 Introduction  How Search Engines Work  SEO Building Blocks ◦ Keywords ◦ Crawler ◦ Links  SEO Tools  Black Hat Methods  Summary and Conclusion 2

3 Introduction

"Natural," or "organic," search engine optimization (SEO) is designing, writing, and HTML-coding a Web site to maximize the chance its pages will appear at the top of spider-based search engine results for selected keywords and phrases Organic Listings: Listings that search engines do not sell (unlike paid listings) 4

 Iterative process  Dynamic environment  Art  Science 5

 Internet advertising 1H 2006 : $7.9 Billion 2  Search ranking  more site visitors  Internet users tend not to click through  Depends on webs role in your economic model 6

White Hat  Abide by terms and conditions set forth by search engines Black Hat  Breaches search engine terms and conditions  May provide short-term gains  You run the risk of being penalized by search engines 7

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Search-Friendly (SEO) ◦ High ranking ◦ Terms and conditions set by search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search) User-Friendly ◦ Site must satisfy the needs of visitors Persuasive ◦ Profitable for site owner 9

10 How Search Engines Works

1. Gather Content ◦ Crawler or spider moves recursively downloading content 2. Builds sophisticate index 3. Individual web searches run against index ◦ Results are retrieved and ordered  PageRank & Relevance 11

Placement: importance and relevance  PageRank (importance) ◦ Counts links ◦ Weights links  Query matching (relevance) ◦ sophisticated text-matching techniques ◦ examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) 12

13 SEO Optimization

 Keywords ◦ Keyword selection and keyword-rich text  Crawler ◦ A crawler-friendly site navigation scheme  Links ◦ Link popularity 14

 Page title: visible HTML text,“Above the fold”  Page Size: "100 KB" limit is still is still widely held. The optimum page size is words (or 2000 to 20,000 characters)  Be specific  Example: “Apple iPod” verses “iPod” ◦ exact phrase should appear generously throughout your site copy on every page 15

Meta tags: use but don’t stuff  Alt tags: use for graphics  Content is king  Write good content with relevant and important keywords in mind. Geo Targeting  Add geocentric terms to target local areas Domain Names  Use keywords as part of domain name 16

 Engine spiders are primitive beings ◦ choose simplicity over complexity  Goal ◦ All your web pages seen by crawlers ◦ Google: enter in searchbox “allinurl:utexas.edu” 17

 Traditional tag  Keywords in subfolder names  Minimize quantity of subfolders  Cross link relevant terms and phrases within the site  Multiple paths to pages to eliminate orphans 18

 Flash (slow to load and difficult to navigate)  Frames  Java navigation  Session ID to track visitors  exact same Title tags on every page  set to require a cookie when a visitor gets to the page 19

PageRank (Popularity, importance)  Number and quality of links pointing to a website  Measure of usefulness of site 20

 Advantage ◦ it is dynamic, cumulative, and difficult to imitate  Disadvantage ◦ takes time (vs. advertising) 21

 Quality content to start with  Cultivate quality link (not quantity)  Begin with web directories  Harness online publicity  Use Blogs and forums wisely  Investigate competitors ◦ Understand their strategy ◦ Online publicity, blogs and forums ◦ See inbound links ("link:domain.com" in Google, "linkdomain:domain.com" in Yahoo) 22

23 SEO Tools

 Google  Yahoo  MSN Search 24

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 Ranking monitor: site positioning in for keywords  Link popularity checker: checks inbound links  Site indexation tool: check site indexation  Server Log-analyzer: Administrator log analyzer  PageRank analyzer: analyze competitor sites  Keywords tool: suggestions, associations, competitor analysis  HTML analyzer: dissect html text in the same way that a search engine would (syntax, keyword density) 29

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 Matt Cutts  Worked on his Ph.D Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Undergrad Comp Sci and Math (Graduated with M.S.).  Moved into information retrieval after classes from the university's Information and Library Science department 32

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 Link Farming: exchanging reciprocal links  Keyword Stuffing: Hidden text, Stuffing text in every nook and cranny  Cloaking: stealth, deliver different page to a search engine for indexing  Doorway Pages: bridge, jump page, designed to appeal to search engine spiders  Fast meta refresh: used to quickly switch doorway pages to the page the user is supposed to see  Code swapping: swap it on the server with the "real" page once a position has been achieved. also sometimes done to keep others from learning exactly how the page ranked well.  Bait and Switch: loads the page with a popular search words such as sex, travel or antivirus when is irrelevant to site 36

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Google Yahoo MSN timizingSite.htm Web Robots

Overture tool Wordtracker tool [recommended] Google Sandbox Tool ox Espotting Tool Related Pages 39

Website Success  Search-friendly  User-friendly  Persuasive Search-friendly Optimization components  Keywords  Crawler  Links 40

1 Thulow, Shari. “What Search Engine Marketing Does Your Site Need?” Clickz. 15 Nov “2006 Second Quarter Results (October 4, 2006).” Interactive Advertising Bureau. 15 Nov “Event Homepage.” Search Engine Strategies 2006 Conference and Exposition. 15 Nov “Our Search: Google Technology.” Google Website. 15 Nov

5 Laratro, Joe. “Dos and Don’ts of Search Engine Optimization.” MoreVisibility. 15 Nov nd_Donts_WP.pdf 6 Thulow, Shari. “Link Development: The Key to Successful SEO ” Clickz. 15 Nov link farming. webopedia. 15 Nov SSEO Tools. SEO Administrator

Ranking monitor: monitor web site positioning in the major search engines for keywords Link popularity checker: checks inbound links across a number of search engines Site indexation tool: check site indexation in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines Server Log-analyzer: Administrator log analyzer automates (Number of unique IP addresses, Number of visitors… ) PageRank analyzer: analyze competitor sites Keywords suggestion tool: Keyword suggestion services, Keyword Associations, search query suggestions, Competitor analysis HTML analyzer: dissect html text in the same way that a search engine would (syntax, keyword density) 43

 Link Farming: exchanging reciprocal links with Web sites in order to increase search engine optimization  Keyword Stuffing: Hidden text, Stuffing text in every nook and cranny  Cloaking: stealth, deliver one page to a search engine for indexing while serving a different page to everyone else.  Doorway Pages: A Web page that is designed to appeal to search engine spiders.  Fast meta refresh: used to quickly switch doorway pages to the page the user is supposed to see  Code swapping: swap it on the server with the "real" page once a position has been achieved. also sometimes done to keep others from learning exactly how the page ranked well.  Bait and Switch: Another technique combines word stuffing with "bait-and-switch," which loads the page with a popular search word such as sex, travel or antivirus, even though the word has nothing to do with the site content. 44