SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Transcription

1 COMENIUS UNIVERSITY IN BRATISLAVA FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION DIPLOMA THESIS 2013 Bc. Jakub Žilinčan

2 COMENIUS UNIVERSITY IN BRATISLAVA FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Diploma thesis Study program: Study field: Department: Supervisor: Consultant: management management FM.KIS - Department of IT doc. RNDr. Michal Greguš, PhD. Mgr. Peter Komorník, MBA 2013 Jakub Žilinčan

3

4 Affidavit I declare, that this diploma thesis has been written by myself and I have indicated all bibliography sources. Čestné vyhlásenie Vyhlasujem, že diplomovú prácu som vypracoval samostatne a uviedol som všetku použitú literatúru.... Jakub Žilinčan

5 Acknowledgement I want to thank my supervisor doc. RNDr. Michal Greguš, PhD. for guidance during writing the thesis and my consultant Mgr. Peter Komorník, MBA for valuable advises. Last, but not least, I thank Mgr. Samuel Kováčik for his help with statistical calculations. Poďakovanie Ďakujem môjmu školiteľovi doc. RNDr. Michalovi Gregušovi, PhD. za usmernenie počas písania diplomovej práce a môjmu konzultantovi Mgr. Petrovi Komorníkovi, MBA za cenné rady. V neposlednom rade ďakujem Mgr. Samuelovi Kováčikovi za pomoc pri štatistických výpočtoch.

6 Abstrakt ŽILINČAN, Jakub: Optimalizácia pre vyhľadávače [Diplomová práca]. - Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave. Fakulta managementu; Katedra informačných systémov. Školiteľ: doc. RNDr. Michal Greguš, PhD.; Konzultant: Mgr. Peter Komorník, MBA Bratislava: FMUK, strán. Diplomová práca sa zaoberá trendom v online marketingu, ktorým je optimalizácia pre vyhľadávače, často nazývaná ako SEO. Optimalizácia pre vyhľadávače má zaručiť prvé pozície v organických výsledkoch vyhľadávania. Organické výsledky sú také, za ktorých zobrazenie prevádzkovateľ web stránky nemusí platiť. Kvalitné SEO teda zaručí prvé pozície bez akéhokoľvek vynaloženia finančných prostriedkov. Niektoré techniky optimalizácie sa v čase nemenia a stále tvoria základ SEO. Keďže sa však Internet a web dizajn vyvíja extrémne dynamicky, pribúdajú i nové techniky optimalizácie a niektoré taktiež zanikajú. Prvá časť diplomovej práce prináša zhrnutie najdôležitejších techník a faktorov, ktoré môžu dopomôcť k zlepšeniu pozície vo vyhľadávačoch. Žiadny z faktorov to však zaručiť nemôže, nakoľko vyhľadávače disponujú prepracovanými algoritmami hodnotenia kvality web stránky, od čoho sa priamo úmerne odvíja ich pozícia vo výsledkoch vyhľadávania. Druhá časť práce predstavuje objekt skúmania, ktorým je web stránka Táto web stránka bola vytvorená za jediným účelom implementovať a testovať známe techniky SEO, prípadne navrhnúť nové. Hlavným cieľom práce je overiť, či má optimalizácia pre vyhľadávače vplyv na zvýšenie návštevnosti a ak áno, do akej miery. Čiastkovým cieľom je porovnanie dôležitosti jednotlivých zdrojov návštevnosti a ich potenciálu zárobku. Tretia časť prináša porovnanie výsledkov a zistení z ročného pozorovania web stránky a vývoja jej návštevnosti. Kľúčové slová: SEO, search engine optimization, optimalizácia pre vyhľadávače, Google, online marketing, internet marketing

7 Abstract ŽILINČAN, Jakub: Search Engine Optimization. [Diploma thesis] - Comenius University in Bratislava. Faculty of Management; Department of IT. Supervisor: doc. RNDr. Michal Greguš, PhD.; Cunsultant: Mgr. Peter Komorník, MBA Bratislava: FMUK, pages. The thesis deals with trend in online marketing named search engine optimization, often shortened to SEO. Search engine optimization should guarantee first positions in organic search results. Organic search results are those, for which webmaster does not have to pay. Quality SEO thus ensures first positions without any financial investments. Some optimization techniques do not change over time, and still form the basis of SEO. However, as the Internet and web design evolves dynamically, new optimization techniques arise and some even die. The first part of the thesis provides a summary of the most important factors and techniques that can help to improve position in search results. However, none of the factors can guarantee it because search engines have sophisticated algorithms, which measure the quality of web pages and derive their position in search results. The second part introduces and examines the object of optimization, which is a web site This web site was created for the sole purpose - to implement and test known SEO techniques or even propose new ones. The main objective of this work is to verify whether search engine optimization increases traffic and, if so, to what extent. Part of the objective is to compare the importance of different traffic sources and potential earnings. The third section brings comparison and results. Keywords: SEO, search engine optimization, internet marketing, online marketing

8 Content INTRODUCTION SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ON-PAGE SEO Content Titles Domain name URL structure Headings Internal linking Meta tags Page speed Structured data Sitemap OFF-PAGE SEO Online reputation management Link building Trustworthiness Personal settings OBJECTIVE OF THE THESIS HYPOTHESES METHODOLOGY AND METHODS OF RESEARCH CHARACTERISTICS OF AN OBJECT WORKFLOW Keyword research... 48

9 3.2.2 Content creation Search engine optimization METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION AND SOURCES Web site data Social media data Other data Earnings potential data EVALUATION METHODS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS Referral traffic Organic search traffic Direct traffic RESEARCH RESULTS CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY... 89

10 List of figures Comparison 1 - Content suggestions Comparison 2 - Page title suggestions Comparison 3 - Domain name suggestions Comparison 4 - URL suggestions Comparison 5 - Headings practices Comparison 6 - Internal linking practices Comparison 7 - Meta tags suggestions Comparison 8 - Social media suggestions Comparison 9 - Blogs suggestions Comparison 10 - Forum posting suggestions Comparison 11 - Media sharing suggestions Comparison 12 - Link building suggestions Example 1 - Well-formatted page title Example 2 - Well-formated domain name Example 3 - User-friendly URL Example 4 - Well-formatted heading Example 5 - Well-formatted anchor text Example 6 Well-formatted meta tags... 32

11 Figure 1 - Inbound Marketing Sales Funnel Figure 2 - Organic CTR compared based on organic search results position Figure 3 - Page level keyword usage - correlated data Figure 4 - Page level keyword usage - Correlated data Figure 5 - Domain Level Keyword Usage - Influence Value Figure 6 - Picture sharing networks market share Figure 7 - Video sharing networks market share Figure 8 - Keyword "Bratislava" search volume in United Kingdom Figure 9 - Keyword "Bratislava" search volume in United States Figure 10 Cumulative amount of published articles Figure 11 - Referral traffic Figure 12 - Search traffic Figure 13 - Performance of core keywords Figure 14 - Direct traffic Figure 15 - Rapid growth of traffic in one year Figure 16 - Hypotheses testing Image 1 - Example of various rich snippets within Google search results Image 2 - Map of visitors by country Image 3 Well formatted organic search results and prove of first position in Google Organic Search Results Image 4 - First search results position in Google... 81

12 Table 1 - Duplicate content Table 2 - Monthly active visitors per social network. December Table 3 - Related terms to keyword "Bratislava" in United Kingdom Table 4 - Related terms to keyword "Bratislava" in United States Table 5 - Analyse of keywords Table 6 - Sites selected for link building Table 7 Top referrals Table 8 - Top content from referrals Table 9 - Top organic search keywords Table 10 - Top 10 visited pages from organic search Table 11 - Top content from direct traffic Table 12 - Key comparison between traffic sources Table 13 - Most influential SEO factors Table 14 - Top keywords by rank in Google Table 15 - Comparison of traffic sources... 79

13 List of acronyms and labels SEO Search engine Search results Organic search results SERP Link Juice PR CPC CTR ecpm AdSense Search Engine Optimization Web site offering search results based on searched phrase Relevant web sites which match with searched phrase Search results offer by search engine which cannot be bought Search Engine Results Page Passing the trustworthiness and authority of linking web site to linked web site. The more quality link juice coming to linked web site, the higher PageRank PageRank link analysis algorithm Cost-per-click Click-through rate Effective Cost Per Thousand Impressions Advertising program, which generates revenues for webmasters for every click on specific ad.

14 INTRODUCTION People nowadays search all the information on the Internet, so the online marketing becomes more and more important in today s world. Companies, which do not represent themselves on the Internet, are rather rarity and often even doomed to extinction. There are generally two ways how to do the online marketing and spread the awareness about the company one involves investing in advertisement, second relies on free sharing. The easiest way how to start generating traffic immediately is undoubtedly the first option. Company decides about targeting, type of advertisement and budget and can start gathering visitors from one day to another. This strategy, however, is very costly and rather short run oriented. Strategy of free sharing relies on willingness of objects to share specific content. Objects in this case might be people, or even search engines. People are willing to share content if they find it helpful or interesting. They use social networks, discussion boards, forums, chats, blogs or even word-of-mouth spread to inform other users about the content. On the other hand, search engines (i.e. Google) are willing to share content, which is quality, unique and relevant to the search phrase. Web site with this content ranks on higher positions in organic search results and gains high volumes of traffic. SEO, acronym for Search Engine Optimization, is a method how to achieve this. SEO, however, is rather long run oriented. Changes on web site in order to improve organic search results positions might occur in later months, or even years. Even though it is not impossible to start gathering traffic right after launching a web site, it can be very time-costly. In this case it is worth considering the value of time invested. Right combination of paid and organic traffic can bring required results. This thesis deals with question How to achieve high positions in organic search results without any funds? Following pages describe the most essential SEO techniques and show their relevance on practical examples. After reading this thesis, reader should gain general overview of SEO, should be able to compare and prioritize tasks connected with SEO and should understand the importance of SEO.

15 1 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION SEO is an important part of inbound marketing. Marketing focused on getting found by customers. That is the biggest difference compared to the traditional outbound marketing, where process of attracting a customer works vice-versa: companies focus on finding customers. Outbound marketing uses techniques that are not easily targetable and often interrupt people, like cold calling, print advertising, TV advertising, junk mail, spam, and trade shows 1. Research showed, that 86% of people skip through television commercials and 44% of direct mail is never opened 2. On the other hand, inbound marketing is based on the concept of earning the attention of prospects, making easy to be found and drawing customers to website by producing content customers value 3. Inbound marketing is usually defined by three phases of converting an unaware stranger to a real customer. This is defined as inbound marketing sales funnel: 1. ToFu (Top of Funnel) The key role of this phase is to convert the unaware strangers to visitors by attracting them using blogs, social medias, videos, e-books and SEO optimization. 2. MoFu (Middel of Funnel) The key role of this phase is to convert the visitors to a leads by offering a possible solution for their problem. MoFu techniques contain for example well-formatted landing pages, free samples, or contacts. 1 BURNES, R.: Inbound Marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web. In Hub Spot. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 2 NAKANO, C.: [INFOGRAPHIC] The Decline of Outbound Marketing. InCMSWire.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 3 Inbound marketing. In Wikipedia. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 15

16 3. BoFu The key role of this phase is to convert visitors to customers, for example by sending customized s and offering a customized solution for the problem. A satisfied customer is then willing and able to promote a web site using word-ofmouth promotion and create a viral buzz. ToFu Strangers - unaware and uninformed buyers MoFu Visitors - interested potentional buyers BoFu Leads - ready to buy Customers Figure 1 - Inbound Marketing Sales Funnel 4 It is essential to be in the first position in search engine result page (SERP) in terms of gathering the traffic. A study conducted by company Slingshot SEO proved, that the first position in search results gets more clicks than position number two and three combined 5. 4 The Anatomy of Tomorrow's Inbound Marketing Strategy Today. In SEOmoz. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 5 YOUNG, R. D.: Top Google Ranking Captures 18.2% of Clicks [Study]. In Search Engine Watch. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 16

17 18.20% Organic CTR 10.05% 7.22% 4.81% 3.09% 2.76% 1.88% 1.75% 1.52% 1.04% Search result position Figure 2 - Organic CTR compared based on organic search results position 6 CTR is the number of clicks-through (number of users who clicked on a specific link) per link impressions, expressed as a percentage 7. An organic CTR counts only results that appear because of their relevance to the search terms 8. SEO is a series of modifications and techniques, which make it easier for search engines to crawl, index and understand the content of a web site 9. It is the process of affecting the visibility of a web site or a web page in a search engine's natural (un-paid, organic) search results 10 to achieve the highest positions possible. Generally, SEO is divided into two groups: On-page modifying the structure of a website Off-page techniques independent of a website structure 6 YOUNG, R. D.: Top Google Ranking Captures 18.2% of Clicks [Study]. In Search Engine Watch. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 7 Dictionary. In American Marketing Association. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 8 Organic search. In Wikipedia. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 9 Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. In Google.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < s/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf> 10 Search engine optimization. In Wikipedia. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 17

18 Right combination of both can bring significant increase of traffic thanks to higher position and a style of search result. Before optimization itself it is crucial to know the customer, search trends and main keywords, which are likely to be searched. It is impossible to make a search engine optimization for every word on a page, thus it is important to select 5 10 keywords that represent the content of a page. Optimization is always performed according to a query, which is likely to be searched by a user. 1.1 ON-PAGE SEO On-page SEO includes the elements that are in direct control of a publisher. In following demonstrations we will concentrate on optimization for Google, as it has 90% of market share worldwide between search engines Content A process of writing a text for the purposes of advertising or marketing is called copywriting. The aim is to provide high-quality content on pages, especially on homepage. If pages contain useful information, content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to a site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, one should write pages that clearly and accurately describe a specific topic. Think about the words users would type to find pages and include those words on a site 12. The aim is to create a unique, content-rich web site, which is likely to be referenced, and subsequently goes viral. 11 Top 5 search engines worldwide. In GlobalStats Statcounter. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 12 Google-friendly sites. In Google Webmaster Tools. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < pic> 18

19 To find out, what content goes viral and why, a research has been done on University of Pennsylvania. Elements, which cause that articles are shared more often, are as follow : 1. Length word count was more closely correlated with sharing than any other variable examined. [ ] While long posts appear more likely to be shared through and links, a separate study on blog comments found that users are less likely to comment on long posts. 2. Certain emotions content that inspires low-energy emotions like sadness is less likely to be shared, where content that inspires highenergy emotions like awe, anger, and anxiety is far more likely to be shared. 3. Surprise content that is surprising, interesting, and practically useful receives more shares than the obvious, boring, and useless content 4. Known authors - the fame of the author was just slightly more important than content. [ ] While content is innately influential, it usually only carries the authority of its creator or publisher Humor - content that is truly and broadly viral is almost always funny. A study proved, that despite 62% of ads being aired by Fortune 500 companies, 60% of viral ads were being generated by the smaller companies 16 thanks to funny content. According to Google, creating compelling and useful content will also influence a web site ranking more than any of the other factors. Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be 13 BERGER, J. - MILKMAN, K. L.: What Makes online Content Viral? In Journal of Marketing Research, 2011, p ISSN WARD, C.: Why Content Goes Viral: the Theory and Proof. In SEOmoz. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 15 CLUM, L.: Using Personal Experience To Qualify Your Outreach. InDistilled.net. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 16 PORTER, L. - GOLAN, G. J.: From subservient chicken to brawny men. In Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol 6 No 2, 2006, s ISSN

20 through blog posts, social media services, , forums, or other means. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build site's reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content 17. SEO copywriting is a method used to compose text that helps a page to rank higher in the search results while still producing readable and persuasive content 18. The content-creators should bear in mind following questions 19 : Are pages well written and have substantial quality content? What are the keywords people may use to find the content? Do visitors spend time reading or bounce away quickly? Are pages fresh and about hot topics? In a study conducted in 2011, correlation between rank and keywords used in text has been proved. Number of keyword repetitions on a page is the most influential factor, followed by using image alt attribute 20. Closeness of 1st keyword instance to top of page Frequency of keyword in content Image "alt" attribute keyword used Number of keyword repetitions on the page Figure 3 - Page level keyword usage - correlated data Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. In Google.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < s/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf> 18 Search engine optimization. In Wikipedia. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 19 The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < Search Engine Ranking Factors. In Seomoz.org. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < Search Engine Ranking Factors. In Seomoz.org. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 20

21 Best practices Relevant content to a web site topic should be rich on keyword phrases. Easy-to-read text should be formatted in paragraphs. Use bolding to emphasise the keywords. Content should be prepared for users, not for search engines. Conclusions at the beginning of a text will put keywords higher to a top of article. Use lists instead of paragraphs they are easy to read for users and a clear source of keywords for search engines. Use internal linking with descriptive keywords in anchors. Use headings to separate content. Practices to avoid Dumping large amounts of text on varying topics onto a page without paragraph, subheading, or layout separation. Copying existing content that will bring little extra value to users. Duplicating content across a web site. Keyword stuffing - loading a text with unnatural amount of keywords. Hiding text from users but displaying to the search engines Misspelling and grammatical mistakes. Putting text as a part of an image visitors cannot copy it and search engines cannot read it. Images should always contain an alt attribute to describe the visualisation in human readable text Comparison 1 - Content suggestions On the other hand, duplicate content is something that might harm the credit of a web site more than any other factor mentioned here. Duplicate content is a problem because when there are more than one piece of identical content on the Internet, it is difficult for search engines to decide which version is more relevant to a 22 What is SEO Friendly Content. In About.com Web Design / HTML. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 23 Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. In Google.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < s/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf> 21

22 given search query 24. As a table below demonstrates, there are several factors, which can cause duplicate content, as search engine expect to get one unique content per one unique URL. Cause of duplicate content Dynamic URLs usually append parameters to URL, which are just sorting content or identifying a user, but by search engines are considered as unique URL expected to offer unique content. Example: example.com/products?order=price vs. example.com/products?order=name Domain version usually it is possible to get to a web site by typing www in front of a domain name but also by omitting this. Search engine perceives it as two different pages. Example: example.com vs. Trailing slash - URL accessible by using or not using / at the end can be considered to serve duplicate content Example: example.com/page/ vs. example.com/page Ideal solution Canonicalization preventing search engines indexing every dynamic URL by directing them to an original URL using a rel= canonical tag or 301 Redirect Header (Moved Permanently). Example: example.com/products Setting preferred domain (with or without www ) in Google Webmaster Tools and using 301 Redirect Header (Moved Permanently) to redirect to domain with or without www. Canonicalization using 301 Redirect Header (Moved Permanently) either with or without / at the end of URL. Table 1 - Duplicate content 25 Google itself does not advise to block access to duplicate content by using robots.txt or noindex, nofollow tag. On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +3 of the element on the search results rank 26, Content got: 24 Duplicate Content. In Seomoz.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 25 Duplicate Content. In Google Webmaster Tools. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 22

23 1.1.2 Titles A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. [ ] If a document appears in a search results page, the contents of the title tag will usually appear in the first line of the results. [ ] Words in the title are bolded if they appear in the user's search query. This can help users recognize if the page is likely to be relevant to their search 27. In the survey among the leaders in SEO industry, 35 of 37 participants said, that keyword usage in the title tag was the most important place to use keywords to achieve high rankings. A study showed, that among keywords placement, keywords in title tag are probably one of the most influential elements to rank in the first positions in search results (94.4% influential value) 28. Number of keyword matches in page title 0.04 Frequency of keywords in page title 0.08 Keyword is first word of page title Correlation Figure 4 - Page level keyword usage - Correlated data The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 27 Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. In Google.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < s/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf> Search Engine Ranking Factors. In Seomoz.org. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < Search Engine Ranking Factors. In Seomoz.org. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 23

24 Best practices Relevancy is important. Title tag must be descriptive of the content on the page. 70 characters is the maximum amount of characters that will display in the search results. Phrases should be short and simple. Keywords should be placed close to the front of the title tag, separated by pipes. Practices to avoid Keyword stuffing loading a title with unnatural amount of keywords. Duplication title tag should be unique for every page on a website. Using long titles, which consist of full sentences of even paragraphs. Brand name should be mentioned in the title. If the brand is strong and aware, it could be placed in front of the title tag replacing the keyword. Readability must be considered. The website is created for users, thus should be written in human natural language. Comparison 2 - Page title suggestions 30 In a well-formatted page title example below, a brand name has been used in front of the title tag to immediately associate the web site with the official manufacturer. The word and has been replaced by & for better readability. Search query: iphone 5 features and tech specs Bad title: iphone - features and tech specifications of Apple s iphone 5 Good title: Apple iphone 5 Features & Tech Specs Example 1 - Well-formatted page title 30 Title Tag. In Seomoz.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 24

25 On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +3 of the element on the search results rank 31, Page title got: Domain name Domain names are the human readable Internet addresses of websites. Root domains, which are identified by their domain names, have extensions such as.com,.org,.net, etc. Subdomains are a lower level component a root domain and precede the domain name. 32 Best practices Keyword rich domains are usually ranked higher because the domain name is one of the key factors of ranking. Length should be less than 15 characters in terms of memorability, ease of sharing and less chance of typos. Relevancy to the content of page is also an important factor. Practices to avoid More than 3 hyphens within a domain are considered to be spammy. Domain name longer than 3 words should not be used. Low quality TLDs (as.biz,.info,.ws,.name, etc.) are considered to be less credible and thus spammy. Buying and redirecting domains to another site is not effective anymore. Google devalues links from sites once they are expired or when ownership changes. Redirecting all pages from old domain to the homepage of another domain. Comparison 3 - Domain name suggestions The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 32 Domains. In Seomoz.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 33 Domains. In Seomoz.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 25

26 In a study conducted in 2011, a correlation between rank and keyword used in domain has been proved. A study also evaluated the influence on rankings of different keyword positions within a domain. Kyword is used in a hybrid of the domain name (key.wo.rd) Keyword is the domain extenstion (doman.keyword) Keyword is the secondary subdomain name (keyword.sub.domain.com) Keyword is the subdomain name (keyword.domain.com Keyword is the first word in the root domain name (keyworddomain.com) Keyword is in root domain name (domainkeyword.com) Keyword is the exact match root domain name (keyword.com) Influence value Figure 5 - Domain Level Keyword Usage - Influence Value 34 In the example below we used the.com domain as it is the most common TLD and thus trustworthy even for users, even for search engines. We also suggested a short phrase, which is easy to remember and has a high probability of exact domain match when being searched. Search query: Bad domain name: iphone 5 features and tech specs iphone-review-tech-specs.info Good domain name: iphone.com Example 2 - Well-formated domain name On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +3 of the element on the search results rank 35, Domain name got: Search Engine Ranking Factors. In Seomoz.org. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 35 The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 26

27 1.1.4 URL structure A URL is human readable text that identifies the file structure on the given website 36. It is separated by / from the domain name and follows right after it. In search engines, URL to a document is displayed as part of a search result, below the document's title and snippet. Like the title and snippet, words in the URL on the search result appear in bold if they appear in the user's query. 37 Best practices Relevancy - Use relevant descriptive keywords within URL. User-friendly URL is easy to read even for the search engines. Static URLs with a clear directory structure are easier to navigate and better understood by users and search engine. Allow a part of URL being removed without causing the 404 not found error. Example: example.com/dir/sub/page Use hyphens - as words separator. Use lower-case letters only. Users expect them and are better to remember. Practices to avoid Dynamic URLs which are not clear Example: example.com/index.php?dir=1572&su b=5 Punctuation and accents. Do not use _ as a words separator. Long URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs Generic names like "page1.html" Excessive keywords like "baseballcards-baseball-cardsbaseballcards.htm" Deep nesting of subdirectories Example: example.com/dir/dir/dir/dir/dir/page.h tml Comparison 4 - URL suggestions 36 URL. In Seomoz.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 37 Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. In Google.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < s/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf> 38 Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. In Google.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: 27

28 In the example below we suggest user-friendly URL, which is easy to read and gives a clear explanation where the user will get. As Google advises, we used hyphen - as a word separator. Moreover, we skipped the word and as it gives no additional value to our keyword rich URL. Search query: Bad URL: Good URL: iphone 5 features and tech specs example.com/index.php?cat=224&sub=71&id=ip5 example.com/iphone-5/features-tech-specs Example 3 - User-friendly URL On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +1 of the element on the search results rank 40, Domain name got: Headings Similar to books, even a web page can be divided into chapters by using the heading tags. It is possible to use 6 levels of headings, ordered by priority from 1 (most important) to 6 (least important). Headings present page structure to users 41. The h1 heading tag is the most important in terms of SEO as it represents the name of a page. It might be the same as the page title. The correlation between the usage of keyword as the first word in h1 tag and a search rank is 0.07, as a study proved URL structure. In Google Webmaster Tools. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 40 The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 41 Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. In Google.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < s/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf> Search Engine Ranking Factors. In Seomoz.org. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 28

29 Best practices Descriptive short phrases in headings should contain keywords. One h1 tag per page. This is not an obligatory rule, as Google allows even more h1 tags, but it is worth considering whether to use one or more tags. Different styles of headings allow users to quickly scan the page and reveal the main sections. Practices to avoid Not using headings is bad not only for users, even for the SEO. However, sites without headings can still get to the first positions. Long phrases or even whole paragraphs in the tag. Keyword stuffing - loading a heading with unnatural amount of keywords. Hierarchy of headings should be adhered. Start with h1 tag as he most general topic name and continue to the lower levels of hierarchy, as the text gets more specific. Comparison 5 - Headings practices 43 In an example below we have used exactly the same phrase as we await a user will search. The heading is keyword rich and gives a clear explanation of the content occurring on a page. Search query: iphone 5 features and tech specs Bad h1: Good h1: Apple smartphone overview iphone 5 features an tech specs Example 4 - Well-formatted heading On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +2 of the element on the search results rank 44, Headings got: 43 Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. In Google.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < s/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf> 44 The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 29

30 1.1.6 Internal linking Internal links are links that go from one page on a domain to a different page on the same domain. They are commonly used in main navigation and thus build a main structure of a web site 45. A search engine looks how many pages on a website link to the page, and how they link to it. According to this, a search engine evaluates the importance of a page 46. Best practices Tight architecture a visitor should get to any page within two clicks. Link to a site that has the biggest value, i.e. a link from a homepage to a product detail page gives a search engine signal, that the product page is important. Descriptive anchors briefly describe the content of a page where they follow. Title parameters within a link should be used to describe what a user finds on the linked page. Practices to avoid General anchor texts like click here More than 150 links from one page -this is a spam indicator. Search spiders might stop crawling a web site and thus could not discover eventually important content. Hiding links in JavaScript or Flash. Pointing links to the pages, which are blocked by Meta Robots or Robots.txt. Comparison 6 - Internal linking practices 47 In the example below we use keyword rich anchor text instead of general text without any information value. Search engine knows that the linked web site is likely to contain the keywords mentioned in anchor text, thus can rank this website higher. 45 Internal Links. In Seomoz.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 46 WHALLEY, B.: How to Use Internal Linking to Improve Your Website's SEO. In HubSpot Blog. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < Website-s-SEO.aspx> 47 Internal Links. In Seomoz.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 30

31 Bad anchor text: For more information about iphone 5 features click here. Good anchor text: Read more about iphone 5 features and tech specs. Example 5 - Well-formatted anchor text On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +3 of the element on the search results rank 48, Internal linking got: Meta tags A page's description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Whereas a page's title may be a few words or a phrase, a page's description meta tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph. [ ] Words in the snippet are bolded when they appear in the user's query. This gives the user clues about whether the content on the page matches with what he or she is looking for. 49. This meta tag might be used as a descriptive snippet of a page in search results, if a search engine does not decide to use another relevant section of a page. Even though since September 2009 Google does not use description meta tag as ranking factor 50, it is still one of the decision factors for a visitor whether to visit a web site or not. A direct correlation rank of 0.06 has been proved between the use of keyword in the description and keywords meta tags and a search results rank The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 49 Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. In Google.com. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: 50 Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking. In Official Google Webmaster Central Blog. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < Search Engine Ranking Factors. In Seomoz.org. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 31

32 Best practices Relevancy is important. Title tag must be descriptive of the content on the page characters is the maximum amount of characters that will display in the search results. Phrases should be short and simple. Descriptive phrases should be used, not just general like This is a web page. Practices to avoid Using only keywords loading a title with unnatural amount of keywords. Duplication title tag should be unique for every page on a website. Quotes in description cause cutting of the description. It is best to remove the non-alpha and numerical characters Comparison 7 - Meta tags suggestions 52 Search query: Bad description: Good description: iphone 5 features This is a page about iphone featuers. All-new design. The thinnest, fastest and lightest iphone ever with 4-inch Retina display and ultrafast Wi-Fi. Starts at 499 USD. Example 6 Well-formatted meta tags On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +2 of the element on the search results rank 53, Meta description got: 52 Meta Description. In Seomoz.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 53 The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 32

33 1.1.8 Page speed Page speed reflects how quickly a website responds to web requests. In 2010, Google included a page speed signal to a search-ranking algorithm the faster page loads, the higher search rank it might get. Even though it might not be the most important ranking factor, among two equally relevant web site the one faster-loading could be prioritized 54. Tips to increase page load time are listed below 55 : gzip compression encoding source code using fewer bits than the original representation. Reduce the number of fetches. Enable caching of a web site with defined expiration. Optimize code, remove unused parts and use as few declarations as possible. Split static sources like images and CSS over 2-4 servers. Optimize images to have the lowest file size. On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +1 of the element on the search results rank 56, Page speed got: Structured data Structured data are basic html tags that webmasters can use to mark-up their pages in ways recognized by major search providers. Search engines including Bing, Google, Yahoo! and Yandex rely on this mark-up to improve the display of search results, making it easier for people to find the right web pages 57. In other words, webmasters can help search engines to understand content better by marking up specific information. Schemas are managed and accepted by neutral schema.org web 54 Using site speed in web search ranking. In Google Webmaster Central Blog. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 55 Make the Web Faster. In Google Developers. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 56 The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 57 What is schema.org. In Schema.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 33

34 site. The most common types of schemas, recognized and shown in Google search results, are 58 : Breadcrumbs - categories leading to a specific page Reviews number of reviews, average review, reviewers People name, address, contacts, family information Products price, availability, quantity Business address, contact, geo location Recipes time, summary, ingredients Events location, duration, attendees Music song name, author, length Video thumbnails, length, description Structured data are not good only because they directly explain the content to a search engine. They also: Draw user's attention to relevant result. Provide instant information related to the query. Increase click-through rates and lessen the amount of bounces. Image 1 - Example of various rich snippets within Google search results Getting started with schema.org. In Schema.org. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 34

35 On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +2 of the element on the search results rank 60, Structured data got: Sitemap Sitemap is a list of the pages on a web site. Creating and submitting a Sitemap helps make sure that Google knows about all the pages on a site, including URLs that may not be discoverable by Google's normal crawling process. In addition, one can also use Sitemaps to provide Google with metadata about specific types of content on a web site, including video, images, mobile, and News. Sitemaps should be particularly used, if a web site has pages that aren't easily discovered by Googlebot during the crawl process for example, pages featuring rich AJAX or images, or if a web site is new and has few links to it. On a scale (1 - weakest to 3 - strongest), which measures the influence +1 of the element on the search results rank 61, Sitemap got: 59 Rich snippets. In Google Webmaster Tools. [online]. [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 60 The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 61 The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors. In Search Engine Land. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 35

36 1.2 OFF-PAGE SEO Off-page SEO includes elements influenced by readers, visitors and other publishers. These elements are not in direct control of a publisher but can positively influence the search rankings and boost traffic to a web site Online reputation management Community creation is the first and foremost step to initiate in the whole process. By doing this we can extend our network online, get connect with our friends, share things with each other, and promote our company/website to build an online reputation. This is most likely the same as Web 2.0 (Participatory Web), which means we have to show an active participation on a regular basis Social networks Social networks are the phenomenon of the today s world. They represent a mass of people who are willing to read and share the information for free. This wordof-mouth promotion might be one of the most valuable marketing techniques. Social network Active monthly visitors Facebook YouTube QQ (China s largest social network) Twitter Google Table 2 - Monthly active visitors per social network. December In 2010, both Bing and Google confirmed, that links shared through Twitter and Facebook have a direct impact on rankings 64. For Google+ it obviously applies, 62 VAIDHYA,: 21 Off-Page SEO Strategies to Build Your Online Reputation. In SEOmoz. [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 63 (Jan 2013 Update) How Many People Use the Top Social Media?. In Digital Marketing Ramblings... [online] [Cited ]. Available from Internet: < 36