Not so long ago I was happy to write about one of our site So-Fab.com ranking in the top 10 for they keyword Flashing Myspace Layouts. Now ‘m even happier to report that So-Fab.com is ranking in the top ten for Myspace 2.0 Layouts!!

If you’re wondering what MySpace 2.0 is, it’s MySpace’s new profile themes. It looks more slick than the old profile and now you can make it look even slicker with So-Fab’s 2.0 Myspace Layouts.

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I came across this article which I thought was quite interesting.

At least, take everything they say with a grain of salt.

Today, they came out with their ‘SEO Starter Guide‘. I downloaded it and took a quick look.

And I’ve finally lost patience. So here I go on a Graywolf-style rant:

Inconsistencies in the SEO Guide: Dynamic URLs

On page 6 they say “Improve the structure of your URLs”. The authors point at URLs that have lots of dross like ‘mysite.com/folder1/1089257/x1/0000002a.htm’ and say that’s not user friendly. They’re right. What they don’t say is that this URL is clearly dynamically generated. No sane human being would create a page address like that.

A professional SEO will always recommend keyword-relevant, clickworthy URLs like ‘mysite.com/bicycles/schwinn/mountain-bikes.htm’ instead.

To create that more friendly URL, you’d have to rewrite the dynamic URL using some kind of URL rewriting tool like mod_rewrite.

So, Google’s recommending you rewrite dynamic URLs. Fine. As an SEO, I’ll always suggest that if it’s possible, and if it won’t kill already strong rankings.

But, this statement is a direct contradiction of their post just 6 weeks ago, though, they were very specific in stating you should not rewrite dynamic URLs.

And of course, that post was a change in their previous policy.

K guys, I’ve tried to stick up for you on this while you flop back and forth on the dynamic URL question like a fish slowly dying on the bottom of a boat. But I’ve had it. Pick a damned policy and stick with it, or stop trying to pretend you have one.

Exclusions from the SEO Guide

Google doesn’t talk about your page’s semantic outline. They mention headings, but ignore paragraph tags, lists and other structural elements that are critical to successful SEO.

They ignore the importance of content clustering and hub pages. Instead they provide a one-paragraph example of a content outline that, if used by any site of reasonable size, will result in 99% of your content being buried deeper than George Bush’s popularity rating.

They also ignore blended search, semantic relationships between different terms, any discussion of pagerank, the potential damage caused by Flash or AJAX, the importance of standards compliance or how to display products on a page.

None of these items are essential to basic SEO. So strictly speaking, I guess Google’s guide is just fine. Sort of like knowing half the flight manual is ‘just fine’.

The Real Problem

Google’s guide doesn’t say anything horrifying (except where they contradict their own policies, but I already covered that). But many beginners will download it, read it and think they’re set. And they aren’t. Implying this guide is an introduction to SEO is dangerous. It might be a very high-level introduction to basic principles of site building. Maybe.

But an intro to SEO? If you believe that, I’ve got a bailout package for ya.

Always Remember

Google is a private entity. They are a large group of brilliant people who’ve made one of the best search engines on earth. They deserve a lot of props for that, which I regularly deliver.

But they do not have your best interests at heart. I’m not implying some kind of conspiracy - Google’s a business. They have their best interests at heart. As they should.

They do offer great advice on selecting an SEO, which makes sense: A good SEO will help them sort out their rankings, which will bring happier searchers. That then generates more clicks they can sell via Adwords.

But SEO advice? I don’t think so…

End of rant.

Source ~ Ian Laurie

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There are so many aspects of off-site optimization that pretty much every SEO is familiar with, including link building, commenting on blogs and social networking. But let’s not forget there is an entire practice of site structure, keyword density and on-page optimization factors as well.

There are many on-page SEO tactics you can do to optimize your web pages, which may lead to a higher rank for each of your pages.

Below are a few basic tips for on-page optimization

Title Element ~ This is the most important aspect of on-page optimization, period. Make sure you have the keyword(s) you wish to rank for in here.

META Description ~ Google uses the META description to display in the search results (under the title element). Use the description to write copy that will make people click your link and increase CTR (click through rate).

Body Copy ~ When you’re writing copy for your website, be sure to write in the keywords you wish to target. Be careful not to over do it with the keywords because you might go over the certain percentage of keywords allowed and your copy could look spammy. Check the keyword density after you have published the page to find out.

The First Words and First Sentence ~ Make these as humanly and search engine readable as possible. Due to Google’s LSI (latent semantic indexing) algorithm, the words used in the first sentence and first words are the most important.

URL Structure ~ Always make sure the sub-directories on your website are “clean”. When I say “clean”, I mean they should be SEO’ed and look neat. A good example is….

example.com/p4?=@@@343434 ~ Bad

example.com/search-engine-optimization ~ Good

..you can format them using MOD_REWRITE (if you’re using PHP).

H1 and H2 ~ Why use these? well they tell the search engines what the copy consists of, for indexing. You should make these keyword friendly and reflective upon the title element.

In-link Structure ~ The links connecting your website together should have your targeted keywords in them as well as making link from keywords within your body copy.

Image Alt Tags ~ You should describe the image in words and optimize them for good measure. The example below is a good guideline.

If you have a image of blue baby shoes, rename the image blue-baby-shoes.jpg rather than leaving it like 24.jpg.

Having your image optimized will help them be indexed in Google Images.

Keyword Density ~ 8% is pretty much perfect and doesn’t seem spammy, if you have a 500 word article, then around 40 of them words should have variations of the keyword you are targeting, if this seems excessive, lower the keyword density down to 5% and you will only need to add 25 variations/instances of the keyword.

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Before you can even thing about your SEO campaign, you must be sure your website is included in the search engines. Whether you have a brand new website or you have an established website that for some reason is not indexed, there are a number of important steps that can help make sure your site is included.

Is my site indexed yet?

The easiest way to tell if your site is indexed is by doing a search. Type your URL into a search engine and see if it shows up in the search results. You can also do a search to see what pages are indexed by typing - site:http://www.yourdomain.com. This will show the number of pages within your URL that are indexed by the search engines.

Incoming links?

This is one of the most important aspects in getting any website indexed. Search engines put great weight on inbound linking to judge a sites overall value. You can use their inherent structure to guide the search engine crawlers to your website.

The best way to get inbound links is to ask friends and family with websites, use other sites, or submit to some directories to create these links. Doing this is more recommended than submitting directly to the search engines because they tend to look more highly upon sites that have other sites linking to them rather than sites being manually suggested. Linking provides relevance and categorization to search engines and is the best way to have your site indexed fast.

Make sure your sitemap is properly structured and your site is search engine friendly to allow the spiders to flow through your site without any blocks. Website navigation built in Flash can often be a block, although Google has announced they will be indexing text within flash.

Ensure proper use of the robots.txt file and robots metatags. The robots.txt is a way for webmasters to control the search engine spiders. It is a simple text file that tells the search engines what files they should and should not look at. In essence, it is a list of both spiders to allow and disallow, and files to be indexed or disallowed.

If they don’t find the robots.txt then it will be seen as a 404 error. Even if you don’t disallow any files or folders you should still have the file. Plus you can tell the bots where your XML sitemap is in your robots.txt file. And it is great for additional security measures.

Robots Metatags are types of meta names, located within the HTML, that will tell search engines to not index or not follow the links within a page.

This tells search engines not to follow the page or index any of the content.

At times you’ll see a site with content=”index, follow” however, to the search engine spiders, this is a default and they only change their goal when they see a content = “no index, no follow” tag.

Getting your site indexed by the search engines is an initial and crucial step to any SEO marketing campaign. It can take time to build links and search engine placement, so remember to be patient and do your best to use link building strategies that will ensure your site is indexed.

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And still climbing!! yep, I know it’s been a while since I posted but here at LipstickMedia we have been mega busy with projects. That’s great news and it’s even better when we found one of our websites ranking in the top 10 of Google for the keyword Flashing Myspace Layouts!!

If you have never heard of So-Fab.com, it is a MySpace Resource website that offers free glitters and MySpace layouts. Look out for the case study!!

Some more good news. Soon I’m going to be writing articles offering free SEO advice on how to optimize your websites and how to increase conversions.

I believe Ashley will be writing some tutorials on website design.

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What happens when you get one of the most talented web designers in Ohio who produces stunning web sites, combined with professional website marketing?

Guessed yet?..

..You get a website that makes your online business a success!!

It’s well documented that a well designed website increases conversion rates. No matter what industry you operate in, you want to look professional and know what you are talking about and doing.

Here at LipstickMedia, we can help by giving you an absolutely stunning website while maintaining your professional image.

Feel free to browse around our site and email us if you have any questions or post them here on our questions & answers page.

Enjoy the site and be sure to bookmark as our blog will be updated with all kinds of information!!

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