(888) 350-8396 blog.milestoneinternet.com © copyright 2009 milestone internet marketing, inc. seo...

(888) 350-8396 • www.milestoneinternet.com • blog.milestoneinternet.com

© Copyright 2009 Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc.

SEO Deployment andInformation Architecture

Benu [email protected]

(408) 200-6860



SEO Deployment andInformation Architecture Agenda

** Rule of thumb: Every step needs to have its own checklist to follow

Information Architecture of your site can be divided in three buckets

WebsiteArchitecture

• Site Maps / Folder Structure (HTML, XML, Conceptual )

• SEO friendly CMS

• Programming Best Practices

TechnicalArchitecture

• Duplicate Content Issues

• Domain Canonicalization

• 301 redirects, 404 issues

• Best Practices to avoid Duplicate Content Issue

PageArchitecture

• Onpage SEO elements Research, Content and Design

QA and Tools (QA tools and checklist)

Make SEO an integral part of all three processes



Tailoring your CMS to be SEO friendly Search Engine Friendly CMS

URL Structure

Rewrite Conditions - Apply Mod-rewrite rules so URL appears static and keyword rich to crawler.

For Apache users modify your .htaccess file and for Microsoft IIIS users use ISAPI rewrite plug-in to manage your rewrites.

CMS gives user ability to change/create pages and URL’s on the fly. Dynamic URL’s changing frequently can create lot of broken 404 pages . These pages might be getting lot of traffic. CMS should dynamically 301 redirect ALL OLD URLs ITERATIONS to new urls to gain SEO benefit.

URL Structure - Session ID’s should not be used in URL. Use session ID in the body. Make sure to block entire folder in robots.

301 Redirect all uppercase url’s to lower case url ‘s to avoid duplicate content

Site Maps

Dynamic XML Site Map Generation and Submission

Automatic Update on Static Site Maps based on the addition of the page



Tailoring your CMS to be SEO friendly On page Elements impacting your CMS to be SEO friendly

Giving user capability to edit all meta tags, image names, alts, anchor text, footer links

Set up an image naming convention and manage alts for images. Allow image alts and names to be controlled within CMS

Capability to control all headings in to H1, H2, H3 Tags.

Robots Robots - Keep all staging and development files under

robots no index . Provide link to all the sitemaps.xml from robot file

• Folder StructureDesign website with friendly category folders

Do not go deeper than 2 levels to maximize site indexing. Construct folder structure to follow your main categories. All the pages should be filed under each relevant category.



Tailoring your CMS to be SEO friendly

Easy ability to edit Meta tags and images



Best SEO Programming Practiceswith CMS system

1. Making your codes Search Engine Friendly - Avoid use of tables, use CSS and div tags, externally reference all JavaScript files and CSS files to keep your codes clean

2. Float body content at the very top of the page right after body tag

3. For ASP.NET coders, move the view state ID at the very bottom of the page.

4. Typically, CMS systems have dynamically created dropdown pages. Use CSS menus to create dropdowns rather than Javascripts. Javascripts menu’s do not do well in search engines.

5. Use absolute links throughout. Do not load actual page content through Javascript or AJAX

6. If feeding content through flash, be sure to enable SIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement) – This is a technology that allows you to replace text elements on screen with Flash equivalents.

7. Keep static sitemap page and xml in the root level similar to index page. Do not add more than 100 pages on one site map page. Consider created smaller site maps if you are working with huge site.

8. Handle error pages appropriately, serve 404 error page or redirect bad request to main category page

9. Test for XSS (Cross site scripting errors) and device level security to ensure your site is does not have any vulnerability (Mac) ?



Technical Architecture – Duplicate Content

Most common reasons for Duplicate Content

Problem 1: Multiple Domains, Domain Canonicalization, Different URL for the same content

Problem 2: Pagination when Different Pages have Identical

Titles and Meta Description or if you are Syndicating Content

Through Data feed

Problem 3: Printer Friendly Sites, Test Sites, Session IDs,

URL Rewriting

Tools which you can use to detect Duplicate Content Issue

Best Practices to avoid Duplicate Content Issue



Multiple Domains, Identical Homepage, Different URL for the Same Content

Scenario 1: Are you facing Canonical URL problem? Having 2 versions of your site indexed. With/without www.domain.com.

Solution: Use Google webmaster to define primary URL. If you control your server than set up your IIS correctly to redirect non www version to www version. Create an htaccess file that prevents www canonicalization. Make sure your htaccess file prevents default page canonicalization

Create a few simple rules that will remove duplicate URLs by 301 redirecting all variations to the shortest, most authoritative URL.

Bottom-line: Be consistent: Endeavor to keep your internal linking consistent and don’t link to /page/ and /page and /page/index.htm.

For Apache users modify your htaccess file and for Microsoft IIIS user use ISAPI rewrite plug-in to manage your rewrites



Problem 1: Multiple Domains, Identical Homepage Different URL for the Same Content

Scenario 2: Do you have multiple entry point for the same content? Your customer can pick any data point to filter by, in any order and might land up on same content with different urls.

Solution:

Always bring your customer to the

same page no matter what path

they take. Use proper mod-rewrite

techniques. Make URL search

Engine Friendly and keep one

Target page.

Home

User action = Search

Search Hotels

Country - France

City - Paris

TARGET PAGEhttp://www.findhotel.com/Europe/France/paris-france-vacation-bw-bradford-elysees-home.aspx

Country - France

City - Paris

Search Hotels

Target page is same in either path

Path1 Path 2



Problem 2: Paginating or Syndicating Content

How to make your pages unique ? Add unique content for meta, H1 tag, H2 tags.150 character descriptive snippet per

product, alt tags for product images

Optimize and create unique KWP rich title tag

Note: On any page a few additional words don't qualify as unique content. It may still be judged as duplicate content by the search engines.

Scenario: Pagination - When different pages have identical titles and meta description or If you are freely syndicating content from large sites through feeds, and thousand other sites are also using same data feed for syndication.

Solution - You need to enhance and expand the content on your site to make it unique. Write unique content for each page and become the original source of information for that subject. Do not use any data or RSS feeds to add "unique content". Always authenticate your content by using tools.



Problem 2: Duplicate Website Issues – Authenticate Content Provided by Different Sources

Problem Authenticate ownership of content

Use tools to check content



Problem 3: Printer Friendly Sites, Test Sites,Boilerplate Repetition, Empty pages

Minimize boilerplate repetition: Avoid repeating same content information such as copy write, disclaimers on every page. For instance, instead of including lengthy copyright text on the bottom of every page, include a

very brief summary and then link to a page with more details.

Avoid publishing stubs: Users don’t like seeing “empty” pages, so avoid placeholders when ever possible.

Scenario: Printer Friendly Sites, Test Sites, Boilerplate Repetition andEmpty pages

Solution: Block Indexing of Printer Friendly Version of the Website or Test Sites by disallowing in robots.txt or meta tags or href.

User-agent: *Disallow: /print/ < a rel="nofollow" href="site.com/printer-friendly-page.htm">Print < meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX">



Best practices to avoidduplicate content problems

Disallow folders in robots.txt file that have same version of the site in different format for example print friendly sites, test sites.

Use preferred domain set up in IIS or webmaster tools. Work on your www.redirects.

Use 301 Redirects, IIS or webmaster tools if you have multiple domain situation

Avoid Domain Canonicalization: Always use the same links to link to any page on your site

Syndicate carefully – If you syndicate content to other websites, be sure to link back to original website on each feed

Authenticate your content. Use unique snippet content per page.

Avoid publishing stubs, boiler plate repetition – Do not repeat blocks of copyright information on every page. Do not show pages with empty data field.

Use TLD - Use top level domains to handle language specific content. Buy domain with country specific extensions - If you have German pages, use a .de domain for these pages.

Keep URL simple with out session id’s. Manage your URLs – do a mod-rewrite

Check if your site is facing any duplicate content penalty by using free tools.



Finally check if your site architectureis SEO friendly?

• Google Webmaster Tool

http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers.asp

http://www.virante.com/seo-tools/duplicate-content.php

http://www.copyscape.com/

Live HTTP Headers add-on for Firefox to check if site is facing duplicate content issue.. http status code should be 200.

SEO Book tools – Crawl Test tool and website health check tool

Check Redirects if they are search friendly http://webconfs.com/redirect-check.php

SEO Moz – Crawl Test Tools

http://website.grader.com

Broken Links - Xenu's Link Sleuth and http://validator.w3.org/checklink/



Summary

SEO needs to be deployed in every stage - In Website Architecture, Page Architecture and Technical Architecture

Check and make sure your CMS is Search Engine Friendly

Your site should not be facing any duplicate content issue. Trouble shoot all the scenario’s..

Check and see if you are set up to succeed.. Check out few tools given.

Check duplicate content, crawl issues, site architecture issue, search engine friendly images and flash, download issues etc..



Wordpress – How to Deploy SEO? Find a good theme & edit it carefully

Create a list of categories

Plugins are one of Word Press’s best features. SEO Title Tag, Ultimate Tag Warrior, Akismet (control Spam), Google sitemap generator, Related Post Plugin, SEO Slugs, Calendar Plugin

Change the permalink options.

Avoid duplicate content issues by doing a Nofollow on archives

Provide easy way for users to subscribe to blog RSS

Use excerpts to describe what the post is about

Run most current version of wordpress

Always change default passwords



CSS Verses Tables• Great for SEO

Helps crawler get to content higher and easierStructural elements can be easily defined such as H1, H2, H3Can handle dropdown menus very well with clean code and no javascript

• AccessibilityEasy separation of content (HTML) from visual information (styles)Universal cross-browser style declarationsMulti-medium support (web browsers, mobile screen readers, etc) - Ability to serve different style sheets to different mediums and devices

• Clean code and easy to maintain

• Print friendly CSS are real blessings



Thank You

Benu AggarwalPresident/Founder

Milestone Internet Marketing(408) 200-6860

benu@milestoneinternet.comwww.milestoneinternet.comblog.milestoneinternet.com

http://twitter.com/milestonemktg



Problem 4: URL Structure with Session IDand HTTP Status Codes

What’s a URL (and where search engines get stuck)?

Customize Permalink Structure: Use word press plug in, which can let you customize URL

HTTP Status Codes 200 – Everything’s okay (make sure you don’t return this code on a “Page not Found”!) 404 – File not found 301 – File has been moved 302 – File is temporarily somewhere else 400 – Bad Request 401 – Unauthorized and 404 – Not Found

http://auto.msn.co.uk/autos/default.aspx?id=AA#found

Protocol Hostname Path Query Fragment

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