pages you are increasing the sources from which you are getting your link juice, which you then pass internally to other pages within your site. By linking outside your site you are essentially leaking some of your juice with each external link. This leaking of link juice is not, however, a bad thing as long as you link to pages relevant to the topic of your site. What does hurt your link juice supply significantly, however, is having your links point to dead pages (404 Not Found). When you link to a dead page your juice is spilling out of your containers, and effectively diminishing your link juice.

A commonly practiced SEO tactic to ensure that your flow of link juice is not being directed to useless or hurtfull places is called PageRank sculpting. This is the use of the rel=”nofollow” attribute in the html code when linking to another site, or to an internal page of lower priority, like a privacy or terms and conditions page. Here is what the tag would look like in the page’s source:

<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.site.com/page.html” >Visit My Page</a>

So think about your links as tubes with valuable juice flowing through them and hopefully this whole linking thing will make a little bit more sense. You are welcome add to this discussion by describing ways that help YOU better visualize linking and other structural website concepts.

I just finished reading the book, Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message.  Its all about how and why people are motivated to promote products and brands on their own time without any tangible incentive.  The book discusses many examples of how honesty and full disclosure lead to successful consumer interaction, and eventually a viral response far greater than the sum of its parts.  Being able to harness the power of these bloggers, social networkers and forum participants is a word of mouth marketing tactic that is only becoming increasingly important.

What in the world does it have to do with SEO? Well, many will say absolutely nothing.  They may say that even white hat SEO is essentially gaming the system and has no place among all this truthiness.  For those naysayers I have dubbed this kind of SEO “Pristine White Hat SEO.”  It is optimization for search engines that involves the creating of platforms and interacting with visitors that allows “citizen marketers” to flourish on a given website, and thus attracting the fresh content-hungry search engine spiders.  Build an environment on your website where consumers can naturally and honestly interact about a related topic, and the rankings will follow.  

Getting big companies without any internal SEO personel to take a holistic approach to their SEO efforts is difficult. They want to be ranked on top for a host of competitive keywords. They want their web pages to be optimized for those keywords. And they want it all to happen much soon than later. Many of these websites have been around for a while, and have passed through so many hands with different priorities and marketing viewpoints, that architecturally, they are simply in shambles. Marketing executives at these companies can get their heads around the benefits of having the right keywords, but their capacity or desire to understand why they may or may not being ranking well, seems to fall short when it comes to site structure, internal linking, redirects, errors pages, page rank, etc… This, of course, is why us SEOs have a job. We are here to communicate these problems and SEO tactics, however at times it feels like our attempts at explanation falls on deaf ears.

One specific client is hell bent on purchasing and purchasing domains with keywords instead of building content focused pages within their main site. Stopping the use of session IDs in their URLs should be their first priority, and yet every week in our status call they want to discuss what domains they should buy. I see how it is hard to ignore the fact that many of the top ranking sites have keywords in their domain names, but they need to focus on building content on the well trusted domain they already have and making sure the spiders aren’t getting error pages because of their use of session IDs.

There is no doubt that solid keyword research and strategy drives the most effect SEO campaigns, but make sure you are presenting a smooth functioning, well structured website to the users and the spiders before you start expecting high rankings on all your keywords.