10 IN 1 BOOKS BOOKS • How Search Engines Work • Keyword Strategy • Competitive Positioning • SEO Web Design • Creating Content • Linking • Optimizing the Foundations • Analyzing Results • International SEO • Search Marketing Inside — your Google AdWords ™ gift card worth $25 Bruce Clay and Susan Esparza Search Engine Optimization ALL-IN-ONE Making Everything Easier! ™ Open the book and find: • What drives search results • How to match meta tags and keywords to page content • Secrets for selecting keywords and phrases • What you should know about HTML, JavaScript®, and CSS • The basics of SEO-friendly design • How to manage the mechanics of content • Why your server is important • Your Google AdWords gift card worth $25! Bruce Clay is a professional consultant on search engine optimization. He’s a nationally recognized resource for Web site promotion tactics and tools, and his Web site, www.bruceclay.com, is mentioned in the online User’s Guide to the Internet. Susan Esparza is a senior editor for bruceclay.com. Web Site Development/Optimization $39.99 US / $47.99 CN / £26.99 UK ISBN 978-0-470-37973-8 Go to dummies.com ® for more! • What makes ’em tick — Book I explores how search engines work and which ones offer the best exposure • Words are key — learn to develop a keyword strategy and be competitive in Books II and III • Lookin’ good — Book IV helps you design an SEO-friendly site, and in Book V, you learn to create content that lures your audience • Link up — the tips in Book VI show how to line up relevant links for a better search showing • What’s under the hood — Book VII shows how to get more from your server and content management system • Confirm your suspicions — discover how to measure your site’s (and your competitor’s) success in Book VIII • Expand your horizons — Book IX helps you globalize your success by marketing in Asia, Europe, and Latin America • Search and find — use SEO and Book X tips to build your brand If you have a business, you want your Web site to show up quickly when people search for what you’re selling. Here’s the whole story on how to build a site that works, position and promote your site, track and understand your search results, and use keywords effectively — plus a $25 credit on Google AdWords to get your online advertising efforts off to a good start! Boost your bottom line with your $25 Google AdWords ™ credit — see inside How Search Engines Work Keyword Strategy Competitive Positioning SEO Web Design Creating Content Linking Optimizing the Foundations Analyzing Results International SEO Search Marketing Search Engine Optimization ALL-IN-ONE Clay Esparza spine=1.53” 01_379738-ffirs.indd iii01_379738-ffirs.indd iii 3/24/09 6:43:34 PM3/24/09 6:43:34 PM by Bruce Clay and Susan Esparza Foreword by Danny Sullivan Editor-in-chief, Search Engine Land Search Engine Optimization ALL-IN-ONE FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_379738-ffirs.indd i01_379738-ffirs.indd i 3/24/09 6:43:34 PM3/24/09 6:43:34 PM Do w nl o ad fr o m W ow ! e B oo k < w ww . wo w eb o ok . co m > Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies ® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http:// www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/ or its af liates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 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THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: 2009924578 ISBN: 978-0-470-37973-8 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_379738-ffirs.indd ii01_379738-ffirs.indd ii 3/24/09 6:43:34 PM3/24/09 6:43:34 PM About the Authors Bruce Clay is president and founder of Bruce Clay, Inc., which special- izes in Internet marketing. Bruce has worked as an executive for several high-technology businesses and comes from a long career as a technical executive with leading Silicon Valley  rms, since 1996 in the Internet busi- ness consulting arena. Bruce holds a BS in math and computer science and an MBA from Pepperdine University and has written many articles. He has been a speaker at more than one hundred sessions, including Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld, ad:tech, Search Marketing Expo, and many more, and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, PC Week, Wired, SmartMoney, several books, and many other publications. He has also been featured on many podcasts and WebmasterRadio.fm shows, as well as appearing on the NHK one-hour TV special, “Google’s Deep Impact.” Bruce is a principal editor and speaker for SEMJ (Search Engine Marketing Journal), a scholarly research journal for search engine marketing. He has personally authored many of the advanced search engine optimization tools that are available from www.bruceclay.com. Susan Esparza is senior editor for Bruce Clay, Inc. She joined Bruce Clay, Inc. in November 2004 and has written extensively for clients and industry publi- cations, including the SEO Newsletter, The Bruce Clay Blog, and Search Engine Guide. Susan is an editor for SEMJ, a peer-reviewed research journal in the search engine marketing  eld and co-hosts SEM Synergy, a weekly half-hour radio show on WebmasterRadio.fm. Her goal is to have a longer author biog- raphy in the future. 01_379738-ffirs.indd iii01_379738-ffirs.indd iii 3/24/09 6:43:34 PM3/24/09 6:43:34 PM Dedication To Cindy, for supporting me through thick and thin; to my coauthor, Susan, for helping with this endeavor. And to the entire SEM community that I’ve been privileged to be a part of for more than a decade. — Bruce Clay To my family, for being excited about the book when I wasn’t — particularly to my brother, Robert, who made me quit my previous job to join Bruce Clay, Inc. And to Bruce himself for being an awesome boss and coauthor. — Susan Esparza Authors’ Acknowledgments Special thanks to Kyle Looper, who had the idea for this project and who has displayed unending patience no matter the setback. Also, thanks to Linda Morris, our editor, who answered a hundred questions as we  gured out the process of writing this. Many thanks go to Paula Allen, Johnny Lin, Scott Polk, Katherine Wertz, and the rest of the Bruce Clay, Inc. staff, for their input, expertise, and support. And not least, we’d like to thank the entire search marketing community, without whom this book could not exist — it’s truly a measure of this industry’s willingness to share knowledge that this book was possible. 01_379738-ffirs.indd iv01_379738-ffirs.indd iv 3/24/09 6:43:34 PM3/24/09 6:43:34 PM Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions and Editorial Project Editor: Linda Morris Acquisitions Editor: Kyle Looper Copy Editor: Linda Morris Technical Editor: Paul Chaney Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen Media Development Project Manager: Laura Moss-Hollister Media Development Assistant Project Manager: Jenny Swisher Media Development Assistant Producers: Angela Denny, Josh Frank, Shawn Patrick, and Kit Malone Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Katherine Key Layout and Graphics: Sarah Philippart, Christin Swinford Proofreaders: Evelyn W. Gibson, Jessica Kramer Indexer: Sherry Massey Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 01_379738-ffirs.indd v01_379738-ffirs.indd v 3/24/09 6:43:34 PM3/24/09 6:43:34 PM Contents at a Glance Foreword xxii Introduction 1 Book I: How Search Engines Work 7 Chapter 1: Putting Search Engines in Context 9 Chapter 2: Meeting the Search Engines 25 Chapter 3: Recognizing and Reading Search Results 39 Chapter 4: Getting Your Site in the Right Results 47 Chapter 5: Knowing What Drives Search Results 65 Chapter 6: Spam Issues: When Search Engines Get Fooled 75 Book II: Keyword Stragegy 85 Chapter 1: Employing Keyword Research Techniques and Tools 87 Chapter 2: Selecting Keywords 97 Chapter 3: Exploiting Pay Per Click Lessons Learned 109 Chapter 4: Assigning Keywords to Pages 117 Chapter 5: Adding and Maintaining Keywords 129 Book III: Competitive Positioning 141 Chapter 1: Identifying Your Competitors 143 Chapter 2: Competitive Research Techniques and Tools 153 Chapter 3: Applying Collected Data 179 Book IV: SEO Web Design 193 Chapter 1: The Basics of SEO Web Design 195 Chapter 2: Building an SEO-Friendly Site 215 Chapter 3: Making Your Page Search Engine-Compatible 241 Chapter 4: Perfecting Navigation and Linking Techniques 275 Book V: Creating Content 291 Chapter 1: Selecting a Style for Your Audience 293 Chapter 2: Establishing Content Depth and Page Length 307 Chapter 3: Adding Keyword-Speci c Content 327 Chapter 4: Dealing with Duplicate Content 341 Chapter 5: Adapting and Crediting Your Content 355 02_379738-ftoc.indd vi02_379738-ftoc.indd vi 3/24/09 6:44:04 PM3/24/09 6:44:04 PM Book VI: Linking 365 Chapter 1: Employing Linking Strategies 367 Chapter 2: Obtaining Links 389 Chapter 3: Structuring Internal Links 405 Chapter 4: Vetting External Links 421 Chapter 5: Connecting with Social Networks 435 Book VII: Optimizing the Foundations 449 Chapter 1: Server Issues: Why Your Server Matters 451 Chapter 2: Domain Names: What Your URL Says About You 471 Chapter 3: Using Redirects for SEO 487 Chapter 4: Implementing 301 Redirects 495 Chapter 5: Watching Your Backend: Content Management System Troubles 509 Chapter 6: Solving SEO Roadblocks 523 Book VIII: Analyzing Results 553 Chapter 1: Employing Site Analytics 535 Chapter 2: Tracking Behavior with Web Analytics 557 Chapter 3: Mastering SEO Tools and Reports 571 Book IX: International SEO 591 Chapter 1: Discovering International Search Engines 593 Chapter 2: Tailoring Your Marketing Message for Asia 609 Chapter 3: Staking a Claim in Europe 621 Chapter 4: Getting Started in Latin America 633 Book X: Search Marketing 641 Chapter 1: Discovering Paid Search Marketing 643 Chapter 2: Using SEO to Build Your Brand 669 Chapter 3: Identifying and Reporting Spam 691 Appendix 707 Index 725 02_379738-ftoc.indd vii02_379738-ftoc.indd vii 3/24/09 6:44:04 PM3/24/09 6:44:04 PM Table of Contents Foreword xxii Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 How This Book Is Organized 2 Book I: How Search Engines Work 2 Book II: Keyword Strategy 2 Book III: Competitive Positioning 3 Book IV: SEO Web Design 3 Book V: Creating Content 3 Book VI: Linking 3 Book VII: Optimizing the Foundations 3 Book VIII: Analyzing Results 3 Book IX: International SEO 4 Book X: Search Marketing 4 Icons Used in This Book 4 Conventions Used in This Book 4 Where to Go from Here 5 Book I: How Search Engines Work 7 Chapter 1: Putting Search Engines in Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Identifying Search Engine Users 10 Figuring out how much people spend 10 Knowing your demographics 11 Figuring Out Why People Use Search Engines 13 Research 13 Shopping 13 Entertainment 14 Discovering the Necessary Elements for Getting High Keyword Rankings 16 The advantage of an SEO-compliant site 16 De ning a clear subject theme 17 Focusing on consistency 18 Building for the long term 18 Understanding the Search Engines: They’re a Community 18 Looking at search results: Apples and oranges 20 How do they get all of that data? 22 02_379738-ftoc.indd viii02_379738-ftoc.indd viii 3/24/09 6:44:04 PM3/24/09 6:44:04 PM [...]... 02_379738-ftoc.indd ix 3/24/09 6:44:05 PM x Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies Chapter 5: Knowing What Drives Search Results 65 Using Advanced Search Operators 66 Combining operators for turbo-powered searching 68 Searching for images 69 Searching for videos 69 Searching for news 69 Searching through blogs 70 Searching with... technologies, we recommend that you find a super-smart programmer and treat her like she’s made of gold For a primer, you may also wish to seek out the other For Dummies (Wiley) titles devoted to these topics How This Book Is Organized Like most books in the For Dummies series, Search Engine Optimization Allin-One For Dummies is structured as a reference that you can turn to again and again You should be able... IX: International SEO 591 Chapter 1: Discovering International Search Engines 593 Understanding International Copyright Issues 593 Targeting International Users 595 Domains and geolocating 598 Site architecture tips 599 02_379738-ftoc.indd xix 3/24/09 6:44:05 PM xx Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies Identifying Opportunities for Your International... it up when you need to check for answers For that reason, we attempt to make each minibook stand on its own If something is outside the scope of a particular minibook, we refer you to the correct chapter or minibook for more information Search engine optimization has grown and changed over the years, along with the search engines themselves, and it will continue to grow for years to come Although we... 305 02_379738-ftoc.indd xiii 3/24/09 6:44:05 PM xiv Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies Chapter 2: Establishing Content Depth and Page Length 307 Building Enough Content to Rank Well 308 Developing Ideas for Content 309 Brainstorming to get ideas 310 Looking at competitors for content ideas 310 Utilizing your offline materials 311 Listening... looking for with a directory became impossible Search engines appeared as the way forward, offering a way to have the Web come to you Savvy marketers began to realize that search engine results pages were the place to be for any business that wanted to take advantage of the Web Search engine optimization grew out of the need to develop pages in a way that tells search engines that your site is the best for. .. 509 Avoiding SEO Problems Caused by Content Management Systems 510 Understanding why dynamically generated pages can be friend or foe 510 Dealing with dynamic URLs and session IDs 511 Rewriting URLs 513 Choosing the Right Content Management System 515 Customizing Your CMS for SEO 517 Optimizing Your Yahoo! Store 519 Chapter 6: Solving SEO Roadblocks ... Principle #3: Use some of the same keywords your site already ranks for 666 Chapter 2: Using SEO to Build Your Brand 669 Selecting Keywords for Branding Purposes 670 Using Keywords to Connect with People 670 How to Build Your Brand Through Search 672 Writing press releases 673 Optimizing for blended search 674 Using Engagement Objects to Promote... site for your users Book VI: Linking The humble hypertext link forms another of the cornerstones in SEO Whether you’re linking to yourself (internal linking), others are linking to you (inbound links), or you’re linking to other sites (outbound links), this book covers them all and explains why each is vital and important In addition, we give you firm guidelines to help you in your link building efforts... site lives in is critical to your SEO success A slow server, badly written robots text file, or mishandled redirect can tank your rankings In order to give your site the best place to live, check out this minibook Book VIII: Analyzing Results You can’t know for sure if your SEO campaign is really working until you track the results Web analytics packages are a must for any online business This chapter . Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies. com, Making Everything Easier,. 6:43:34 PM by Bruce Clay and Susan Esparza Foreword by Danny Sullivan Editor-in-chief, Search Engine Land Search Engine Optimization ALL-IN-ONE FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_379738-ffirs.indd i01_379738-ffirs.indd. Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies x Chapter 5: Knowing What Drives Search Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Using Advanced Search Operators 66 Combining operators for turbo-powered