FAQ: Search Engine Optimization

**deano6410** · Sep 4, 2006 05:52

Interesting article. Many thanks.

**Wynnefield** · Sep 5, 2006 18:33

let me begin by saying i asked stymiee from what site he pulled this information, so i could bookmark it and stay current. well, i was embarrassed to find out he wrote this himself and continues to keep it updated. i thank you, stymiee!

if i may, please let me add some points of discussion:

If available, use your strongest keywords in your domain name.
This is the first line of attraction for Search Engines. Having a keyword-rich domain name is key if yours is available. And as stymiee previously noted, do not be afraid to use alternate extensions, i.e. .biz, .net, as they have no detrimental effect on your rankings.

Second to the domain name, the title tag is the most critical location to place your strong keyword phrases.
The contents of the title tag is the text that displays in the blue title bar at the top of your browser. One of the most elementary mistakes “unknown” companies make is using their company name for the title tag. Unless your company is known, and you expect surfers to enter it as a search phrase, LEAVE IT OUT. If your business is demographically focused, include the region in the title tag, i.e. North Texas, Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.

Include a Site Map.
A Search Engine crawler finds your site and your site’s pages by following links. Every page of your site should include a link to every other page. A Site Map acts as a link directory to every page on your Web site. This assists crawlers at finding and indexing all of your site’s pages.

I agree to disagree with the following points above:

“The file extension does not affect your rankings in any way.”

I recommend taking care when coding dynamic sites. Google emphatically quotes: “Don’t use “&id=” as a parameter in your URLs, as we don’t include these pages in our index.”

Does validation help your ranking? No.

I recommend writing standards-compliant code. The easier you make it for search engine’s to read your code, the better your chances for success. Avoid two kinds of HTML code: 1) old and outdated; or proprietary (the Netscape <blink> tag) and 2) too new to be recognized by spiders (some XML). Personally, I use the Transitional DOCTYPE; however, if you really like to keep things in order, Strict is a more demanding structure. See Fix Your Site With the Right DOCTYPE for more information.

Use the W3.org HTML Validator

(I am embarrassed to admit it was recently pointed out to me by another Sitepoint member I was missing a <head> tag on one of my pages. I don’t understand how it continued to render in both IE and FF, but it has been corrected.)

Well, I sincerely hope this has added to the discussion and offered some positive topics, as well as alternative modes of thought. I look forward to hearing back from other members.

thank you,

**stymiee** · Sep 5, 2006 18:42

Originally Posted by Wynnefield

I recommend taking care when coding dynamic sites. Google emphatically quotes: “Don’t use “&id=” as a parameter in your URLs, as we don’t include these pages in our index.”

The file extension is not actually considered part of the query string which is where you find the "id=" and session IDs. But you are right to avoid "id=" in your query string (which is why we say not to use it).

**Wynnefield** · Sep 6, 2006 09:02

true ... my misunderstanding of the original point. thank you for the response, stymiee ...

**tarunkrsna** · Sep 17, 2006 03:47

Yesterday, 16th September 06 in Australia, you sent me here to this thread when I was looking for help with an seo assignment for my web design course. There's heaps here. A credit to you. You are doing a great job.
t3rry.

**lgtoday** · Sep 20, 2006 02:47

Originally Posted by stymiee

The file extension is not actually considered part of the query string which is where you find the "id=" and session IDs. But you are right to avoid "id=" in your query string (which is why we say not to use it).

I've been reading this thread from the beginning. Good Stuff. One question, I have a website that's PR5. But only the home page is PR5, all the other pages are PR0. Is this normal? And does it affect my google rankings?

thx

**GzThai** · Sep 24, 2006 07:19

Thank you stymiee for the useful links!

**sitedesigner** · Sep 24, 2006 12:37

How up to date is this article? Possibly could we get some more up to date information?

**stymiee** · Sep 24, 2006 13:21

It's up to date.

**jane2008** · Sep 24, 2006 21:39

Woowww great information here

**whitebelt** · Oct 6, 2006 18:39

I need clarification. When you folks suggest that keyword density in your URL is sacrificed by not removing /html/ from the directory structure, what do u really mean in English? Does this mean that those files that are named in your control panel/directory with the suffix .html or /html/ have to be renamed in Dreamweaver (as in my case)? I thought you must use these suffixes in dreamweaver so that the file can be properly saved? What do u mean by this advice? For example, I have a page that on the address bar says: http://www.robeprobe.com/best_judges.php. Am I supposed to remove ".php" and replace it with a keyword? My hunch is that this won't work. I'm sure i'm misunderstanding this. Anyway, what about "best_judges"? Do I replace the underscore here with a "-" dash?? Here's how I would change the aforementioned address on the address bar by applying your advice based on my twisted/novice understanding of your info.: http://www.robeprobe.com/best-judges.judge rankings. Here I've replaced the equivalent of the /html/ you say should be removed. Did I get it or not? my gut feeling is that i don't get it...

**whitebelt** · Oct 7, 2006 06:01

I read somwhere that search engines give priority to words that are emphasized such as bold or italic words or words that are surrounded by <h>. Is this true? If so, Does this mean that inside the source code I should surround the keywords or words in the title tag with or <h> so Search engines will give priority to them and improve my PR? Would I be doing things correctly by writing lawn mower, fertilizer, landscaping, gardening equipment , by way of example?

**GzThai** · Oct 7, 2006 06:13

Thank you for the link to the PR Extension for Firefox! too

**stymiee** · Oct 7, 2006 07:15

Originally Posted by whitebelt

I read somwhere that search engines give priority to words that are emphasized such as bold or italic words or words that are surrounded by <h>. Is this true? If so, Does this mean that inside the source code I should surround the keywords or words in the title tag with or <h> so Search engines will give priority to them and improve my PR? Would I be doing things correctly by writing lawn mower, fertilizer, landscaping, gardening equipment , by way of example?

1) PR has nothing to do with markup. It is determined by link popularity only.

2) Stuffing keywords in a strong tag is blackhat. Plus it will make you site look stupid. Use it as it was meant to be used and for best effect.

3) Using or with <hx> tags is unecessary. <hx> tags are already good for SEO and you can style them with your stylesheets if you want to change their appearnace.

**markov** · Oct 11, 2006 23:44

Its fantastic. The SEO gurus teach and do something different. But the one which is noted here are the perfect techiques to follow. Thanx a lot.

**dsarathy** · Oct 23, 2006 02:54

Hi All,

Thanks for sharing this information here. Very useful indeed.

Regards,
D Sarathy.
RankQuest

**northbeach23** · Nov 2, 2006 03:54

thank Stymiee. It will help me a lot.

**jakob200** · Dec 10, 2006 15:02

very very thanx for information

**gl3nnx** · Dec 27, 2006 03:43

Stymiee is a good SEO!, i think he is better than Matt Cutts

Originally Posted by northbeach23

thank Stymiee. It will help me a lot.

**Chris Auman** · Jan 3, 2007 08:06

This is good stuff. I'm not even a beginner and I learned something. This is what makes Sitepoint great when people like you take the time to help us all while asking for nothing in return! Keep it up.

**Chris Auman** · Jan 3, 2007 10:10

This post just rocks! I keep getting more and more great info. thanks all!

**SeriousKevin** · Jan 12, 2007 06:08

Insanely useful post, thank you so much.

**produke** · Feb 7, 2007 09:48

Basically this helps get rid of duplicate content, low-quality content, css, javascript, php, etc.. but does allow search engines to read the articles, find images, find pdfs, etc.

WordPress robots.txt

Code:

# Allow all
User-agent:  *
Disallow:
 
# disallow all files in these directories
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /comments/
Disallow: /js/
Disallow: /css/
Disallow: /about/legal-notice/
Disallow: /about/copyright-policy/
Disallow: /about/terms-and-conditions/
Disallow: /about/feed/
Disallow: /about/trackback/
Disallow: /contact/
Disallow: /stats
Disallow: /tag
Disallow: /category/uncategorized
Disallow: /wp-
 
# disallow all files ending with these extensions
Disallow: /*.php$
Disallow: /*.js$
Disallow: /*.inc$
Disallow: /*.css$
Disallow: /*.txt$
 
# disallow all files with? in url
Disallow: /*?*
 
# disallow all files in /wp- directorys
Disallow: /wp-*/
 
# disallow archiving site
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /
 
# allow google image bot to search all images
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow:
Allow: /*.gif$
Allow: /*.png$
Allow: /*.jpeg$
Allow: /*.jpg$
Allow: /*.ico$
Allow: /*.jpg$
Allow: /images/
 
# allow adsense bot on entire site
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google*
Disallow:
 
User-agent: *
Crawl-delay: 2

phpBB robots.txt

Code:

# Allow all
User-agent:  *
Disallow:
Disallow: /js/
Disallow: /css/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /db/
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /cache/
Disallow: /includes/
Disallow: /templates/
Disallow: /V
Disallow: /stats
Disallow: /post
Disallow: /member
Disallow: /mx_
Disallow: /index.php? 
Disallow: /posting.php 
Disallow: /groupcp.php 
Disallow: /search.php 
Disallow: /login.php 
Disallow: /privmsg.php 
Disallow: /post
Disallow: /profile.php 
Disallow: /memberlist.php 
Disallow: /faq.php 
Disallow: /archive
 
# disallow archiving site
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /
 
# allow google image bot to search all images
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow:
Allow: /*.gif$
Allow: /*.png$
Allow: /*.jpeg$
Allow: /*.jpg$
Allow: /*.ico$
Allow: /*.jpg$
Allow: /images/
 
# allow adsense bot on entire site
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google*
Disallow:
 
User-agent: *
Crawl-delay: 2

For SEO Optimized phpBB

Code:

# Allow all
User-agent:  *
Disallow: /js/
Disallow: /css/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /db/
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /cache/
Disallow: /includes/
Disallow: /templates/
Disallow: /V
Disallow: /stats
Disallow: /post
Disallow: /member
Disallow: /mx_
 
# disallow these urls
Disallow: /viewtopic.php
Disallow: /viewforum.php
Disallow: /index.php?
Disallow: /posting.php
Disallow: /groupcp.php
Disallow: /search.php
Disallow: /login.php
Disallow: /profile.php
Disallow: /memberlist.php
Disallow: /faq.php
Disallow: /common.php
Disallow: /index.php
Disallow: /memberlist.php
Disallow: /modcp.php
Disallow: /privmsg.php
Disallow: /viewonline.php
 
# disallow urls starting with quote
Disallow: /"
 
# disallow all files with a ? in url
Disallow: /*?*

# disallow all files ending in specific extension
Disallow: /*.php$
Disallow: /*.js$
Disallow: /*.inc$
Disallow: /*.css$
Disallow: /*.txt$
 
# disallow archiving site
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /
 
# allow google image bot to search all images
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow:
Allow: /*.gif$
Allow: /*.png$
Allow: /*.jpeg$
Allow: /*.jpg$
Allow: /*.ico$
Allow: /*.jpg$
Allow: /images/
 
# allow adsense bot on entire site
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google*
Disallow:
 
User-agent: *
Crawl-delay: 2

**Ka-canor** · Feb 20, 2007 09:09

Hi, thanks for the tips its very useful.

**traderonline** · Feb 26, 2007 06:35

thanks for the valuable tips.
this answers most of my questions. perfect FAQ

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thanks Stymiee

Really Good advice...

Woww

Removing .html from directory structure & changing the underscore to dashes??

does using <strong> (i.e. bold) or <h> around words inside tag help?

Thanks for the Information

robots.txt SEO examples

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