Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips

Your Woogloo has been setup to achieve the best results possible for Google ranking within the bounds of Google's own policies and best practices. Once your Woogloo has been initially setup, SEO should be automatically handled by the system - as long as you follow some simple rules.

• Page Name
  The name of the page should be keyword rich and not be full of dynamic page variables. For example, if the page is about web design, the name should be web-design.html, not default.aspx?pageno=567. You can set the name of every page in your Woogloo and ensure that it uses the right key words where required. The Woogloo system automatically renames pages on the server to be 'friendly' to Google and, even though they are dynamically generated, look like static HTML pages.

• Title Tag
  The Title Tag is one of the primary Meta Tags coded into the HTML that tells the browser window and search engines what the page is about. This should be the same as the name of the page (see above). The Woogloo system automatically puts the page's name into the Title Tag.
   
  
• Page Heading
  This should be the first thing in the main content of your web page. That is, not an image, but words that are the same as the page name formatted with an H1, H2, or H3 style tag (i.e. Heading 1, Heading 2 or Heading 3 format style setting). Google looks at the page name, title tag and first heading tag (which must be the first piece of content) on the page to determine the subject of the page and they like all three to be the same. These also determine the keyword for this page, which is critical for ranking on keyword searches.
   
  
• Keywords Tags
  The Keyword Meta Tags are primarily used by Google to 'validate' the page. That is, to determine if the keywords that are set in the Meta tags match the content of the page. Therefore, Woogloo takes the first paragraph from the page and splits it up into individual words and puts it in the Keyword Meta Tag. Woogloo then tacks onto the end of these the keywords that you have set for the site (under Site>Edit MetaTags). It helps if the first paragraph has exactly the same words as used in the page name and heading repeated at least twice. For example, "We do great web designs for your business without some of the exorbitant costs of other web designers. What is more, our web designs are to a higher standard than what others will supply."

• Home Page Name
  Since the Woogloo system automatically puts the name of the page into the Title Tag, a good way to get ranked on a few of your primary keywords is to change the name of the Home page from Home to four or five key words (or two word key phrases) separated by commas.
  
  These same keywords can then also be put at the very top of the content on the Home page. To ensure that this does not distract from your primary marketing message on your Home page, the text should be formatted as an H1 Tag, but then inline style tags to reduce the font size, aligning the font color to that of the page background color (effectively making the text disappear) and reduce the padding and margin settings to zero (0) (so there is no big gap at the top of the page) should be added.
   
  
• Domain Name
  Having your keyword in your domain also helps with keyword based searches in Google - as Google favors domain/company names over basic keyword ranking. This is why, when you type in your domain name ion a Google search, it will always come at the top of the search results (once it has been properly indexed by Google).
   
  In the same way, you can buy domain names that contain your primary keyword phrases in them (e.g. if you are a web development company you could buy webdevelopment.co.nz or web-development.co.nz). You can point unlimited domain name to your Woogloo - and even have them landing on different pages.
   
  If they land on pages named in the same way as we described naming the home page above, but with the keyword used in the domain name as the first keyword phrase and the page content optimized to this keyword (i.e. the heading uses the keyword and the first paragraph contains this keyword at least twice), this will also assist in ranking for that keyword phrase.
   
  
• Site/Page Description
  Your Woogloo's Meta Tag description (see Site>Edit MetaTags) is used by search engines in their returned results under your web page's name for your home page. Therefore, this is your opportunity to get your primary sales message across - but it has to be only around 20 words long. Not having a Meta Tag description can adversely affect your ranking.
   
  When a search engine returns results for other pages on your website, they take the first paragraph and return that as the description for the page. This is why it is important to have a clear and concise first paragraph on each and every one of your web pages.
   
  
• Alt Tags
  All images should have alt tags added to them that describe the image (using only a few words). This not only helps people who have not downloaded the image to see what the image is about, but also those who are visually impaired to navigate through your website.
  
  Google considers this 'good practice' and therefore this becomes a positive for page ranking. NOTE: You can edit the alt tag for an image in your content through the WYSIWYG editor (select the image then right click on it and press edit image).
   
  
• External Site Linking
  This is something you have little to no control over, which is why Google uses it as its primary measure for ranking your website. These are links coming from other websites, not from your website to other sites. The quality of the sites and the relevancy of them to your industry denote the value that Google places on the link. NOTE: having hundreds of link sites (think: 'spammers') pointing back at your website can be detrimental to your ranking.
   
  A method that SEO companies can use to try and enhance your ranking is to create hundreds of keyword specific websites - each with their own domain name and unique content related to a specific keyword or product - pointed back at your primary website. However, this is termed a 'Google Bomb' and if left unchecked will lead to your domain name being Blackballed by Google - i.e. you will effectively disappear from the internet.
   
  
• Bounces
  When someone visits your home page and then leaves your website without going any further, this is termed a Bounce. The more bounces you have, the less valuable Google considers your website.
   
  This is one of the reasons why 'web marketing' type websites (e.g. http://www.earncrazy.com ) with very long 'home' or 'landing' pages are not a good idea - despite what the 'so called' experts say. Not only do they lack any real credibility - and, after all, marketing is about making someone believe you have a product or service worth spending money on (i.e. marketing is about belief or perceptions and these sites quickly suspend people's beliefs in the way they sound 'unreal' from the very first statement.).
   
  You want your home page to draw someone further into your website. To do this, summaries the key offerings/products or services you have in one paragraph per group or main category that draws the reader to click through to a page with the full information on it. This should then give you around 3-6 short paragraphs laid up well on the home page with links at the end that say something like read more>>.
  
  
• Duplicate Content
  Having exactly the same content on many websites is seen by Google as similar to that web page, or even websites, being equivalent to 'spam' sites.
   
  Therefore, even when your agents or franchises copy information or pages form your website, make sure they change it slightly - even just the first paragraph on the page.
   
  
• Blogs and other 'Free Sites'
  Having Blogs, free web pages (e.g. Google pages), company and personal profiles on directory websites (e.g. Finda.co.nz) or social media sites (e.g. facebook.com) can enhance your 'web presence', which is a good thing for ranking. However, be aware that these must be regularly kept up-to-date or they very quickly become useless.
   
  Of course the more of these you have to keep maintaining, the more time and energy you are spending on your SEO and the less time you are spending prospecting for real business. This is why we very rarely recommend that clients spend time doing these types of things, as they simply become a distraction from doing your real marketing.