Search Engine Optimization Tips Blog

YouTube Videos are drawing increasingly large numbers of traffic. Making and optimizing YouTube videos can help you rank – especially in the ‘how to’ fields, so consider producing some of your own! A good YouTube video will be under four minutes long (unless absolutely necessary) and will be well lit and filmed with a tripod or very steady hand.

Use a script so you deliver your words smoothly.
Film in the highest quality format possible; crisp, clean videos do best.
Make videos public view, not private.
Allow for comments. By permitting user interaction, you can increase video views and advance in the YouTube video rankings.

Use annotations or text boxes in your video sparingly but on point, to deliver your message and promote your website or company. Use the text fields to optimize your videos for search engine spiders, by utilizing keywords in the title, description and tags – use as much text as you can. Be original – if it’s already been done a hundred times no-one will ever find you. Be unique.

Make sure you interact on YouTube by doing the following: watching other videos, commenting, subscribing, creating channels, and making friends. This will ensure you are seen as a valuable member of the YouTube community, not just a spammer.

Interaction and credibility helps with the viral marketing, just like any other social network. Being a member rather than an advertiser will get your video seen by more people.

Post your videos on blogs and other sites – if you use the code provided, these views count toward your total, so promote, promote, promote! Also, build links from outside pages to your YouTube videos. Links should have strong anchor text. Only embed your YouTube video on another website that is relevant and appropriate – again, don’t spam.

If you follow these tips, you will work your way towards the goal – reaching YouTube’s homepage under Spotlight, Most Viewed, Most Discussed, or Top Favorite Videos. Videos in these categories get lots of extra exposure.

YouTube Insight is a free analytics tool provided by YouTube. It can supply you with all the stats and help you track your progress. You will be able to see how many page views you have, how popular your video is, where people found your video, what country people watching your video are from, which sections of your video are the most watched and least watched, etc.

The description tag is the summary text that shows up in your search ’snippet’. A good, compelling description tag will encourage more folks to click on your result. Google now allows longer tags, so make the most of it!

The title tag shows up at the top of your search result listing. A well-written title tag will also persuade more folks to click, and should be utilized to include keywords as well.

Make sure your description and title tag match the page to which they belong. You need to accurately represent, so people will trust your results and know they will get what they expect when they click on your listing in the search results.

Track your traffic to and conversion rates of your landing pages. Every page on your site is a potential landing page. Search engines choose the page they’ll list in the rankings, so watch the pages that draw search traffic and backtrack. Discover which keywords that are generating traffic to those pages. Then work on revamping those pages so they make sense in context of those keywords.

Analytics are your friend. Watch time spent on each page. Test those pages over and over and watch your conversions top out.

Keywords generate organic traffic. What keywords are generating your traffic? Are they branded or not, and can you start filtering in your brand name?

What is your bounce rate from organic search visits? How many visitors look at one page and leave without clicking to another page? The higher your bounce rate, the more conversions you are losing.

Remember that you have to keep working on your site after you set it up. One time SEO is worth about as much as one time birth control. You have to keep your site from losing customers, which means you have to keep improving your presentation and keeping up to date so that others won’t come along and knock you off of your spot high up in the SERPs.

Every few months a rumor starts that SEO is on the way out. It’s not. It will continue to grow and evolve; it certainly won’t stay the same; but as long as search engines are around, the need to optimize will be as well.

A high organic CTR still tells Google you’re a relevant and authoritative result for a given search query. Your click through rate is now being taken into account as Google moves towards user influenced results.

The time a visitor spends on your site is also impacting scores now. These organic / unpaid results visitors are drawn to your site through a variety of factors, but normally they click on you because of your SEO which landed you at the top of the SERPS. It is up to you to keep their attention, however. Your usability and navigation is important.

Social networking is joining the club, true, but it isn’t taking over the entire show. You still need your organic search results, and you still need SEO. Few and far between are the businesses who can live off of Twitter alone.

You need traffic from organic search. You need traffic from paid search. You need traffic from social sites, and you need traffic to STAY on your site when they visit. All of this means that SEO is not dead, but just needs to be tweaked a little to take into account the other things you need besides pure clicks – like conversions.

As SEO adapts, there are a few things that stay constant – the need for top notch content, and the need for top notch links. Until Google completely revamps their entire approach, SEO will continue to be the best way to get results.

Linking practices can make or break a site. In order to gain authority you must have authority sites linking to you, and in order to attract attention you must have lots of links. You also need your interlinking structure within your site set up in a logical fashion.

1. Link from and to quality links over quantity. You want as many links as possible, but you can’t afford to be associated with spammy links or laces that don’t uphold your standards for your site.

2. Check all of your links frequently to make sure they work, and install a 404 system that will allow your visitors to easily search your site or that will direct them to your home page in case of difficulty.

3. Your links should be text rather than images. You can make a visual link, but be sure there is a textual link embedded as well.

4. Use keywords in both navigational and anchor links (outbound and inbound) to lend them more power. Vary these by using a variety of keywords when linking.

5. Don’t add huge numbers of links all at once – this is a flag to search engines that you have somehow gotten a lot of spammy, automated links. Add links on a slow but steady basis.

6. Don’t be afraid to link from a low PageRank site if it is highly relevant.

7. Don’t be afraid to link out to highly relevant sites. Just make sure the link opens in a new window!

8. Link to .gov and .edu sites, and try to get links from these sites as well. They carry a lot of heft!

9. Use a link in your signature with an appropriate keyword if possible, and comment on blogs, forums and answer sites – always do this with utmost discretion and don’t spam!

10. Link wisely and well, and you will see your PageRank rise slowly but surely as your site gains authority; you will also see your deeper pages getting traffic as you target links from the outside down into your site.

However you go about it, don’t forget to ask for links. The worst a webmaster can do is say no! Have an appropriate bit of code ready for them that will ensure your chosen keywords are used and that they link to the right page of your site. Don’t ignore the power linking has when it comes to ranking your site!

In order for both humans and spiders to be able to accurately navigate your site, you need to optimize it properly. In some areas, humans don’t matter – there is tons of code and stuff they never see. At the same time, some areas of your site will only confuse the spider. You have to figure out how to set up your site so it is easy for your customers, but so the spiders can do their job quickly and easily!

1. Make sure to have a sitemap! Use text links and plug your keywords for each page.

2. Watch your load time. Nest your pages if load time on your landing and home pages is too long.

3. Put CSS and Java Script into external file or folder; lay out pages with CSS and avoid tables if possible

4. Use robot txt commands and no-index tags to keep the bots from seeing any possible duplicate content such as printer friendly versions.

5. Tag all images and surround them with relevant text – same for video

6. Include static header and footer navigation links

7. Have links to other sites pop open a new window; Don’t forget to keep your site clean and uncluttered looking

8. Use ‘bread crumbs’ to help people find their way around – build your site with the idea that they need arrows pointing the way

9. Use links that say ‘back to top’ or ‘back to home’ to help visitors get back to familiar ground from deep pages.

10. Develop your website sensibly from the beginning, with a natural progression of categories and sub categories, and revise that in the morning as well.

If your site makes it easy to find your way around and welcomes the spiders with open arms, you are well on your way to a properly optimized site!

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