SEOmoz have created an interesting quiz which highlights some very important things we should be thinking about. A few of us took the test here, and did pretty well, but were surprised about the randomness of some of the questions! You'll see what we mean, take the test :)
Some of the more interesting SEO tips and stories we found out from the SEOmoz questions I have listed below:
1. Yahoo! is considered to be the best source for aquiring competitive link data (forget about using link commands at MSN or Google, or the comparative trends off Alexa).
2. TrustRank is Yahoo's answer to PageRank for link analysis.
3. The following domain extensions are seen as the 'most important': .edu, .mil, .gov. Interesting.
4. Spam sites or blogs that link to your site will could still give you some positive 'link juice'.
5. Having the same content on www. and non-www. site URLs can have a negative impact on your rankings.
6. Meta keywords are NOT important!
7. A 'one-size-fits-all' approach to Meta descriptions are worst than leaving the Meta descriptions blank. Always customise them on a per-page basis.
8. If your deeper pages have a weak page rank, link to those pages from strong, internal pages.
9. On-site content duplication is a big no-no for search rankings.
10. Having big, integrated sites on one trusted domain is much better than having sites with various microsites on different domains.
11. As slick and lovely as Ajax can look, from an SEO point of view there are no 'new, spiderable, linkable URLs'.
Plenty of food for thought...
Friday, 11 April 2008
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
SEO surprises, tips and insight in SEOmoz report
Search engine marketing is often seen as a snake oil science in which people like us charge people like you to apply SEO voodoo to a website in the hope that more visitors will turn up. In fact it is less of a science and more of set of negotiations around an arms reduction or trade agreement; experiments certainly but in a landscape which shifts as participants make moves.
Within this landscape there is almost unlimited advice and opinion and the sheer number of websites that offer their two-pennyworth make it hard to see what is shared opinion or just gossip. One of the few clear voices in this field is SEOMoz; full of tools and reports that while not giving us the answers, certainly help you think about the questions.
A recent study (April 2nd 2008) for example assembled a group if experts and asked them to rate the most important factors in SEO. The results are fascinating. Here are just a few of the conclusions we have drawn from them:
1. External links matter too: make sure they help extend a visitor journey.
2. Keywords in titles matter most.
3. META keywords don't matter as they are ignored by most engines
4. Internal cross-links matter: think continuous visitor journeys.
5. Link reputation spreads within a site: aim to generate links to all important areas, not just the home page
6. New domains will struggle more than old ones
7. Link names matter and should contain keywords: especially inbound links (hard to fake)
8. Trust and authority are becoming more important than link reputation.
These and almost 100 other findings affect the ways we should be building and marketing successful sites. Clients are going to need help to see the woods for the trees.
Read the full report Search Engine Ranking Factors (subscription required) or talk to us about it.
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