As many other people have noticed, sometimes, SEO efforts can tend to become too focused on search engines. Though obviously, the search engines should be a prime consideration, we cannot totally discount the importance of the end users – human users. This is what user experience is all about.

In SEO parlance, user experience is also dubbed as UE or UX. To be honest, I only came across this term recently, thanks to Shari Thurow at Search Engine Land. In a post she published, she shares her thoughts on UX:

Search engine optimization is all about the user experience, because the idea behind SEO is to get users to their desired information and destination(s) as quickly and easily as possible by using the users’ language (keywords). Searchers type in keywords at a commercial web search engine. Searchers’ expectations are validated in search results pages and, hopefully, after they click on links within those search results…a perfect, seamless user experience.

An important point that we should put under consideration is the difference between UX and the perceived UX, the former being what human users actually experience and the latter being what SEO experts may think their users want to experience. Though sometimes, these two factors jive, more often than not, there is a disparity. That is why it is important that when working on SEO, you have to bear in mind UX – the real deal. Do not be limited by your own perceptions, actually open your mind to reality and adjust your strategies accordingly.

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Outsourcing your site’s SEO is a big decision that’s made harder by the fact that there are so many SEO companies to choose from. When deciding one of the most critical factors to consider is of course the companies’ approach to SEO. Though everyone knows the hazards of using black hat techniques there are still SEOs out there that continue to use them in order to get “fast results” whether the client knows about it or not. Do not fall prey to these SEOs!

If you find that the SEO company you are currently dealing with or is considering employs any of these techniques then run away as quickly as possible. The list below is from Google Webmasters Help pages. If Google says run then run!

* owns/uses shadow domains
* puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
* offers to sell keywords in the address bar
* doesn’t distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
* guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
* operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
* gets traffic from “fake” search engines, spyware, or scumware
* has had domains removed from Google’s index or is not itself listed in Google
* requests your FTP account information or root access to your server

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SEO is great but once in a while you should pause to make sure you are not neglecting your non-SEO efforts done to promote your site. Some of the things you SHOULD definitely be doing if you are not already doing it now would include:

Using social media sites – There are tons of social media sites out there. If you are not a member of one you should at least consider joining the most popular ones like Facebook and MySpace. You should also look into industry specific social media sites and join those to develop contacts not only with prospective clients but also to keep touch with the latest developments in your industry.

Blog - Chances are you already have a blog but I can’t help but emphasise how much a blog can contribute to your site. It’s not only a way to get fresh content up frequently, which is the SEO aspect, but it is also a good venue for keeping your regular customers/visitors updated about anything you (and they) deem important.

Promote your site the old fashioned way – Do whatever you can to promote your site. Use bumper stickers, posters, give away your business card, sponsor a charity event, etc. Whenever you have an opportunity stamp your website URL to let people know they can find you online.

There are lots of other stuff you can do to promote your site. Feel free to give suggestions in the comment section!

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When it comes to choosing your site URL you’d better make the right choice because it definitely has a significant effect not only one your website SEO but also on user-friendliness.

To make things clear right off the bat let me state that you should use STATIC URLS.

Static URLs have clear advantages over dynamic URLs but before I point out the differences let me make it clear that Google can crawl both URLs even though they also do recommend the use of static URLs.

So why are static URLs preferable over dynamic URLs? Because according to a post in SEOmoz static URLS have the following advantages:

• Higher click-through rates in the SERPs, emails, web pages, etc.
• Higher keyword prominence and relevancy
• Easier to copy, paste and share on or offline
• Easy to remember and thus, usable in branding and offline media
• Creates an accurate expectation from users of what they’re about to see on the page
• Can be made to contain good anchor text to help the page rank higher when linked-to directly in URL format
• All 4 of the major search engines (and plenty of minor engines) generally handle static URLs more easily than dynamic ones, particularly if there are multiple parameters

Note though that according to Google if you already use a dynamic URL it is best to leave it alone since re-writing it just to make it look like a static URL can lead to more problems. As their search quality team said, “If you transform your dynamic URL to make it look static you should be aware that we might not be able to interpret the information correctly in all cases. If you want to serve a static equivalent of your site, you might want to consider transforming the underlying content by serving a replacement which is truly static…However, if you’re using URL rewriting (rather than making a copy of the content) to produce static-looking URLs from a dynamic site, you could be doing harm rather than good.”

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Last post I gave a few tips on how to rank well in Google and Bing’s image search. Here are some more tips straight from Google’s Developer Programs Tech Lead Maile Ohye. According to Maile Ohye when inserting images in your web pages you should:

1. Use large sized images with good aspect ratio – Just in case you don’t know what an aspect ratio is, it is the width of an image divided by its height. The aspect ratio of an image is important because if you use images with unequal aspect ratios Google will prefer to display “better images” as an insert on the web as well as news search results. Using images with standard aspect ratios will affect not only your standing in Image Search but also in Google Web.

2. Use descriptive captions and alt text – I have mentioned this before so I don’t really need to expound on this matter but I just want to reiterate the need to use KEYWORDS in the captions and alt text.

3. Keep the image near the title/heading – If you are using several images in one page keep each image close to the paragraphs/text body it is related to.

4. Keep the images inline and use non-clickable version

5. Use jpeg format – Apparently Google prefers the jpeg format over other formats (e.g. PNG, BMP). I still haven’t figured out why but since they have expressly stated this fact then it is better to just obey.

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So you already understand that internal linking is just as important as external linking. But do you have an idea of how to create a systematic internal linking system? It is not that hard. Read on to find out more about how to link internally to your benefit.

The Site Map
This is the most commonly suggested route to take. The site map is normally present in many web sites. Basically the site map is a page where visitors to your site can find a bird’s eye view of what your site contains. From the home page to other specific pages, they can find everything here. Even better, there are links to every single page in your site. This is the epitome of an organized internal structure. When you construct your site map, do make sure that you cover every single page and that your links are all working. Also, present your links in a visually appealing way and an intuitive structure as well.

Create a blog
If you are maintaining a web site that does not really have much need for changing content, then this would be a very good idea. You can create the blog for regular new content AND create links from your blog to your web site as well. This also works the other way around – you can create links from your main pages to the individual blog posts. Just make sure that the anchor texts that you use are very relevant.

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When people talk about links, what they normally mean are external links.  We have already established the importance of external links – both inbound and outbound – but we have not really placed that much importance on internal links.  Are they important anyway?  I believe they are.  But before we continue, let us define what internal links are clearly.  Basically, internal links are those links that point to another page within your web site.

So how are internal links important?  For one, they help people find other pages within your web site. This means that more of your web pages can be visited by your readers.  Compare this to a web site without internal links.  You rely on chance and the persistence of your readers.  If they do not feel like manually searching for related information within your site, then your other pages may not be visited.  If, however, you liberally sprinkle relevant internal links within your pages, the chances of readers actually clicking on those links and discovering other pages within your site are higher.

Going one step further, if human readers can find internal links useful, then so can the search engine spiders! And you should know by now that the more pages that the search engine spiders can index in your site, the better for your SERPs.  Think of those links as arrows and road signs within your web site, pointing the way to both your human readers and the spiders.

In the next post, let us look at some ways you can practice internal linking methodically.

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Pagerank sculpting, which as defined by Matt Cutts is simply trying to change how PageRank flows within your site using different methods such as the “nofollow” tag, is still plausible, however, in his post “PageRank Sculpting” he tells us why he doesn’t think you should bother doing it. Here’s an excerpt of his post on pagerank sculpting.

I wouldn’t recommend it [pagerank sculpting], because it isn’t the most effective way to utilize your PageRank. In general, I would let PageRank flow freely within your site. The notion of “PageRank sculpting” has always been a second- or third-order recommendation for us. I would recommend the first-order things to pay attention to are 1) making great content that will attract links in the first place, and 2) choosing a site architecture that makes your site usable/crawlable for humans and search engines alike.

So when is pagerank sculpting useful? According to Matt Cutts it is useful to use the “nofollow” tag for some pages such as links to a shopping cart or links to log-in pages but only “because those pages are different for every user and they aren’t that helpful to show up in search engines.” Other than that it would pay more if you spent your time optimizing your site in other ways.

Again make sure you make the best use of your time by giving attention to your site architecture and to your site’s actual content. Make sure that users find the info they need just a few clicks away from the main page and make sure that all pages you want indexed are crawlable.

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We all get irritated when we click on a link and it redirects us to the 404 page.  I am pretty sure that the average Internet user has encountered this page at least once.  From the standpoint of the provider – the web site or blog owner – the 404 page should not be disregarded.  This is a case of taking advantage of what you have to work with.  Though users curse the 404 page, you can still use it to your advantage.

Think about it, though the user does not get anything from the 404 page, you can optimize that page to bring them back to the relevant pages in your web site.  The 404 page may very well be an inevitable page so why not simply exploit it?

How do you do this?  More than using the default content for the 404 page, tweak the content to be shown in it.  Make your own text explaining what the 404 page is and why the user was redirected there.  Use keywords relevant to your site even.

Don’t stop there, though, make sure that the users can find their way back to your main site.  You can do this by including your main navigation bar and including a link for the user to click on.  This link can be to your main page.  Better yet, this link could be to your site map, if you have one.

By doing so, you can point users who wander off to the 404 page back to your main pages.

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For the past couple of posts, we have been taking a look at some factors that may be hindering your SEO efforts from bearing fruit. Just to recap, we discussed the use of appropriate keywords and the frequency of your updates. These apply to both blogs and web sites in general. Today, let us take a look at inbound links.

We have had several discussions on this topics, especially when we had that series on increasing one’s Google PageRank. More than just simply focusing on what Google thinks, though, why don’t you think about the core idea of having other sites link to your own site or blog. What is the implication of having people link to your site? I would say that this is a measure of your blog’s relevance to those people. They link to your site because they think your site holds information that can be useful to them and their readers as well.

Going back to search engines – which is the focus of SEO – you really need inbound links to increase your visibility online. The idea is, again, simple. The more external sites that you have linking to your site, the higher your chances of getting up in the SERPs. That translates to better chances of being discovered by people who conduct searches.

The bottom line is that you have to continue building links that point to your site. This is part and parcel of SEO and if you have overlooked this point, then it may be the reason your SEO campaign is not working as you would like it to be.

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