SEO Game Plan | Search Engine Optimization

How can you boost your web site’s credibility?

Check out this Website Credibility report from Stanford University.  The compiled 10 guidelines for building and improving the credibility of a web site. The guidelines were based on three years of research that included over 4,500 people.

Here is a sample:

Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site
You can build web site credibility by providing third-party support (citations, references, source material) for information you present, especially if you link to this evidence. Even if people don’t follow these links, you’ve shown confidence in your material.

Show that there’s a real organization behind your site
Showing that your web site is for a legitimate organization will boost the site’s credibility. The easiest way to do this is by listing a physical address. Other features can also help, such as posting a photo of your offices or listing a membership with the chamber of commerce.

Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide
Do you have experts on your team? Are your contributors or service providers authorities? Be sure to give their credentials. Are you affiliated with a respected organization? Make that clear. Conversely, don’t link to outside sites that are not credible. Your site becomes less credible by association.

Read all to Web Site Credability elements.

OK, so, you have seen all the gurus advertise their learning packages for $2,000 to learn the secrets of Getting Top Google placement, or PPC Conversions.  It’s great information, but who wants to spend $2K on information, especially when your not 100% sure it is accurate.  SEO Game Plan would like to share with you 2 SEO Guru KILLERS!  This information comes direct from the 800lb Gorilla – GOOGLE!

Check out these video goldmines from 2 parts of Google you should be involved in.  Webmaster Tools, and Google analytics. 

For Webmasters
Here are 14 powerful, accurate and informative videos from Google Webmaster Tools.
Google guru Matt Cutts discusses how best to optimize your site for Google.
Here is a sample; Matt Cutts Discusses Webmaster Tools

You can find more about these webmaster resources here at http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Conversion Questions:
Here are 21 crucial videos from Google Conversion University
Learn more about Google Anaytics at the Official Google Analytics Blog.

Google Analytics Videos On YouTube

These videos will take you further than almost any of these so called GURU sales packages out there. 

Also, in case you’ve been under a rock, don’t forget to check out the Google Keyword Tool.  It’s got 2 amazing parts to it. 

1) Descriptive words or phrases – find & generate keyword suggestions
2) Website content – find out what google thinks your site is about!  (or your competitors sites)

 Good Luck and Enjoy the Videos,
SEO Game Plan Team

For many clients and business owners looking for ways to get traffic, they quite frankly don’t understand the rules of the “Google Game”. And that’s because there’s no rule book. A great way to find out what the rules are is to look at the actual patent that Google has filed. (Filing date: Dec 31, 2003)

The patent, entitled Information retrieval based on historical data is an interesting document, and well worth a read if you are interested in how Google determines ranking, and the many factors involved.

This document which was submitted in December of 2003, and is as close to the actual rule book for how Google determines page rankings as you can find. If you want to know the rules of how Google is determining who gets number one page rank, have a read. Here are some interesting points from the patent. We have added our own interpretation for a few of the more relevant items:

A method for scoring a document, comprising:

6. determining an amount by which the content of the document changes over time
READ: Google likes Fresh Content

8. scoring the document based, at least in part, on the frequency at which and the amount by which the content of the document changes over time.
READ: Google likes Continual Fresh Content

24. the appearance of one or more links relates to at least one of a date that a new link to the document appears, a rate at which the one or more links appear over time, and a number of the one or more links that appear during a time period, and the disappearance of one or more links relates to at least one of a date that an existing link to the document disappears, a rate at which the one or more links disappear over time, and a number of the one or more links that disappear during a time period.
READ: if you are Buying Links in an effort to gain inclusing into the Google index, and get links from sites with high PR value, when you stop paying for the links, Google can potentially be tracking this information.

40. the domain-related information is related to at least one of an expiration date of the domain, a domain name server record associated with the domain, and a name server associated with the domain.
READ: IF you buy your domain names for 1 year in an effort to test the market, Google might view your domain with less authority than a business that has invested for a domain for 10 years.

Read this patent. We believe reading this document will help you on your path to understand exactly how Google does what it does.

We have started bookmarking some of our favorite SEO Tips and Tricks.  We will be adding to this.  Enjoy.

SEO Game Plan Tips and Tricks

Today we are exploring the SEO benefits of XML sitemaps.  We already know Google, MSN, Yahoo and Ask.com jointly support the Sitemaps protocol.  But does having a XML sitemap on your website affect your ranking in the search engines?   Let’s take a look…

What is a XML Sitemap?
Unlike traditional SiteMaps which act more as a human friendly contents page, an XML SiteMap uses an XML schema to provide a Sitemap protocol as defined by SiteMaps.Org.  In short a  XML Sitemap allows webmasters to submit a master list of all their site’s pages to Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com for indexing. Information about the website is stored in an XML file along with other relevant information as specified by the webmaster. It is best practice to have your XML sitemap include, last modified date, update frequency, and priority. The purpose of this Sitemap is to have the most recent version of your URL’s indexed in Google and others and at all times.

Do you need to have a XML Sitemap?
XML sitemaps can generally help any site needing to be indexed; however, small static sites may not see the need for this. For example, if you have a small 5 to 10 page website that seldom sees any of its pages updated and your entire site is already in Google’s index, the XML Sitemap is not necessarily going to help much. It is best used when trying to keep the latest versions of your pages current in Google and the major search engines. Large sites with 1,000’s of URL’s will also benefit, especially if all of their pages are not appearing in the index. Google XML Sitemaps will benefit you if you have either a dynamic or large site.

Will using XML Sitemaps improve my Search Ranking?
In most cases this can improve your rankings especially if you have a new website. By having the most current version of your site in Google’s index, this can speed up your ranking in the results pages. This is because if you make an update to a page for optimization purposes, Google’s index will have this page updated more quickly than without a XML sitemap. What this essentially means is that with more frequent spidering you can help influence what version of your site is in the index, and ultimately, increase your ranking.

How do you create the XML Sitemap?
You can create your XML sitemap manually or use widely avaialble automated tools. There are a number of available solutions for this. One of the simplest methods of creating XML sitemaps is through the use of Blackwoodproductions Dynamic XML Sitemap Creator (Spydermap). This is a free, easy to use tool that will help you create your XML sitemaps with ease. The Spydermap then re-updates your sitemap page for you automatically. The XML based Spydermap is a hands-freeservice for any serious webmaster.  There are also number of downloadable and online tools listed on Google’s site which cater to both beginners and seasoned professionals alike.

Submitting your XML Sitemap to Google is relatively straightforward. After the file has been created the first thing you want to do is upload the file to your server, we recommend at the root level. Log into the Sitemap console using your Google account. From here you can add a site to your account. Simply enter your top level domain where it says “Add Site”. This will add the domain to your account and allow you to then submit the XML sitemap.

So… the answer to today’s question: Does having a XML sitemap on your website affect your ranking? I say YES!  They can help you to achieve up to date indexing in Google, and can be of significant use in the ranking of many websites.

SEO Target Marketing can be easily accomplished with a little bit of Keyword Research.

Try these simple steps to seo target marketing now.

1. use the FREE keyword suggestion tool to research your particular niche
2. once the results for the top 100 keyword searches come back, rather than focus on the obvious top keywords, scan down to the middle and look closer at the “Long Tail” keywords, the less obvious keywords.
3. Now, take the road less traveled, and do a Google search for what we can call the “secondary words”
4. Have a look at who gets top placement for these words.  If they are PR8 sites and have 30,000 backlinks, perhaps you should look for a less popular word.  You need the right balance between targeted keyword phrases and a term that is not completely dominated.
5. One major mistake a lot of websites make is to go after the most obvious keywords; DON’T DO THAT!
6. Look for keyword terms that bring back sites in the top position that you think you could do battle with.  Why enter into an arena with the champions, when there are thousands of targeted words that get traffic with less competition.
7. Now that you have identified the right mix of keyword phrases, use them to create a page. Match your title tag, meta tag and theme of the page on this keyword research.  Create a quality page of content and provide uniqe information.
8. If you have a blog, better yet; use the keyword you just identified as the blog post title
9. Try it, and let us know when it works

We have added another “SEO Tip” to our list of simple on page SEO methods.  Tip #2 deals with the use of your Keyword in the URL.  As webmasters work to optimize key terms and pages of their sites, having clear, easy-to -read URL’s is key.  Have a look at SEO Tip #2.

Understanding What Your Competition Is Doing Online

Do you search for your company online at Google and Yahoo! and wonder why you’re not there. Then, you notice that it’s your competitors who have that coveted top 10 ranking. How did they get there? How can you get top ranking positions for your keywords? Let SEO Game Plan provide some clarity. Read the rest of this entry »

Competitive Analysis reveals important information about who is on top of the search results, and why. Read the rest of this entry »