Feb 28, 2009

Canonical link element?

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What is canonical link element?
This is a new, optional directive, that helps to specify the original url of a page.

How it works?
For example, let’s have a page with parameters like this:

http://www.mywebsite.com/index.php?param1=aaa&param2=bbb

Parameters can be session id or anything else. If their value is not relevant to the page we can specify our original (canonical) url in the head section of the page:

<head>

…

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.mywebsite.com/”>

…

</head>

We can specify canonical url to a section/page:

<head>

…

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.mywebsite.com/somepage.php”>

…

</head>

In short - canonical link element helps identify different links to one page.


More
More about canonical link element can be found at Matt Cutts blog here. And here is Google help information about it.

Jan 4, 2009

SEO errors during web site development and design

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Many companies consider redesign or redevelopment of their website to attract and impress new clients. They contact with web development company and purchase a fancy web design and somewhat functional CMS.

Nowadays no one underestimate search engine optimization any more. Almost every business considers hiring a SEO company or expert to do the optimization part on the ready website.

Where is the error here?

Search engine optimization is a complex process. Basically it can be divided into two parts – on-site optimization and off-site optimization. Doing on-site optimization on a non-optimized, fully-developed web site will cost a lot of efforts. To cut short the costs, search engine optimization must be kept in mind during the website development and design.

For example flash menus can be good looking but the search engines still can’t handle them. The same goes for JavaScript menus and navigation. The overall site usability must be approved by a SEO expert.
There are many requirements for a site to be SEO friendly – different titles and meta tags for different pages, articles, categories, etc. Search engine friendly urls also must be considered.
I won’t list all the necessary stuff, because this post will become too long.

What is the solution?

A good SEO expert must participate in development process. Developers and designers must be in touch with him from the planning point of the project. There are some web development companies that offer a complex solution – web design, CMS development and SEO optimization. Anyway consider consulting more than one SEO expert and ask about the reasons for every step with suspicion.

Dec 22, 2008

The basic SEO rule!

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Search engine optimization is a relatively complex business. Many people start working on it and give up after a while, thinking that they are not suit to do it.

Really, SEO needs a lot of work and knowledge. Any SEO master must know in depth many technologies like marketing, internet marketing, search engines, web design, some programming languages, etc.

Often, people start doing SEO without any knowledge, hoping that they will get it after some practice. Of course, large number of them fail. But there are few that succeed even without knowledge, support or investment.

So what is the basic rule of success in SEO?

It is simple - just never to give up. Yep, the success is not related to any knowledge, the most important thing is the wish for success. It is easy on words but after few months of hard work people tend to give up.

It is hard to continue working when you are disappointed of your achievements.

The cure for this state of mind can be a large vacation away from work and a strict schedule after it. This works for me pretty good, maybe it will work for you. And don't forget that you may be only one step away from the big SUCCESS!
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