Archive for the 'SEO FAQ' Category

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Definition: Off-Page Optimization

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

By: Gabriel Gervelis

What Is Off-Page Optimization?

When speaking with professional search engine optimization companies you will hear the terms On-Page optimization and Off-page optimization. The cost of any seo campaign should be a direct relation to how much work is conducted. How much On-Page and Off-Page Optimization needs to be preformed in order to achieve the campaigns goals. Not taking into account the time it takes to research and monitor a website’s rankings over time, on and off-page optimization are the two main factors for project costs.

Off Page Optimization
Work conducted outside of a website or domain that the search engine optimization campaign is targeting. Labor for research, and paid submissions, and agency fees are the three parts to off-page optimization costs.

Part 1: Labor For Research
Links…Links….Links…

Research of quality links and the development of link relationships is a key part to off-page optimization. Link building concepts will be covered in more detail later in the SEO TIPS blog. The main goal of this post is to introduce to you how much labor is needed for basic off page optimization, or link building.

Researching a competitor’s links is a time consuming process. There are SEO tools that will run reports and display all inbound links to a given domain. The easy part is getting the list, the time consuming part is finding the quality links that will benefit your campaign.

Example:
We represent a professional roofing company. The main competitor for all keywords is a roofing and kitchen repair company. The link report provides a list of 1,000 inbound links to the competitor’s site. Some of these links are from kitchen repair resources, other links are from roofing resources, and the other links fall into the “other” category.

Now we need to sort through the 1,000 links to find the ones relevant to roofing. From this point we need to repeat this process on all of our client’s main competitors.

How much time will this take? The amount of off-page optimization is a direct relation to the price of a SEO campaign.

Part 2: Paid Submissions
Once research is complete, a list of quality links that competitors are using to gain high search rankings. Half of the names on the list are paid directories (websites that charge an advertising fee). In order to list with these directories, an unpredictable third party fee will affect the price of the seo campaign.

Example:
Best of the Web is a popular directory with a submission charge. The cost of a lifetime inbound link is $249. After the client receives the link report they have the ability to negotiate inbound links themselves. However, further optimization is needed. The title and description of the link needs to match optimization guidelines to target keywords, and the web page where the link points to needs to be chosen.

Part 3: Agency Fees
Most Professional search engine optimization companies will have an agency fee for the submission process and the optimization of the submission process.

Example:
If Best of the Web charges $249, the SEO Company will have a 15% ($37.35) submission fee, bringing the total to $286.35.

Summary

  1. The cost of a SEO campaign is directly affected by the degree of on-page optimization, and off-page optimization work that needs to be conducted.
  2. Off-page optimization costs are broken down into two groups, the cost of labor, and the cost of a submission.
  3. Most Professional SEO Companies have a set fee for a submission process

Good luck with your SEO ventures!

Posted in SEO Tips Glossary , SEO FAQ | 4 Comments »

Definition: On-Page Optimization

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

By Gabriel Gervelis

What is On-Page Optimization?
When talking with professional optimization companies you will hear the terms, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization. We are going to a moment and talk about on-page optimization.

On-page optimization is optimization work that is conducted within your domain, or website. On-page SEO Techniques can include:

  • Meta Tag Optimization
  • Source Code Optimization
  • Formatting
  • Content Writing

The amount of On-page optimization will effect the cost of the SEO Campaign. How many pages need to be optimized? What types of on-page optimization SEO Techniques need to be used? Are advanced SEO Techniques needed? Answers to all of the questions will have a direct effect on the cost of the campaign. The more work needed, The higher the cost of the campaign.

For further information, check out Google’s definition for On-Page Optimization.

Good luck with your SEO ventures!

Posted in SEO Tips Glossary , SEO FAQ | 1 Comment »

Do The Search Engines Approve Of Search Engine Optimization?

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

By: Gabriel Gervelis

Do the search engines approve of search engine optimization? Will the search engines penalize you for using SEO Techniques? These are both good questions, and are questions you should ask yourself before hiring a SEO company. Each question has two answers, Yes and NO.

To understand both answers to the questions you must first understand SEO Practices.

There are three ways to practice SEO:

  1. White Hat SEO
  2. Black Hat SEO
  3. Gray Hat SEO.

White Hat SEO
White Hat SEO is the practice of search engine optimization using “search engine approved” methods. Search engines have not released any type of list of approved methods, so when we talk about “search engine approved” methods, it means methods that won’t lead to the blacklisting of your website.

A few examples of White Hat SEO are:

  • Meta tag optimization
  • Title tag optimization
  • Header tag optimization
  • Link building

Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO is the practice of search engine optimization using unapproved practices that “trick” or “deceive” the search engines. A few examples of black hat SEO are:

  • Keyword stuffing
  • Over submissions to the search engines
  • Use of duplicate content.

Gray Hay SEO
Some say there is a fine line between love and hate. In our case, there is a gray line between white hat and black hat SEO. When new SEO practices are discovered they are considered gray hat until proven otherwise.

So the question remains, do the search engines approve of search engine optimization?

YES
Search engines approve of White Hat SEO practices. These practices make the search engine’s job easier, and thus increase your visibility. Remeber, there are billions of web pages on the internet, so anything you can do to legitimately rank higher on search engines is a good thing!

No
Search engines do not approve of Black Hat SEO practices. These practices can lead to the blacklisting or penalization of your website.

Home Work
When researching search engine optimization companies, make sure you have identified common White Hat and Black Hat SEO methods. When speaking with an SEO Company, the odds are you will speak with a sales representative that does not know the difference between these methods. It is your job to know and identify the differences.

Supporting info:
Google Help Center: What does Google think about SEO? Top pointers from the search giant.

Good luck with your SEO ventures!

Posted in SEO TIPS, SEO FAQ | No Comments »

Definition: Search Engine Spiders

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

By: Gabriel Gervelis

What is a search engine spider (robot)?

When researching search engine optimization knowing what a search engine spider is, and what they do is very important. A search engine spider is a computer program used by search engines to find and index web pages.

Think of a search engine spider as a pawn in a chess game. A spider is a search engines information gatherer as a pawn is the solder in the game of chess.

What The Search Engine Spiders Do:
The search engine sends the spiders out into the internet to research web pages. Spiders are programmed by the search engines to bring back bits of information about the web page.
Search Engine Spiders are also know as:

  • Crawlers
  • Agents
  • Bots
  • Robots

Examples of “Bits of Information”

  1. Main words within the webpage/website (Keyword density)
  2. Main words are in the webpages/websites title
  3. Text is used in the links (if any) that point to the webpage/website

The spiders are programmed to find hundreds of bits of information within the webpage/website. This gathered information lets the search engine know how to index the webpage/website. Based on point values given to each bit of information, the search engine can determine what webpage ranks where on the result listing.

Other Sources of Information about Search Engine Spiders:
Search Engine Spider Simulator - This tool lets you see what a search engine spider sees when it comes to your webpage.
Search Engine Spider - Taming the beast’s definition of a search engine spider with additional information.
Google’s Source - Google’s source of definitions of a search engine spider.

Good luck with your SEO ventures!

Posted in SEO Tips Glossary , SEO FAQ, SEO Theory | No Comments »

What are Meta Tags? Understanding the META

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

By: Gabriel Gervelis

What are Meta Tags and why are they important?

When researching search engine optimization and/or search engine optimization companies, it is important to understand the fundamentals of SEO. Meta Tags play a big part of modern day search engine optimization. This post is not going to review what every individual meta tag is and what they do, it will review the concept of meta tags to help with understanding SEO.


Understanding the META!

When was the last time you found yourself walking down the aisles of a book store reading book descriptions? I find myself in this situation on a weekly basis. Like most people I read a book’s description (found on back of book, or inside the book cover) before I decide to buy. The book’s description will heavily impact whether or not I make the purchase.

Think of the Meta Tags on your website in the same way. Meta Tags are book descriptions that search engines read, and every web page within your website can have them. Search engines read these book descriptions, based on certain criteria. The description helps the search engine classify your website. Like a bad book description, if your Meta Tags are not properly optimized, search engines wouldn’t index your web page properly.

Continuing with the book description analogy, the book description is not the only motivating factor when it comes to a buyer deciding to make a purchase. Other factors like the design of the book cover and the author’s reputation may have more weight in the buying decision. However, having a strong book description will help with the overall sales cycle.

The same holds true with Meta Tags. Many factors determine your website rankings on SERPS, but having strong meta tags helps the rankings process. Does every web page need Meta Tags? Will your website rank with out Meta Tags? Will a book sell with out a book description?

Other sources for Meta Tag information

Pill Bradley’s information on Meta Tags
Meta Tag Generator at Addme.com
Google’s source for Meta Tag Definitions


This post is part of SEOTIPS.ORG’s SEO Theory.

Define:Why Are Meta Tags Important
Define:Meta Tags

Good luck with your SEO ventures!

Posted in Meta Tags, SEO FAQ | No Comments »

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