griffith-college-seo-presentation
TRANSCRIPT
Best Practices Explanations
• Are the keywords that you are targeting not only relevant but also popular with searchers?
• Do your page titles lead with your targeted keywords?
• Is your body copy of sufficient length and keyword-rich?
• Does the anchor text pointing to various pages within your site include good keywords?
• Do you employ text links from your home page to your most important secondary pages?
• Does your Web site have an XML Sitemap, as well as an HTML site map with text links?
• Are the URLs of your dynamic (database-driven) pages short, simple and static-looking?
Best Practices
• Does your site have an optimized internal linking structure?
• Do your pages have keyword-rich meta descriptions with a compelling call to action?
• Does your site have a custom error page that returns the correct “status code”?
• Do your filenames and directory names include targeted keywords?
• Are you actively building links to your site?
Top 5 Ranking Factors
• Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links– 73% very high importance
• External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of links)– 71% very high importance
• Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)– 67% very high importance
• Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag– 66% very high importance
• Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains– 66% very high importance
Next 5 Important Factors
• Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page– 47% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page– 46% moderate importance
• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag– 45% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words on the Page– 45% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in the Subdomain Name– 42% low importance
• Keyword Use in the Page Name URL– 38% low importance
On Page Considerations
• Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag– 66% very high importance
• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag– 63% high importance
• Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name (e.g. keyword.com)– 60% high importance
• Keyword Use Anywhere in the H1 Headline Tag– 49% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page– 47% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page– 46% moderate importance
• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag– 45% moderate importance
• Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page– 45% moderate importance
On Page Considerations
• Keyword Use in the Subdomain Name (e.g. keyword.seomoz.org)– 42% low importance
• Keyword Use in the Page Name URL (e.g. seomoz.org/folder/keyword.html)– 38% low importance
• Keyword Use in the Page Folder URL (e.g. seomoz.org/keyword/page.html)
• 37% low importance
• Keyword Use in other Headline Tags (<h2> – <h6>)
• 35% low importance
• Keyword Use in Image Alt Text
• 33% minimal importance
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On Page Considerations
• Keyword Use / Number of Repetitions in the HTML Text on the Page– 33% minimal importance
• Keyword Use in Image Names Included on the Page (e.g. keyword.jpg)– 33% minimal importance
• Keyword Use in <b> or <strong> Tags– 26% minimal importance
• Keyword Density Formula (# of Keyword Uses ÷ Total # of Terms on the Page)– 25% minimal importance
On Page: Non-Keyword
• Existence of Substantive, Unique Content on the Page– 65% very high importance
• Recency (freshness) of Page Creation– 50% moderate importance
• Use of Links on the Page that Point to Other URLs on this Domain– 41% low importance
• Historical Content Changes (how often the page content has been updated)– 39% low importance
• Use of External-Pointing Links on the Page– 37% low importance
On Page: Non-Keyword
• Query Parameters in the URL vs. Static URL Format– 33% minimal importance
• Ratio of Code to Text in HTML– 25% minimal importance
• Existence of a Meta Description Tag– 22% very minimal importance
• HTML Validation to W3C Standards– 16% very minimal importance
• Use of Flash Elements (or other plug-in content)– 13% very minimal importance
• Use of Advertising on the Page– 11% very minimal importance
Links
• Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from External Links– 73% very high importance
• External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)– 71% very high importance
• Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)– 67% very high importance
• Page-Specific TrustRank (whether the individual page has earned links from trusted sources)– 65% very high importance
• Iterative Algorithm-Based, Global Link Popularity (PageRank)– 63% high importance
Links
• Topic-Specificity/Focus of External Link Sources (whether external links to this page come from topically relevant pages/sites)– 58% high importance
• Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from Internal Links– 55% high importance
Site Wide: Non-Link
• Site Architecture of the Domain (whether intelligent, useful hierarchies are employed)– 52% moderate importance
• Use of External Links to Reputable, Trustworthy Sites/Pages– 37% low importance
• Length of Domain Registration– 37% low importance
• Domain Registration History (how long it’s been registered to the same party, number of times renewed)
• Server/Hosting Uptime
• 32% minimal importance
Site Wide: Non-Link
• Length of Domain Registration– 37% low importance
• Domain Registration History (how long it’s been registered to the same party, number of times renewed, etc.)– 36% low importance
• Server/Hosting Uptime– 32% minimal importance
• Hosting Information (what other domains are hosted on the server/c-block of IP addresses)– 31% minimal importance
Social Media Related
• Delicious Data About the Domain or Page– 21% very minimal importance
• StumbleUpon Data About the Domain or Page– 19% very minimal importance
• Twitter Data About the Domain or Page– 17% very minimal importance
• LinkedIn Data About the Domain or Page– 15% very minimal importance
• Facebook Data About the Domain or Page– 12% very minimal importance
• MySpace Data About the Domain or Page– 11% very minimal importance
Worst Practices
• Does your primary navigation require Flash, Java or Javascript to function?
• Is your web site done entirely in Flash or overly graphical with very little textural content?
• Is your home page a “splash page” or otherwise content-less?
• Do the URLs of your pages include “cgi-bin” or numerous ampersands?
• Do the URLs of your pages include session IDs or user IDs?
• Do you unnecessarily spread your site across multiple domains?
• Are your title tags the same on all pages?
Worst Practices
• Do you have pop-ups on your site?
• Do you use “click here” or any other superfluous copy for your hyperlink text?
• Do you have superfluous text like “Welcome to” at the beginning of your title tags?
• Do you have any hidden or small text meant only for the search engines?
• Do you engage in “keyword stuffing”?
• Do you repeatedly submit your site to the search engines?
• Do you incorporate your competitors’ brand names in your meta tags?
• Do you have duplicate pages with minimal or no changes?
• Are you submitting to (“Free For All”) link pages and farms?