Vital Basics Eternal SEO Queries

Vital Basics: The Eternal SEO Queries W e reg ularl y r ece i ve ema il s f rom SEO Mi xT o ur rea ders an d W eb CEO users ask ing f or advic e on var iou s SEO an d S E M issu es rang ing f rom minor tips and trick s to some maj o r issu es s uch as th e reas ons f or a s ea rch pe na lt y. T hese are main l y back bon e SEO q uesti ons wh ich we ca l l V ita l Ba sics of SEO. If you are a no vice s earc h eng ine o ptim i zer, plea se f irst read the pre viou s iss ues entit led S earch Eng i nes ’ Inde x Quest ion s and Ke ywor d Opti mi zati on Quest ions, and g o on read ing to da y’s is sue. Shoul d I ha ve m y m ain ke yw ord in the URL ? Yes. T he best th in g is a domai n na me that inc lu des your main k e yword. Ho we ver, e ve n subd omain s, direct or y an d pag e f ile names matter . It is al wa ys better to have your main k eyword in the URL, un less yo u ha ve a long -k eyword-phrase-th at- wil l-l ook -spammy.c om. T he k eyword in t he UR L wil l not on l y te l l search e ng ines th at yo ur k eyword re late s to the topic you are concentrat ing on, but wil l h el p you g e t k eyword-r ich l ink texts (s ome pe op le stil l li nk using the domai n name a s the li nk text). Bes id es the h ig hl ig hted k eyw ord in th e U RL on the SE RPs, ma y p os iti vel y inf lu ence th e cl ick throug h rate. Ar e Meta tag s still important? Not that importa nt. Last Sept ember Go og le ann oun ced th at they do not u se the Meta K e ywords tag in web rank ing . But the Meta Descr i ption ta g is of ten used as the t e xt f or Goog le searc h re sults sn ipp ets, s o wh y not mak i ng it descr ipti ve a nd attracti ve? One mor e Met a tag that is us ed b y search eng i nes is a Rob ots Met a tag; yo u ma y read mor e about it in th e S EO Mi xT our iss ue de vote d to search en g ines ’ cra wlers. Is it OK to use both image alt text and image title? Yes, e spec ia l l y if you are us ing them to he lp your vis itor s and not to st uff k eywords. Image A lt text is use d to pr o vi de e xpl ic it inf ormation on an imag e f or those wh o are unab le to see it; the I mag e Alt text sho ul d descr ibe what the imag e is a bout. Image titl es pro vid e ad dit iona l inf ormation; it is a tit le, so it shou ld b e short a nd catch y. Of course, yo u wou ld l ik e to us e your k eyword s i n both of them. Ar e aut omatic site submissio ns to se a rch engi nes h armfu l? Rather ‘N o’ than ‘Y es’. T he maj or search eng ines won ’t ba n yo ur site b ecau se of them, but do not expe ct automatic submis si ons to imp rove your searc h eng ine rank ing s. It i s much better t o su b mit your webs ite ’s Si temap to t he maj or search e ng ines. How soon w ill my r anking s impro ve af ter I submit to sear ch engi nes ? T here is n o d irect depe nde nce b et we en your s ite ’s s ub missi on to s earch eng ines a nd g oo d r ank ing s. Getting yo ur s ite ind e xe d j ust means that searc h eng ines k no w abo ut yo ur site an d wil l r eturn ne xt time to c ra wl it and u pdate their l isti ng of your site. T o ra nk we l l, yo u s hou ld opt imi ze your pag es. T hi s in vol ves conte nt opti mi zati on f or the targeted k eywords, impr ovement of a site’s li nk popul arit y (g etting inbo und li nk s to your site), en suring site q ual it y (absenc e of brok en li nk s and other ser i ous HT ML errors pr event ing S E rob ots f rom crawl ing and inde xi ng , search eng ine - an d vis it or -f riendl y d esig n), promotio n in s oc ia l media, a nd ad vertis i ng . How do searc h e ngines k now that you ar e the a uthor of the uniq ue content ? T his q uesti on is us u al l y ask ed whe n yo u think abo ut a du p li cate cont ent f ilter that the maj or sear ch eng in es app l y. L et’s se e wh at happ ens wh en a se arch eng ine f inds se vera l pag es with ide ntic al content. Its alg orith ms must select the pag e that off ers the best inf ormation re q uired and of f er it to a searcher . H o w does it dec id e wh ic h pag e is b etter? H ere the auth orit y of the site a nd th e number of back link s poi nting to the pag e com e into p la y. So yo ur task is not to j ust ins ist that you are the f irst to publ ish an art ic le, but to pro ve to searc h eng ines th at your p ag e is rele vant an d authoritat i ve enoug h to be l isted in SER Ps h ig her than o thers who on l y cop ie d it. You ma y r ead mor e about th e cou ntr y-sp ecif ic s ites a nd dup l i cate cont ent f ilters and ab out the us ag e of borrowe d conte nt in the pre vi ous S EO Mi xT our issu es.