Wednesday, March 19, 2008

SEO Life Cycle(3)

Analysis and optimization processes have to be formulated keeping your business in mind in order to create your web presence. Information on your market, competitors, customers that you need to attract, products and service that you would like to market using web provide a clear input to the designing process. It helps in fine-tuning your designs for the customers and the search engines.
Interactive web design and development with search engine optimization assures you better page rankings and increase the number of visitors to the site. Realizing that Search Engine Optimization needs to be the objective of web development and implementation process, following are the key phases and process of an SEO life cycle.
Keyword research & analysis
Keyword research & analysis acts as the basis of a website that is in need of heavy traffic from various search engines. The purpose of this research work is to finalize on effective keywords or key phrases using which a website needs to be marketed. Identifying the phrases that drive in high quality traffics from leading search engines to your site is the success of your research work. Identifying the related keywords to your site and analyzing their impact over your site’s traffic yields high ROI (return on investment)
Site analysis
Simply SEO analysis is not the only method to get your site on the top of search engines. It just gives you an overview of your website’s potential, areas of improvement, and the obstacles. With the ever-growing popularity of search engines and page ranks, the earlier you have your SEO analysis done, the safer you are. With commendable efforts you and convert your analysis to an appreciable marketing input.
Competitive analysis
You need to be attentive with the growth of your competitors, not just their growth – their strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT). Keeping an eye on your competitor’s keywords, its success, number of inbound links is very essential to compete and stay on the top.
Statistic analysis
Statistical analysis gives you partial information from what you need to know. It gives you the details of the country of your visitors, number of times they clicked on to your site, how long they were on to your site, etc. But the problem is that you might be receiving number of hits per day, but they might be visiting your site only for a few seconds.
META Tag Setup
We have a tag that is created in order to give the keywords, description details and other related information to spiders. It is invisible, and can be seen only by viewing the source of the page.
1. Meta Tags:
Meta tags are one of the most important for search engine BOTS; A proper Meta tags will get high priority on search engines. We analyze the Meta tags and generate Meta tags for each page on web site on keyword base.
2. Headers:
Search engines looks for header tags with relevant content and keywords based on your products and content of the page where web users looking for that. We generate header tags based on your keywords and content that suits for your product pages, so search engines like that pages where it found the header tags with good content and links

3. Alt Image Titles:
Image plays a good role in search results, most of the websites have many graphics but they are not in a way that search engine likes, we optimize your images and generate ALT titles which can increase your web page popularity on search engines.
4. Hyperlink Titles/ Anchor Text:
Textual Hyperlinks have a big role in World Wide Web. A hyperlink with meaningful keyword title in the link will always drive targeted traffic to the page within a web site. Good keyword title hyperlinks
Site content optimization
To have search engine visibility, you need to use keywords and phrases focusing your main targeted audience’s queries. You must ensure that these words frequently used in your page and is quite prominently seen. Too much of these used can appear to be a Spam.
HTML code optimization (optional)
Use a clean HTML code using CSS styles. They benefit you, by enabling you to place the styles in the external files thus reducing the size of the page and improving the update format by reducing file size and fast updation. Simply updating the external CSS style file would give you the changes all over the site.
Descriptive site map creation
A sitemap has all the links to all pages of the site. Navigation is simpler for you and the search engine to crawl, thus ensuring that all pages are found.
Search Engine submission (free search engines)
A term used for registration of the website with the search engines.
Link exchange page creation
Link exchange pages are for exchanging links between high quality websites. It is called as reciprocal link exchange page.

Link Exchange Process:
Reciprocal.
It is the process of exchanging links based on some agreement between two trusted websites who shares the same business interest with an aim of increase website traffic and link popularity.
One-Way:
It is the process of link building where link is built with some website on their interest, without getting connected back to that website. It is also called inbound link, which is highly important for link popularity.

Directory Link:

It is the process of building a link with few well-known directories like Yahoo.dir, MSN and business.com in order to find niche directories.

Authority Link:
It relate to building link with related websites. It can be done for good search engine ranking, increasing link popularity and attracting more traffic to self-owned website.

Link Popularity campaign
Number of incoming links or the outgoing links for your site from various sites and directories is known as link popularity. Directories can include Business directory, Web directory and links from sites with articles can also add to this popularity evaluation.
Link popularity is achieved when you add links to various search engines, websites and directories. It is popularly known as link building. Greater the number of incoming or inbound links, greater the page rank and page popularity.

Campaign duration (Maintenance)
Many organizations feel that once their site has been optimized, then their work over the site optimization is complete, while actually there is much more. They do not realize that the search engines keep changing their algorithms at regular intervals, hence having tremendous impact over your site’s rank and position. You need to realize that a SEO campaign / maintenance is an ongoing process that needs to be monitored regularly to have a competitive edge and reach your targeted results using your specific keywords.
SEO Maintenance Service include:
· Keyword monitoring
· Web Statistics
· Log Tracking
· Website rank monitoring
· Re-optimization of few keywords (optional)
Without these services, your site’s position can slowly get down in the search engine results. It continuously keeps you above your competitor, while they are continuously trying to push you down the various search results. This can happen very easily, or can also not happen at all.
Monitor search engine & directory submissions
Monitoring and Identifying added links whether back link is present or not. Deleting if it is not present.
Web ranking report
This report gives you complete details about your Google page rank. Google uses link popularity as one of the measure to decide on your page rank. Quality inbound links can enhance the page rank (PR > 3). Google also uses an algorithm called the Page Rank to finalize on the page rank for the pages that match the search keyword.
Link Popularity Report
This report is considered as a valuable while dealing with the visibility of the web page in top search engines. Websites requires atleast one incoming links in order to be indexed by the some search engines, else they are sure to be left out without being indexed. This report gives you information of number of inbound links with top search engines, link partners and directories.
Keyword position report (SERP)
SERPs - Search Engine Results Positions for keywords are clearly known from this report. It measures the position of keywords in top search engines by using the rankings given to the web page by the search engines while optimi

User-agent: *
Disallow:
Robot.txt
Save method

SEO PROCESS FOR NEW WEBSITES

SEO PROCESS FOR NEW WEBSITES
Step-1: Get the suggested keywords from clients:
We ask the client to send the most relevant keywords, key-phrases and key-terms for their website promotion.
Step-2: Keyword Frequency Report, Keyword Suggestions and Final Keywords:
We create a report on the frequency of the usage of keywords suggested by the client. That is we find out how many times your keyword was used on the Internet. Our SEO experts also study your site, your competitors site and present some keywords that we feel are relevant to your site.
Keyword Density: Determine the percentage of specific keywords on your company website. Generally Keyword Density should be between 2% to 8%

Step-3: Select Web-pages for optimization:
We select the web-pages for optimization from your website. Your site may have 50-60 pages but based on your package, we select the most important and relevant pages for optimization.
Step-4: Meta Tags Development:
META tags are a very important HTML component if you wish to achieve good search engine performance. META tags contain title, description, and keywords for the relevant web pages. Once the Meta tags are created, we upload it on the relevant web pages. Configuration of image Alts Tags, and Link Anchor Tags.
Step-5: Content Optimization:
Based on your keyword, we create small 3-4 lines of text and we ask you to add on the pages we want to optimize.
Step-6: Adding Link To Search Engines and Directories - General
We add your site in the search engines and directories owned by FSL. This allows you to get traffic from our site and also build your link popularity.
Step-7: Reciprocal Link Exchange
We also get you reciprocal links from sites outside FSL. This reciprocal links create a widespread link-popularity for you. And we give suggestions for internal link structure.

Step-8: Robots Text File (robots.txt)


The robots.txt file is the first thing that a search engine looks for in your root directory, as it indicates which files you do not want the robot to crawl and which files you do not allow to be indexed in the search engines.


Step-9: Sandbox Effect - Sandbox Theory - Sandbox Filter

The Sandbox theory, or Sandbox effect as it has become known in the SEO world, is a dampening filter that is applied to new websites. It usually lasts for between two and six months from the site's launch date. It's not unusual for a new website to enter the SERPs (search engine results pages), for a couple of weeks and then drop out of the search engine rankings completely, so if it happens to your new website - don't panic!

Step-9: Flash Is Not SEO Friendly

The most compelling reason is that Search Engines cannot read flash. This creates a major problem when your index page is a flash movie, for example, as the search engine spiders cannot negotiate their way around your site, resulting in your site possibly being ignored altogether. For this we don’t prefer to use flash.


Step-10: Eliminate HTML Coding Errors

One of the foundations of Ethical Search Engine Optimization is ensuring that there are no coding errors and that the HTML code that runs behind the page is 100% accurate.

Frontlinesfot go through the process of re-writing website pages in CSS Layout, taking JavaScript to external files and changing all depreciated code to W3c compliant CSS.

· Meta Tags: answer is simple - keywords, description, content-type and title. Any other Meta tags are of no value and simply make the code longer and heavier.


· Fundamental HTML Code: There are two tags that should be in your code to recognize that it is a page. A head tag and a body tag. The head tags it crucial to hold the meta tags. However the page still renders if you have a head and no body tags, although will not be W3c compliant.


· Effects of HTML Coding Errors: You may have the best content in your genre, however, if, for example, you don't have a page title and Meta tags to back it up, the search engines do not know what the page is about and will give the page no relevance.

Step-11: GOOGLE XML SITEMAP:

We will create xml site map and submit to google to crawl all the pages.

Search Engine Optimization(1)

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), also known as Search Engine Placement or Search Engine Marketing (SEM), is a process of attaining a high ranking in search engines by changing the site's code to make it more search engine compatible. Search Engine Optimization is only starting to catch on in global as companies begin to recognize the importance of search engines as a cost-effective channel. SEO basically a plan implemented to increase a sites visibility. It mainly involves selecting keywords that will generate the targeted traffic, researching search engine policies and guidelines, and most importantly understanding the customer

It is critical for any company to take into consideration how well its Web site will rank in the most important search engines and directories. There are many various but deliberate measures that a company must undertake in order to maximize their web site’s potential for success in search engines and directories. These measures, which produce concrete results, comprise the very heart of search engine optimization. Many companies underestimate the importance of search engines and fail to understand the ranking process so they end up ignoring what may be the most crucial ingredient of Internet marketing strategy.

SEO Benefits:

· Increased website traffic
· Increased leads/sales
· Wider target market-global market
· Lower marketing costs
· Dominate your competition/competitors


HOW INTERNET USERS FIND WEBSITES

SEARCH ENGINES 81%
LINK FROM ANOTHER SITE 59%
Viral marketing 56%
TV's 48%
Guess URL 41%
Online advertising 20%
Radio 19%
Direct Mail / E-mail marketing 16%
Source from w3c.org and searchengines.com (21-08-2004)







SEARCH ENGINE MARKET SHARE




GOOGLE 72.4%
YAHOO 46.1%
MSN 18%
AOL 3.8%
LYCOS 2.2%
ALTAVISTA 1.7%
ASK JAAVES 1.7%
ALLTHEWEB 1.6%

NUMBER OF SEARCHES PER DAY


GOOGLE 284 Million
YAHOO 172 Million
OVERTURE 167 Million
LOOKSMART 45 Million
FINDWHAT 33 Million
ASK JAAVES 20 Million
ALLTHEWEB 8 Million












1. SEARCH ENGINE COMPATIBILITY REVIEW

Conducting detail analysis of your existing website's search engine compatibility in terms of HTML design, page extensions, link popularity, title and META tags, browser compatibility, link popularity, body text, ALT IMG tags, page load time, and dead links. We then provide a detailed report with recommendations based on your findings. We then work closely with you to ensure that we tailor our website optimization services to your exact needs.

2. SEARCH ENGINE COMPATIBLE WEB DESIGN

If your existing website was designed without SEO in mind, we can re-design or revamp your existing website source code to suit the search engine's requirements. These would include modification of source code, removal of frames and flash, renaming of files and directories, as well as incorporating a sitemap, etc.

3. KEYWORD RESEARCH & CONSULTATION

We undertake extensive keyword research to determine what people are typing into search engines to find products and services similar to yours. We also look at your competitor's sites to find search terms they are using. Using specialist software, we analyze the resulting search keywords and phrases for performance and determine how many other sites are competing for high ranking with the same terms. We then provide you with a list of search terms especially tailored for your site, in order of potential ranking performance on the various engines. Working closely with you, we revise and streamline the list to come up with four or five priority search terms for each page being optimized.

4. SEARCH ENGINE COPYWRITING

One of the most crucial steps of any website optimization for search engines, this is when we take a look at your existing site copy and with your input, our professional copywriter makes changes to ensure it is both search engine compatible and viewer friendly. This can include additions of keywords and phrases to your existing body text, or the drafting of entirely new body text for various pages, to ensure ranking relevancy and content satisfying to both search engine and viewer.

5. TITLE & META TAGS DEVELOPMENT

At this stage we draft tailored TITLE and META tags for each being optimized, utilizing your prioritized search terms. The tags are they run through testing software to check for search engine effectiveness and ranking potential across a range of search engines.

6. LINK POPULARITY MANAGEMENT

A highly recommended phase in the Search Engine Optimization process is a link building campaign to help improve your site's link popularity, an important factors in the ranking algorithms of many major search engines these days (particularly GOOGLE).


7. THIS WOULD INCLUDE

· Researching and locating top sites in your niche market that are highly relevant to their target audience and have excellent linking potential
· Working closely with you to select the most relevant sites to exchange links with.
· Contacting and request reciprocal links from each of the target sites individually.


" This is a time-consuming process that must be done manually, one at a time. There are no shortcuts and no automated software is ever recommended. The goal is to establish a professional, search engine friendly and mutually beneficial relationship on your behalf with the right link partners for your business."

8. ORGANIC SEARCH SUBMISSION

We will submit all of the pages on that your are optimized to the most important search engines such as GOOLE, Yahoo, ALLTHEWEB, ALTAVISTA, ASK JEEEVES, Lycos and MSN. Professional search engine submissions will be made to engines and directories where your site is not already listed. Once your site has been submitted to search engines and directories, you must be patient! Keep in mind that search engines can take anywhere between one and 12 weeks to list your site, so you may not notice ranking improvements for a few weeks.

9. PAID DIRECTORY SUBMISSION

Apart from search engines, other important places that offer a web site submission services are search directories. The most important directory on the Internet to have your site listed in is undoubtedly, Yahoo! . Yahoo! Is still the most widely used search directory on the Internet, with an estimated 70% of the search market? Another popular search directory is LOOKSMART. While not as popular as Yahoo! LOOKSMART is somewhat important because their database feeds other major search engines and portals including MSN, IWON and ALTAVISTA

Unfortunately, if you run any type of commercial web site, there is no way to use the submission services of either of these directories except via their express search engine submission options. We strongly recommend you pay to submit your site to Yahoo! As part of your web site promotion campaign. It will pay for itself very quickly! As for LOOKSMART, well, they have changed into a pay per click model. Whether or not you submit your site to LOOKSMART will depend on hoe important traffic from their partners is to your site.


10. PAY-PER-CLICK MANAGEMENT

These days, most search engines and directories have a Pay For Performance (PFP) or Pay Per Click (PPC) element to them. These paid services are a way of promoting your site by paying for the extra exposure, rather than relying solely on your site's

Search engine ranking as determined by the search engine compatibility of your site design.

The extra exposure can include having your site listed above the normal search listings under "sponsored matches" or "featured listings", or via specially designed text ads that display when your target keywords or phrases are searched on. If you don't have search engine compatible sites, or that don't have the time or budget to implement a traditional search engine optimization campaign to obtain high ranking, PPC options can be good solutions to increasing site traffic quickly. These options are also an excellent choice when used in combination with a search engine optimization campaign to achieve maximum exposure and larger traffic volumes.

11. SEO MAINTENANCE & REPORTING

To ensure up to date listings, we monitor your site ranking every month for 6 to 12 months and each month, where there is a significant drop in ranking or your URL has disappeared from the index, your site is resubmitted to the relevant search engine or directory. We do this very carefully, so as not to cause your site any ranking penalties from over submission. We will also "tweak" your META tags from time to time during the duration of the contract, to ensure your target search terms keep ranking well.

Depending on your chosen package, we supply monthly search engine ranking reports for you to track improvements for your site on main search engines and directories for chose search terms for 6 or 12 months. You will receive a report monthly for the term of your contact. Keep in mind that search engines an take anywhere between one and 12 weeks to list your site, so you may not notice improvements for a few weeks.