Search Engine Optimization & Marketing » organic seo

What is a Backlink?

OA — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:55:30 +0000

A Backlink in simple terms is an “external link that is directed towards your website". It is also known as an Inbound Link. Backlinks are a vital part of Search Engine Algorithms, the more backlinks you have, the more chances you have, of ranking higher. Backlinks are also indicative of popularity and it also results in more traffic. Here are some ways by which you can acquire backlinks for your site

By submitting your site to web directories.
By submitting your site to social bookmarking sites.
By being active in forums that are related to your niche.
By socializing with bloggers related to your niche and making them link out to you.
By writing content and copy on your site and providing value which will influence users to link out to you.

What is Keyword Density?

OA — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:00:37 +0000

Keyword Density is the term given to "the measure of how many times a keyword or a keyword phrase appears on a page,in comparison with other words that appear on the page". Keyword Density is an important part of search algorithm and pages with a certain keyword density index are rewarded with better rankings. The whole concept of keyword density has undergone a sea-change because of issues concerning keyword stuffing which have resulted in search engines tightening the belts on too many occurances of phrases in a particular page. Here are a few things you need to keep in mind with respect to Keyword Density:

Make sure that you mention the keywords in the copy just enough so that its human readable and acceptable.
Make sure that the keywords are not mentioned too many times in the copy.
Ensure that there is a decent occurrence of keyphrases and keywords in the page, so its not necessary you avoid putting keywords in where necessary just to avoid search engine filters.
Most importantly, write content for the users and not for the search engines.

Vertical Thinking – Content and Long Tails

OA — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:05:16 +0000

IMAGE CREDIT: LAEVEN

I love thinking vertically, a lot. And, this little post made me thing vertically on the topic of long-tails and the relation it had with fresh content on a page. Now, lets do some introspection. How does a user land up into your page for a long tail? Is it because of the title, meta or in-bound links? I don’t think so! Its all about what’s on the page. Assume that your getting 1500 visitors to a page from 750 different long-tails, its not because your "trying" to rank for all 750 of these keywords i.e your not optimizing your titles, or building in-bound links with anchors of these 750 keywords to get ranked for them. It would also not be technically feasible, to do so – you can’t effectively "optimize" for long tails in the conventional way – you need to work around it and think. I ran a small research, with long tails and how pages were ACTUALLY ranking for them, and here’s something interesting that I found. I ran a Google search for the keyphrase "cadillac escalade wheels rim red and white". And, here’s what I found. Now, if you look at result #2 and analyze it, you will figure these thing out: I – Result #2 does not have all the long-tail keywords in the title. II – Result #2 does not have any in-bound links pointing to the URL with the anchor "cadillac escalade wheels rim red and white". So, what’s making it rank there? Pure Content! Look at the page in question and you will see that its a keyword rich content mine. So, for actually ranking for these long tail keywords, all that you need is relevant and keyword rich content. So, there are the analogies broken and here’s what no guru will tell you about ranking for long-tails. #1 – Build Keyword Rich Content. #2 – Build even more keyword rich content. #3 – Create specifics about whatever your selling in a page ( tables maybe? ) #4 – Get the page indexed and get it a few generic links.

SEO An Art or Science?

OA — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:02:09 +0000

This is probably the gazillionth time someone has been talking about whether SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) is an art or a science. There’s this set of people who claim to specialize in the "art of SEO" and others who claimed to have mastered the "science of SEO". But, what the hell is SEO? Is it an art or a science? I just thought it would be fun to do a little bit of an investigation. Here’s what dictionary.com defines an art to be: " the craft or trade using these principles or methods." So, the definition typically means that an art is something where we apply acquired knowledge to create something. In the case of Search Engine Optimization, we apply the acquired knowledge of the way google behaves, the way it ranks sites or the way search engines work in order to generate results i.e search engine rankings and traffic. So, that seems okay doesn’t it? I was pretty confused myself, so I decided to go and pick up the definition of "science" from Wikipedia, and this is what it said: " systematized knowledge in general." "a particular branch of knowledge." These are two different definitions of Science, and I thought both made sense with respect to SEO. With SEO, its definitely a systematic process and definitely a branch of knowledge. We use acquired knowledge systematically to optimize sites. So, how do we actually categorize SEO? As an art or a science. This brought me to a single idea. In common usage, we don’t actually represent anything too "systematic" as an art. Art is more of a creative idea than a systematic and singular process. Even thought we all like to claim that SEO isn’t a systemized process, it is one to a large extent. There is a lot of creativity involved in Search Engine Optimization, but it is at the end of the day still a singular system of process which are used to procure results. SEO as a science makes more "sense" – since its more of application of acquired knowledge and systemized processes.