SEO - cached for 2005

SEO - cached for 2005

As the new year approaches, many of us take time to reflect on the preceding year to remember our successes as well as tasks we could have performed better. Maybe you want to do better with health and fitness (my wife would sure like for me to do better!). Maybe you would like to improve business relationships with clients or staff. Either way, we often feel the need to learn from the past and improve for the future.

For you, does this include your online presence? If so, this article is especially written just for you!

I have read and written numerous articles regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Link Popularity Building with the focus on why it's important to hire a SEO professional to perform these tasks for the success of your online business website. Even if you chose not to hire a dedicated SEO, I have tried to give useful information on what to look for and how to begin SEO promotion of your own site. This article is intended to continue that tradition focused on how to design the site specifically for being cached within the major search engines like Google (see Google's statement on cached links) and Yahoo!.

Many think of search engine optimization as what to do to your website so search engines will possibly index it for the site to show up within search results. This is only a part of the reason!

Another reason centers on what happens once the site is indexed and cached. There are many on page elements of a website that may no longer function once a website page has been cached within a search engine. Some include:

• relative path URL links (e.g. files, pages and graphics)
• time sensitive page/file includes
• X and Y on page position specific placements (e.g. fixed position)

These items and many others can cause your page content not to function properly in the cached version which could exist on one or more search engines for quite some time.

Please don't misunderstand me. There are ways to prevent search engines from caching your website pages and this may be of value to many of you. I will go into more detail about how and why you might want to do this in a future article. Please forgive me, I digress.

For this article, my intention is to bring to mind the realities of getting what you wanted in the first place! That is, attention from the primary search engines which result in indexing and caching your website pages. Generally, the more they do this the better your chances of being ranked higher and found easily by those wanting your products and/or services online.

I urge you to spend time reviewing the cached pages of your website in the major search engines by:

1. Go to Google or Yahoo! then type "site:" plus your URL without the quotes (e.g. site:www.h2-seo.com) and click Enter
2. then click the link "cached" under and towards the bottom right of the page description.

This will show you what others will see if they go to your cached website pages. Notice the differences between this version and your original page. This exercise will make it easier to understand what the search engines see and rely on regarding your content. I find many times this can be an eye opening experience for my clients!

A long time ago, someone said "Knowledge is Power". If this is true then learning how to improve your online presence can give you the power to do much more throughout the world.

Here's wishing you the best New Year and the best for your online presence in 2005!

Latest from Google

Have you seen the latest from Google?

Recently, I located some new items from the Google camps that I believe a number of people will be interested in. If you are into learning more about how to promote your site or want to better understand where Google is heading, read on...

Google Suggest (beta)
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Google Suggest Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs
http://labs.google.com/suggest/faq.html

It is interesting this new interface brings to searching. One thing to keep in mind is that the number of links (e.g. shown quantity as you type a phrase) does not directly relate to the number of searches performed for a phrase. When thinking in terms of Search Engine Optimization - SEO, keep in mind your focus is not how many other sites there are but, rather how many searches are performed looking for your type of products and/or services. If people don't search for it, you may never be found!

As always, take a look for yourself and realize that knowledge is power. Learn, ask questions and find a better way for you!

For Webmasters And Those Who Maintain Websites

For Webmasters And Those Who Maintain Websites

As many of you already realize, competition for website designers and those who maintain business websites is quite stiff. Just perform any search for terms related to web design or development and you may be overwhelmed with the results. Of course, there is a wide range of experience levels and expertise by those performing these services.

Our focus in this article centers on what a website designer can do to help the business website attract more prequalified leads and rise higher in the major search engines like Google and Yahoo!. If you are a person who develops and/or maintains business websites, I suggest reading further.

First, we have published earlier articles detailing the need for the right keyword phrases and terms on the pages of your website. This is a critical factor in obtaining higher search engine rankings. Having the right phrase(s) properly stated in the title tag of each page, which is specific to just that page, is probably the most important element of on page search engine optimization (SEO) there is!

Second, having the proper phrase(s) in the Header tags (e.g. h1, h2, h3, etc.) is the next most important element of on page SEO. Please understand this does not mean to make every word or even every other word a header tag. As with most anything in this world, it takes a bit of common sense. Realize that people will be reading the content of your site and it must make sense to them and be appealing or they will click away in record time!

Third, an often overlooked element of a business website is one that can be the easiest to correct. This involves the navigation. Yes, people prefer the drop down menus, button highlights, and other "high quality" looks good web designers use these days. The search engines couldn't care less!

For improvement of your search engine rankings, I would strongly suggest adding plain text links somewhere on each page with the targeted keywords and keyword phrases as the links. The primary search engines pick up on these and potentially can elevate your rankings, especially for lesser contested phrases.

Doing these things can help you rise in the search engines. Of course, working with a professional SEO can do wonders for your online presence and bring a better Return On Investment (ROI) than most any other form of marketing.