Wiley SEO Search Engine Optimization Bible Dec 2007 ISBN 0470175001 pdf

  

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

  

Jerri L. Ledford

SEO

  

Search Engine Optimization

Bible

  

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

  

Jerri L. Ledford

SEO

  

Search Engine Optimization

Bible

  For James — Because your faith was strong even when mine began to fail.

  Search Engine Optimization Bible Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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  About the Author

Jerri Ledford is the author of more than a dozen technology books and hundreds of articles about

  business and technology subjects. Her books and articles have been published in many languages throughout the world. Jerri also writes and teaches technology courses online for organizations such as HP, Forbes, AOL, and Sony. When she’s not buried in a writing project, Jerri spends all of her time working on other writing projects or on the Alabama and Florida beaches with her children.

  About the Technical Editor Micah Baldwin is recognized as a leader in the search engine marketing industry, having helped

  author several books on search engine marketing and often speaking at industry events. Micah started Current Wisdom, a full-service search marketing agency, in 2003 after building ServiceMagic’s search marketing initiative. In January 2007, Micah sold Current Wisdom to Indigio Group, a Denver-based interactive agency, where he currently works as senior vice president, media strategy.

  Credits Acquisitions Editor Vice President and

  Katie Mohr Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley

  Development Editor

  William Bridges Vice President and Executive Publisher Joseph B. Wikert

  Technical Editor

  Micah Baldwin Project Coordinator, Cover Lynsey Osborn

  Production Editor

  Angela Smith Compositor Laurie Stewart, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

  Copy Editor

  Kim Cofer Proofreader Sossity Smith

  Editorial Manager

  Mary Beth Wakefield Indexer Johnna VanHoose Dinse

  Production Manager

  Tim Tate Anniversary Logo Design Richard Pacifico After having written more than a dozen books, there is one thing that I can say for sure: no book is written without a ton of helpful people guiding, pushing, and providing for the author. Before even acknowledging that team, though, I must say thanks to God for giving me a talent that few people possess and the means by which to use that talent.

  There is an entire team at Wiley that I owe a huge thank-you to. These people — Katie Mohr, Mary Beth Wakefield, Tom Dinse, and a good dozen or so other people whom I never get to speak to — are responsible for making this book a reality. They handle production from beginning to end, and without them, there would be no book.

  My favorite development editor in the world is among those I owe thanks to as well. Bill Bridges has worked with me on several books now, and he’s the reason that my words are spelled and ordered correctly and not full of clichés. Without Bill, the book would be half the quality that it is now. Thanks, friend! And then there’s Micah Baldwin. Micah put lots of hours into ensuring the technical accuracy of the text within these pages. His suggestions (and saves) have kept my facts true. Thanks, Micah.

  All the interviews included in Appendix B were also gifts to me. Thanks to each of you who took the time to talk to me, to answer my sometimes dumb questions, and to allow me to pass your wisdom on to our readers. Your help provided valuable insight for me, as I hope it will for the reader as well.

  Thanks, too, to my Mobile family. Big Jennifer and Little Jennifer, Rick, and James — you’re my support system. And you’re there when I need you; you leave when I need space, and you under- stand that brain drain from writing is a temporary situation and love me still. Without you and our weekly dinners, I wouldn’t be able to function nearly as effectively. Thanks, guys! And thanks to you for reading the book. I hope you find all the information you seek.

  Introduction ..................................................................................................................................xv

  

Part I: Understanding SEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1: Search Engine Basics......................................................................................................3 Chapter 2: Creating an SEO Plan ..................................................................................................17 Part II: SEO Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Chapter 3: Building Your Site for SEO ..........................................................................................33 Chapter 4: Keywords and Your Web Site ......................................................................................59 Chapter 5: Pay-per-Click and SEO ................................................................................................73 Chapter 6: Maximizing Pay-per-Click Strategies............................................................................97 Chapter 7: Increasing Keyword Success ......................................................................................115 Chapter 8: Understanding and Using Behavioral Targeting..........................................................125 Chapter 9: Managing Keyword and PPC Campaigns ..................................................................133 Chapter 10: Keyword Tools and Services ....................................................................................151 Chapter 11: Tagging Your Web Site ............................................................................................167 Chapter 12: The Content Piece of the Puzzle ..............................................................................177 Chapter 13: Understanding the Role of Links and Linking..........................................................193 Part III: Optimizing Search Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Chapter 14: Adding Your Site to Directories ..............................................................................211 Chapter 15: Pay-for-Inclusion Services........................................................................................219 Chapter 16: Robots, Spiders, and Crawlers ................................................................................227 Chapter 17: The Truth About SEO Spam ....................................................................................239 Chapter 18: Adding Social-Media Optimization ..........................................................................247 Chapter 19: Automated Optimization ........................................................................................257 Part IV: Maintaining SEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 Chapter 20: SEO Beyond the Launch ..........................................................................................265 Chapter 21: Analyzing Success....................................................................................................271

Contents at a Glance Contents Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

  Appendix A: Optimization for Major Search Engines ..................................................................281 Appendix B: Industry Interviews ................................................................................................287 Appendix C: SEO Software, Tools, and Resources ......................................................................347 Appendix D: Worksheets ............................................................................................................359 Glossary ......................................................................................................................................373 Index ..........................................................................................................................................381

  

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

  Part I: Understanding SEO

  1 Chapter 1: Search Engine Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

  What Is a Search Engine? ......................................................................................................5 Anatomy of a Search Engine ................................................................................................5

  Query interface............................................................................................................6 Crawlers, spiders, and robots ......................................................................................7 Databases ....................................................................................................................8 Search algorithms ........................................................................................................8 Retrieval and ranking ..................................................................................................9

  Characteristics of Search ....................................................................................................11 Classifications of Search Engines ........................................................................................11

  Primary search engines ..............................................................................................11 Secondary search engines ..........................................................................................13 Targeted search engines ............................................................................................13

  Putting Search Engines to Work for You ..............................................................................13 Manipulating Search Engines ..............................................................................................14

  

Chapter 2: Creating an SEO Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Understanding Why You Need SEO ....................................................................................18 Setting SEO Goals ..............................................................................................................19 Creating Your SEO Plan ......................................................................................................20 Prioritizing pages ......................................................................................................21 Site assessment ..........................................................................................................21 Finishing the plan......................................................................................................22 Follow-up..................................................................................................................23 Understanding Organic SEO ..............................................................................................23 Achieving Organic SEO ......................................................................................................24 Web-site content........................................................................................................24 Google Analytics........................................................................................................25 Internal and external links ........................................................................................26 User experience ........................................................................................................27 Site interactivity ........................................................................................................28

Contents

  Part II: SEO Strategies

  31 Chapter 3: Building Your Site for SEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

  Before You Build Your Site ..................................................................................................34 Know your target ......................................................................................................34 Page elements ............................................................................................................35

  Understanding Web-Site Optimization ................................................................................39 Does hosting matter? ................................................................................................39 Domain-naming tips..................................................................................................39 Understanding usability ............................................................................................41

  Components of an SEO-Friendly Page ................................................................................43 Understanding entry and exit pages ..........................................................................44 Using powerful titles..................................................................................................46 Creating great content ..............................................................................................47 Maximizing graphics ................................................................................................48

  Problem Pages and Work-Arounds ......................................................................................49 Painful portals ..........................................................................................................50 Fussy frames..............................................................................................................51 Cranky cookies..........................................................................................................52

  Programming Languages and SEO ......................................................................................52 JavaScript ..................................................................................................................52 Flash ........................................................................................................................53 Dynamic ASP ............................................................................................................53 PHP ..........................................................................................................................54

  Other Design Concerns ......................................................................................................54 Domain cloaking ......................................................................................................54 Duplicate content ......................................................................................................55 Hidden pages ............................................................................................................56

  After Your Site Is Built ........................................................................................................56 Beware of content thieves ..........................................................................................56 Dealing with updates and site changes ......................................................................57

  

Chapter 4: Keywords and Your Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The Importance of Keywords ..............................................................................................59 Understanding Heuristics ....................................................................................................61 Using Anchor Text ..............................................................................................................64 Picking the Right Keywords ................................................................................................65 What’s the Right Keyword Density? ....................................................................................67 Taking Advantage of Organic Keywords ..............................................................................70 Avoid Keyword Stuffing ......................................................................................................70 More About Keyword Optimization ....................................................................................71

  

Chapter 5: Pay-per-Click and SEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

How Pay-per-Click Works ..................................................................................................75 Determining visitor value ..........................................................................................76 Putting pay-per-click to work ....................................................................................77 Pay-per-Click Categories ....................................................................................................77 Keyword pay-per-click programs ..............................................................................77 Product pay-per-click programs ................................................................................78 Service pay-per-click programs ..................................................................................79 Understanding How PPC Affects SEO ................................................................................79 Keyword Competitive Research ..........................................................................................81 Keyword suggestion tools ..........................................................................................81 Choosing Effective Keywords ..............................................................................................88 Creating your first keyword list ................................................................................88 Forbidden search terms and poison words ................................................................89 Forecasting search volumes ......................................................................................91 Finalizing your keyword list ......................................................................................93 Writing Ad Descriptions ......................................................................................................95 Monitoring and Analyzing Results ......................................................................................96

Chapter 6: Maximizing Pay-per-Click Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Understanding Keyword Placement ....................................................................................97 Alt and Other Tags and Attributes ......................................................................................97 Title tags....................................................................................................................98 Meta description tags ..............................................................................................100 Anchor text ............................................................................................................102 Header tag content ..................................................................................................106 Body text ................................................................................................................108 Alt tags ....................................................................................................................109 URLS and File Names........................................................................................................112

Chapter 7: Increasing Keyword Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Writing Keyword Advertisement Text ................................................................................116 Create Great Landing Pages ..............................................................................................119 Understanding and Using A/B Testing ..............................................................................122 Avoiding Keyword Stuffing................................................................................................123

Chapter 8: Understanding and Using Behavioral Targeting. . . . . . . . . 125

What Is Behavioral Targeting? ..........................................................................................126 Taking Advantage of Behavioral Targeting ........................................................................127 Additional Behavioral Targeting Tips ................................................................................129 Contents

  Contents Contents

  Chapter 9: Managing Keyword and PPC Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Keyword Budgeting ..........................................................................................................133 Understanding Bid Management ......................................................................................136 Manual bid management ........................................................................................136 Automated bid management....................................................................................137 Tracking Keywords and Conversions ................................................................................140 Reducing Pay-per-Click Costs ..........................................................................................143 Managing PPC campaigns........................................................................................143 Negative keywords ..................................................................................................145 Dayparting ..............................................................................................................145 Improving Click-Through Rates ........................................................................................147 The ROI of PPC ................................................................................................................149 Chapter 10: Keyword Tools and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Google AdWords ..............................................................................................................152 Campaign management ..........................................................................................153 Reports ....................................................................................................................155 Analytics..................................................................................................................156 My Account ............................................................................................................157 Print ads ..................................................................................................................158 Yahoo! Search Marketing ..................................................................................................158 Dashboard ..............................................................................................................159 Campaigns ..............................................................................................................159 Reports ....................................................................................................................161 Administration ........................................................................................................162 Microsoft adCenter............................................................................................................163 Campaign ................................................................................................................163 Accounts & Billing ..................................................................................................164 Research ..................................................................................................................165 Reports ....................................................................................................................166 Chapter 11: Tagging Your Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 What’s So Important About Site Tagging? ..........................................................................168 How Does Site Tagging Work? ..........................................................................................168 Additional HTML Tags ......................................................................................................170 Nofollow ................................................................................................................170 Strong and emphasis ..............................................................................................171 Noframes ................................................................................................................171 Table summary tag ..................................................................................................172 Acronym and abbreviation tags................................................................................173 Virtual includes ......................................................................................................173 Using Redirect Pages ........................................................................................................175

  

Chapter 12: The Content Piece of the Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

How Does Web-Site Content Affect SEO?..........................................................................178 Elements of Competitive Content......................................................................................179 To Use or Not? Duplicate Content ....................................................................................181 Stay Away from Search Engine Spam ................................................................................185 Doorway pages ........................................................................................................185 Hidden and tiny text ..............................................................................................186 SEO oversubmission................................................................................................186 Page jacking ............................................................................................................186 Bait and switch ........................................................................................................187 Cloaking..................................................................................................................187 Hidden links............................................................................................................187 Considerations for Multi-Lingual Sites ..............................................................................188 Content Management Systems ..........................................................................................189 When should you use CMS?....................................................................................189 Choosing the right CMS ..........................................................................................189 How CMS affects SEO ............................................................................................190 Understand and Use Viral Content ....................................................................................191

Chapter 13: Understanding the Role of Links and Linking . . . . . . . . . 193

How Links Affect SEO ......................................................................................................194 How Links and Linking Work ..........................................................................................197 Snagging inbound links ..........................................................................................198 Creating outbound links..........................................................................................200 Taking advantage of cross-linking ............................................................................202 The skinny on link farms ........................................................................................204 The Basics of Link Building ..............................................................................................205 Using Internal Links..........................................................................................................206 Judging the Effectiveness of Your Links ............................................................................207

Part III: Optimizing Search Strategies 209

Chapter 14: Adding Your Site to Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 What Are Directories? ......................................................................................................212 Submitting to directories ........................................................................................213 Major online directories ..........................................................................................215 Paid vs. free directories ............................................................................................215 Geo-Targeting SEO Strategies ............................................................................................216 Using Submission Tools ....................................................................................................217 Contents

Contents

  Chapter 15: Pay-for-Inclusion Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 When to Use Pay-for-Inclusion Services ............................................................................221 Understanding the Business Model....................................................................................221 Managing Paid Services ....................................................................................................222 Hiring the Right Professionals ..........................................................................................223 Contract Considerations....................................................................................................224 When the Relationship Isn’t Working ................................................................................225 Chapter 16: Robots, Spiders, and Crawlers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 What Are Robots, Spiders, and Crawlers?..........................................................................228 What’s the Robot Exclusion Standard? ..............................................................................229 Robots Meta Tag ................................................................................................................232 Inclusion with XML Site Mapping ....................................................................................233 Creating your own XML site map ............................................................................234 Submitting your site map ........................................................................................238 Chapter 17: The Truth About SEO Spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 What Constitutes SEO Spam? ..........................................................................................240 Why Is SEO Spam a Bad Idea? ..........................................................................................243 Avoiding SEO Spam ..........................................................................................................244 Chapter 18: Adding Social-Media Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 What Is Social-Media Optimization? ................................................................................250 What’s different about social-media optimization? ..................................................251 The Value of Social Media..................................................................................................251 Social-Media Strategies ......................................................................................................252 Measuring Social-Media Optimization ..............................................................................255 Chapter 19: Automated Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Should You Automate? ......................................................................................................258 Automation Tools ..............................................................................................................260 Part IV: Maintaining SEO 263

  Chapter 20: SEO Beyond the Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 It’s Not Over......................................................................................................................265 Using Content Management Systems ................................................................................268 SEO Problems and Solutions ............................................................................................268 You’ve been banned!................................................................................................268 Content scraping ....................................................................................................269 Click fraud ............................................................................................................269 Chapter 21: Analyzing Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Analyzing SEO Successes ..................................................................................................271 Managing SEO expectations ....................................................................................272

Contents

  Find yourself ..........................................................................................................273 Analyzing web stats ................................................................................................273

  Competitive Analysis ........................................................................................................275 Conversion Analysis ..........................................................................................................276 Analyzing Server Logs ......................................................................................................277

  Appendices 279

Appendix A: Optimization for Major Search Engines. . . . . . . . . . . . 281

  Optimization for Google....................................................................................................281 Understanding Google PageRank ............................................................................282

  Optimization for MSN ......................................................................................................284 Optimization for Yahoo! ....................................................................................................284

  The Yahoo! Search Crawler ......................................................................................285

Appendix B: Industry Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

  Eric Bloomfield, Vice President of Client Service & Technology, SendTraffic......................289 Jessica Bowman, Director of SEO, Business.com................................................................291 Brian Combs, Founder and VP of Services, Apogee Search ..............................................295 Rhea Drysdale, Internet Marketing Manager, MPS Group ..................................................299 Paul Dyer, Senior Account Executive, Marketwire ............................................................303 Miki Dzugan, President, Rapport Online Inc. ....................................................................307 Rand Fishkin, CEO and Co-Founder, SEOmoz ................................................................311 Duane Forrester, Founding Co-Chair for the In-House Committee with SEMPO ..............315 Stephen Harris, Consultant, SPH Associates ......................................................................321 Ryan Hoppe, Director of Product Marketing, Fast Search ..................................................325 Diane Kuehn, President, VisionPoint Marketing ................................................................329 Matt Naeger, VP and General Counsel, IMPAQT ..............................................................333 Simon Otter, Technical Manager, thebigword ....................................................................337 Sarah Skerik, VP Distribution Services, PR Newswire ........................................................339 Andrew Wetzler, President, MoreVisibility ........................................................................343 Jill Whalen, Founder and CEO, High Rankings ................................................................345

Appendix C: SEO Software, Tools, and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

  Major Search Engines and Directories................................................................................347 Secondary Search Engines ................................................................................................348 Meta Search Engines..........................................................................................................352 Keyword Tools ..................................................................................................................353 Content Resources ............................................................................................................354 RSS Feeds and Applications ..............................................................................................355 Search Engine Marketing Resources and Articles ..............................................................355 Registration Services and Programs ..................................................................................356 Link Resources and Software ............................................................................................357 Pay-per-Click ..................................................................................................................358 Social-Media Tools ............................................................................................................358

Appendix D: Worksheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

  SEO Plan ..........................................................................................................................360 SEO Checklist ..................................................................................................................362

  Current State ..........................................................................................................362 Keyword Research ..................................................................................................362 Web-Site Design ......................................................................................................362 Write Clean Code ....................................................................................................362 Make Use of Tags and Attributes..............................................................................363 SEO-Approved Content ..........................................................................................363 Manual Submissions................................................................................................363 Linking Strategies ....................................................................................................363 Conversions ............................................................................................................364

  Keyword Worksheet ..........................................................................................................365 PPC Keyword Worksheet ..................................................................................................366 Keyword Checklist ............................................................................................................367 Keyword Performances Worksheet ..................................................................................368 A/B Testing Worksheet ......................................................................................................369 PPC Competition Worksheet ............................................................................................370 Link-Tracking Worksheet ..................................................................................................371 Rank-Tracking Worksheet ................................................................................................372

  Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 Contents

  elcome to the Search Engine Optimization Bible. Search engine optimization has come to mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. In the strictest sense, SEO is about the on-page and off-page design strategies you can use to improve your search engine