Matt Cutts from Google explains How Google's Search Engine Works...

Introduction

Everyone is different! Everyone needs different things. So here at DIYSEOUK we are providing you with options... How to move forward with SEO for your website, at your pace, at your level of understanding.

Many who arrive here will have already a basic knowledge of SEO and what they need to do, so in the right hand column we have a list of items that will give you immediate action in one or more specific areas.

For our own pricing schedule, please click on the SEO Price List banner to the right.

However, should you not be so eager, there are methodical ways to improve your search engine ranking. Most of which can be done by an 'office junior' in our Step by Step Guide. Here at DIYSEOUK we will provide you with as many optional methods to increase your search engine ranking... To read the full article please follow this link:

Search Engine Ranking

SEO

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimisation. In the UK it is spelt with an 's' and in the US it is spelt with a 'z' - Search Engine Optimization...

In brief SEO is optimising your website for a higher ranking in the search engines.

To read the full article, please follow this link: SEO

Search Engine Optimisation

There are two types of Website Optimisation - 'On Page' and 'Off Page'...

On Page - is optimising the keyword structure of your website. In an ideal world, and if you was a methodical person, then to do the 'on page' optimising first would make more sense. If you had a florists in Birmingham, then your main keyword for the site should be 'Florists Birmingham'

Off Page - This is mainly acquiring backlinks to your website. One way links are best.

To read the full article, please follow this link:

Search Engine Optimisation

SEO Marketing

The SEO explanations upon this website may seem complex, but can be completed by anyone reasonably skilled on the internet. Although the process can be explained step by step, the whole process is both time consuming and relatively boring at times; but... nonetheless extremely important.

To optimise your website is relatively straightforward, but the internet is a big and vast place to explore. Which means that sometimes you can explore for hours and get no results. Should you wish to delegate this task then please see our schedule of prices. Please follow this link: SEO Marketing

SEO Consultant

An SEO consultant can play many roles, but his duty will be greater the bigger the website, or the bigger the 'network' of websites.

Some companies have successfully acquired many website names for the purpose of 'company branding'; and in some cases these can be networked together to obtain higher search engine rankings.

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SEO Consultant

Website SEO

To buy a website and have it designed so that you can see it on the internet, will not necessarily mean it will be recongised in the search engine listings.

Type this query into the Google search engine:

site:

YOURDOMAIN

.com

you don't need the 3 w's, just you own site name. This will show how many pages Google are indexing. If it says none, we can get your site indexed very quickly.

Website SEO is the difference between obscurity and success. Yet at the same time it needs to understand the need for 'branding'.

If your next website is built with both a designer and optimiser in mind, you'll achieve great results.

Generally speaking, Web Site Designers and Search Engine Optimisers are opponents; they both seem to think that the 'others' only play a small part; and that argument could go on forever. Asking a Web Designer to change their website because an optimiser says so, can be fraught with time delays. So the process needs to be handled carefully and with respect.

To read the full article please follow this link:

Website SEO

Google SEO

Optimising your site for Google is the major task as they take 60%+ of the search queries. But we must not forget the other two major players, which are Yahoo and Bing.

Maybe sometime in the future Google may loose their grip, but at this moment in time they are the biggest. We must respect them.

Google have an algorithm that determines which sites dominate the search engine listings. Understanding this algorithm and applying the principles that are required can get your website into the top 10 on Google and even number one spot.

To read the full article please follow this link:

Google SEO

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A Few Basics...

DISCOVERING THE ONLINE WEB PAGE
1. Right click on a clear piece within any web page (away from any photos) and scroll down to view source.
2. View source will allow you to see the html settings for their webpage. This will help you find out what other websites use for their keywords. At the very top of the page you'll see the meta tags. These are between the two tags... <head> </head>. These meta tags are an important aspect of search engine management. Those websites not constructed just in html, such as java and css may choose not to have all the meta tags. There are myths to the value of meta tags.
3. In these meta tags you'll see various elements. The most important is the <title>.
4. The title meta tag should be your main keyword for that web page. Search engines read the title first to help in deciding to list that page. Each and every <title> tag should be different for each web page. Avoid putting your company name. Instead of putting www.whodunit.co.uk; put 'private investigators'. Check your own <title> tags and make sure they are relevant.
5. If you want to capture two keywords in the <title> tag enter them like this... Private Investigator | New York ... avoid using too many keywords in your title, four is considered to be the maximum. Too many and you'd be spamming your meta tags and the search engines would penalise your listing.

WEBSITE CONTENT
1. Content is king... that will be said a few times. Try and get some content, perhaps 100 words for each web page.
2. Search engines cannot read graphics (or choose not to progress to be able to). As a consequence if you have a lot of graphics or as many call them 'singing and dancing sites' you'll not get a good ranking unless it is equally supported with text. This refers specifically to 'flash' scripts and videos
3. Avoid making pages with duplicate content. 2 or 3 pages with similar content maybe okay, but to have any more could cause those pages not to be de-listed.
4. Create a lot of pages of content on your site.
5. Try and have at least 10 html pages amongst all the other permutations

GENERAL WEBSITE EXPLANATIONS
1. There are two types of website optimisation types. Firstly there is 'on-page'. This is everything you can do to tweak your website and webpages.
2. Secondly... there is 'off-page' - this is basically practical work you can do to create links coming back to your webpage or website.
3. These two obviously work alongside each other. They work 80% on page and 20% off page; although off page will bolster your search engine rankings the most.
4. Off page... may bolster your rankings more, but if you haven't got the basic structure of your website right, the improvements in your website rankings will falter and fall back down the rankings.
5. type... site:www.yourchosenwebsite.com into Google and see how many web pages you have listed.

In order for any search engine to index all the pages of your site, it should be able to find them. An efficient navigation system is very important in this regard. Avoid using images, JavaScript or flash navigation links, because search engines look for HTML link tags for indexing.

Don't use hidden text... Everyone tries putting keywords in the text colour of the background. Search engines are wise to this and penalise your engine listings

Search engines index the content of a website, and the more content you have, the better. Add relevant content to your website. If your website sells digital cameras, you can add reviews on the digital cameras that you carry. This will also attract potential buyers to your website. Usually buyers do research first before they buy online.

If you must use Flash, you must also make an HTML version available as well. Block the Flash version from the crawlers within a robots.txt file.

Use synonymous phrases in title, meta tags and headers. Include related words and phrases in page titles, text, and header meta tags. This will expand the range of keywords that the web page might be listed under.

Use friendly url names... 'travel_in_london.html' ... not '123456london003.html'. This is another place to add important keywords.

Try making sure that you have added important keywords into the html tag < h1 > < /h1 >. To find these study the view page source facility.

Also < h2 > 3, 4, 5, 6 tags are also important as sub headings.

If you don't have a domain name yet, pick one that contains your main keyword. The ideal would be to have a domain like 'mainkeyword.com'. If this is not possible... try adding a dash and ideas such as... '-4u.com' or 'the-'.

Double click on your photo in a website software program such as Microsoft Frontpage... You need to find the tab and then the appropriate box to enter a desrciption of the photo. Don't just call it image2 or myfriendshouse. Call it something using a 'keywords'. It doesn't matter if it is not relevant. It maybe a graphic about a man and a phone... but call it a keyword such as 'travel in Germany'. For example - travel-in-germany.jpg You can also alter your <alt> tags for images. If you alt tags are not given a name then search engines will not list them. As you may already know images can be brought up on the first page of google.

Navigation... The technology you use for your website navigation has an impact on how many pages the search engine will index.

When submitting your website to search engines; always Submit to relevant categories in popular manually edited internet directories like DMOZ.org.

Separate keywords in your website page names as thus... 'blue-things.html' or 'green_things.php'. Search engine can read these better

Avoid using re-directs on important web pages. This is considered as bad practice by search engine crawlers.

It is much easier to target a more specific phrase than a generic keyword or keyword combinations. Don't use diet... but do use diet plans...

Search maps have their importance and too many try to make one site map to fulfil two purposes. Make one for your visitors and one for the search engines.

Avoid using cloaking techniques on your websites. Understand them first and consider their advantages and their disadvantages.

Post articles and press releases to other sites as well as your own that then link back to yours.

Create a Yahoo Group... in the niche your site sits.

If you are using a shopping cart on your website... don't forget that these pages are also best optimised.

Try to include keywords in your text links to your internal pages. This will tell the search engines what your pages are about.

Submit content from your website that can be re-jigged into an 'article' and submit to article sites
Submit the same content into bloggs...

Submit the same content to Social bookmarking sites... (Each of these three create links back to your site, some maybe only temporary, but you need to submit regularly)

Don't use 'click here' as anchor text to other destinations on your website. Change it to a keyword.

Don't use 'read more...' as anchor text to other destinations on your website. Change it to a keyword.

Search engine Crawlers don't stay long on sites that use frames... use tables if possible.

Highlight each cell in your table and see where it appears in the html screen. You will sometimes notice that a cell near the top appears near the bottom of the html. BE AWARE!... What you've done if this is the case is tell the search engine crawler that this information isn't so important because it appears at the bottom... So if this cell has important keywords you've relegated them in their importance. Once you've sussed this out you'll design each and every subsequent pages differently.

One more point on tables... Sometimes if your important cell appears near the bottom, as your html script is concerned, then by just adding an extra blank cell you can change the sequence of how the whole page is read.

On this same theme... avoid putting your navigation bar on the left... The important content must be first... this alone can improve your position in Google. Put your navigation bar on the right or at the bottom. But follow the principle of the table theory mentioned earlier. If you notice sometimes in html the right table cells can appear before the main cell; try and avoid this scenario.

If a website is at the top of Google it is doing something right... Try right clicking in an empty area on the website page and viewing source. Notice the clean html scripts for the meta tags. Check the whole page in its html form.

Also notice the table theory mentioned before... Invariably in a tightly sort after category on Google the web page is slick and it table structure is simple. The lesser competitive the category the more likely a weaker structured website will gain top position.

If you didn't already know when search engines describe your website in their appropriate category they lift what you say in your <title> on the top line.

On the second line ... <description> and or <keywords> Google generally uses your site description in their search engine listings, so make them like a sales letter. Never under estimate the value of these three meta tags

OFF PAGE Optimisation...
Off page as a reminder is basically obtaining links back to your site:

The purpose of 'off page optimisation' is so because it is an important factor to getting your site higher in search engines.

However if your 'on page optimisation' is poor you'll get moved up 5 places instead of 50

The most common of these is 'reciprocal links'... You offer a link to a website and they offer a link back to your site also. These have value but not as much as 'one-way backlinks'; this is where a site links back to your without you linking to them.

In Google's Search box type link:anysite.com to see valued links that Google have found. This isn't a full list, you'll find a full list in a Google Webmaster Account or Yahoo at: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

You may notice extremely relevant links and links that don't seem to have any relevance. Plus... a few links from blogs, forums, social media and bookmarking sites.

It is deemed accurate by most SEO professionals that a 1, 000 links from a webpage with a rank of zero isn't worth as much as one link from a Page Rank 5 webpage...

Black Hat Links are the same as above, but achieved with unethical tactics

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Whilst you can use blogs, social bookmarks, article sites, directory sites (free), the reciprocal link (mostly free) and the most sneered on... 'paid for' links; as a major part of increasing your search engine rankings, they can also help to get your site noticed quicker in Google. Any page or site that isn't currently listed... then make a blog and direct enquiries to your new page/new site and see how fast the page is listed!

Here is a backlink tip... Blogs have articles and editorial, and they allow you to make comments? These are also seen as a one way link back to your site. The better the article, the longer search engines choose to keep it listed and the longer your one way link remains intact. Only choose to comment on blogs that have a page rank or are specifically relevant to your blog or website.

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OFF PAGE OPTIMISATION

Sub Heading: Linking between your own sites

Most people, once they are aware of the value of links start linking between their own sites. Although such links show up in Google's linking search the SEO Industry suggest you plan these links with a little more perfection. Everyone who builds one site eventually goes on to build a few more; but the problem occurs when you host every site with the same hosting company. Search engines can identify links coming from the same IP address and de-value their importance. As you spread your wings... Also choose different hosting companies so that when you link there are no obvious connections.

It would appear as I talk to the un-initiated that Google's Page Rank is their ultimate aim. Once they get a Google Page Rank they sit back and watch the traffic flow in. This is not the case.

Google Page Rank acknowledges the quality of your site; but doesn't base your eventual Google position upon it.

A Google Page Rank is rightly a suggestion of quality and it also rightly suggests how often Google returns to visit your site. The higher the page rank to more frequent Google re-visits.

A Google Page Rank is a 'core value'; and will aid your eventual position... But should you not optimise your page properly or have fewer inbound links than a site with a lower page rank you'll rank lower than them.

Page Rank is credibility personified, but no guarantees of ranking in the top 10.

The age of your site alone will give you a page rank. As this age implies longevity.

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