SEO For Dummies, 7th Edition

SEO For Dummies, 7th Edition

by Peter Kent
Released January 2020
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9781119579571

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Book description

Up relevance scores, improve page speed, optimize voice search questions, and more!  

Search Engine Optimization For Dummies shows website owners, developers, and search engine optimizers (SEOs) how to create a website that ranks at the top of search engines and has high-volume traffic, while answering the essential question of "how do I get people to visit my site?"

By understanding search engine basics (what are they, which ones are important, how to get started), building a search engine-friendly site, registering your site with directories and indexes, using analysis tools to track results and link popularity to boost rankings, and advertising your site by using pay-per-click options, you can use the tricks of SEO masters to drive traffic to your site. You'll also discover how to write effective content, use social media to boost your profile, and manage your platform and reputation to positively impact your search engine rankings.

  • Develop a search strategy and use new SERP features
  • Maximize the effects of personalized search
  • Analyze results with improved analytics tools
  • Optimize voice search strategies

There’s no time like the present to create a website that ranks at the top of search engines and drives traffic to your site with these tips, tricks, and secrets. 

 

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. Foolish Assumptions
    3. Icons Used in This Book
    4. Beyond the Book
  3. Part 1: Getting Started with SEO
    1. Chapter 1: Surveying the Search Engine Landscape
      1. Investigating Search Engines and Directories
      2. Where Do People Search?
      3. Search Engine Magic
      4. Gathering Your Tools
    2. Chapter 2: Search Results, Deconstructed
      1. The Big Two: Organic and PPC
      2. Looking at Local Results
      3. Checking Out Shopping Results
      4. Staying Current with News Results
      5. Viewing Video and Image Results
      6. And Plenty More …
      7. Getting Friendly with Social Results
      8. Collecting Bits n’ Pieces
    3. Chapter 3: Your One-Hour, Search Engine–Friendly Website Makeover
      1. Is Your Site Indexed?
      2. Taking Action If You’re Not Listed
      3. Picking Good Keywords
      4. Examining Your Pages
      5. Getting Your Site Indexed
    4. Chapter 4: Beating the Competition: Planning a Powerful Search Engine Strategy
      1. Don’t Trust Your Web Designer
      2. Understanding the Limitations
      3. Eyeing the Competition
      4. Going Beyond Getting to #1
      5. Controlling Search Engine Variables
      6. Determining Your Plan of Attack
      7. Look Away a Few Minutes
      8. Two Things to Remember
    5. Chapter 5: Making Your Site Useful and Visible
      1. Learning from Amazon
      2. Revealing the Secret But Essential Rule of Web Success
      3. Making Your Site Work Well
      4. Panda — Google Endorses Good Design
      5. Keep It Fresh (Perhaps)
  4. Part 2: Building Search Engine-Friendly Sites
    1. Chapter 6: Picking Powerful Keywords
      1. Understanding the Importance of Keywords
      2. Thinking Like Your Prey
      3. Starting Your Keyword Analysis
      4. Using a Keyword Tool
      5. Making Sure You Understand Your Tool
      6. Working with Your Tool
      7. Choosing Your Keywords
      8. Using Your Keywords
    2. Chapter 7: Creating Pages That Search Engines Love
      1. Preparing Your Site
      2. Seeing Through a Search Engine’s Eyes
      3. Understanding Keyword Concepts
      4. Creating Your Web Pages
    3. Chapter 8: Designing for Speed
      1. The Importance of Speed
      2. What Is Site Speed?
      3. So How Is My Site Doing?
      4. Speeding Up Your Site
    4. Chapter 9: Designing for Mobile
      1. How Mobile Affects SEO
      2. Is Your Site Mobile Friendly?
      3. Making Your Site Mobile Friendly
      4. Mobile-First Indexing
      5. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
      6. Web Light — Google’s Trick for Speeding Up Pages
    5. Chapter 10: Using Structured Data Markup
      1. Creating Rich Snippets
      2. A Special Case: Video and Images
      3. Pick Your Data Format
      4. Providing Knowledge Panel Information
      5. Getting Help
    6. Chapter 11: Avoiding Things That Search Engines Hate
      1. Understanding Content Value and Thin Content
      2. Avoiding Image, Video, and Animation Problems
      3. Links That Aren’t Links
      4. Avoiding Complicated URLs
      5. Managing Dynamic Web Pages
      6. Foregoing Frames
      7. Considering JavaScript and AJAX
      8. Fixing Bits and Pieces
    7. Chapter 12: Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap
      1. Tricking Search Engines
      2. Concrete Shoes, Cyanide, TNT — An Arsenal of Dirty Deeds
      3. Page Swapping and Page Jacking
      4. Doorway and Information Pages
      5. Using Redirects and Cloaking
      6. Structured Markup Strategies
      7. Much, Much More
      8. Tricks Versus Strategies
      9. Link Tricks
      10. Paying the Ultimate Penalty
    8. Chapter 13: Bulking Up Your Site: Competing with Content
      1. Creating Content Three Ways
      2. Writing Your Own Stuff
      3. Convincing Someone Else to Write Content
      4. Using OPC (Other People’s Content)
      5. Understanding Copyright — It’s Not Yours!
      6. Hunting for Other People’s Content
      7. A Word about Duplicated Content
      8. “Content Is King”
    9. Chapter 14: Finding Traffic Through Local Search Marketing
      1. Why You Shouldn’t Skip This Chapter
      2. Understanding Local Search Marketing’s Importance
      3. Looking through Local Search
      4. How Does Local Search Work?
      5. Two Ways to Reach People Locally
      6. “Localizing” Your Web Pages
      7. Registering for Local Search
      8. The Local Directory Listing Services
      9. The Other Side of Local: Review Sites
      10. Working with the Yellow Pages
  5. Part 3: Adding Your Site to the Indexes and Directories
    1. Chapter 15: Getting Your Pages into the Search Engines
      1. Linking Your Site for Inclusion
      2. Submitting to the Major Search Engines
      3. Simple Link Submissions to the Major Systems
      4. Working with the Webmaster Accounts
      5. Using If-Modified-Since
      6. Using Webmaster Tools, Too
      7. Submitting to Secondary Systems
    2. Chapter 16: Submitting to the Directories
      1. Pitting Search Directories Against Search Engines
      2. Why Are Directories So Significant?
      3. Submitting to the Search Directories
      4. The General Directories
      5. Finding Specialized Directories
      6. Using “Local” Directories
    3. Chapter 17: Product Search: Remember the Shopping Directories and Retailers
      1. Understanding Where People Search for Products
      2. Working with the Product Indexes
      3. Exploring More Shopping Services
      4. The Classified-Ad Sites
      5. Working with E-Commerce Marketplaces
      6. Managing Your Data
  6. Part 4: After You've Submitted Your Site
    1. Chapter 18: Using Link Popularity to Boost Your Position
      1. Why Search Engines Like Links
      2. Understanding Page Value and PageRank
      3. Page Relevance
      4. Hubs and Neighborhoods
      5. Trust in TrustRank
      6. Inserting Keywords into Links
      7. Good Links and Bad
      8. Recognizing Links with No Value
      9. Recalling a Few Basic Rules about Links
    2. Chapter 19: Finding Sites to Link to Yours
      1. Controlling Your Links
      2. Doing a Link Analysis
      3. Generating Links, Step by Step
      4. Be Careful Whom You Link To!
    3. Chapter 20: Even More Great Places to Get Links
      1. Got Content? Syndicate It!
      2. Syndicating Utilities and Infographics
      3. And More Link-Building Ideas …
      4. PR and Link Building
      5. The nofollow Curse
      6. Who’s Going to Do All This Work?!
    4. Chapter 21: Social Networking — Driven by Drivel
      1. Just What Is Social Networking?
      2. Beware the Social Networking Hype
      3. The Drivel Factor
      4. The SEO Benefits of Social Networking
      5. Social Networking — A Book in Itself
    5. Chapter 22: Video and Images: Putting Your Best Face Forward
      1. The SEO Benefits of Video
      2. Ranking Images
    6. Chapter 23: Beyond the Basics
      1. What’s on the Page?
      2. Organic Results
      3. Sitelinks Below Organic Results
      4. Search Boxes
      5. Special Organic Formatting
      6. Knowledge Panels
      7. Featured Snippets
      8. Local Results
      9. Image and Video Results
      10. PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising Results
      11. Shopping Results
      12. News Results
      13. Twitter Results
      14. Getting Multiple Results on the Search Results Page
    7. Chapter 24: When Google Bites Back: A Guide to Catastrophe
      1. How, and How Much?
      2. Is It Really a Penalty? A Little Analysis
      3. Pulling It All Together: Have You Been Penalized?
      4. Dealing with Manual Actions
      5. Dealing with “Algorithmic Actions”
      6. Digging Your Way Out of the Hole
  7. Part 5: The Part of Tens
    1. Chapter 25: Ten-Plus Myths and Mistakes
      1. Myth: It’s All about Meta Tags and Submissions
      2. Myth: Web Designers and Developers Understand Search Engines
      3. Mistake: You Don’t Know Your Keywords
      4. Mistake: Building the Site and Then Bringing in the SEO Expert
      5. Myth: $25 Can Get Your Site a #1 Position
      6. Myth: Google Partners Get You #1 Positions
      7. Mistake: You Don’t Have Pages Optimized for Specific Keywords
      8. Mistake: Your Pages Are Empty
      9. Myth: Pay Per Click Is Where It’s At
      10. Mistake: Ignoring Site Usability and Aesthetics
      11. Mistake: Believing Everything You Read
    2. Chapter 26: Ten-Plus Ways to Stay Updated
      1. Let Me Help Some More
      2. The Search Engines Themselves
      3. Google’s Webmaster Pages
      4. Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
      5. Google Search Quality Raters Guidelines
      6. Bing SEO Tips
      7. Matt Cutts and John Mueller
      8. Google’s Webmaster Help YouTube Channel
      9. The Official Google Webmaster Help Group
      10. Search Engine News and Tips Sites
    3. Chapter 27: Ten-Plus Useful Things to Know
      1. Checking Your Site Rank
      2. Checking for Broken Links
      3. Assessing Traffic with the Alexa Toolbar
      4. Finding Your Keyword Density
      5. Analyzing Your Site’s Traffic
      6. Tracking Phone Calls
      7. Checking for Duplication and Theft
      8. Using 301 Redirects
      9. You Need an Attractive Site
      10. Using SEO Tools
      11. Fixing Your Reputation
      12. Working With Multiregional and Multilingual Sites
      13. Partially Blocking Google
  8. Index
  9. About the Author
  10. Advertisement Page
  11. Connect with Dummies
  12. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: SEO For Dummies, 7th Edition
  • Author(s): Peter Kent
  • Release date: January 2020
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9781119579571