This is your first Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Training. SEO is generally considered a function of on-site and off-site optimization.
On-site Optimization basics
First, look at your website’s source code. You can do this by positioning your mouse cursor your website, right-clicking and choosing “view source” or “view source code” on the menu that appears.
A Search Engine Friendly web site code should first have a meta description and meta keyword tag. It should look like this:
- < meta name=”description” content=” Description of the website” />
- < meta name=”keyword” content=”keywords for the website” />
These tags should be placed just before the tag.
Second, all javascript and CSS tags should be on external files. Looking a the source code, you should see things such as these:
- < script type=”text/javascript” xsrc=”http://www.yourwebsite.com/javascript.js”>
- < link rel=”stylesheet” xhref=”http://www.yourwebsite.com/stylesheet.css” type=”text/css” />
Having these indicate that the javascript and stylesheets are on a separate program. You shouldn’t have things like these:
var fs_time=(new Date()).getTime();
function wfs() {
try {
if (parent!=window && parent.wfs) {
return false;
}
}catch(e){}…
…especially on the top half of the web site’s source code. Having too much irrelevant content on the code tend to deter Search Engine Bots (small programs that do automated tasks) from finding and indexing your site properly.
Make sure to use Header tags < h1>…< /h1> for important key words for your site.
Off-site Optimization Basics
The goal of off-site optimization is get as many links to the your personal blog site as possible. How do you do this?
First, you must submit your website to the various online directories. A new website should be submitted to no more than 20 online directories a day. Anything more than that and your site could get banned. Google and other search engines often protect their users from spammers by raising an alarm (red flag) on sites that get linked too fast. To prevent this, a moderated and controlled link-building strategy must be used.
New blogs/sites have to go through an “indexing phase” and make take time to show up in search engine’s results.
One main problem with a manual method of submission to web-directories, it takes a while to fill up online submission forms. To solve that, we can use some online tools. Follow the exercise below:
A Practical Exercise On Link Building:
- If you are not using it already, download the mozilla firefox browser and install it in your computer.
- Go to this site – https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1490/ and install the formsaver addon for mozilla firefox. This is a nice online tool that saves the contents of a form so that users can re-use it for other websites.
- Go to a free directories site such as http://www.directorylist.org/free-directories/. This sites lists other online directories where you could submit your website freely. (Note: You are usually required to submit an email address. Expect to get subscription messages from the owner of the various online directories).
- Choose a free directory, right-click on the link and choose “Open Link in New Tab” among the menu. When you do this, a new tab just near the top of your browser will appear. If you click on that tab, you will see the new website you just opened.
- Click on the new tab and look at the online directory you just opened. Look for a link text like “Submit Site” or “Add Link.” If you find it, click on it and you should see a website submission form. If you can’t find a form, just go back to http://www.directorylist.org/free-directories/ and choose another online directory.
- Once you see a submission form, fill it up with pertinent information for your website. DO NOT PRESS THE SUBMIT BUTTON YET. You must save the information on the form using formsaver (the mozilla addon you installed earlier). To do this, right-click on the mouse button while it is over the site. You should see “FormSaver” along the menu choices. When you press on this, you will be asked to name the bookmarklet. Choose a name that would be useful for you. Take note, you may have to save several versions of the form bookmarklets because submission forms on the directories come in various formats.
- Once you have saved the bookmarklet, press the submit button. Depending on the web directory, you may receive an email either confirming your submission or just informing you about it.
- You can then repeat this process to around 20-30 online directories. Whenever the format of the submission form looks familar, just click on Bookmarks (on the top menu of the mozilla browser) and choose among the various bookmarklets. That’s the formsaver add-on in action.
- If you keep doing this for at least a week, your website should get sufficient links to be at least indexed online.
This is an example of how to Leverage Search Engine Technology. This is your first Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Training!