Posted on Mar 30, 2009
Below are some basic tips that will maximize your search engine rankings for images on your website.
Image Location:
- Do not store your images in the root directory of your website.
- If you maintain a small website, simply put your images in a folder called “images” (ex. http://***.com/images).
- If you run a larger website, store your images in a more categorized manner, such as “images/category” (ex. http://***.com/images/category).
- Never store your images at an external host, such as an image hosting website.
Image Naming:
- Save the image in a gif, jpeg, or png formatting.
- Name the image with targeted keywords that accurately represent it.
- Appropriate
- http://***.com/images/keyword1-keyword2.png
- Inappropriate
- http://***.com/images/picture1.png
- http://***.com/images/catid10353.png
Those are just some simple tips that can help your website’s search optimization regarding images. Optimizing your images can also improve the overall seo of your website.
read more
Posted on Mar 19, 2009
Recently, I created another blog which has the theme of controversial issues. I bought the domain name controversialissues.net and later purchased the .org version. The .net held a stable rank of #14 in Google for the search phase “controversial issues”. I bought the .org version and proceeded to 301 redirect the .net to the .org version. The blog did the Google dance and bounced between the ranks of #3 to #19 for the keyword phase “controversial issues”. It finally stabilized and maintained the ranking of #9 in Google for that keyword phase. The blog also gained search engine rankings for other search phases. During the time that the blog changed domain extension, no changes were made to the content, nor were any links added (to my knowledge). This means that all factors which affect the search engine ranks were equal, except for the domain extension. From this experiment, one can conclude that the .org extension ranks higher than the .net extension. In general whether a website has a .org or .net extension should not matter for seo purposes as search engines treat gTLD (generic top-level domains) the same. It is possible that in this particular niche of medical, government, social, etc. topics that the .org extension has more trust than the .net counterpart, which would account for its boost in search engine rankings. When discussing domain extensions outside of the realm of seo, the .org may also be preferable over the .net in certain situations. Many people still recognize .org websites as more trust baring than a .com or .net because the majority of people believe an organization is in charge of the website. However, this is not true, and there are no restriction upon who can own a .org domain name. For this reason many webmaster choose the .org over the .net in certain niches, such as health, medicine, law, etc. This experiment and these facts are some of the reasons that the .org can be seen as superior to the .net.
read more
Posted on Mar 17, 2009
Matt Cutts discussion regarding whitehat seo tips for bloggers can be very useful regarding your Wordpress blogs seo; below is a summary of the search engine optimization tips that Cutts mentioned which will help your Wordpress blog.
- Don’t put your blog at the root of your domain – You might want to expand upon your website later down the line.
- Name the directory “blog” not “Wordpress”.
- Make category names that are quality keyword (which you target in your seo).
- To help your blog to get listed in Google News, have multiple authors for your blog.
- Use a Wordpress plug-in that gives each post a unique title that matches the keyword you are targeting for it.
- Ensure that your Wordpress blog is crawlable.
- Use the alt tags on all types of media content, images, videos, audio, etc.
read more
Posted on Mar 4, 2009
Footer links can be seen to be not very beneficial or useful for the following reasons:
- Footer links are likely devalued by search engines
- Footer links get low CTR
- Footer links are usually never the first link on the webpage
There has been mounting evidence that search engines, like Google and Yahoo are starting to devalue links that are included on the footer of websites. Many times these links and there anchor text keywords are not relevant to the content on the webpage, so these links loose some link juice for seo right there. Additionally, footer links are the last ones seen on the webpage by search engines and users; since they are the last links on the webpage, they are devalued even more. Since users see these links last because they are the least visible, they are unlikely to click on them and generate traffic to those webpages. Instead of adding links to the footer of your websites, consider placing them elsewhere on the page, so that they are more usable for visitors and valued more by search engines.
read more
