Optimize your URLs - Best practices for crawling & indexing

Optimize your URLs - Best practices for crawling & indexing

Search engine marketing best practises
1. Context: Why do you care?
2. Reduce inefficient crawling of your site
3. Avoid maverick coding practices
4. Remove user-specific details from URLs
5. Optimize dynamic URLs
6. Rein in infinite spaces
7. Disallow actions Googlebot can’t perform
8. Get your preferred URLs indexed
9. Resources

The internet world is big. Really big. How does an search engine spider deal with it? How do search engines deal with this?

· Discover unique content
· Prioritize crawling
o Crawl new content
o Refresh old content
o Crawl fewer duplicates
· Keep all the good stuff in the index
· Return relevant search results

Focus on efficiency in these steps

Funnel your crawling “budget” toward your most important content

Avoid maverick coding practices
· Discourage alternative encodings
§ shop.example.com/items/Periods-Styles__end-table_W0QQ_catrefZ1QQ_dmptZAntiquesQ5fFurnitureQQ_flnZ1QQ_npmvZ3QQ_sacatZ100927QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em282
§ Where [W0 = ?] and [QQ= &]
· Eliminate expand/collapse "parameters"
o www.example.com/ABN/GPC.nsf/MCList?OpenAgent&expand=1,3,15

Remove user-specific details from URLs

· Remove from the URL path
o www.example.com/cancun+hotel+zone-hotels-1-23-a7a14a13a4a23.html
o www.example.com/ikhgqzf20amswbqg1srbrh55/index.aspx?tpr=4&act=ela
o Creates infinite URLs to crawl
o Difficult to understand algorithmically
· Keywords in name/value pairs are just as good as in the path
o www.example.com/skates/riedell/carrera/
o www.example.com/skates.php?brand=riedell&model=carrera

Optimize dynamic URLs
· Dynamic URLs contain name/value pairs
o skates.php?size=6&brand=riedell
· Create patterns for crawlers to understand
o www.example.com/article.php?category=1&article=3&sid=123
o www.example.com/article.php?category=1&article=3&sid=456
o www.example.com/article.php?category=2&article=3&sid=789
· Use cookies to hide user-specific details
o www.example.com/skates.php?query=riedell+she+devil&id=9823576
o www.example.com/skates.php?ref=www.fastgirlskates.com&color=red

Rein in infinite spaces
· Uncover issues in CMS
o www.example.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Ipblocklist&limit=250&offset=423780&ip=

Disallow actions Googlebot can’t perform

· Googlebot is too cheap to ‘Add to cart’
o Disallow shopping carts
o http://www.example.com/index.php?page=EComm.AddToCart&Pid=3301674647606&returnTo=L2luZGV4LnBocD9wYWdlPUVDb21tLlByb2QmUGlkPTMzMDE2NzQ2NDc2OTI=
· Googlebot is too shy to ‘Contact us’
o Disallow contact forms, especially if they have unique URLs
o http://www.example.com/bb/posting.zsp?mode=newtopic&f=2&subject=Seeking%20information%20about%20roller%20derby%20training
· Googlebot forgets his password a lot
o Disallow login pages
o https://www.example.com/login.asp?er=43d9257de47d8b08a91069cccb584ab83ff21140bd46e81656dab3507f45d1ab079cd77244231e557d724dc1df1a641

Get your preferred URLs indexed

· Set your preferred domain in Webmaster Tools
o www.example.com vs. example.com
· Put canonical URLs in your Sitemap
· Use the new rel=“canonical” on any duplicate URLs

Webmaster Central
www.google.com/webmasters

· Help Center: Documentation, FAQs, webmaster guidelines
· Blog: Hot topics & best practices
· Help Forum: Ask questions, engage with others

Internet Marketing Trends

Expect a lot of marketing messaging related to the recession. Don’t be surprised to see lots of offers that “save you money” throughout the rest of 2009. With fewer purchasing dollars available, how will your marketing message be distinctive and stand out? Now is the time to start thinking smarter. SEO is the number 1 traffic generator if done correctly.

Here are 20 trends to keep an eye on for thes rest of 2009:

Trend #1: Recession Marketing

Trend #2: Internet Marketing-palooza

Trend #3: The Customer Voice

Trend #4: Video Marketing

Trend #5: Blogging

Trend #6: Social Marketing

Trend #7: Mobile Marketing

Trend #8: Behavioral Targeting

Trend #9: Behavioral Analytics

Trend #10: Widget Marketing

Trend #11: Innovation

Trend #12: Back-to-Basics Marketing

Trend #13: Relationship Marketing

Trend #14: Verticalization

Trend #15: Personalization

Trend #16: Multicultural Marketing

Trend #17: Mixing Display Ads & Search Marketing

Trend #18: The Long Long Long Tail

Trend #19: There’s No Place Like Home

Trend #20: Speed

How to Hire a Search Engine Optimization Consultant

I recently got a question on “What should a SEO Professional deliver?” This person had been scammed before where they paid a bunch of money for a guy to “Get them ranked number 1” only to realize nothing happened. So I thought I would write a blog post to help other people in the same position in getting the right person onboard.

Do I have qualification to be an “expert”? I think I do but you can be the judge of that. *wink* *wink*

Direct SEO Consulting Experience in 2008:
Stockhouse.com Nowpublic.com Bytephoto.com (personal media project)

Since I first started SEO optimization in 2002 I have over the years devised a few strategies that allowed me to get my personal photo review site, www.bytephoto.com included in the top rankings.

Since I have my own sites to test new SEO strategies on I have extended this knowledge to my clients. My typical SEO Audit identifies key traffic issues and opportunities with site traffic. I create an effective competitive analysis and give recommendations on what needs to be applied in order for the site to be search engine compatible.

Because clients have different needs, e.g. launching a new site, I would recommend focusing the SEO audit on the competitive landscape to ensure a lift in rankings and traffic versus competitors. I would look at link-related matters such as external, inbound links, page saturations and keyword rankings. Last I would coach the client’s team on what needs to be done, how to write articles and what technologies to use. That way you ensure a smoother transition and client satisfaction.

Sample Deliverables in an SEO Audit: (Going from an old site to a new site)

• Keyword Analysis and a list of targeted key phrases
• Link-related matters: outbound links, inbound links
• Analysis of major competitors and current search engine placement report
• Keyword Density and metrics
• Link popularity and link strategy
• Content audit and advice on how often the targeted keywords should appear on pages
• Samples of head tags, titles, descriptions, h1 and h2 etc
• One (1) SEO Best Practices document
  - A full and specific analysis of their website and situation, outlining findings and suggestions.
  - Clear explanations about what they need to change and, more importantly, how to change it in order to obtain top rankings.

Until next time. Stay hot stay tuned!

All the best,
Chris