Search Engine Optimization Tips Blog

You might have come across the term ‘deep links’ while reading search engine optimization articles, defining a deep link is a difficult task but an important one. Although each search engine optimizer has his own opinion on deep links, it is important to understand that not all search engine optimizers are the same. In essence, a deep link is permanent in nature (will not be erased sometime in the near future) and points to a particular page or resource (like an image or video). A good example of a deep link is a link placed in an article (article sites do not delete all their articles, they archive their articles) that points to a particular page in a website.

The term deep links has come to include links from directories, articles and other eclectic sources. However, the end result is that instead of a link pointing to the home page of a website, a deep link points to an exact page on the website. For example, a website could have thousands of pages and a typical link building campaign will only bring links to the home page. However, deep linking will bring incoming links to specific pages, images, videos and other web resources. Deep linking will thus improve the overall PageRank of the website and also help increase the search ranking of a particular page on the website.
Wikipedia defines a deep link as “a hyperlink that points to a specific page or image on another website, instead of that website’s main or home page “. It is important to understand that deep links are only useful if they are permanent in nature and the page they are pointing to is not moved or removed from the web server. For example, article sites do not allow authors to change the links embedded in an article and deep links to a particular page are only useful if the target page is not deleted or removed from the website (the same holds good for the page pointing to the target page).

Interestingly, there has been considerable criticism of deep linking as webmasters feel that deep linking allows users to bypass a website’s home page and get direct access to content. Thus, deep linking can actually result in a loss of advertising revenue for the website. For example, in 2006 Bixee.com a job search engine was found to be deep linking to another website naukri.com and Naukri.com had to get a court injunction preventing bixee.com from deep linking to naukri.com.

From a search engine optimization point of view, deep links are extremely beneficial to a site as they provide specific incoming links to a webpage and also allow users to get access to products and information easily. In addition, a website’s PageRank can be distributed evenly using deep links as incoming links can add to the PageRank of internal pages and not just the home page.

By Rishi Modi

Google Universal Search is the new and advanced version of Google search. Unlike the previous version of Google Search, Google Universal Search indexes videos, 23 document types, and images. Search engine optimization has evolved to include optimization of web elements like videos and images. Here are few tips for optimizing your content and web elements for Google Universal Search.

Opimizing images
Before you upload any image on your website, make sure the image is optimized for web viewing. Although Google can cache large images, the rate at which Google indexes images is influenced by the size of the image. Use an image editing software to optimize your images for ‘web viewing’. Also make sure that all your images are properly tagged using the “ALT” tag. If you are using Google Webmasters, enable ‘enhanced image search’. This will ensure that your images are indexed by Google and show up for relevant keywords.

Optimizing documents
Google actively indexes documents, spreadsheets and PDF files from websites. Unlike, enhanced image search, there is no option for indexing and caching of documents. To make sure your documents are easily indexed by Google, give all your documents relevant names. For example, instead of naming a whitepaper ‘technical paper’, you should name the whitepaper ‘microprocessor X34 whitepaper’. In addition, make sure that all documents have proper titles and are compatible with Google Universal Search.
To ensure easy indexing, convert all documents to PDF format. Apart from word documents you can also convert spreadsheets and other content to PDF format, this will ensure that all your documents are read only and are not edited without prior consent. Although Google can index nearly 23 document formats, PDF documents are ideal.

Optimizing Videos
Like images, make sure all your videos are surrounded by content. You can add a video transcript on each page to ensure the video is properly indexed for the keyword you are targeting. In addition, you should make sure that your videos are uploaded on Google Videos, Yahoo, AOL and YouTube. Google’s acquisition of YouTube has increased the popularity and importance of YouTube for SEO experts.

Once you have uploaded your videos with the sites mentioned earlier, make sure your videos are optimized for quick loading and size. Although, Google is capable of caching large files, make sure all your videos are optimized for quick upload/download. To increase the popularity of your videos, make sure all videos are meaningful and well made. You don’t need to hire a professional filming crew, but a meaningful video will be viewed by a large number of users and will ensure the video shows up for relevant keywords.

Allow users and webmasters to embed your videos on their blogs, web pages and websites. YouTube allows users to insert videos on their site by copy pasting code. If possible, make sure your website allows users to embed your videos by copy and pasting code.

By-
Rishi Modi is a certified SEO professional, and a leading search engine optimization expert. Rishi is also the CEO of www.submitedge.com.

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