SEO Optim Blog

A word or text which is hyperlinked to specific URL is called as “Anchor Texts.”  It is also known as “Link Anchor”, “Back Link Anchor”, or “Link Text.”  See the example below HTML code sample, “Best SEO Company” is the anchor text of the link,
<a href=”http://www.SEOOPTIM.net”>Best SEO Company</a>

Use of right anchor text forms as a part of On-page SEO optimization as well as link building campaign. Also, it is one of the most important aspects of SEO, particularly for link building. Whenever you are in the process of link building campaign, you need to relate the right words in order to get it strengthened. Please note that if a link is covered with NO FOLLOW tag then it might not be of much use for SEO, but it shall help you with little bit of traffic generation.

In a link building campaign, when you request a link exchange, make sure to put the right word or text as anchor text to strengthen it appropriately. Also, there is no limitation as to the number of links, the more you have the better.  The page rank of the website from which you get the link plays a major role, the higher the page rank, more weightage you will have.

Before linking, make sure that the website from which you are obtaining the link is a good one because if the link is going to come from a banned website, then you will have negative effect.
Some tips on Anchor Texts for SEO:
- Use the right words/text.
- Key the words precisely, do not use phrases as anchor text.
- Place it on a website which is crawled by the search engines.
- Do not populate or use same anchor text multiple times on the same website, it will be regarded as spamming.
- Do know place the links on the site which is covered with no follow tag, it is simply waste of time.
- Do it on a regular interval and avoid using same text for multiple links at once.

If you need to know further, we will be happy to share more details and our consultation is absolutely free.

The purpose of local listing in leading search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc., is to boost our visibility in the local area.  In the long run, it will add weightage for specific keywords and thus help to push the website to the top slot of search results. One of the basic and primary task in SEO is to do local listing in leading search engines.

The normal tendency of users are to find people in their own vicinity.  When the user searches with the city name, search engines list the local business profile in their area with a map, which helps the user to find the directions and distance of the service provider from their area.

The below is the brief overview on major search engines and see how local business listings are done,

Google Local Listing:

It’s a part of google maps. Adding local business is something you mark your business profile on google maps.

URL to add your business on Google – http://www.google.com/local

Bing Local listing

As like Google, Bing also makes an entry to maps when user add their listing.

URL to add your business on Bing – https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx

Yahoo Local listing

Like Google and Bing, Yahoo doesn’t provide local listing on the common Yahoo search, but it has separate section on the left pane to optimize the search in local listing.

URL to add your business on Yahoo – http://local.yahoo.com

Ask Local Listing

Ask and Yahoo looks similar. Instead on common search, they have separate URL to search for local listing. Ask.com has a separate text field to provide city name or zip code.

URL to add your business on Ask – http://ask.com/city

Even though it is one of the basic processes in SEO, you got to follow it up and make sure that is done.

From the day search engines became popular, Google stands in the limelight.  What makes Google so special?  Quality search results is what makes Google to be special.  Among leading search engines, Google was the first successful search engine company to come up with a very successful algorithm to avoid manipulation by webmasters.  For more than 9 years, we have been ardent followers and fans of Google, in fact, millions around the world are fans like us.

It is very interesting to note that from a small company which was started in a garage, Google has now grown into one of the biggest companies in the world, holding the topmost position, and commanding lion’s share of the internet market.  The founding of Google and it’s growth has become the touching story for budding entrepreneurs.  It has given ray of hope for a common man who wants to start up.  Another notable factor about Google is that it has released a host of products for free which are applications used in day-to-day life.

The meaning of Google is “infinite,” the name was selected to to denote endless list of search results.

To start with, “What is a sitemap?” and “Why is it so important?”
A sitemap is like a map which contains details such as the different pages in a website, categories, URLs, etc., of a website.  The sitemap is generated and submitted to search engines so that it is easy for the search engines to crawl our website, and get the required information.

The two important reasons behind the need for Sitemaps are as follows,

1. To enable the visitor to find the right page or content.

2. To help search engines to index.

If we generate a sitemap, the visitors can easily navigate through the pages instead of going through link after link.  For Example:  Just imagine that there is a page called as “contact info,” and this contact info is under “About us” page.  If there is a sitemap, then the visitor can directly go into the contact info page instead of coming through “About Us” page.  You can easily access the important pages quickly with one click. Big player’s websites such as hp.com, ecommerce sites, are few examples where sitemaps really helps.

A sitemap makes search engine crawler’s job to be easy. The spider or the crawler will easily understand the website’s structure and get back to the DB with all the required information that it needs.  We can create a sitemap within minutes.  Thus, if you wish to get your website indexed and want to be search engine friendly, then you need to create a sitemap and submit it to the search engines. This is one of the basic processes of search engine optimization.

There are different types of Sitemaps such as,

1. Html sitemap: Hierarchy of the website links list for visitor’s quick access.

2. XML sitemap: Generate for search engines to inform about URL’s.

3. ROR sitemap: Sitemap used to describe about object in the website.

4. Video sitemap: Sitemap contains links to a videos landing page along with info.

5. Geo sitemap: To be searchable in Google maps about our geo content.

6. News sitemap: More useful for large sites.

To know more about sitemap creation, submission, and its importance, just click the below link,
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/12/sitemap-submission-made-simple.html

If you are new to the concept of SEO, then you are just about to begin about the terms that are widely used in it.  For any online business website, SEO is like magic, to see your website in the first page of Google and Yahoo if you key in a business related keyword that you have chosen.  It is common sense to know that when you get your website listed in the first page for your business related keyword, you will be attracting a huge influx of visitors, who search for products that you deal or sell.  Thus, imagine the kind of business growth resulting from doing website optimization.

Let’s see some of the most frequently used terms by the SEO experts,

1. SEO – Search Engine Optimization.
2. PPC – Pay Per Click.
3. CPC – Cost Per Click.
4. SERP – Search Engine Results Page.
5. ROI – Return On Investment.
6. SMM or SMO – Social Media Marketing or Social Media Optimization.

1.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO):  The intent on performing SEO is to position our website in the first page of leading search engines in order to have easy visibility and thereby attracting greater volume of visitors and make considerable business growth.  SEO is also cost effective compared to other marketing strategies. SEO is done entirely on internet, it does not involve door-to-door canvasing or investing on big advertisements, etc.

2.  Pay Per Click (PPC):   The intent of PPC is to do online advertising for a business.  Through PPC, we make our advertisement to appear to targeted audience, and if someone clicks on the advertisement, it will lead to your website, from where you have a chance to convert into a potential customer.

3.  Cost Per Click (CPC):   CPC forms as a part of PPC. The main advantage of CPC is that you can fix the cost for a single click (helps to keep in control over budget). In fact, Google Ad Words has a CPC pricing system.

4.  Search Engine Results Page (SERP):  This is basically a tool which lets us know how the website is positioned or ranked in the search engines for a given specific keyword query.

5.  Return On Investment (ROI):  ROI need to be done to know what would be the returns from pursuing a SEO campaign.

6.  Social Media Marketing or Social Media Optimization (SMM or SMO):  Social media marketing is the trend of the day and it is fast catching up with the masses.  It is also proving to be a powerful when it comes to marketing, where person to person can share thoughts, give feedback, give ratings, etc. Social media could be split up into various categories such as Social News (Digg, News vine, Reddit, propeller), Social Sharing (Flickr, NetLog, SheToldMe, Tumblr), Social Networking (Facebook, twitter, Linkdin), and Social Book marking (Stumble, Delicious).

On analyzing the SEO industry, the SEO companies do not have a set rule to follow.  What do we mean by “set rule”?  To complete a task, we need to first of all understand the task, then define the process to achieve the result.  The process will have to be refined, fine tuned, and modified until and unless we are 100% on the mark to complete the task.  Once we achieve the 100% mark, the process will remain the same and there wouldn’t be much of tension except for volume of task.  However, SEO cannot be done on following a set of given rule, but to keep on changing the process.  Now, we will be tempted to ask “why do you want to keep on changing the process of SEO?  Well, Google in order to avoid manipulation by webmasters, frequently change their algorithm, and thus we too have to adapt to the change in order to be successful.

Even though we will be adapting and changing the process here and there, there are a set of practices which form the crux of SEO.  The entire SEO strategy and planning should be formed from them.

The following points are considered to be the best practices for search engine optimization,
1.  Keyword research and analysis.
2.  Google Analytics setup.
3.  Webmaster setup (for Google and Yahoo)
4.  Site map generation & submission.
5.  On Page optimization (home page).
6.  Search Engine submission.
7.  Manual Directory submission.
8.   SEO Completion report.
9.  Targeted keywords.
10.  Competition analysis.
11.  Contents such as articles, press releases, and blog submissions on frequent intervals.
12.  Link popularity Development.
13.  Monthly keywords ranking report.
14.  Inbound & Outbound Link report.
15.  Fortnightly Keywords Ranking Reports.

The above points will make sure we have a strong and sure footing.  The key point to be understood is that SEO is a continuous process.  Make sure to continue the above mentioned points to stay on the top even after you get listed in the first page.

In the event of overwhelming success from performing search engine optimization to www.contussupport.com and from growing requests from the customer base, Contus Support Interactive has launched a separate wing named SEO OPTIM (www.seooptim.net) to oversee and meet the demand for search engine optimization.  Currently, the SEO team comprises of more than 5 members, and is expected to touch 15 by January.

The track record maintained so far by SEO OPTIM (priorly known as ISEOFIRM) to push websites to the first page of search results is 100%.  “Hard and smart work attributes has contributed to this sweet success” claims the SEO team.

Content is the king as far as search engine optimization is concerned. The crawlers or spiders from the search engines visit a website and goes for the content, it is not worried by the color or the graphics or the appearance of the website, but it is only concerned with the content of the website.

I have seen some of the websites with great designs and attractive graphics, however, the content would be lagging. Always have keywords in your mind before preparing content for any website. Choose the keywords that would be widely used by the searchers and use them in the content. Add a blog section in your website and start writing blogs and articles in them around strong keywords so that when the spiders from search engines come to your website, it will pick those keywords and list them in their database along with the URL of website. When the searchers use those keywords which have been positioned in your website, the search engine would add your website in the search results – the relevant keyword and the corresponding URL. As time goes by, slowly your website would start climbing the search results. However, you have to write more articles, blogs, etc.

Where are the keywords found? The keywords are found in content, title, description, and the body of the content. Make sure that the website’s content is well written, easily understandable, straight to the point, informative, and grammatically correct as these points make an impression upon the visitor. If the content is not good, not easily understandable or having lot of mistakes, it will tend to create a bad impression and thus converting the visiting audience into potential customers would be hard.

If you find writing to be tough, hire a specialist, but before hiring you need to be doubly sure that the person has enough experience in writing good articles.

If you are a good communicator and possess strong writing skills, you can go ahead and write articles or content for the website. It will be interesting and fun. Just imagine that someone is going to read your content or article, gets interested in the product or service and makes a purchase!!! You will feel as if you had achieved something great, joyous of course ! ! !

Tips for good writing,
1. Use MS Word so that the spellings are auto corrected and basic grammar is right.
2. Refer to dictionary for words that may have more than one meaning and make sure that you are conveying the right meaning.
3. Write short sentences and avoid long sentences (more than two sentences).
4. Break into paragraphs.
5. Give examples.
6. The article should be interactive.
7. Give an intro.
8. Go for the theme – make it crisp without writing big stories.
9. Conclude your article.

Over a period of time, you could become an expert writer.

The basic presumption of people over SEO is that it cannot be measured.  This could have been true a few years back, but since SEO has become mandatory for websites to make its presence felt in World Wide Web, there are now several tools available to take control of the process in terms of measuring it.

I just want to list out some of the most required tools to monitor SEO process in detail.

Sitemap Generator:

First step of any SEO process is to create a search engine friendly sitemap. All the search engine bots, particularly googlebot will come and look for sitemap.xml in a website. The sitemap makes the crawler’s job easy by letting it know the list pages that a search engine should index or crawl. Xml-sitemap.com provides an online sitemap generator tool which makes any webmaster’s job easy for creating sitemaps.

Google, Yahoo and Bing Webmaster Tools:

This is the tool which is used to check the performance of various parameters of SEO process, which are used for sitemap submission and to find the crawl stats, internal links, external link details, site links details, and other diagnostic tools. This is one of the most important tools for any SEO process, and it never provides any wrong information.

Google Analytics:

It is one of the best freebees available from Google for me, next to Google Apps email. This tool helps us to track and analyze the traffic data in depth. The traffic details from search engines and other reference sites, geographical data and visitors’ type of data, and much much more. Use it to understand the importance of it. It is one of the unavoidable tool for any internet marketing campaign not just for SEO.

Google Keyword Tool:

For any SEO campaign, you need to identify the right keywords and need to strengthen the same. It requires a great amount of skill and knowledge to choose the right keyword.  More than skills, it requires huge data to find the right words. I don’t feel anyone can give it better than Google. Google Keyword tool is the one which can help us with valuable data.

SEO Browser:

Search engine crawlers won’t be able to read the contents on images or flash. It can read only the texts. In order to know how bots of various browsers see the content on our site, we can use seo-browser.com. Use it to see your site like how the Google, Yahoo and Bing sees it, and optimize the on-page contents.

Firefox Keyword Position Checker:

It is the handy SEO plug-in provided for Firefox, once the SEO process has been started, you have to see the progress of your keywords from some page to the top. This tool will let you know the website position for any particular set of keywords.

There are hundreds of SEO tools which are paid and freely available in the net. I am sure no one will believe me if I say those are useless. I have tried paid and non-paid versions of different tools, nothing seems to be fitting my requirement. Something is always missing. Accuracy is another issue with these tools.

Contact us if you need a SEO analysis report developed by SEO experts and not by some codes. It is absolutely free from us.