SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

by Jerri L. Ledford
Released December 2007
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780470175002

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Book description

  • This in-depth Bible delivers the holy grail of online marketing: how to influence search engine results to drive online shoppers to specific Web sites; the process is called search engine optimization (SEO) and it is a hot topic

  • One-stop resource offers readers what they need to plan and implement a successful SEO program, including useful tips on finding the shortest routes to success, strategy suggestions, and sidebars with more information and additional resources

  • Features interviews with executives from top search companies, plus appendices on creating successful listings with Google, MSN, Yahoo!, and others

  • Topics include creating an SEO plan; managing keywords; maximizing pay-per-click strategies; understanding the role of links and linking; robots, spiders, and crawlers; maintaining SEO; analyzing success rates; and much more

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About the Author
  3. About the Technical Editor
  4. Credits
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Introduction
    1. Who Should Read This Book
    2. How This Book Is Organized
      1. Conventions and features
    3. Where to Go from Here
  7. I. Understanding SEO
    1. 1. Search Engine Basics
      1. 1.1. What Is a Search Engine?
      2. 1.2. Anatomy of a Search Engine
        1. 1.2.1. Query interface
        2. 1.2.2. Crawlers, spiders, and robots
        3. 1.2.3. Databases
        4. 1.2.4. Search algorithms
        5. 1.2.5. Retrieval and ranking
      3. 1.3. Characteristics of Search
      4. 1.4. Classifications of Search Engines
        1. 1.4.1. Primary search engines
          1. 1.4.1.1. Overview of Google
          2. 1.4.1.2. Overview of Yahoo!
          3. 1.4.1.3. Overview of MSN
        2. 1.4.2. Secondary search engines
        3. 1.4.3. Targeted search engines
      5. 1.5. Putting Search Engines to Work for You
      6. 1.6. Manipulating Search Engines
    2. 2. Creating an SEO Plan
      1. 2.1. Understanding Why You Need SEO
      2. 2.2. Setting SEO Goals
      3. 2.3. Creating Your SEO Plan
        1. 2.3.1. Prioritizing pages
        2. 2.3.2. Site assessment
        3. 2.3.3. Finishing the plan
        4. 2.3.4. Follow-up
      4. 2.4. Understanding Organic SEO
      5. 2.5. Achieving Organic SEO
        1. 2.5.1. Web-site content
        2. 2.5.2. Google Analytics
        3. 2.5.3. Internal and external links
        4. 2.5.4. User experience
        5. 2.5.5. Site interactivity
  8. II. SEO Strategies
    1. 3. Building Your Site for SEO
      1. 3.1. Before You Build Your Site
        1. 3.1.1. Know your target
        2. 3.1.2. Page elements
          1. 3.1.2.1. Text
          2. 3.1.2.2. Tags
          3. 3.1.2.3. Links
          4. 3.1.2.4. Popularity
          5. 3.1.2.5. Other criteria to consider
      2. 3.2. Understanding Web-Site Optimization
        1. 3.2.1. Does hosting matter?
        2. 3.2.2. Domain-naming tips
        3. 3.2.3. Understanding usability
          1. 3.2.3.1. Navigation knowledge
          2. 3.2.3.2. Usability considerations
      3. 3.3. Components of an SEO-Friendly Page
        1. 3.3.1. Understanding entry and exit pages
        2. 3.3.2. Using powerful titles
        3. 3.3.3. Creating great content
        4. 3.3.4. Maximizing graphics
      4. 3.4. Problem Pages and Work-Arounds
        1. 3.4.1. Painful portals
        2. 3.4.2. Fussy frames
        3. 3.4.3. Cranky cookies
      5. 3.5. Programming Languages and SEO
        1. 3.5.1. JavaScript
        2. 3.5.2. Flash
        3. 3.5.3. Dynamic ASP
        4. 3.5.4. PHP
      6. 3.6. Other Design Concerns
        1. 3.6.1. Domain cloaking
        2. 3.6.2. Duplicate content
        3. 3.6.3. Hidden pages
      7. 3.7. After Your Site Is Built
        1. 3.7.1. Beware of content thieves
        2. 3.7.2. Dealing with updates and site changes
    2. 4. Keywords and Your Web Site
      1. 4.1. The Importance of Keywords
      2. 4.2. Understanding Heuristics
      3. 4.3. Using Anchor Text
      4. 4.4. Picking the Right Keywords
      5. 4.5. What's the Right Keyword Density?
      6. 4.6. Taking Advantage of Organic Keywords
      7. 4.7. Avoid Keyword Stuffing
      8. 4.8. More About Keyword Optimization
    3. 5. Pay-per-Click and SEO
      1. 5.1. How Pay-per-Click Works
        1. 5.1.1. Determining visitor value
        2. 5.1.2. Putting pay-per-click to work
      2. 5.2. Pay-per-Click Categories
        1. 5.2.1. Keyword pay-per-click programs
        2. 5.2.2. Product pay-per-click programs
        3. 5.2.3. Service pay-per-click programs
      3. 5.3. Understanding How PPC Affects SEO
      4. 5.4. Keyword Competitive Research
        1. 5.4.1. Keyword suggestion tools
      5. 5.5. Choosing Effective Keywords
        1. 5.5.1. Creating your first keyword list
        2. 5.5.2. Forbidden search terms and poison words
        3. 5.5.3. Forecasting search volumes
        4. 5.5.4. Finalizing your keyword list
      6. 5.6. Writing Ad Descriptions
      7. 5.7. Monitoring and Analyzing Results
    4. 6. Maximizing Pay-per-Click Strategies
      1. 6.1. Understanding Keyword Placement
      2. 6.2. Alt and Other Tags and Attributes
        1. 6.2.1. Title tags
        2. 6.2.2. Meta description tags
        3. 6.2.3. Anchor text
        4. 6.2.4. Header tag content
          1. 6.2.4.1. Losing Sleep Over Poor Sleep Habits?
        5. 6.2.5. Body text
        6. 6.2.6. Alt tags
          1. 6.2.6.1. Alt tags in graphic links
      3. 6.3. URLS and File Names
    5. 7. Increasing Keyword Success
      1. 7.1. Writing Keyword Advertisement Text
      2. 7.2. Create Great Landing Pages
      3. 7.3. Understanding and Using A/B Testing
      4. 7.4. Avoiding Keyword Stuffing
    6. 8. Understanding and Using Behavioral Targeting
      1. 8.1. What Is Behavioral Targeting?
      2. 8.2. Taking Advantage of Behavioral Targeting
      3. 8.3. Additional Behavioral Targeting Tips
    7. 9. Managing Keyword and PPC Campaigns
      1. 9.1. Keyword Budgeting
      2. 9.2. Understanding Bid Management
        1. 9.2.1. Manual bid management
        2. 9.2.2. Automated bid management
      3. 9.3. Tracking Keywords and Conversions
      4. 9.4. Reducing Pay-per-Click Costs
        1. 9.4.1. Managing PPC campaigns
        2. 9.4.2. Negative keywords
        3. 9.4.3. Dayparting
      5. 9.5. Improving Click-Through Rates
      6. 9.6. The ROI of PPC
    8. 10. Keyword Tools and Services
      1. 10.1. Google AdWords
        1. 10.1.1. Campaign management
        2. 10.1.2. Reports
        3. 10.1.3. Analytics
        4. 10.1.4. My account
        5. 10.1.5. Print ads
      2. 10.2. Yahoo! Search Marketing
        1. 10.2.1. Dashboard
        2. 10.2.2. Campaigns
        3. 10.2.3. Reports
        4. 10.2.4. Administration
      3. 10.3. Microsoft adCenter
        1. 10.3.1. Campaign
        2. 10.3.2. Accounts & Billing
        3. 10.3.3. Research
        4. 10.3.4. Reports
    9. 11. Tagging Your Web Site
      1. 11.1. What's So Important About Site Tagging?
      2. 11.2. How Does Site Tagging Work?
      3. 11.3. Additional HTML Tags
        1. 11.3.1. Nofollow
        2. 11.3.2. Strong and emphasis
        3. 11.3.3. Noframes
        4. 11.3.4. Table summary tag
        5. 11.3.5. Acronym and abbreviation tags
        6. 11.3.6. Virtual includes
      4. 11.4. Using Redirect Pages
    10. 12. The Content Piece of the Puzzle
      1. 12.1. How Does Web-Site Content Affect SEO?
      2. 12.2. Elements of Competitive Content
      3. 12.3. To Use or Not? Duplicate Content
      4. 12.4. Stay Away from Search Engine Spam
        1. 12.4.1. Doorway pages
        2. 12.4.2. Hidden and tiny text
        3. 12.4.3. SEO oversubmission
        4. 12.4.4. Page jacking
        5. 12.4.5. Bait and switch
        6. 12.4.6. Cloaking
        7. 12.4.7. Hidden links
      5. 12.5. Considerations for Multi-Lingual Sites
      6. 12.6. Content Management Systems
        1. 12.6.1. When should you use CMS?
        2. 12.6.2. Choosing the right CMS
        3. 12.6.3. How CMS affects SEO
      7. 12.7. Understand and Use Viral Content
    11. 13. Understanding the Role of Links and Linking
      1. 13.1. How Links Affect SEO
      2. 13.2. How Links and Linking Work
        1. 13.2.1. Snagging inbound links
        2. 13.2.2. Creating outbound links
        3. 13.2.3. Taking advantage of cross-linking
        4. 13.2.4. The skinny on link farms
      3. 13.3. The Basics of Link Building
      4. 13.4. Using Internal Links
      5. 13.5. Judging the Effectiveness of Your Links
  9. III. Optimizing Search Strategies
    1. 14. Adding Your Site to Directories
      1. 14.1. What Are Directories?
        1. 14.1.1. Submitting to directories
        2. 14.1.2. Major online directories
        3. 14.1.3. Paid vs. free directories
      2. 14.2. Geo-Targeting SEO Strategies
      3. 14.3. Using Submission Tools
    2. 15. Pay-for-Inclusion Services
      1. 15.1. When to Use Pay-for-Inclusion Services
      2. 15.2. Understanding the Business Model
      3. 15.3. Managing Paid Services
      4. 15.4. Hiring the Right Professionals
      5. 15.5. Contract Considerations
      6. 15.6. When the Relationship Isn't Working
    3. 16. Robots, Spiders, and Crawlers
      1. 16.1. What Are Robots, Spiders, and Crawlers?
      2. 16.2. What's the Robot Exclusion Standard?
      3. 16.3. Robots Meta Tag
      4. 16.4. Inclusion with XML Site Mapping
        1. 16.4.1. Creating your own XML site map
        2. 16.4.2. Submitting your site map
    4. 17. The Truth About SEO Spam
      1. 17.1. What Constitutes SEO Spam?
      2. 17.2. Why Is SEO Spam a Bad Idea?
      3. 17.3. Avoiding SEO Spam
    5. 18. Adding Social-Media Optimization
      1. 18.1. What Is Social-Media Optimization?
        1. 18.1.1. What's different about social-media optimization?
      2. 18.2. The Value of Social Media
      3. 18.3. Social-Media Strategies
      4. 18.4. Measuring Social-Media Optimization
    6. 19. Automated Optimization
      1. 19.1. Should You Automate?
      2. 19.2. Automation Tools
  10. IV. Maintaining SEO
    1. 20. SEO Beyond the Launch
      1. 20.1. It's Not Over
      2. 20.2. Using Content Management Systems
      3. 20.3. SEO Problems and Solutions
        1. 20.3.1. You've been banned!
        2. 20.3.2. Content scraping
        3. 20.3.3. Click fraud
    2. 21. Analyzing Success
      1. 21.1. Analyzing SEO Successes
        1. 21.1.1. Managing SEO expectations
          1. 21.1.1.1. SEO timeline
          2. 21.1.1.2. Being hands-on
        2. 21.1.2. Find yourself
        3. 21.1.3. Analyzing web stats
          1. 21.1.3.1. Baseline statistics
          2. 21.1.3.2. Referring web sites
          3. 21.1.3.3. Referring keywords (paid and organic)
          4. 21.1.3.4. Additional statistics
      2. 21.2. Competitive Analysis
      3. 21.3. Conversion Analysis
      4. 21.4. Analyzing Server Logs
  11. V. Appendices
    1. A. Optimization for Major Search Engines
      1. A.1. Optimization for Google
        1. A.1.1. Understanding Google PageRank
      2. A.2. Optimization for MSN
      3. A.3. Optimization for Yahoo!
        1. A.3.1. The Yahoo! Search Crawler
    2. B. Industry Interviews
      1. B.1. Eric Bloomfield, Vice President of Client Service & Technology, SendTraffic
      2. B.2. Jessica Bowman, Director of SEO, Business.com
      3. B.3. Brian Combs, Founder and VP of Services, Apogee Search
      4. B.4. Rhea Drysdale, Internet Marketing Manager, MPS Group
      5. B.5. Paul Dyer, Senior Account Executive, Marketwire
      6. B.6. Miki Dzugan, President, Rapport Online Inc.
      7. B.7. Rand Fishkin, CEO and Co-Founder, SEOmoz
      8. B.8. Duane Forrester, Founding Co-Chair for the In-House Committee with SEMPO
      9. B.9. Stephen Harris, Consultant, SPH Associates
      10. B.10. Ryan Hoppe, Director of Product Marketing, Fast Search
      11. B.11. Diane Kuehn, President, VisionPoint Marketing
      12. B.12. Matt Naeger, VP and General Counsel, IMPAQT
      13. B.13. Simon Otter, Technical Manager, thebigword
      14. B.14. Sarah Skerik, VP Distribution Services, PR Newswire
      15. B.15. Andrew Wetzler, President, MoreVisibility
      16. B.16. Jill Whalen, Founder and CEO, High Rankings
    3. C. SEO Software, Tools, and Resources
      1. C.1. Major Search Engines and Directories
      2. C.2. Secondary Search Engines
      3. C.3. Meta Search Engines
      4. C.4. Keyword Tools
      5. C.5. Content Resources
      6. C.6. RSS Feeds and Applications
      7. C.7. Search Engine Marketing Resources and Articles
      8. C.8. Registration Services and Programs
      9. C.9. Link Resources and Software
      10. C.10. Pay-per-Click
      11. C.11. Social-Media Tools
    4. D. Worksheets
      1. D.1. SEO Checklist
        1. D.1.1. Current State
        2. D.1.2. Keyword Research
        3. D.1.3. Web-Site Design
        4. D.1.4. Write Clean Code
        5. D.1.5. Make Use of Tags and Attributes
        6. D.1.6. SEO-Approved Content
        7. D.1.7. Manual Submissions
        8. D.1.8. Linking Strategies
        9. D.1.9. Conversions
      2. D.2. Keyword Checklist
    5. Glossary

Product information

  • Title: SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible
  • Author(s): Jerri L. Ledford
  • Release date: December 2007
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780470175002