When you use the tag, you can indicate the canonical URL form for crawlers to use for each page of content, no matter how it was retrieved. This puts the preferred URL form with the content so that it is always available to the crawler, no matter which session id, link parameter, sort parameter, parameter order, or other source of variance is present in the URL form used to access the page.

To do this, specify a tag in the section of your page content:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.seous.com/services” />

The above tag indicates to the crawler that the URL it is present on should be represented canonically as http://www.seous.com/services. This would eliminate the following duplicates:

http://www.seous.com/services?trackingid=feed
http://www.seous.com/services?sessionid=hgjkeor2
http://www.seous.com/services?printable=yes&trackingid=footer

It is easy to see how businesses that are not so familiar with the inner workings of SEO can find themselves feeling overwhelmed. The great thing is, there are a number of search engine optimization consultant firms out there that you can work with in order to help you get the results that you are looking for without all of the headaches. Such consultant can help you to grow your online business by not only boosting the visibility of your brand, but also by helping to bring up the productivity and your overall bottom line.

If you feel that you could use the services of a search engine optimization consultant, you can do some research on the types of services that different firms can offer. When you stop to think about it, you want to have a consultant that will be able to coordinate with your business needs and help to compliment the marketing strategy that you have in place. By adding to your marketing plan with a search engine optimization plan, you will be able to increase your viewership and then sales.

Many of the reasons why businesses will look to the help of a search engine optimization consultant will be boost their online presence and to attract a significant of targeted customers. By helping your business to learn a wide variety of effective SEO skills and techniques, you will then be able to increase your sales while also helping to protect your online reputation. If your budget allows, you can keep on using your search engine optimization consultant or start to take on the journey of SEO on your own. No matter what, you will have learned all sorts of techniques and skills that can help your website’s effectiveness and get you the traffic that you desire.

You want your website to get noticed? Content, my friend. Content. You can have the best looking website in the world, but if you do not have rich content that is useful to your viewers then you may as well pack it in. There are a number of businesses out there who are looking for the best way to get traffic to their site while boosting their ranking in the search engines. However, they are not implementing the correct search engine optimization strategies that will get them the traffic and results that they are searching for.

To begin with, one of the easiest ways to add great content to your website is a blog. By putting up a blog filled with useful information, you are fulfilling a need that your viewers have. This in turn will keep them coming back again and again. Before you know it, your blog could be bringing you a whole lot of traffic. Just think of what that can do for you in terms of sales.

Of course, you do not have to be an expert in order to put forth some truly excellent search engine optimization strategies for your website. Today there are some awesome options out there for you to choose from no matter what your budget may be. When you want to get the word out there about your website, a little bit of careful planning can really go a long way.

Does talk of keywords and meta tags give you a headache? If so, then you should know that you are not alone. If you find that it is within your budget to work with a company that deals with search engine optimization, then you should be able to find a great one that will suit your needs and budget. Before you know it, you can have search engine optimization strategies working to your full advantage.

Latent semantic indexing helps search engines to find out what a web page is all about. It basically means to you that you shouldn’t focus on a single keyword when optimizing your web pages and when getting links.

The web pages on your web site should be related and focus mainly on a special topic while using different words that describe the topic. Use variations of your keyword and synonyms. That makes it easier for search engines to determine the topic of your site.

What is duplicate content?

Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. In some cases, content is duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or garner more traffic via popular or long-tail queries.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/12/deftly-dealing-with-duplicate-content.html

With the Overture keyword tool you’ll discover hundreds of keywords and phrases your target market is typing into Yahoo and other internet search engines. The “Count” list tells us how many people typed in that particular keyword over the last month. (Note: Overture only counts the words typed into the Yahoo search engine and its family of search engines like Alta Vista. It doesn’t count the searches done on Google.)

Overture Keyword Selector Tool

Writing quality content targeting right long tail keywords can prove very lucrative and the increase in Web site traffic. This is especially true when applied to new Web sites which have few quality links.

The fact is more than half of traffic comes with long tail keywords. Long tailn rate, and they are easy to rank higher in SERP.

Definitely promotion with long tail keywords is more effective than shorter one-two keyword phrases.

A common myth these days revolves around the usage of the term “Hits” This term “Hits” is often used synonymously with “Visitors” It is extremely important to understand that a hit is not a visitor. A hit is basically triggered as any action from the server. In other words, it might be 1 hit for a page to load. Another hit for a logo to load. Perhaps a menu cluster of 10 buttons (10 graphics) could render 10 more hits. In short, just one visitor could generate multiple hits for each page they view. When you are examining traffic overall, your #1 concern should be with your “visitor count,” sometimes identified as “user sessions.” Focus should not be on the “hit count.” Our attention should always be on actual visitors.

Some of you know me for using advance SEO techniques, such as cloaking or deep directory submissions, and developing new ideas, such as experimenting with cascading style sheets and absolute positioning. Everyone is trying to get some sort of advantage in order to get those coveted high rankings, analyzing the search engines and the top pages trying to figure out what got them to the top.

I’ve been thinking that perhaps some SEO experts, including me, have been over-analyzing everything, trying to come up with some sort of technique, trick, or magic formula that will take them straight to the top of search engines. I’ve been thinking that maybe sticking to the basics might be the ticket to the top of the mountain.

You may not even need to optimize your Web site for search engines. You can still get good rankings by just creating good content. Analyzing the competition takes a lot of time and effort. If you Keep It Simple & Silly (KISS) — you can use that time to develop better content, a better overall Web site for your visitors, and take some time out to enjoy life. Who knows, perhaps using the KISS principle will even make your pages immune to the dreaded algorithm change!

Until next time, remember to KISS your SEO!

There’s probably a lot of better more cool names I could label myself – but I will forever consider “being an SEO” an honor, despite the beating it often takes from those that sully it’s good name. Below are the principles and qualities I would consider for qualification as a “good SEO”. I’m sure there are plenty that I missed – and hopefully there will be some debate of what can be added or removed, but these are the areas I personally feel are unique to “being an SEO” – and common traits and ideals that I see in those that I would consider top SEO’s. Why do you need a flashy title if you can sum up what you do in a three letter acroynym?

1. SEO is a marketing school of thought not a process.
There are plenty of people that understand the process, and don’t “get” SEO. The process of SEO is fundamental in just the same way that there are formulas for headlines in direct marketing that have much higher likelihood for success.

2. It’s much easier to plan a website than to retrofit it.
Understanding fundamentals makes it much more valuable when you hire a consultant or agency.

3. Search increasingly impacts every form of media.
Every media distribution point is doing their best to incorporate search to personalize the conversation rather than just screaming at random people.

4. It’s all about the links (but also about the exposure, rankings, conversation, and conversion) Building link equity is the new brand branding. It’s really all about the conversion – but you gotta love links.

5. Any marketing decision impacts search engine rankings – and vice versa TV, radio, print and other ads can all be used for attracting links. Want to use all flash as the homepage? Pick a different school of thought.

6. Creating a “purple” idea is much easier than begging for links.
There is always an extraordinary, remarkable new angle to any industry.
SEO is about understanding the indirect correlation of things to execute on great ideas that no one else has envisioned by having a unique perspective on marketing. Looking for quick fixes and the latest loophole is NOT SEO. Drinkbaiting is SEO – if you can’t figure out why – you’ve never spent a full 40 hour week asking for links.

7. Social media can be optimized.
Optimization does not mean manipulation. Optimization is examining the rules of the game and using them to your advantage. Social media increases both exposure – as well as the level of public scrutiny. People appreciate when bias is disclosed, and conversation is HUMAN.

If you are not authentic – you will not last. The higher the value for financial gain of the industry – the more reluctant consumers and agents of distribution become to helping you distribute your message for free.

8. Top rankings won’t fix a shitty product.

9. Blackhat is lying to clients, customers, partners, or vendors.
Whitehat is proactively discussing risk tolerance, process, expectations, and contribution to a community instead of just bilking people into teaching you to think.

10. It’s all about the results
Great results can be rankings, sales, or the spread of ideas. There are many great business leaders that don’t realize they are SEO’s. It is more than a process – it is understanding the process and stacking the deck in your favor within the confines of the game – which ultimately changes the game. SEO is the understanding of the dynamic game of business marketing.
rank live! Completely accurate real time google page rank info that is always available directly on your web site.

Summary, references, and comments
I am sure there are other founding principles to the SEO school of thought that I am missing – please tell me what I missed, or what sounds way off. Feel free to let me know if you think I’m a wanker or are things or read and agreed with every line.