The Maine SEO Blog

The world of SEO is such a strange one. No one really knows what is best to do. So it’s not really a science: it isn’t as though there’s a proven formula to follow in order to rank better (and therefore profit). It’s really much more of an art: where certain artists have had more success with different tools (be it graphite, watercolor, or oil pastel), with different mediums (canvas, paper, multimedia), and with different styles (impressionism, modernism, abstract). Sorry for the tangent, I’m a dabbling artist myself – it’s easy to relate.

Back to search marketing…I had my second official SEO training seminar with Jill Whalen at High Rankings last Friday. (My first was with Dan Thies in Texas.) Jill is an SEO guru and has an incredible amount of knowledge and experience in the field.

Today, as I sifted through the notes I took and Jill’s presentation, there are so many new things I learned! I’m just going to touch upon a few: some “freebies” if you will – specifically the ones that made me say, “Woah! REALLY?!” This is where my art tangent comes in: even between just the two trainings I’ve been to, I’ve seen differences between what SEOs think/say. Which is what makes it so great! Each SEO will teach what has worked for them, so these are some of the things that have worked for Jill:

• You do not need to update your site frequently. That isn’t to say NOT to update your site regularly. Basically, all you need to do is update naturally. Most good SEO policies follow this “natural” growth idea. Another is that your copy does not need to be a certain number of words, simply what is (you guessed it) natural.
• You do not need to submit to directories or search engines. Gone are the days that search engines will only find you if you submit your site to them! To check what Google has indexed, use the site:your-site command.
• The most important on-page optimization is in the title tags, body text, and anchor text. Headers don’t need to be keyword rich, according to Jill.
• Finally, you do not need a sitemap, or even a Google Sitemap for that matter. Sitemaps are really only good for sites that have a large number of products – that way, products can be found more quickly and efficiently.

That was just a taste of tips and tricks I found from this training session. To find out more, why not take Jill’s class, or better yet call flyte today!

Nicki Hicks
Student for Life

I recently asked the crew here at flyte for any specific queries they had about SEO.  One of our Web Developers, Gloria Maher, asked if I could make some sort of checklist for the design/development team as far as search engine optimization.  Of course I can, Gloria – I’ve always loved making lists!

There are hundreds of points I won’t include here – like basic usability and design standards (use a reliable web host, use alt tags, use hyphens instead of underscores for files names, use text links not image links, etc.).  These are all pretty basic and can be found simply by googling “website best practices.”

Instead, I’ll list the top six that I’ve found most important thus far in my SEM education.  I have combined several sources in order to create the following list, from LockerGnome and Dan Thies’s SEO Training in Dallas.

1. Question every link. It is thought that too many links can negatively impact a site’s ranking.  If there are over 150 links on a site, there is a possibility that this will exceed a spider’s crawling limits.  So cut back on those links!
2. Use a sitemap. As with many ideas in SEO, sitemaps are controversial.  Sitemaps are used by spiders, and rarely by users.  Since they are linked from the homepage (typically the footer is a good spot to stick them), they give tertiary (or 3rd tier) pages the feel of a secondary page, and thereby much better rankings!
3. Use robots.txt. Spiders look for a robots.txt file in root directories.  So put one in, and avoid 404 errors from building up on you!
4. Dynamic linking. You can use “nofollow” tags in your code to keep spiders from rooting through certain pages (privacy pages, shopping cart pages, etc. are usually the type to use this for).  Be careful no to use too many of these tags, it could be a red flag for search engines.
5. Creating equality for tertiary pages. Typically, secondary pages have equal PageRank, but it is more difficult for 3rd tier pages.  In order to do so,  be sure that pages are distributed as evenly as possible at the third level.  (Again, a sitemap will definitely help!)
6. It’s the first link that counts. When multiple links on a page link to the same spot, it is only the FIRST link that search engines pay attention to.  That means that this is the one you want to use your best keywords on!  (I’ll make another post describing a few easy fixes for this problem.)

Of course, this list does not include every measure that a developer has to take in order to help in an SEO campaign, but it will definitely get you started.

Nicki Hicks
List Developer