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Youtube Video SEO Optimization

March 16, 2009 • SEO • Comments

Months ago I bumped into a website claiming to have discovered the real secret to get top rankings through video posting. It is definetely proved that videos my help rankings but in the end the same principle we apply into standard optimization must be applied to videos.

seo rankings with youtube veho videosI’ve been working on a client website for a while which is a video portal It fetures video from youtube and other big video portal (dailymotion, veeme). This shortlist applies to this case, when running a website which features content from a bigger portal. Anyway, even if you’re not featuring content for you tube, posting a video related to your original page and applying to it any standard seo practice, with an obvious link ti yiur homepage, will result in a positive effect for your rankings.

It’s basically being focused on providing page with descriptive title focusing on the long tails (e.g long titles extremely specific but still featuring the two main keywords we want to optimize the website for).

Pretty much all the classic onpage optimization factors apply for youtube but it can be better resumed like:

  • Use your primary keyword on the video title
  • Write one or 2 line description with your keywords in them
  • Place a link to your website

Rest will be depending on your video quality.
Youtube video ranks higher based on views and onpage factors listed above.
So more views you get, better you rank.

It’s not that much different from promoting a standard page. In the end, external optimization of content will help higher rankings for your original page.

Matt Cutts on the last brand push of the algorithm

March 9, 2009 • SEO • Comments

Finally a few words from Google about the last algorithm update. According to the last news, this last change would have affected SERP pushing up all brand connected keywords. For instance, a query on “cars” would have brought up all major car producers at the top of the SERP.

In this short video, Matt Cutts explains the change in detail. Basically the update will push up websites depending on a particular set of value:

  1. trust
  2. authority
  3. reputation
  4. PageRank
  5. high quality

Oddily enough, emphasizing these parameters made the big brands rise up in the SERPS, as pointed out here.

Anyway, Matt Cutts says that a query on “eclipse” doesn’t bring up any link to a Mitsubishi page which should confirm the fact that brand names are not getting any help in SERPs.

There’s only one way to find this out: is there any brand with a recent made website with no reputation, PageRank, trust and authority which ranks high on SERP?

5 most common web development mistakes which affect SEO

February 20, 2009 • SEO • Comments

seo code mistakes at semwired.com

seo code mistakes at semwired.com

While working on different SEO projects, I noticed several common development mistakes which can seriously affected rankings on the SERPS. I’ll go through a quick list of coding mistakes, general code structure and scripts.

1. Title tag not the first one inside the head tag

Considering how the title tag is important in SEO I wonder why loads of developers still make this mistakes. The right order of tags should be <head> and right after that <title>. Recently I bumped into a website on developed on .net and IIS in which the very first tag in the <head> section was a <script> linked to a external Javascript. In this case search engine might overlook the title tak and focus on the java link which will end up for being 100% useless since does not have any meaning to them. Needless to say fixing the <head> tag will be one of the top priorities for this site seo strategy.

Moreover the majority of the SEO tools available (IBP and WebCEO) usually point this out in their optimization page scan: there’s no way to miss this one really.

2. Stop words
To be honest, I’m not advocating the complete purge of stop words. Just like any other average user I’m not really into weird nonsensical machine tipe of titles but sometimes avoiding them may reveal an helpful trick especially when it comes to gain more space to include keywords or relevant words into titles. Less stop words means more keyword sometimes.

3. Keyword at the end of tag title or not present
Title and other tags have to be generally optimized thinking of the keyword we want a peg to be ranked for. What’s the point of working on a title tag without a relevant keyword to be stick on it?

4. Full-length embedded Javascript
I know sometimes javascript has to be there but why not putting a link to an external file instead of copy the whole thing? It’s kind of obvious that search engine cannot process java, otherwise we would not need to download a java virtual machine… Moreover Javascripts increase page size and do not increase keyword values since it’s code and has not semantic value.

5. Images with weird / random names and random ALT tags
People usually underrates ALT tags and image filenames in Google. Since my main focus on SEO is using even the tiniest piece of code to embed references and relevant keywordsg (not excessing though), ALT tags provide a priceless chance to embed some more words. So why not filling it up with your favourite keyword? Well, too many underestimate the power of alt tags… Same applies to images filenames which help drive traffic from Google Images and Windows Live. Since I’m talking about development mistakes, I’m not expecting coders to be SEO-minded and fill ALT tags with relevant keywords. However it would be nice to have tags filled up.

10 must-have SEO and SEM Firefox add-ons

February 19, 2009 • SEO, Software • Comments

10 best seo extensions for firefox

10 best seo extensions for firefox

Starting from the very beginning with this blog, makes me think of the most useful tools to work on SEO and SEM online. Since I spend most of the time on a browser, tweaking Firefox might come handy. Explorer has got some toolbars, but nothing comparable to the more customizable firefox.

1. Ghostery – I”l pick this up from most useful real time analysis tool the analysis tools. Basically it scans the page looking for scripts (analytics, adsense, other ads) and displays a tiny box on the upper left corner. While using it, you automatically agree with online bug research. If you too smuggy to join this then you can rummage through the options and untick the bo.

2. Search Status – This addon actually changed the way I looked at the internet. Whatever website, I feel like the urge to check the Search Status box that shows page rank and alexa rank. My navigation habit has been seriously affected by it. Since I do quite some research on potential affiliates for campaign or just about the competition I can come across in my projects the “quality assessment” I mentally do on website as affected my habits as normal user as well.Anyway this tiny tool as way more to offer than this, check this page out.

3.SEOpen – Ok if search status was not enough for you, you might try this. Probably it’s the most complete SEO Firefox Extension. Need to check backlinks, page rank, reputation in real time? SEOpen makes everything easier and quick.

4. Total validationOne of the most underrated factors in search engine optimization is probably a W3C certification for your website. It guarantees a clean and tidy code and Google seems to love this.
Anyway, If you do not want to spent too much time on the online W3c check page, you might think about installing this addon. It checks everything you need without having to point your browser to the W3C website.
Plus, it makes sure you links are ok and also runs accesibility tests.

5. Niche Watch If you really into niche website focused on specific content and long tail keywords traffic, this might come more than handy. This extension allows to keep track of whatever happens on your niche, analyzing competitors and SERP.

6. SEO Hand It’s good to always be able to track keywords positioning into SERPs. This one makes it for you.

7. Keywords Generator Need to create keywords from scratch? This one generates a whole lotta keywords for you. Straight from Firefox.

8. SEOQuest Up to 30 useful seo tools in one tiny extension. Probably the best of the lot

9. XRay This one probably will suit better webmasters rather than SEOs. Anyway, it is always nice to know something about the source  code while you are surfing.

10.FireNES – Ok now we went through the whole list but there’s still something you need to install on firefox. It’s not about SEO or SEM it’s more like going back in time and turn your old NES on. 200 NES games on firefox available at any time!

SEO changes: top priorities

February 16, 2009 • SEO • Comments

SEO assessment priorities semwired.com

SEO assessment priorities semwired.com

While working on a client’s project I often start to think if there’s any better way to prioritize SEO changes on a website.

Some client’s pretend to have the changes they need applied as soon as posible, while I’ve always thought that a gradual and rational approach.

I usually emphasize on code changes at first and I later get focused on content and keyword properties (density and prominence).

However different projects might require different approches and also those specific issues the website might have (duplicated content? different language version on the same webserver?) can come into play affecting the priorities we had already set up.

This is how I shortlisted SEO priorities on a project:

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