What Every Programmer Should Know About SEO. Over the last few years since I started paying attention to SEO I have noticed many “developer guides to SEO”. Largely, these guides are written by developers and not SEO experts. At this point, I am neither of those, but since I spent the last few years working for an SEO tools company, I managed to garner quite a bit of knowledge on the topic. Of course, the things I love about SEO, are the things I love about search – big data, fast performance, and interesting algorithms.
Below I have compiled the minimum of amount of SEO knowledge a developer should have to properly optimize a website for search engine discovery. I largely wrote this for my team and couple of other people who have asked, but hopefully you will find it useful. Oh and special thanks on this post goes to Bryce Howard – I am very lucky to have someone so brilliant to help me edit. In order to understand SEO, I think it helps to start with the basics: How do search engines work? So what happens? The Basics Freshness! The New SEO Process (Quit Being Kanye) The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
The responsibilities of SEO practitioners have changed to include far more of the digital ecosystem, yet for so many, much of the SEO process remains the same. Currently there are several segments of SEO strategy seen as optional that are actually absolutely imperative to the success of an SEO campaign, as well as to the synergy of other initiatives within the marketing mix. In other words, SEO must adopt and adapt in order to be taken seriously and command the type of influence required to drive change. As it stands, SEO looks to disrupt the symphony (or cacophony) that is a brand’s marketing mix. Let’s discuss a new process that allows SEO to improve the effectiveness of all digital marketing channels – not just inbound.
Disclaimer: Kanye West is awesome, but you understand how he is perfect to illustrate these points. Problems with the Old Process with: Meta Description Magic: Think Less about SEO & More about Click-Throughs. The meta description tag in HTML is the 160 character snippet used to summarize a web page’s content. Search engines sometimes use these snippets in search results to let visitors know what a page is about before they click on it. In this post, we will look at how search engines use meta descriptions, what the top SEO blogs say about meta descriptions & whether they still use them, and reasons why you should use them. How Search Engines Use Meta Descriptions The best examples of meta descriptions and how search engines use them come from search engines themselves. Let’s look at Google’s own meta description for starters. It is exactly 159 characters, including spaces. In Google… In Yahoo… In Bing… Ironically, Google doesn’t list themselves in the results when you search “search engine” so you have to search for Google to see it.
What the Top SEO Blogs Say About Meta Descriptions Regardless of whether they count for rankings, the top SEO blogs suggest using meta descriptions. Getting Started. Most webmasters are familiar with HTML tags on their pages. Usually, HTML tags tell the browser how to display the information included in the tag. For example, <h1>Avatar</h1> tells the browser to display the text string "Avatar" in a heading 1 format. However, the HTML tag doesn't give any information about what that text string means—"Avatar" could refer to the hugely successful 3D movie, or it could refer to a type of profile picture—and this can make it more difficult for search engines to intelligently display relevant content to a user.
Schema.org provides a collection of shared vocabularies webmasters can use to mark up their pages in ways that can be understood by the major search engines: Google, Microsoft, Yandex and Yahoo! 1. How to mark up your content using microdata 1a. Your web pages have an underlying meaning that people understand when they read the web pages. 1b. itemscope and itemtype Let's start with a concrete example. Back to top 1c. itemprop 1d. 2. 2b. 2c. 3. 3a. 3b. Page Speed Online. WebPagetest - Website Performance and Optimization Test. Webmaster Tools - Rich Snippets Testing Tool. 10 New Google Algorithm Tweaks. By Navneet Kaushal Expert Author Article Date: Whenever Google makes a change in its search algorithm, it makes for big news.
The search engine has recently revealed a compilation of the latest algorithmic tweaks it has made. Google’s Matt Cutts, has posted a blog about the recent 10 algorithm changes made by Google. As Matt says, We make roughly 500 changes to our search algorithm in a typical year. Google has been working all through this year to provide some insights to site owners, as to how the search engine works it algorithms, and even released a video of the same recently. Cross-language information retrieval updates: This tweak assured that the English web pages were translated into certain languages and displayed right below the English titles in search results.
Why Has Google Done This? This blog revealing the tweaks in the closely guarded Google algorithm has given way to several theories as to why has Google done this sort of compilation now? Comments. Optimisation HTML. The Ultimate Guide To A/B Testing - Smashing Magazine. Advertisement A/B testing isn’t a buzz term.
A lot of savvy marketers and designs are using it right now to gain insight into visitor behavior and to increase conversion rate. And yet A/B testing is still not as common as such Internet marketing subjects as SEO, Web analytics and usability. People just aren’t as aware of it. They don’t completely understand what it is or how it could benefit them or how they should use it. What Is A/B Testing? At its core, A/B testing is exactly what it sounds like: you have two versions of an element (A and B) and a metric that defines success.
This is similar to the experiments you did in Science 101. 1Large version2 A/B testing on the Web is similar. What To Test? Your choice of what to test will obviously depend on your goals. Even though every A/B test is unique, certain elements are usually tested: Create Your First A/B Test Once you’ve decided what to test, the next step, of course, is to select a tool for the job. Do’s And Don’ts Don’ts Do’s (al) 6 Best Practices for Modern SEO. Erin Everhart is the director of web and social media marketing at the digital marketing and web design company, 352 Media Group. Connect with her on Twitter @erinever. Google’s search results aren’t what they used to be. Need proof? Just look at its results page. No longer solely comprised of traditional, organic site matches, Google now lists local maps, images, videos and social cues as well — and it’s affecting more than just what you see.
If you rely heavily on search engines for pageviews and sales, as many businesses do, Google search results will drastically affect how your customers find you. 1. There’s a good probability that a large chunk of the Google searches you perform will display Google Places listings – and consumers are taking notice. If your business relies on local listings, concentrate on scoring a seat at Google Places. Citations: Ensure that your correct business information is listed in as many (reputable) sources as possible around the Internet. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Advanced Google Analytics - Tips and Tricks. Google Analytics affects everyone in search engine marketing (unless you use another analytics package!) But not everyone knows how to take full advantage of it. To take full advantage of it we have to share knowledge and that's what I'm here to do. I'll be sharing some great advanced segments, how to do multiple goal conversion tracking and the secret success behind cross domain tracking. 1.
Advanced segments provide you with the ability to take your reporting up a gear. Social media segment If you are paying for social media traffic then it's imperative that you check the value it yields to sales i.e. does it even generate any direct sales? Click on the My Site tab > Advanced Segments > Then click on +New Custom Segment > Choose a name for it > Then click on +Add a dimension or metric > then add "Source" as a dimension > have it as "include" and "matching regular expression" then using a bit of regex, type the following in the field.
Click on test segment (check that it works!). 2. 3. How Big is Your Long Tail? - Whiteboard Friday. Choosing keywords to optimize for is a tricky business, made all the more tricky as keyphrases grow longer than a couple of words. As Google has said, up to 20% of search queries in any given day are completely unique. Should you try to optimize your tauntaun sleeping bags product page for "tauntaun sleeping bag," for "childrens' tauntaun sleeping bag," or for "childrens' star wars tauntaun sleeping bag from hoth"?
How can you research whether or not to optimize for such a long tail query? In this week's Whiteboard Friday, Rand is back to explain just how long of a tail you should be optimizing for. Have any suggestions on how you do this research? Give us your thoughts in the comments! Howdy, SEOmoz fans. A Beginner’s Guide to A/B Testing: Effective SEO Landing Pages. A/B testing SEO landing pages can be more tricky than testing an email or pay-per-click campaign, especially when you are using a tool like Google Website Optimizer. There are a few precautions you should take to make sure you obtain accurate test results and to not damage your previous SEO efforts. Read below to find out why. Let’s Clear A Few Things Up Before We Begin This post is not about testing different variations of a SEO landing page to see which version attracts more traffic from the search engines. This post is about how to test SEO landing page variations to see which version converts higher for a desired goal.
An easy example that would help illustrate this point would be the desire to enhance a product page that will ultimately send more visitors to a checkout page. You obviously want the product page to rank high in the search engines, but the point of testing the product page is to achieve the highest possible conversion between the product page and the checkout page. Comment créer ou adapter votre structure pour optimiser votre référencement (SEO) C’est une question qui revient souvent (et à raison!). Aujourd’hui, avoir une structure de site optimisée pour les moteurs de recherche est primordial pour améliorer votre SEO! Ceci est encore plus vrai lorsque votre site est destiné à gérer beaucoup de pages. C’est souvent le cas des sites de vente en ligne, de news… Les stratégies de SEO ne seront pas les mêmes en fonction du site à optimiser, mais l’optimisation de la structure est un chantier presque commun à tous les site surtout ceux disposant d’un certains volume de pages à indexer.
Qu’est-ce qu’une structure de site optimisée? Avant tout, une structure optimisée est une structure de site qui est utile à la fois pour les moteurs de recherche et pour les internautes. Pourquoi optimiser la structure de votre site? L’optimisation de la structure de votre site est importante lorsque votre site gère plusieurs dizaines voir centaines de milliers de pages.
Quelques chantiers structurels à considérer: 1. Site de voyage en linge: 20+ Essential Resources for Improving Your SEO Skills. Mollie Vandor is a product manager at BetterWorks, and the former associate product manager at Cooking.com. Prior to that, she helped launch Ranker.com, where she served as the product manager, amongst many other roles. You can reach her @mollierosev, on her blog, or on her latest addiction – Words With Friends, where she plays under the username “Mollierosev. " Search engine optimization isn’t exactly something you can major in — at least, not yet. In fact, many professional search engine optimizers are self-taught. They’ve supplemented backgrounds in marketing, computer science and the like with self-education via online courses, videos and blog posts. Whether you're looking to build your knowledge of the basics, master more intermediate material or get to the head of the advanced class, a wealth of online resources can help you graduate your SEO skills to the next level.
The Basics Intermediate Congratulations, you’ve passed freshman SEO. Advanced Placement Graduation. Conseil Référencement: 5 Astuces pour Optimiser son Référencement sur Google. Le mois dernier, Google a lancé la personnalisation des pages de résultats de son moteur de recherche en ajoutant une barre latérale à gauche qui permet de filtrer les résultats en fonction du type de contenu (recherche universelle, vidéos, actualités etc …), de la localisation physique ou dans le temps (langue parlée, pays ciblé etc…) ou encore d’options de recherche supplémentaires (affichage de résultats déjà consultés, roue chronologique magique etc …) La personnalisation des pages de résultats sur Google amène les professionnels à faire évoluer leurs méthodes de référencement.
Quelles astuces peut-on donc appliquer pour optimiser son référencement sur Google? Conseil référencement n°1: Privilégiez un référencement multi-types Un site doit être optimisé pour la recherche universelle mais également pour les autres types de contenu: images, vidéos, maps, actualités etc … Conseil référencement n°3: Produisez du contenu très régulièrement - les actualités - les blogs - les mises à jour.