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My Sweet 16 SEO Practices

Posted 01 Oct 2009 — by Kathy McShea
Category search, tips

Is your Web site content as findable as you want it to be? The ability to be found by a search engine means more traffic. If you have not taken stock of how search-engine friendly your site is, you sabotage your Web publishing investment right out of the gate.

Ignore Poor SEO at Your Peril

Your ability to serve your audience and compete against the noise of other sites vying for those eyeballs is hurt by poor SEO. From a marketing point of view, it is a rookie mistake that needs urgent attention.

I’ve put together a Search Engine Optimization Web site scorecard exclusively designed to provide insights on how your site is performing against best practices. I’ve identified the top meta-data, content, domain administration and link issues that every Web manager should keep their eye on.

Monitoring and fixing these SEO must-haves can make you search-engine friendly. Ignoring a problem on this list could mean your site stays lost in the haystack of the World Wide Web.

How to be Search Engine Friendly

Here is my “sweet 16” site-specific Search Engine Optimization tips to make your site content easier to find:

Valid title tag – with keywords anywhere and as first words if possible. Every webpage must have a unique and meaningful title meta tag. Aim for 65 characters in length, approximately 8-10 words. Begin with what is unique about the page and then deliver the contextual information, and not the other way around. Where does it fit in the overall classification?
Description tag — The description meta tag should be no more than thirty words long, and should be filled with clear keyword rich language. When you leave out a description tag, or send pages to the server with descriptions that duplicate other pages, you hurt your standing in search engines. You may also confuse users at the search result page, since the search engine will grab the first words it sees and serve up gobbly-gook instead of the description you supply.
Heading tags – A Web page is not a word document. The code behind the page should put tags around your headlines and subheadlines so that they are machine readable and classified as headlines. You should aim to use your keywords anywhere in the H1 Headline Tag, and as the first words where possible. Your other headline tags, H2, H3 and so on, should follow the same principle.
Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page – pay careful attention to keyword use and the number of repetitions in the HTML text on the page
Keyword use in link anchor text – On pages where you use anchor tags, these links should aim to use keywords to improve your SEO
Unique and meaningful links – Every link on your page should be unique and meaningful. That means you should not use “click here” or “more” at the end of a post to get users to follow the link. These are the equivalent of “empty calories” telling the search engine nothing about your content’s value, and confusing users who require screen readers
Native formats – Do you use native formats (html, xhtml or xml) for the greatest flexibility for your users? If your site is using flash files without a text alternative your content in that part of the page will not be search engine friendly
Plain Language URLs – If you are using a content management platform you may have long URLs which end in a string of numbers and characters. Wherever possible you should employ technology or masking to change this to regular plain language. Ideally, the name should have dashes between each word, which are read as spaces, and be in lower case since not all servers can resolve upper and lower cases automatically
Speed – Do you accommodate visitors with low connection speeds to the extent feasible, minimizing page download times for visitors and in most cases, keep your HTML pages under 100KB? A heavy page can be toxic to a search engine spider which wants to quickly move through the Web and not be hung up
XML Sitemap – You should include a sitemap.xml file in your root directory. This file should be submitted to Google using your Webmaster Tools account. Have trouble creating this? Purchase a Powermapper license and you can easily make a sitemap.xml file on the fly
Employ useful hierarchies – Examine the site architecture of the domain to assure intelligent and useful hierarchies are employed. For example, if you have a top level button called “about” you need to have a landing page for “about” along with any subpages that belong to that parent directory
Make all pages searchable – A hierarchy directory structure is needed for search engine spiders to do their work; databases are not searchable — have gateway pages where they exist
Remove old content from server – Old content should be removed from the server so only the content you wish to field to users is available. It is always amazing to me what kind of junk I discover out on the server from sites that have are not well maintained. Removing it from your page navigation structure and not the server doesn’t do the trick – you must always delete the file from the server as well or it will continue to turn up on search engines
Cross-browser testing – Has your site been developed and tested in multiple browsers (IE and Firefox) and versions, operating systems, connection speeds and screen resolutions, based on an analysis of your audience?
Permanent redirect – You should set up a permanent redirect (technically called a “301 redirect”) between the site root and the www address. That way when people skip the www part of your address the search will still resolve to your site. Once you do this, you will get full search engine credit for your work on these sites
Really Simple Syndication – Use RSS feeds on the domain, and configure an auto-discovery code in the header tag so the URL displays the RSS button. This will help users link to your content and increase the backward links to your site.

Want a Complete SEO Checkup?

My Sweet 16 SEO list leaves some things out. For example, best practices related to using directories and social media to your advantage are not on this mini-list.

For those interested in a complete SEO check-up my complete scorecard, covering nearly 70 SEO factors is now a special Emerald Strategies service offered to Web managers. You’ll a scorecard and an action plan you can implement right away to boost your find-ability online.

NOTE: This article is cross-posted and was originally published on October 2009 at http://www.emeraldstrategies.net/buzz/tips/2009/200910-make-your-site-search-engine-friendly.htm

How to Pick the Right Web Host: 8 Factors

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Posted 01 Jul 2009 — by Kathy McShea
Category tips

If you own or publish a Web site, you will be responsible for deciding where to host your Web site. How you evaluate such a decision can be a puzzle, especially if like most of the world, technology is not your day-job.

This write-up is designed to provide some top-level factors that that Web site owners can use to evaluate selecting the right Web host.

Internal or Third Party?

The initial decision is whether to host it on an internal server, or host it on a server provided by a third-party Web host provider. The key here is whether you want to absorb the risk of being responsible for a smoothly operating server, or if you’d prefer to off-load this risk to a company that does this for a living.

In a related point, you need to examine how much traffic you get. If you are lucky enough to find your content goes viral and you get a crush of new visitors, an in-house server may crash under the unexpected and unplanned for load.

Giant global Web sites mitigate this problem by using Akaimi or Limelight to distribute the site to many servers across the globe, and let caching activity balance the load. Most sites, however, are far from this category of service needs. Let’s suppose you have decided to off-load risk to someone else, and are rubbing your hands together at the prospect of one day drawing plenty of visitors. This puts you on the path to choosing a third-party Web host. So what’s the next decision fork?

You may also be given an opportunity to host your Web site on a server provided by your Web developer. There may be technical reasons why it is required to host with them, if you choose them as the provider. Or perhaps they offer discount pricing and it simplifies maintenance issues for them.

As the customer, when you weigh this choice, the one thing I always urge people NOT to give up is control over their domain registration. The URL of your site can be pointed at any server, and it is easy to split ownership of the domain registrar and the Web host. Doing so can protect you from a lock-in situation where unnecessary obstacles are put in the path of you making changes down the road. In the worst case scenario, some unscrupulous developers have been known to take Web sites “hostage” using their ultimate leverage over your content to get their way on some dispute.

Dedicated or Shared Server?

For many, the next factor to think about is whether you want a dedicated server, or you are willing to share space on another server with other Web sites. This is a decision that is usually invisible to the user. Who cares what’s on the server with you? Why does it matter?

In an age of spam and email list owners who fail to delete bad email addresses, it may matter more than you think. Both conditions may prompt an internet service provider to punish Web site owners on the offending server. If another Web site owner who shares your server is blacklisted, you may find that your email and communication from that server has also been blocked. It’s an unhappy stand-off to find yourself in, and usually resolves itself eventually. But in the meanwhile, your business or Web publishing enterprise may suffer.

The cost of a dedicated server may not be worth the risk, however. But make the decision with open-eyes.

Operating System of the Servers?

Depending on the type of server your site is hosted on, you may have problems being found via search if users type in the wrong case (upper not lower, lower not upper, etc.) for your URL path names.

There are three types of standard Web servers: Apache, Linux and Windows. If you elect to be in an Apache or Linux environment, beware that there is a case sensitivity issue in how you name your Web files. Microsoft IIs servers are usually case insensitive (upper or lower work)

Some Web host providers offer multiple server types, so you should ask about getting your Web files placed in the environment that meets your needs.

Google is case sensitive on the URL path after the domain.

Technically speaking, the following URLs are all identical:

http://domain.com/path/file.htm
HTTP://domain.com/path/file.htm
http://DOMAIN.com/path/file.htm

However, these are not:

http://domain.com/PATH/file.htm (a different path)
http://domain.com/path/FILE.htm (a different file name)
http://www.domain.com/path/file.htm (a different host name)

There is a way to get out of this jam if you end up on a server that has case sensitivity. Always use lower-case naming conventions for your content. Plus:

Make sure all your internal links point to the same version of the URL, or the search engines may recognize two or more and you won’t get credit for page ranking purposes.

Have your technical lead put a piece of code onto the server to resolve case sensitive issues But beware of making these changes if you don’t know what you are doing, because it can get more complicated than you care for.

Post a permanent 301 redirect for URLs that are not already part of the problem.

Having grappled with the operating system question and the demands it may put on your Web developers, the next key performance item I’d look at is remote back-up and redundancy.

Remote Back-up and Redundancy.

Remote backup preserves a record of your files should it be necessary to roll-back to a previous version of the site, or to reconfigure the site should there be any damage to the server.

Your Webmaster typically has a current version of the Web site files and assets, but if there is no versioning of the information, so rolling back to a previous edition is subject to your Web host agreement. And don’t count on this service if it is not part of your contract. As the owner of the site, it is worthwhile for you go get a free FTP service, such as Filezilla, and do your own regular backups of what is published on the Web.

Giant complex sites often have the site in several environments at once – staging content before production. A sandbox may exist for developers to do testing and development. A test server may exist to help content managers ready the content for publication and get it approved before it is live. Finally, the live server, sometimes called the production server, is where it is posted when it is in the public domain.

Redundancy is a set-up where you have multiple servers ready to pick up the load of your existing server. That way, if the server fails the duties are automatically picked up by the next in line server in your configuration. A fail-safe that lets you sleep better.

Monitoring Reliability.

This brings us to the need to know about server monitoring for reliability – uptime, downtime and speed, or average response time.

My own Web host, named Laughing Squid, provides standard and cloud hosting services. It uses the third-party provider for monitoring called Pingdom. Their report on uptime/downtime gives you an easy to digest format that lets you select which server you are on – assuming you are not on a dedicated server – along with the uptime, downtime and average response time.

A link to the report they provided on my Web site uptime is here . Another published resource to review the performance of the top 50 Web hosting providers is at Netcraft.

Customer Base and History.

Take a look at the business mix of their customer base, how many customers they serve and who they market to if that information is available from their materials. If they appear to focus on small sites, as a small business customer you can have some comfort that you will not be overshadowed by larger business interests or customers that provider may have.

And has the provider been in business long enough to give you peace that they are not fly-by-night? Take a look-see to find out how long they have been in business as another one of your evaluation factors.

Customer Service.

On customer service, it may be worth your while to do a little mystery shopper test. Figure out where to send an email question via their support page and see how long it takes to get a response. Do they provide a phone number or is it email service only? Do they have a ticketed help desk system that can give you more professional service?

Look at their forums, where current customers may be asking questions, if this is part of their support page apparatus. Or do a Google-search on outside IT forums and see if you see any complaints or concerns by current customers.

If there is no phone number listed, this could put you in an awkward position should you need to contact the firm for service in an emergency. Limited phone support is okay, but the provider should be open and transparent about when and where they can be reached and use an effective e-ticket system to provide quick support to routine questions.

Cost.

Of course, you must also consider cost. Take a look at how they tier their plans and if they have add-on fees for things like redirecting a domain to the primary URL – something you might do if you want those who visit the dot org or dot net version of your domain name to seamlessly go to your site on the dot com site.

I’ve found very good service on all the criteria that matter to me at Laughing Squid, by the way. They provide a variety of plans including an inexpensive $8/month version that is suitable for a small site with low traffic, and a more robust $12/month plan that lets me be prepared with more space, more email and more SQL databases for your site.

Summary

When selecting a provider to be your Web host, choosing where to host your Web site is a decision that deserves a checklist. To sum up:

Internal server or 3rd party Web host?
Dedicated or shared server?
Operating system?
Remote back-up and redundancy?
Uptime, downtime, server response time/speed – what server monitoring exists to help you measure reliability?
Customer base and history
Customer Service: Help desk, e-ticketing and phone support
Cost

Discuss

So are you living with any risks with your current Web host choice? Is it time to switch?

NOTE: This article is cross posted and was originally published on July 2009 at http://www.emeraldstrategies.net/buzz/web/2009/200907-how-to-pick-a-Web-host.htm

Five Magic Interview Questions

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Posted 01 May 2009 — by Kathy McShea
Category metrics, tips

Some years ago, I ran across a list of what I consider to be the most eye-opening interview questions on the planet. Well, maybe that’s hyperbole. But the fact of the matter is these questions never fail me.

They consistently open up the conversation into nooks that produce insightful and interesting commentary. And my favorite getting-to-know-you question set is only five questions long.

These questions were described as job interview questions when I first ran across them. But long ago I re-purposed the original interview question set by adding a fifth question and began using them during my Web governance audits with wonderful results.

What are the Questions?

The original four questions — plus my fifth addition — are both straightforward and magical because they never fail to provoke discovery:

What are your aspirations for yourself and your organization?
What are the things you do well?
What are the things you do badly?
In the scheme of all the other competing demands at this organization, where does this task fit in?
What is the biggest risk you face, and what’s at stake if you fail to address it?

Expect the session for the five questions with answers to last from 15 minutes to a half hour.

It has been a proven winner in many settings for getting issues out on the table and sparking interesting conversations – I’ve been told they also work well for those who are new on the job, especially managers who are wise enough to listen to their staff and observe relationships before they charge in to make changes.

The best advice when you take over a new team or a new job is to avoid the pressure to enact immediate sweeping changes to prove your value. Instead, do not do anything new or different for a while until you could figure out how everything works and what the rough spots were. Only then are you prepared to take action. You gain practical advice about undertaking new opportunities and understanding new vulnerabilities, quickly and without much upheaval through these conversations.

I always recommend one-on-one meetings or get-togethers with individuals over coffee or a meal as the right environment for the interview. Here, you can run through these questions with each team member in an informal setting to get to know them and your organization better. The same questions when asked in a group setting won’t yield the same results because people will tend to clam up and do not always feel free to talk with candor.

Answers Bring Enlightenment

My methodology for a Web governance audit includes fact-finding and research through a variety of means besides the interviews. These methods include:

A Web scorecard
A review of the core documentation supporting the team
An analysis of the Web team organization chart
An online survey for a large swath of those who work on the Web site

Amid all these information streams during the audit, one of my favorite is the interviews. Wonderful knowledge about the heartbeat of the Web strategy reveals itself after I identify the key players on a Web team and arrange to sit down with them and talk about how they do their job.

I always bring a checklist of best practices for that function to see how things measure up.

But it is during the first part of the interview when I ask my self-described “best interview questions on the planet” that I gain traction for the truth-telling spirit of the meeting that I am aiming for.

Next time you start a conversation with someone new, as part of a job interview, a research project, a client engagement or something else, take my questions out for a try and see whether you don’t get enlightening results too.