Hyphens or Underscores? Which is Best?

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Another age old SEO / webmaster question … should I use hyphens (dashes) or underscores in my page names eg. my-page vs. my_page.

Matt Cutts from Google states that it does make a difference as hyphens (dashes) are treated as seperators whereas underscores are not.

However he also says not to worry too much if your site is currently doing well, certainly don’t go changing all your pages just because of this post. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

But sure, if you’re designing a brand new site structure, stick with hyphens – they look better and are easier (IMO) for people to remember and type (and they help Google to recognise seperate words).

A disclaimer: Like everything with SEO – just because this is currently the case doesn’t mean it’ll stay like this forever … in fact this video was originally posted in February 2009 … so they may have included underscores as seperators now too …. but I’d still stick with hyphens.

Tags: benefits, hyphens, underscores

Paid Links & Buying Links

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Buying links or paying for links (which pass PageRank) has been officially forbidden by Google & is against their TOS.

That means that any links you buy or sell with the intention of gaming the search engines can potentially damage your site or even get it removed from the search engine’s index.

Buying links isn’t necessarily prohibited, Google rightly state that it is “a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results.” and that “links purchased for advertising should be designated as such.”

There are a few ways to do this but the most effective is to use the rel=”nofollow” tag to tell the search spiders not to follow that particular link & not to pass any PageRank (reputation) along with it.

So, stop building sites just to gain PR & therefore to sell links & bring your online money making efforts into the 21st century!

Don’t believe me? Here is Google’s official stance.

Tags: buying links, link building, paid links, search engine optimisation, seo

How To: Start a Youtube Video at a Specific Start Time

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Here’s how to start a youtube video automatically at a given time. This method also works with Facebook embedding!

Find a video you wish to share. Copy the video URL (address) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTG3FlEv4VQ

Now we have to slightly reformat the URL so that it becomes

http://www.youtube.com/v/aTG3FlEv4VQ

Next simply work out (in seconds) where you want the video to start. To start at 1 minute & 30 seconds, use 90 seconds & add this to the end of the new URL.

&start=90

So the complete URL becomes:

http://www.youtube.com/v/aTG3FlEv4VQ&start=90

Then simply copy and paste this into Facebook!

Autostarting the video

Automatically starting a youtube video is simple! All you need is another parameter tagged onto the end of the URL … here’s the code:

&autoplay=1

Where 1 is the number of times you wish the video to autoplay.

So to start the above video automatically at 90 seconds the complete address would be:

http://www.youtube.com/v/aTG3FlEv4VQ&start=90&autoplay=1

Enjoy!!

Tags: programming, search engine optimisation, social media, youtube

Individually Number Google Search Results

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So you know how to increase Google search results to 100. But what use is that if you only know that the site you’re looking for in three-quarters of the way down the page?

This requires no additional plugins or software … we’re just creating a bookmark.

Individually Number Google Search Results for Internet Explorer

• Create a bookmark to any page. Name it something useful like (Number Google Results).
• Open Internet Explorer (IE)
• Select Favourites > Add to Favourites
• Right click the Favourite and choose Properties
• Input the following code in the URL box (it may give you a warning about Javascript – just ignore it).

To use, just search for something on Google then open the favourite menu and click the bookmark you created in Step 1.

Individually Number Google Search Results for Firefox

• Create a bookmark to any page. Name it something useful like (Number Google Results).
• Open FireFox (FF)
• Choose Bookmark this Page (or use Ctrl + D)
• Select Favourites > Add to Favourites
• Right click the Favourite and choose Properties
• Input the following code in the Location box.

To use, just search for something on Google then open the favourite menu and click the bookmark you created in Step 1.

Tags: google results, google serps, guide, how to, number google results

Creating Multiple Sites – Pointing to Main Domain

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Here’s another question I see time and time again on the SEO forums:

“Should I create multiple small (one page) sites focused on a single keyword and then point them to my main domain?”

Here’s why this is largely a waste of time:

When you build a new site it starts at zero. Zero content, zero backlinks, zero visitors & zero reputation.

Therefore for every new site you build for a keyphrase you’ll have to build dedicated backlinks, content and promotion strategies for each site.

If you build 10 new sites then you’re creating 10 times the amount of work than simply creating a dedicated, keyword focused page on your existing site.

Don’t forget, if you’ve done it right you’re existing site will already be indexed, established, have some good backlinks and be getting spidered regularly.

Don’t waste your time with small keyword focused sites, just create a new page on your existing site and optimise that well!

Tags: micro sites, micro websites, multiple sites, single domain

Why Google PageRank Doesn’t Matter

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What is PageRank (PR)?

Google’s pagerank is a measure created by Google of a sites trustworthiness in the eyes of Google.

It is important to realise that PageRank applies to each individual page on a site & is not a sitewide value. One page can be PR 5 and another could have no PR.

Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.

That is why you’ll hear search engine professionals talking about how a single link from an authority (high PR) site can be worth more than lots of links for a low PR site.

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What? Two Versions?

Google has two versions of PageRank, a publically displayed metric and an internal value that they do not release to the public.

The public version is only updated once every 3 months or so (there’s even rumours that it only gets updated once a year).

Therefore the public toolbar PR is almost always out of date by up to 3 months.

That’s reason #1 why your PR doesn’t matter.

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Rankings & PageRank

It is well known in the search marketing industry that good (high) pagerank doesn’t equate to good (high) rankings. A PR 0 site can easily outrank a PR4 or PR5 site (and above).

Therefore concentrating on building PageRank in the hope that it will automatically convert into higher rankings for your keyphrases is a waste of time.

That’s reason #2 why PR doesn’t matter.

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Pagerank alone doesn’t pay the bills, it doesn’t generate enquiries, sales or conversions. A little green bar will never make your business or website a success, no matter how optimistic you are.

A great site with a PR0 doesn’t make it a bad site. It may be a new site, have had recent server problems (downtime) or the toolbar itself may be reporting bad data.

As has been said many times before, concentrate on building quality content that people will want to share with others & build your inbound links to get rankings that bring traffic, the PageRank will follow … but if it doesn’t … so what?!!?!

PS. You don’t just have to take my word for it, most SEO experts agree on this. Here, and here and even here.

Tags: google, google PR, pagerank

Does Google use META tags to categorise its web pages?

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They no longer use the keywords meta tag to rank sites in the results pages.

They do use the TITLE tag, meta title tag (two seperate entities) & the meta description along with other tags such as the robots meta tag.

While the meta description doesn’t have a huge (if any) impact on ranking position, the keywords used to search will be bold in the description. Therefore a well written description tag will increase CTRs to your pages.

It is worth noting that the search engines can choose whether or not to use the description tag but in most cases they will.

Tags: google meta tags, search engine optimisation, seo

How does Location & Previous Search History Affect Google Results?

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If Google (and other search engines) know where you’re located, they can (and will try) to display more relevant results based on that location.

For example if you’re searching for pizza shops or plumbers or car dealers & you’re located in London, you’re going to want ones that are nearby and not a pizza shop in Edinburgh.

If you sign in to your Google account (Youtube is obviously included in this) and you have previously searched for MS and been looking for pages and information about multiple sclerosis then you’re likely to want to see the same sort of result should you search for MS again. Rather than seeing results for Microsoft or manuscript or milestone.

Of course, there is the option to opt out of these services and clear your browser history and cookies but most people will find that providing Google with your location is a small price to pay for much more targeted results.

Tags: google results, google serps, location, search engine results, serps

What is Link Building?

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Link building is the process of building links that point towards your site. Usually with keywords / keyphrases in the anchor text (the clickable part).

This helps to get your site ranked in the search engines.

The links must be standard (or do follow links) as if they contain the rel=”nofollow” tag the search engines won’t (you guessed it) follow the links and you won’t receive any search engine placement benefit.

Links must also be from related pages / domains and it is entirely true that anyone can get link to their site, but only an experienced SEO can get the links that matter.

Adam Gardner is a freelance SEO / Social Media Expert. Follow him on twitter @agseo or subscribe to this blog via RSS.

Tags: ibls, link building, search engine optimisation, seo

Why are Meta Tags useful?

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They are a place to input data related to your webpage.

The meta title tag (not the <*title> tag) is used by some sites such as facebook for the snippet of information they use when you share a link.

The <*title> tag is the most important tag on the page, and it should be unique and always contain your keywords / phrases.

The meta description tag is sometimes used by Google (and other search engines) as the snippet of info below your listing. Although it has little / no significance on actual ranking, the keywords are made bold from the description…. therefore a well written description can increase CTRs.

The meta keyword tag used to be important but is now largely redundant. Don’t worry if you still use it, but don’t spend too much time if you aren’t currently using it.

Tags: meta tags, search engine optimisation, seo, useful