Framework for SEO

SEO versus SEM

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process in which a website is configured with keywords that correlate with your service or product presented on your website. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a marketing venture which works on advancing your website in terms of its appearance on search engine result pages (SERP’s). The following takes a look at the differences between (SEO) and (SEM).

 SEO and SEM

SEO is a means of marketing through various search engines. The SEO process involves different methods in order to optimize your website’s listings to get a higher page ranking on search engines. SEO increases profit margins of websites as it positions the sites in higher positions on the search engine results page. Optimizing your website snowballs more traffic and helps you in achieving your most advantageous business goals. SEM forms part of the same marketing scheme as to that of SEO. Therefore, SEM is the general process of combining the process of SEO as well as implementing various online marketing advertising strategies.

SEO Facts

• SEO tactics enable you to have keyword rich web pages.
• Through SEO your site will have the necessary keywords implemented.
• The images and alt tags on your site will also be named through the SEO process.
• Article submissions and blogs are also tweaked to aid in the optimization of your website.
• Websites stand a better chance of not getting sandboxed by Google with the ethical, white hat SEO process.
• SEO amplifies your online presence and promotes your businesses reputation in terms of the services or products you are offering.
• Your website’s files will be smaller after SEO is completed, therefore resulting in less server requirements and expenses.
• The smaller the website file, the sooner your site will be downloaded for visitors and possible customers to view what your business has to offer.

SEM Facts

• SEM uses SEO, PPC, PFI, social network marketing, traditional online marketing, and article marketing tools to optimize your sites visibility on search engines.
• SEM includes marketing activities such as online strategy management, reputation management, blogging, online target market assessments etc.
• Paid inclusion is a process of paying search engines or directories to add your website to its database.
• PPC allows you to decide on the means of payment, notably paying for each click made on your ad.
• This form of SEM is done with immediate effect. Paid inclusion is often the only means of getting listed on the top of the search results pages instantaneously.
• SEM also involves traditional forms of online advertising, such as banner adverts, mass email campaigns etc.
• SEM provides a good return on your investment (ROI).
• SEM also provides progress reports and performance surveillance.

Organic Traffic Versus Paid Traffic

 

When it comes to increasing traffic, it can either be a very challenging and time consuming task or it can be a very expensive one. I’m talking about Organic traffic which is gained through the search engines versus Paid traffic which is also gained through search engines but doesn’t require any touch of SEO, you have to pay an extreme amount for it. So which path should you take and which option should you take?

Let’s take a look at some of the different options and pros and cons of buying traffic or gaining traffic through the search engines.

 

 Organic Traffic

While this can take a long time, it can be beneficial in the long run if you have a blog or dynamic website because you’ll have return customers. It’s absolutely free, you don’t have to pay a single penny, except for the bandwidth if you have a high traffic website. This is one of the major pluses in my book.

Pay Per Click / Paid Traffic

Let’s take a look into paid traffic or more commonly what it’s known as “Pay Per Click”. When you purchase pay per click traffic, you might be costing yourself an arm and a leg or a business if you don’t do it correctly.

• You have to pay money based on the individual keyword. You don’t just pay for traffic, you have to pay based on a specific keyword that you have specified.
• You have to setup a daily or monthly budget or else you’ll end up going over that budget and this is what a lot of people don’t realize. They end up going WAY over their budget and bankrupting themselves.
• Paid traffic usually comes from spam sites or comes from software that generates hits, usually you’re buying fake traffic when a private vendor sells it.

95 Ways to Get Quality Backlinks To Your Blog in 2015

Before, I start with my 95 list; here is some of the link building methods that you should ignore:

• Avoid site wide link from footer (WordPress themes or plugins)
• Avoid buying exact anchor text link (Keep a proportion of 40%-20%–20%-10%-10% for anchor text variation)
• Avoid buying bulk links from sites like Fiverr
• Don’t opt for link networks (Build my rank was one of such private link network, which got penalized)
• Avoid Blog Roll links
• Article directory links are not that effective anymore

Smart Blogger guide to build quality Links to your Site:

Broken link building:

This method will help you to earn quick Backlinks from high-quality pages. Broken link building technique is to find broken links on a website (related to your niche) and email the content owner and notify them about broken link. Along with that, give them a similar link from your website (Similar content which you already have to create one), and ask them to update their post.

• Submit Guest Post to Other Blogs (List of Blogs to guest post)
• Comment on do follow blogs and make sure these blogs are relevant to your own blogs. They might not carry too-much of link value, but it will still be beneficial for overall link-profile of your blog.
• Start Relevant Threads in Forums and Link to Your Blog Posts
• Link to Your Blog in Your Forum Signatures (Only high quality forums)
• Social bookmarking is also considered as Backlinks and you should target following network: Google plus, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest to name a few.
• Make Use of Discussion Boards by Linking to Your Blog in threads. Quora is one such HQ discussion board.
• Make Use of Blogging Communities by Submitting Your Blog Posts to Them, some great places to start are Blog Engage, Inbound
• Ask Questions related to your blog in Answer Sites like Yahoo Answers and Link to Your Blog in your questions
• Answer Questions in Yahoo Answers and Cite Your Blog as the Source
• Interlink to your blog and other posts on your blog when writing on your blog.
• Exchange links with other bloggers in your niche. Make sure to form link pyramid and keep it natural.
• Submit Your Blog to Top Blogging directories (Again quality mattes here) (Find a list of Blog directories here)
• Write a mail to influencer who write on the same topic and encourage them to share it on social-network. You never know how much one sweet email can make a huge-difference.
• Submit your blog to top niche directories
• Network with other bloggers in your niche (Online and offline) and links will automatically follow you.
• Submit your blog posts to all social bookmarking sites you know
• Submit your blog to your top social networking sites
• Submit your articles to stumbleupon
• Work on making your blog go viral on top social bookmarking sites, this alone can bring you tons of quality backlinks from authority sites.
• Make use of press releases, and send press-release about important updates from your blog. You can also compare best product in your niche and send a press-release on the same.
• Submit your rss feed to rss directories; here is a list of rss directories to get started.
• Most forums have a website review forum; review your blog on this forums.
• 26. Release a free wordpres plugin and include a link to your blog in it. But don’t keep it sitewide, as sitewide anchor text links are bad.
• Release software or compile your ebooks to .exe and submit them to top software sites like brothersoft
• Convert your blog posts to pdf and submit it to document sharing sites, here is a list of document sharing sites for you to get started.
• Review top companies and products and they might link back to you
• Do weekly links love post and link to many bloggers; they will most likely return the favor. Take advantage of outbound link SEO.
• Interview top bloggers and ask them to help you share it on their favorite social networks and their fans will link to your interview.
• Provide testimonials for marketers and also provide your link when doing so, they will most likely link back to you.
• Make use of web 2.0 sites like squidoo to promote your blog
• Write high quality content and you will get strong backlinks
• Write controversial posts
• Write news posts and try to be one of the first people to write it.
• Submit your blog to css directories.
• Ask other bloggers to interview you.
• Write link bait posts.
• Write top list posts because they can go viral easily.
• Write a post comparing some top gurus in your niche.
• Write a post featuring some upcoming bloggers and why you like them, they will most likely link to it.
• Trade articles with other bloggers in your niche.
• Submit your site to Dmoz, many other directories use this directory and that alone is enough quality Backlinks for you.
• Submit your blog to .edu and .gov forums and blogs, Google so much loves backlinks from this sites and regards them as authority.
• Make use of groups like Google Groups and Yahoo Groups
• Create a Wikipedia Page For Yourself and include your link in the resource section.
• Write posts that have “the ultimate” in the title, each of these types of post I wrote got over 20 backlinks each.
• Start a blogging contest and make linking to your blog one of the requirements.
• Sponsor blogging contest and you will get a lot of backlinks from this.
• Donate to charity sites, many of them will link back to your site.
• Build a great tool and many people will link to your tool and your blog.
• Do a big product launch.
• Make the news at any cost.
• Release your own firefox extension and have a page dedicated to it, many people will link to it!
• Blog about celebrities.
• Render your services to top people in your niche, for example, the fellow who designed Darren Rowse’s theme was credited at the footer.
• Write 101 posts, they tend to get more social and natural link love.
• Design a top bloggers award and give it to as many bloggers as you can in your niche, they will link back to you.
• Contact your theme designer and tell them to use your website as an example in their portfolio, they will most likely include a link back to your blog.
• Create manuals and long tutorial posts on your blog, this type of post do receive lots of Backlinks.
• Create a great eBook or membership site and make linking to your blog the requirement to get it.
• Submit your resume to resume directories while linking to your blog in your resume.
• Write how to posts, they also tend to get more backlinks.
• Write posts that starts with numbers e.g. “7 ways to…”, these type of posts do tend to get backlinks.
• Submit your images to image directories and include a link to your blog in its copyright notice and as a requirement to use it. Ex: How to use Flickr to drive traffic
• Join blogging contest and you will most probably get backlinks if you win.
• Have a “link to us” or “spread the word” page on your blog while asking your readers to link to you – it is important to make it easy for them by putting your direct html code there using your desired anchor text.
• Submit your website to local business directories, backlinks from these sites are regarded by Google as authority.
• Write on about.com and link to your blog in it, this will likely be crawled and used by a lot of websites thereby increasing backlinks to your blog.
• Make effective use of april fool.
• Do very costly jokes on your blog but indicate it is a joke underneath the post (tricky? ahah!), e.g., “Apple has bought Google for $260Billion”, something like this will get tons of links and retweets before people even know that it is a joke.
• Create niche specific tutorials, which are not only unique but help the community. Such tutorial articles get lots of Backlinks.
• Create viral youtube videos and include links to your blog in the video and its description.
• Offer lots of free downloads on your blogs.
• Update your blog regularly because this will make more people trust your website and it will also make you rank for more keywords which means more traffic and eventually more Backlinks.
• Write a great post with a lot of pictures in it – let the post be pictures only.
• Write a post comparing various companies and services and which is the best, the best company will most likely link to it.
• Compare different top products and link to them, people will most likely link to it e.g. You can compare a Mac with a PC.
• Get a collection of high quality paid things and make them available for free (make sure you are not violating the copyright of the owner in any way!)
• Create a directory for your blog and make it important to reciprocate links with you by giving those who link to you higher placement and giving them free featuring on your homepage.
• Beta tests a lot of products and gives your review and tips on improving the product, the owner might just link to you.
• Run surveys on your blog and publish the results for everybody to see, if the survey is good and helpful you will definitely get a lot of Backlinks to your blog.
• Write a list of the “top 10 myths” or “top 10 mistakes” about something.
• Position yourself as an authority in your niche and try to get attention from the media.
• Offer to speak at events and seminars related to your niche, don’t forget to mention your blog while introducing yourself, this will most likely help you get some Backlinks.
• Have a special writing style that attracts people.
• Be transparent on your blog.
• Get listed in top paid Directories like the Yahoo Directory and the BOTW directory
• List your product on EBay or Amazon and include a link back to your blog.
• Create a podcast and submit it to ITunes, link back to your blog from it.
• Create web apps and submit them to app directories such as Go2Web20
• Write a great and very useful whitepaper and ask your blogging friends to help you distribute it around the web, make sure you include a link to your blog in the whitepaper.
• Run a contest giving people physical products for free; make linking to your blog a requirement to join.
• Try to know which stories are hot at the moment and make sure you blog about them.
• Blog about very important events such as the Independence Day and the likes.
• Start your affiliate programmer.
• Create a news section on your blog with regularly update news in your niche and you will begin to get links fast.

Google Webmaster Tools

 

Google Webmaster Tools is a no-charge web service by Google for webmasters. It allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility of their websites. It has tools that let the webmasters: Submit and check a sitemap.

How Do I Get Started?

In order to use Google Webmaster Tools, you need to join it first. You can do it from here. After you join, you need to go through the verification process, so that Google knows you are the legit owner of the site you want to use Google Webmaster Tools on.

There are several ways to verify ownership. The first one is to download an HTML file and to upload it to the root directory of your site. Another one is to add an HTML tag into the head of your home page. If you are using the same Google account for Google Analytics, a third option to verify ownership is through Google Analytics. There are more ways to verify ownership but if you are interested in them, check the Google Webmaster Tools settings and you will see them.

Google Webmaster Tools to Use Daily

Once you have verified your ownership and have Google code in place on your site, you can now start enjoying the advantages of Google Webmaster Tools. When you log into your Google Webmaster Tools account, the first thing you see is the Dashboard: 

From here you can access all the major sections - Search Queries, Links to Your Site, Crawl Errors, Keywords, and Sitemaps. Clicking on any of these will open the respective section.

Search Queries

The Search Queries section shows the keywords that led users to your site. 

This long list shows which keywords users searched for when they came to your site. It is best if this list matches the keywords you are optimizing for but very frequently this list contains good keywords you were unaware of. In this case, pick these good keywords and start optimizing for them, too. 

In the Search Queries section, you can also see the number of impressions and the number of clicks, which gives you an idea about the CTR for this keyword. All equal, a higher CTR means the keyword is relevant, so you might want to invest some more efforts into this keyword. However, if you notice that as a result of your efforts, the CTR goes down, it is best if you don't touch this keyword anymore.

Links

The second very useful section of Google Webmaster Tools is the Links to Your Site section. 

Here you can see where your backlinks (internal and external) come from, as well as the pages they are linking to. As with other link checking tools, don't expect that every single link to your site is displayed but nevertheless this list of backlinks is useful to check from time to time. 

One of the advanced uses of the Links section is to disavow links to your site you deem harmful. Links from bad sites can hurt your rankings.

Crawl Errors

The Crawl Errors section shows the errors Google bot encountered on your site. The data you get is similar to what you get when you use the Spider Simulator and it shows inaccessible pages, missing pages, server errors, and all sorts of problems that prevented Google from correctly crawling your site. You also get some other crawl stats (such as the number of pages crawled a day) that are useful to know.

Keywords

Similarly to the Search Queries section that also deals with keywords (but it is the ones users type to get to your site), the Keywords section also shows keywords. However, the difference is that here you see what keywords (and their significance) Google has found on your site. The two lists (of keywords users type and the keywords Google finds on your site) could be very different, which means you are not optimizing for what users are searching for. 

The Keywords section also allows to see the theme of your site, which post Panda has become even more important.

Sitemaps

The last section you can access from the Dashboard is the Sitemaps section. Here you see the sitemaps of your site Google has found and the number of URLs in them. If the sitemap found by Google is different from what you expected it to be, you can submit a new sitemap for Google to use.

Robots.txt and Other Advanced Stuff

The sections described so far are the basic Google Webmaster Tools sections. There is also a lot of advanced stuff in each of them but we won't describe it into details. For instance, you can use your Google Webmaster Tools to submit a robots.txt file, or to set the preferred domain syntax (i.e. with or without www) to be displayed in search results. Google Webmaster Tools also allows to know if your site is infected with malware. If it is, you need to clean it first and then resubmit it for review. 

Google Webmaster Tools is a really valuable instrument for SEO. It gives you at a glance data about all important SEO aspects of a site, such as keywords, links, crawl errors, etc. If you don't use it already, take the time and get familiar with it ‐ it will help you get better rankings for sure.

What is Robots.txt?

 

The robots exclusion protocol (REP), or robots.txt is a text file webmasters create to instruct robots (typically search engine robots) how to crawl and index pages on their website.

The Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP) is a group of web standards that regulate web robot behavior and search engine indexing. The REP consists of the following:

• The original REP from 1994, extended 1997, defining crawler directives for robots.txt. Some search engines support extensions like URI patterns (wild cards).
• Its extension from 1996 defining indexer directives (REP tags) for use in the robots meta element, also known as "robots meta tag." Meanwhile, search engines support additional REP tags with an X-Robots-Tag. Webmasters can apply REP tags in the HTTP header of non-HTML resources like PDF documents or images.
• The Microformat rel-nofollow from 2005 defining how search engines should handle links where the A Element's REL attributes contains the value "nofollow."

Structure of a Robots.txt File
The structure of a robots.txt is pretty simple (and barely flexible) – it is an endless list of user agents and disallowed files and directories. Basically, the syntax is as follows:

User-agent:
Disallow:

“User-agent” are search engines' crawlers and disallow: lists the files and directories to be excluded from indexing. In addition to “user-agent:” and “disallow:” entries, you can include comment lines – just put the # sign at the beginning of the line:

# All user agents are disallowed to see the /temp directory.

Block all web crawlers from all content
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Block a specific web crawler from a specific folder
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /no-google/

Block a specific web crawler from a specific web page
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /no-google/blocked-page.html

Sitemap Parameter
User-agent: *
Disallow:
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/none-standard-location/sitemap.xml

Important Rules

• In most cases, meta robots with parameters "noindex, follow" should be employed as a way to to restrict crawling or indexation.
• It is important to note that malicious crawlers are likely to completely ignore robots.txt and as such, this protocol does not make a good security mechanism.
• Only one "Disallow:" line is allowed for each URL.
• Each subdomain on a root domain uses separate robots.txt files.
• Google and Bing accept two specific regular expression characters for pattern exclusion (* and $).
• The filename of robots.txt is case sensitive. Use "robots.txt", not "Robots.TXT."
• Spacing is not an accepted way to separate query parameters. For example, "/category/ /product page" would not be honored by robots.txt.

Things you should avoid
If you don't format your robots.txt file properly, some or all files of your Web site might not get indexed by search engines. To avoid this, do the following:

1. Don't use comments in the robots.txt file
   Although comments are allowed in a robots.txt file, they might confuse some search engine spiders.
   
   "Disallow: support # Don't index the support directory" might be misinterepreted as "Disallow: support#Don't index the support directory".
   
   
2. Don't use white space at the beginning of a line. For example, don't write
   
   placeholder User-agent: *
   place Disallow: /support
   
   but
   
   User-agent: *
   Disallow: /support
   
   
3. Don't change the order of the commands. If your robots.txt file should work, don't mix it up. Don't write
   
   Disallow: /support
   User-agent: *
   
   but
   
   User-agent: *
   Disallow: /support
   
   
4. Don't use more than one directory in a Disallow line. Do not use the following
   
   User-agent: *
   Disallow: /support /cgi-bin/ /images/
   
   Search engine spiders cannot understand that format. The correct syntax for this is
   
   User-agent: *
   Disallow: /support
   Disallow: /cgi-bin/
   Disallow: /images/
   
   
5. Be sure to use the right case. The file names on your server are case sensitve. If the name of your directory is "Support", don't write "support" in the robots.txt file.
   
   
6. Don't list all files. If you want a search engine spider to ignore all files in a special directory, you don't have to list all files. For example:
   
   User-agent: *
   Disallow: /support/orders.html
   Disallow: /support/technical.html
   Disallow: /support/helpdesk.html
   Disallow: /support/index.html
   
   You can replace this with
   
   User-agent: *
   Disallow: /support
   
   
7. There is no "Allow" command
   
   Don't use an "Allow" command in your robots.txt file. Only mention files and directories that you don't want to be indexed. All other files will be indexed automatically if they are linked on your site.

What is Google’s Sandbox

 

The Google Sandbox Effect is a theory used to explain why newly-registered domains or domains with frequent ownership changes rank poorly in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). In other words new websites are put into a “sandbox” or a holding area and have their search ratings on hold until they can prove worthy of ranking.

Once Google deems a website to be of quality and importance the website will be removed from the Sandbox and can potentially show up high in Google Search Engine Results Pages. Webmasters can do numerous things to improve their website with Google, but time really is the key in getting out of the Sandbox. Sandbox believers say it can take anywhere from 6 months to a year and sometimes longer before Google will promote a website out of the Sandbox. 

Because Google does not acknowledge the Sandbox and it has not been clearly proven the Sandbox Effect is just a theory. Even though it is just a theory, the Sandbox is believed by the majority of webmasters. The Sandbox is believed to have come about in 2004 when changes to Google’s Algorithm made it so new websites were banned from the top of Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). 

It may seem that the Sandbox is unfair to newly launched websites, but Google created the Sandbox with good reasons. Google was trying to discourage spam sites from quickly reaching the top of Search Results, getting dropped off Google, creating a new site and repeatedly showing up high in Search Results. In the past, companies would put up a promotional website for a short period of time and once the promotion was over the website was gone. These promotional websites would still show up high in Google Search Engine Results even after they were removed, causing many broken links and unhappy Google searchers. 

Even with the Sandbox Effect it is still possible for newly launched websites to make it to the top of Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). If Google deems a new website of being worthy it can be seen in Search Engine Results immediately, but it can still take up to 6 months for the website to rank to its fullest potential. There are many ways in which web designers use to avoid the Sandbox, some of which are discussed below. But because of its uncertainty, even if all algorithm variables are followed there is still no way to guarantee new websites from being put in the Sandbox.

How can you tell if you are in Google’s Sandbox?

Now that you know what the Sandbox is it is important to learn how to tell if a site is in the Sandbox. Before determining if a website has been put in the Sandbox you need to find out if the entire site was dropped from Google or if it has just been ranked down for certain keyword phrases. 

Start by doing a search in Google for your site. To do this type: “site: www.yourdomain.com” in the Google Search bar (replace “yourdomain.com” with your site URL). If Google does not return any results than most likely your entire website has been dropped by Google. If Google shows your website in the results and your website recently dropped down in keyword rankings, than you are still indexed by Google and it is likely that you were placed in the Sandbox.

New websites start out on the bottom with a zero page rank but with time the site can start ranking up. Does your website have a pagerank but it is still not showing up in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS)? If that is the case, your website is more than likely in the Sandbox. Often times a new website can have a pagerank after a short period of time, rank high in Google Search Results and then all of a sudden disappear from Google Search Results. When this happens it is likely that the site was put into Google’s Sandbox. Many people are left asking themselves why? There is no one answers as to why websites get put into the Sandbox, but below is a list of things thought to affect website’s placement with Google.

Minimizing Sandbox Damages

While Google sandbox is not something you can control, there are certain steps you can take in order to make the sandbox effect less destructive for your new site. As with many aspects of SEO, there are ethical and unethical tips and tricks and unethical tricks can get you additional penalties or a complete ban from Google, so think twice before resorting to them. 

Before we delve into more detail about particular techniques to minimize sandbox damage, it is necessary to clarify the general rule: you cannot fight the sandbox. The only thing you can do is to adapt to it and patiently wait for time to pass. Any attempts to fool Google – starting from writing melodramatic letters to Google, to using “sandbox tools” to bypass the filter – can only make your situation worse. There are many initiatives you can take, while in the sandbox, for as example: 

 Actively gather content and good links – as time passes by, relevant and fresh content and good links will take you to the top. When getting links, have in mind that they need to be from trusted sources – like DMOZ, CNN, Jasmine directory (a directory with a high editorial discretion), Fortune 500 sites, or other reputable places. Also, links from .edu, .gov, and .mil domains might help because these domains are usually exempt from the sandbox filter. Don't get 500 links a month – this will kill your site! Instead, build links slowly and steadily.

·         Plan ahead– contrary to the general practice of launching a site when it is absolutely complete, launch a couple of pages, when you have them. This will start the clock and time will be running parallel to your site development efforts.

·         Buy old or expired domains – the sandbox effect is more serious for new sites on new domains, so if you buy old or expired domains and launch your new site there, you'll experience less problems.

·         Host on a well- established host – another solution is to host your new site on a subdomain of a well-established host (however, free hosts are generally not a good idea in terms of SEO ranking). The sandbox effect is not so severe for new subdomains (unless the domain itself is blacklisted). You can also host the main site on a subdomain and on a separate domain host just some contents, linked with the main site. You can also use redirects from the subdomained site to the new one, although the effect of this practice is also questionable because it can also be viewed as an attempt to fool Google.

·         Concentrate on less popular keywords – the fact that your site is sandboxed does not mean that it is not indexed by Google at all. On the contrary, you could be able to top the search results from the very beginning! Looking like a contradiction with the rest of the article? Not at all! You could top the results for less popular keywords – sure, it is better than nothing. And while you wait to get to the top for the most lucrative keywords, you can discover that even less popular keywords are enough to keep the ball rolling, so you may want to make some optimization for them.

·         Rely more on non-Google ways to increase traffic – it is often reminded that Google is not the only search engine or marketing tool out there. So if you plan your SEO efforts to include other search engines, which either have no sandbox at all or the period of stay there is relatively short, this will also minimize the damages of the sandbox effect.