SEO Blog » aardvark

Free online resources for SEO

ryan — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:28:59 +0000

What is the best free online resource about SEO that you know?
– Mehdi S. M / Queens, NY

Google!!!!

Just Kidding. I wouldn’t rely on any one source, and no matter what you read, only your own experience, founded on exactly what you’ve done for a given website, serves you in making great choices for SEO activities.

Preliminary Online SEO Analysis Tool

ryan — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:56:15 +0000

Is there any online tool to get website seo preliminary report?
– Hareesh M. M / Kerala, India

I suggest www.WebsiteGrader.com.

This will give you a quick overview of the vital statistics for a given website.

Effective and Affordable Link Building

ryan — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:19:47 +0000

Does anyone know a good and reasonable priced Link Building company? (SEO)

- Roy P. 27 / M / Tel Aviv, Israel

Hi Roy,

I’d introduce myself and my company for this service. We can do large packages or small groups, reciprocal links only. We also hire out one-way linking from other firms, but reciprocal linking we do in house because of the relationship development with new link partners.

Depending on your goals and assets (domain, ranking) I can provide you with a recommendation.

We are at www.3-PRIME.com, with link building info here.

Should blog post title tag match headline?

ryan — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:36:51 +0000

For purposes of SEO, should the title tag of my blog post be the same as the post headline?

- Patrick H. 35 / M / Stow, MA

Not necessarily, unless you want to rank for the exact phrases you use as your headlines.

I’d recommend to use the title tag do target 1-2 keyphrases containing in your headline, and use your headline to employ those keyphrases in a useful sentence, providing semantic usage of both the keyphrase and context for its usage.

Thanks Ryan. Would their be any harm in using the same?

No, my recommendation is just a better practice, not a necessity. For the sake of simplicity, you can definitely use the same info for both places with no harmful outcome.

Meta tags and Title Tags for SEO

ryan — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:42:46 +0000

where and how should I add meta tags in my html code to improve my SEO?
- Matias P. M / Montreal, Canada

Meta tags belong between the tags near the top of your HTML code.

The tags you definitely want to have are:

Title tag – Not technically a meta tag but definitely to be included, Most important tag for SEO and deifnitely includes your primary keywords for the page.

Description Tag – Second most important tag, use sentences, make a pitch if you can, but definitely include your keywords here.

Keywords Tag – Separate your keywords with commas, or group into phrases, lot of flexibility here and a lot of conflicting advice exists.

Robot Meta Tags
Primary Robots Tag – Instructs robots, or search engine software, to include your content in their search index and follow the links on this page to others in your website

Slurp No Yahoo Directory description tag – Tells Yahoo search engine to use your meta description instead of a description they find in the yahoo directory.

Google bot tag – Similar to robots tag, provides directions to Googlebot. It is not necessary but can’t hurt.

Note, the examples above use the XML-style closing tag. Leave out the trailing / if your page is not xhtml.

PPC Estimated Traffic, Clicks and Costs

ryan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:37:59 +0000

How does Google calculate the estimated traffic and costs when using the keyword tool? How do they derive the minimum and maximum clicks you might get and the prices? Does it use average click thru rates etc in the calc? If so, what are they? thanks
- Mark O. M / London, UK

How does Google calculate the estimated traffic and costs when using the keyword tool?

Google is in excellent position to accurately estimate the traffic on keyword searches since they have 65% of the search market to extrapolate from. This is compared to WordTracker which historically used just a couple of directories that formed about 1% of the search market and extrapolated from there.

Costs are calculated based on competition for a given phrase and the amount of traffic on the phrase. Again, they probably base this on their internal data. The costs are per click, and should be based both on competitions and traffic as well as the current average bid amount for the phrase.

How do they derive the minimum and maximum clicks you might get and the prices?

Based on the price, they can conclude your average position in the sponsored links. Based on their internal data, they can estimate the number of clicks you’ll receive on your advertisement for that keyword. Of course it’s an estimate, your ad might increase your clicks if it is very attractive, which will increase your costs and click through traffic. Alternatively, if you have a lousy advertisement, or low quality score, you might get no clicks. They provide a range to give you an idea based on the knowns they have.

Does it use average click thru rates etc in the calc? If so, what are they? thanks

Definitely, again they are basing their estimates on historical data for people in and outside of your industry. As to what those CTR’s are, it depends on the keyword. I believe they provide you an estimate in the adwords ad builder.

SEO Industry Standards

ryan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:00:20 +0000

Talking SEO, is there a singles source for industry standards? I would like to find one?
- Joseph M. M / Omaha, NE

Standards imply that there is a right or wrong. This is a distraction from your goal. The standards you need to be aware of are:

1) Search engine guidelines from Google. As the big kid on the block, you must be aware of their guidelines.

2) Standards of your clients

3) Your own professional standards regarding the work you would claim as your own

Those should be your primary guides.

Build a Successful Blogging Site

ryan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:57:37 +0000

What are the best resources to help build a successful blogging site?
- Tony W. M / San Jose, CA

Depends on what you mean by success.

If you are seeking high search engine rankings, then you are going to want to use the All in oneSEO tool and spend time optimizing your posts and pages.

If you are seeking advertising revenue, then you need to form a model for how you will get traffic and research what kinds of advertising is most likely to perform well from a revenue generation perspective.

If you are building a site simply to express yourself, then what you define as success could be as simple as easy maintenance.

SEO resources for beginners

ryan — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:54:12 +0000

What is your favorite SEO resource for beginners looking to gain experience?
- James S. 29 / M / St. Louis, MO

There is tons of info out there, but the way to learn is through experience. Pick a “long-tail” search word phrase like

James SEO St Louis Missouri

and create a page about it and discover what you have to do to get into the first page of Google results. Experience is the ONLY real teacher in SEO.

Some tools you’ll want to familiarize yourself with are here: www.seomoz.org/tools

Wordpress Blog Affiliate Banners

ryan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:53:57 +0000

how do you post 125 X 125 affiliate banners on your wp blog? Is there a plugin to help?
- Steve R. 28 / M / Belpre, OH

Two possibilities:

1) Your Wordpress version and theme will have a plugin for specifying the images to put on the ad section in the sidebar

2) You can edit the sidebar directly in PHP using the built-in editor on your WP dashboard.

Either method should work fine. If you are implementing affiliate code with the image, I recommend option 2, where you edit the PHP/HTML directly in wordpress, any plugin or helper may corrupt javascript or other code necessary to attribute your affiliate traffic.