SEO Certification Study Guide 2010 Training and preparation for the Search Engine Optimization Certification Exam www.SEOcertification.org Search Engine Optimization Course Objectives Introduction The Search Engine Optimization study guide is intended to prepare students to pass the SEO Certification Exam administered by www.SEOcertification.org. Upon completion, students will have obtained a thorough knowledge of Search Engine Optimization practices, procedures, tools, and techniques. 2 Copyright www.SEOcertification.org 2010, all rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication is not permitted. For assistance, please contact: [email protected] www.SEOcertification.org Table of Contents Chapter 1 (page 6) Search Engines 1.1 Search Engine Basics • Introduction to Search Engines • Search Engine Market Share • Major search engines and directories • Search provider relationships 1.2 Components of Search Engine • How search engines rank pages • Search engine spam 1.3 Test Questions Chapter 2 (page 28) Search Engine Optimization 2.1 On Page Optimization Factors • Keywords • Keyword Finalization • Use of HTML Meta Tags • Anchor Text Optimization • Comment Tag Optimization • Content • Content Optimization • Keyword Density 2.2 Off Page Optimization Factors • Building Link Popularity • Anchor Text Optimization • Measuring Link Popularity • Google Page rank 3 Copyright www.SEOcertification.org 2010, all rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication is not permitted. For assistance, please contact: [email protected] www.SEOcertification.org 2.3 Test Questions Chapter 3 (page 71) Site Readiness 3.1 Google Toolbar • Types of links • Dynamic Page Optimization • What are Doorway Pages /Cloaking • Frames 3.2 Test Questions Chapter 4 (page 91) Pay Per Click 4.1 Pay Per Click Campaigns 4.2 Setting up a PPC Campaign • Keyword Selection • Bidding Strategies • Advertising Text • Develop proper landing page • Tracking 4.3 Major PPC Search Engines • Google AdWords • Yahoo PPC Ads • Other PPC Advertising Resources 4.4 Test Questions 4 Copyright www.SEOcertification.org 2010, all rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication is not permitted. For assistance, please contact: [email protected] www.SEOcertification.org Chapter 5 (page 113) SEO Monitoring 5.1 SEO Reporting and Conversion 5.2 Visitor Traffic Analysis 5.3 How to choose an SEO Consultant 5.4 Test Questions Chapter 6 (page 123) Latest Concepts 6.1 Emerging Trends in SEO • Blog Optimization • Content Duplication in SEO • CraigsList • How to do Branding with SEO • Podcasting • RSS Feed Optimization • SEO & PPC Tools for Google • SEO & ROI • SEO - Present and its future • Wiki Article Inclusion • The New Buzz in Video Optimization – YouTube • Digg.com • Web Analytics 6.2 Affiliate Marketing 6.3 Google Dance and its Impact on Rankings 6.4 Test Questions 5 Copyright www.SEOcertification.org 2010, all rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication is not permitted. For assistance, please contact: [email protected] www.SEOcertification.org Chapter 7 (page 150) Marketing Strategies 7.1 Local Search Marketing • On Page Optimization factors 7.2 Link Baiting 7.3 Google Webmaster Central • Google Webmaster Tools 7.4 Test Questions Chapter 8 (page 158) Advanced SEO Techniques 8.1 Top pointers for High Rankings on Local Search Engines 8.2 Use of Lens and Hub pages to promote sites 8.3 Auto-pinging a Blog and its RSS 8.4 Test Questions Chapter 9 (page 164) Latest SEO Tactics & Strategies 9.1 The need for Sitelinks in your Website 9.2 Website Speed Optimization 9.3 Increasing traffic by using Social Bookmarking 9.4 Facebook Ad Tactics 6 Copyright www.SEOcertification.org 2010, all rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication is not permitted. For assistance, please contact: [email protected] www.SEOcertification.org Chapter 1 Search Engines 1.1 Search Engine Basics Introduction to search engines As the Internet started to grow and became an integral part of day-to-day work, it became almost impossible for a user to fetch the exact or relevant information from such a huge web. This is the main reason why ‘Search Engines’ were developed. Search engines became so popular that now more than 80% of web-site visitors come from them. What exactly is a Search Engine? According to webopedia, a “Search Engine” is a program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found”. For Example, if you want to know about the Automobile market in Canada, you will type keywords like automotive market, automobiles in Canada, automobile manufacturers in Canada etc... Once you click on the search button, you’ll get the best relevant data related to those keywords. On the eve of Google’s initial public offering, new surveys and traffic data confirm that search engines have become an essential and popular way for people to find information online. A nationwide phone survey of 1,399 Internet users between May 14 and June 17 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows: • 84% of internet users have used search engines. On any given day online, more than half of those using the Internet use search engines. More than two-thirds of Internet users say they use search engines at least a couple of times per week. • The use of search engines usually ranks only second to email use as the most popular activity online. During periods when major news stories are breaking, the act of getting news online usually surpasses the use of search engines. • There is a substantial payoff as search engines improve and people become more adept at using them. Some 87% of search engine users say they find the information they want most of the time when they use search engines. 7 Copyright www.SEOcertification.org 2010, all rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication is not permitted. For assistance, please contact: [email protected] www.SEOcertification.org • The convenience and effectiveness of the search experience solidifies its appeal. Some 44% say that most times they search they are looking for vital information they absolutely need. COM Score Networks tracking of Internet use shows that among the top 25 search engines: • Americans conducted 6.7 billion total searches in December. • 44% of those searches were done from home computers, 49% were done from work computers, and 7% were done at university-based computers. • The average Internet user performed 33 searches in June. • The average visit to a search engine resulted in 4.4 searches. • The average visitor scrolled through 1.8 result pages during a typical search. • In June, the average user spent 41 minutes at search engine sites. • COM Score estimates that 40-45 percent of searches include 1sponsored results. • Approximately 7 percent of searches in March included a local modifier, such as city and state names, phone numbers or the words “map” or “directions.” • The percentage of searches that occurred through browser toolbars in June was 7% Search engine market share: Four times voted as Most Outstanding Search Engine, Google is an undisputed market leader of the search engine industry. Google is a crawler based search engine, which is known for providing both comprehensive coverage of web pages and most relevant information. It attracts the largest number of searches and the number goes up to 250 million searches everyday. Yahoo! is the second largest player in the industry with 28% of market share. Yahoo! started as a human based directory but turned into a Crawler based search engine in 2002. Till early 2004, it was powered by Google but after that they started to use their own technology. Yahoo stands next to Google in terms of number of searches per day. It is owned by Yahoo and attracts more than 167 million searches a day. Yahoo was the first search engine to come up with a PPC program. AskJeeves initially gained fame in 1998 and 1999 as being the "natural language" search engine that let you search by asking questions and responded with what seemed to be the right answer to everything. When launched, it was run by around 100 editors who monitored search logs. Today, however, AskJeeves depends on crawler-based technology to provide results to its users. 8 Copyright www.SEOcertification.org 2010, all rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication is not permitted. For assistance, please contact: [email protected] www.SEOcertification.org Major Search Engines and Directories Google: Right from the establishment in 1999, until today, Google is still the most popular search engine on the internet. Since its beta release, it has had phrase searching for NOT, it did not add an OR operation until Oct. 2000. In Dec. 2000, it added title searching. In June 2000 it announced a database of over 560 million pages, which grew to 4 billion by February 2004. Its biggest strength is its size and scope. Google includes PDF, DOC, PS, Image and many other file type indexing. It also has additional databases in the form of Google Groups, News, Directory, etc. Yahoo!: Yahoo! is one of the best known and most popular internet portals. Originally just a subject directory, now Yahoo! is a search engine, directory and portal. It includes cached copies of pages and also includes links to the Yahoo! directory. It supports full Boolean searching, but it lacks in providing some advanced search features such as truncation. It indexes the first 500KB of a web page and link searches require inclusion of http:// Bing: Bing Search by Microsoft is the search engine for the MSN portal site. For years it had used databases from other vendors including Inktomi, LookSmart, and Direct Hit. As of February 1, 2005, it began using its own, unique database including separate News, Images, and Local databases along with links into Microsoft's Encarta Encyclopedia content. Its large and unique database, query building Search Builder and Boolean searching, cached copies of web pages including date cached and automatic local search options are its strengths.