Search Engine Optimization and the Social World

SEO is changing at a rapid speed and one of the biggest reasons is the changing social nature of the web world.

Changes in SEO are also due to constant changes in the search engines themselves. For instance Google boost is the latest development. What is interesting is to know what motivates these changes. A simple answer could be the end profits. We could also consider the fact of increased satisfaction of users. So we can safely say that customer satisfaction automatically translates into profits and great market shares. Knowing that changes will improve profits and will help to maintain the market share instead of loosing to big competitors always keeps the search engines on their edge.

Google measures the users’ satisfaction through tools such as the low bounce rates, click- through rates and a range of other metrics. These metrics are considered as the social signals too. The data required for these metrics is available to Google through Google toolbar; customs search engines and Google analytics. These data collected is constantly being used to research ways and means to increase the market share using new techniques and innovations. Another reason that keeps the search engines on the toes
is the free services provided by all the search engines. For a customer switching to a new search engine is just a matter of a click.

Apart from Facebook and Twitter being the obvious examples of social media interaction, forums, complaints, articles and reviews are some other ways of collecting data and studying the mood of the end user.

Certain interesting information that is derived from here includes reference to your site and volume of activity. The sentiments of the end user also are the signal to the search engines to decide whether they are on right track or not.

Social behavior effects SEO and they provide positive inputs that should be adopted for optimistic results. Meaningful information along with graphics and short texts is definitely a success story as per many researches. However, long texts are also as important as they help search engines to get context that is not available from other signals.

Steps to High Ranking On Search Engines!

SEO world can be an intimidating experience for the newcomers. Especially with jargons as canonicalization and page rank sculpting and many others such obscure terms are being used in the industry today.

While the newcomers may consider the SEO industry to be completely hyped and maybe even confusing, there are many minute points that have profound effect on the ultimate results. Simply put, the most effective results are possible only after an in depth study of the user that you may be trying to target. It is ultimately the user that decides the profile, look and feel of the top ranking sites on the search engines. The top few search engines themselves spend immense resource, time and energy to figure out what exactly the users are looking for with the words they type. The more they understand the user, more is their revenue.

Therefore, it can be safely said that it is the user of the search engine who drives the algorithms and the refinements there on. The job of the seasoned SEO is to understand the end user, the key words that they use for a specific search and how best they can be served digitally. The first question that should come to mind as an SEO when narrowing on a particular keyword is what information is the user trying to look for through it and does my site have all of those in a way that is strikingly different and better from all the other sites competing with the same information.

Designing the site around the needs of the user does not guarantee the first place but it definitely sets the process in place. The next most important thing after attaining the desired place on the search engine is to maintain it. To face the competitors is a tough task that has to be conquered with quality content. The information on your site should be relevant and latest to keep the users hooked on. The user’s query should be satisfied in a way that is much better than that of the competitor’s. Having a structured ongoing strategy for content is definitely going to be helpful.

SWF Content Indexing Has Got Even Better

The indexing of content for Flash Players has got better in recent past. Around 2 years back, Google forged a collaboration with Adobe with the objective of improving Google’s potential to work on indexing Flash based content in terms of indexing. This advanced was followed a year later by the concept of external resource loading which furthered Google’s ability to index SWF. This advancement would make room for helping one index text files with the help of flash buttons and menus given in flash based websites. Nowadays, while working on any SWF file on any website, a user can have a look at almost any text. This is done with the help of Googlebot and this generates a snippet through Google searches. Moreover, Googlebot is also able to unearth URLs in these files and also track the links thereby making it possible for Google to index web pages also.

About a month back, Google came up with their latest progress in this area and this time it was a joint venture between Google and Adobe that would enable users to work on the latest Flash Players. The application is much better in terms of compatibility. This could be made possible because of progress in the area of JavaScript and SWF. This led to the improvement in video indexing as well. This has given rise to higher detection of a page having video and also of metadata which can be better extracted including thumbnails like Flash Player based videos. Therefore, the indexing technology used in SWF would be much better and enable us to glance thousands of pages on the internet.

In the opinion of Google, though, this is not the end and further features are in the offing. The next target is to better deep linking in terms of indexing as well as the betterment of SWF technologies by using JavaScript. This can also be done with the help of one Flash object if we submit a Sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools. But as mentioned earlier, this is not all. The technology is fast changing and more updates are awaited.

Bettering Web Traffic Conversions

What any web based business looks forward to is to optimize web traffic as much as possible. And the first step in this regard is to create a meaningful website. In the process of ascertaining that the website is actually worth visiting, one should keep in mind that the best way to understand this is by mapping visitors on the business. It is only after this step is in place that one can think of converting these occasional visitors into regular visitors.

The initial steps involved in mapping what visitors do when they visit a particular website are to be certain about what is exactly to be displayed. This involves the understanding of what is expected of the visitors to gauge from the website. Secondly, one should also keep a tab on where should a certain web page lead visitors to.

These objectives should be first assessed and executed properly. Then the next step is to gain insight into visitor landing behavior. The best thing to do in this case is to resort to Site Analytics and one may use Google Analytics in this regard. One should take a stock of the bounce rates and exit rates since that would give an idea of how well the top landing pages are working. The report of Entrance Paths from Google Analytics would provide us with an idea of the webpages that visitors have visited from a certain page and the ratio of visitors who have visited next pages. Next in line is the Site Overlay which gives us the idea of the percentage of CTR of a website’s webpage and the various links so that one can know visitors who spend considerable time at a website go next.

The next step is to optimize occasional visitors into conversions. Some suggestions are as follows:

• Top pages of the website to be at the extreme left from the main navigation (horizontal) or it may also be at the top of the navigation (vertical)
• Links (text) in the copy of the body should be in tune with the webpages that these lead to. That would help achieve more conversions.
• The best offerings of the website are to be above the fold of the main webpage. This would ensure the website being explored more.

How the SEO is affected by Changes in a Website.

Making drastic changes to one’s website can affect the Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A major factor determining the traffic a website receives through search engines is the inbound links. People link to websites based on the content, appearance and so on. If there are changes made in the website then the question will arise as to whether those who had linked to the website earlier would still want to do so. It is not a matter that the search engine can resolve. However, it can decrease the effective value of such links for a while until it is established clearly as to whether people are continuing with the links. The following are a few of the significant changes made in a website that can affect the SEO.

• URL STRUCTURE

Often websites are completely redesigned without changing the content. Despite that search engines take a while to realize this. Due to the fact that the relationships between the different pages in the website have been restructured, the search engine may take several weeks or even months to understand the new website’s structure and content.

• DOMAIN

Change of the domain of a website is a massive change from the perspective of search engines. There can be various reasons behind such a change. For instance a website might have initially had a “.com: domain and later obtain the “.net” variant of the same domain and the website publishers may wish to switch domains.

• THEME

Changes in themes can be of many kinds. One kind can be when a website makes additions to the theme. For instance a website on auto insurance can add a section on home insurance. In such a case the new sections will take time to generate traffic and the older sections too can be devalued for a period.

• CONTENT

Change in the content of a website will definitely make the search engine treat the website differently. The basic factor behind this is the question whether those who had linked to the page earlier would continue to do so when the content of the website has changed.

• WHOIS

A change in the Whois of a website is another example. This is because such a change can represent change in ownership of the website. A simple change of e-mail address may not be seen as a significant change. However change in the name and address of the registrant will be regarded as such.

Effective Tips for Search Engine Optimization!

Getting your site listed among the top few on the most popular search engines may not be really tough but is definitely difficult to decide where to start from. Listed below are the few tips that will help you in Search engine optimization.

• Do not go in for a new domain until and unless it is a compulsion and you cannot do without. The top few search engines gives a lot of credence to the longevity of the domain. Even if the old domain can be directed to the new domain, it is best when avoided. If it is absolutely essential to change the domain, expect a lull in the traffic flow for atleast the first few weeks. It will gradually get back to your previous traffic statistics.

• Target your end customer and not the search engines when designing your site. Remember that the search engine looks for what your target customer types in. Therefore, try to meet the needs and requirements of your end customer. Try to meet their needs and your site will automatically end up with a lot of traffic. A great way to know your audiences and what exactly goes through their mind is to be a part of forums and discussions where they may hang out.

• The trick to maximum traffic is to have a set of effective key words. You must first accumulate whole lot of keywords that you think your target customer may use to reach you. This set of key words should be reached at after a lot of research. There are various tools that you can use for research of key words. Try to be specific with your key words and not general for sure.

• Simple specifications with your product and services will be extremely effective. For instance, if your product is cream, simply try to write it as ‘face cream’ or ‘cream for acne’ and you are sure to see more traffic to your site who may be looking for specific creams. Do not over use any particular key word or phrase. Try to look out for other options as well. 

• Work on your website and key words effectively and smartly and see your profits grow in leaps and bound within no time at all!