Knowledgebase

This week, we will dwell on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and we will be talking about why On-Page SEO and Off-PageSEO are the keys to the Search Engine's Success. So what is the big deal with On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO? Search engine ranking is most important factor in internet business. It is actually no use to have a very beautiful website with very exciting functionalities ranking so poorly and no one views them except those with whom you share your pages directly like your Facebook friends and twitter posts.

And so, if you want to rank higher in the search engines and increase your SERP (Search Engine Result Pages), you will need to know how to do both On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO.

Now before I even continue let me tell you that both parts of SEO are easy to understand and easy to apply. However the whole process is tedious that can make you easily quit your Website's SEO Optimization.

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Glossary of Web Hosting Terms
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How to Address Excessive Resource Usage on a Web Hosting Account

What is On-Page SEO?

On-Page SEO is everything related to the optimization you do directly inside your website. That optimization could be related to Text, Pictures, Videos, and all the HTML Markup you use on your site like Meta Tags and H1 Tags.

We will not deal with how to go about on-page SEO here and we will recommend you go look for additional resources on the subject matter with focus on the following 7 On-Page SEO factors.

7 On-Page SEO factors that I recommend you learning for your Joomla Websites.

1. Title Tag
2. Meta Tag Description
3. H1 and H2, H3 tags
4. Bold and Italic Text
5. Image Name and Alt Text
6. Keyword Ratio inside your body
7. Friendly URLs

Of course you will need to first do your Keyword Research and then apply your keywords inside these 7 different On-Page SEO factors.

Now it will be important to note that anyone can accomplish page number one in Google just by doing Off-Page SEO (Link Building), On-Page SEO is still really important not because of the search engines but mainly because of your visitors.

That’s why it is important to optimize pages not only for search engines.

Now let us talk about Off-Page SEO?

What is Off-Page SEO?

Off-Page SEO is merely the creation of links and in general the more links you create the better for your site. Quite important in link building will be the quality of the links. A link in the CNN website will be more important than a link in a local directory This means you have to place emphasis on link quality to help you rank better.

Now have in mind that these links are going to be created in websites that are outside your control.

For instance you could create links by just by:

1) Visiting blogs and commenting in them.
2) Visiting forums and becoming active members.
3) Visiting Article Directories and submitting your articles.
4) Visiting Web Directories and inserting your website inside them.

There are other ways you could create links and you have to realize that the more links pointed to your site the better you could rank in search engines.

Also you need to know that links coming from Government Sites and Educational Sites are normally the most powerful according to several SEO reports, but those kind of links are normally really difficult to get.

Also read:

How to Avoid a Website Suspension
How to prevent your website from a hack
A General guide to Safe Website Updating
Web Hosting Options to start your online business

Quick SEO Factors to Help You Rank Better.

These factors will be strongly important when you apply On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO.

If your keywords are:

1) Low Traffic and Low Targeted: you can accomplish Page Number One in the Search Engines by doing only On-Page SEO.

2) Medium Traffic and Medium Targeted: you can accomplish Page Number One in the Search Engines by doing both On-Page and Off-Page SEO. But you can also accomplish results only with Off-Page SEO alone.

3) High Traffic and High Targeted: you can accomplish Page Number One in the Search Engines by doing both On-Page and Off-Page SEO. Inside this kind of competitiveness, you will need to do a serious link building campaign to outrank your competitors.

However, remember that even that I know you can accomplish Page Number One in the Search Engines by doing only Off-Page SEO, I will always recommend you to do On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO inside any Website.

You are now well guided in SEO for higher ranking.


Tell Google How Often to Crawl Your Website

You can tell Google how often to crawl your website. Google uses sophisticated algorithms for determining how often to crawl your site. Their goal is to crawl as many pages as possible from your site on each visit without overwhelming your server's bandwidth.

Google allows you to adjust the crawl rate, but you cannot specify different crawl rates for sections of your site such as specific folders or subdirectories.

Changing Google's crawl rate only changes the speed of Googlebot's requests during the crawl process. It does not have any effect on how often Google crawls your site or how deeply the URL structure is crawled. To change Google's crawl rate on your website:

Log into Google Webmaster Tools.
If you have not already done so, add your site to Google Webmaster Tools.
On the Webmaster Tools home page, click on the site for which you'd like to adjust the crawl rate.
Click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the page, and select Site Settings from the drop-down menu.
In the Crawl rate section, select the option you prefer, and then click Save.

The new crawl rate will be valid for only 90 days.


Tell Bing How Often to Crawl Your Website

Microsoft Bing allows you to set the crawl rate for your site and even allows you to specify the crawl rate by hour of the day (a crawl pattern). This allows you to specify that Bing crawl your site.

To change Microsoft Bing's crawl settings:

Log into Bing Webmaster Tools.
Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools if you have not already done so.
Click on the Crawl tab in the top navigation.
Click on Crawl Settings in the left navigation.
Select your website from the drop-down list (if not already selected).
Select the radio button Use the selected crawl rate below to set a custom crawl rate and pattern.
Use the graph to specify the crawl rate and crawl pattern by dragging the graph areas to the desired settings. You can click on individual vertical columns to set the crawl rate individually by hour.
If your website is built in AJAX, select the check box labeled Configure Bing for Ajax site crawling so that Bing handles your website properly.
Click Save to save your settings.


The Importance of Specifying your Canonical Url

If your website can be accessible with multiple URLs, something like being accessed with and without the 'www'. it creates the problems of duplicate URLs. This essentially means your website has content that are accessible through multiple URLs. This is very likely to be categorized as duplicate content.

To avoid being penalized by search engines for this and to clear up all duplicate sites – a new open standard was announced by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo in February 2009. Now, by adding a simple piece of code on to your preferred URL and duplicate content URLs, you can let search engines know the preferred URL that the duplicate content refers to.

This also allows other URL properties such as PageRank to be transferred as well.

Eliminate Duplicate Content

Once this code is included in all relevant websites, search engines will use this to calculate the most relevant page to be displayed. This gives the webmaster more control over the search listing and enables site canonicalization.

With this new standard coming in, various plug-ins for WordPress and E-Commerce websites are also available.

For more information on how to specify your canonical URL, please visit Google webmastertools.


Tips For Writing Alternate Texts for Images

The alt attribute is an attribute of the img tag and is meant to be an alternative for non-visual browsers when they come across images. The follow are helpful tips for writing alternate texts for images:

Be brief

Some browsers will actually break if the alt text is too long. And while it might seem nice to describe what is exactly in the image, that's not the purpose of the alt tag. Instead, it should be filled with exactly the words needed to put the image in context and no more.

Be clear

Don't be so brief that the context is confused. Remember, some people will ONLY see the text in your alt tags, so if it's too brief they might not understand what you're trying to show them. For example:
a tree - good
a sycamore tree - better
a 10-foot tall sycamore tree with mostly brown leaves and possibly something wrong with its bark - too much

Be contextual

Don't describe the image if it's meant to be viewed in context. For example:
If you've got an image of the company logo, you should write "Company Name" and not "Company Name Logo"

Don't display your site's inner workings

If you're putting in spacer images, just use a space for your alt text. If you write "spacer.gif" it just calls attention to the site, rather than providing useful information. And technically, if you're trying to write valid XHTML, you should use CSS rather than spacer images, so you might as well leave the alt text off of those images.

Be search engine conscious

If you have good, concise, clear alt text, that can actually help your search engine rankings, as the images on your page promote and enhance your keywords.

Don't use it only for search engine optimization

Many sites think that if they use alt text as an SEO tool, they can "fool" the search engines into optimizing their site for a keyword they don't have there. However, this can backfire if the search engine decides you are trying to fake your results and removes you from the results completely.

Top 5 Google Adsense Optimization Tips

Getting the best out of your website monitization plan is quite essential and had been a recurring question. In most cases, experience had been the best teacher because every situation has its own uniqueness. Nevertheless, here are 5 tips recommended by Gogle to optimize Adsense earnings:

1. Maximize your AdSense coverage In order to maximize your earnings, place three AdSense ad units and three link units on each of your pages. The more ads you display, the more opportunities you have for your users to engage with them.

2. Place your ads above the fold Ads that appear higher on the page perform the best. Place your ads so users can see them without scrolling down the page. The more a user has to scroll before finding your ads, the less likely they are to see them and to click on them.

3. Use the best performing ad units. Advertisers' preferred ad units are the Leaderboard (728x90), the Medium Rectangle (300x250) and the Wide Skyscraper (160x600). By using these popular ad units, you'll be tapping into a larger pool of competing ads. More ad inventory leads to more competition in the ad auction and ultimately results in higher RPMs for our publishers.

4. Show text and image ads Check your ad units and make sure that you've opted-in to displaying text and image ads. By diversifying your ads, you're able to increase the available inventory for your site. With most text ads paid on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis and most image ads paid on a cost-per-impression (CPM) ad, you can let AdSense determine which ads will maximize your earnings.

5. Complement your content with your ads Your AdSense ads should fit seamlessly within your site to improve your users' experience. Blend the color of your ads to match the rest of your site and remove the borders around your ad units to help your ads complement your content and enhance your site.