Bruce Clay

Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-25-2022

Effective SEO (search engine optimization) is critical for any business that has a website. You want your business’s website to show up on that first page when people search for what you’re selling, and that’s where SEO comes into play. Here you’ll find the key components of a website that should be crafted with care to help a web page rank, the server status codes that help or hinder SEO, and advanced search operators that will have you searching the web like a pro.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Domain names are an important part of your SEO strategy. If you don’t yet have a website domain name registered, you may be surprised to learn that you have a lot of options open to you besides ending your website name with .com. First, a little lesson in domain name anatomy. A URL is made up of several parts: You’re probably most familiar with the following top-level domains (TLDs): .com, .net, .edu, and .org. The .com domain is by far the most common, with more than 60 percent of sites using it. Many more options, however, are available to site owners — more than 1,000 options, in fact. There are generic TLDs (gTLDs) and country-specific TLDs, known as country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs): gTLD: With a few exceptions, generic top-level domains are open to anyone who wants to buy them. ccTLD: Country-code top-level domains are governed by an associated country and are, for the most part, restricted to websites that are hosted on a server within that country. Again, there are some exceptions. There are more than 700 gTLDs, including the usual suspects such as .com, .net, and .org. In the last few years, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN, for short) decided to open the gTLD system up to applications, and since 2014, thousands of less common gTLDs were made available to anyone who wants to use them. These newly released gTLDs are beginning to be considered for their creative branding and business applications. Here are some popular websites that are using new gTLDs for great branding effect: thedudes.club: A men’s lifestyle and entertainment blog searchengines.guru: A Russian SEO forum womenslife.today: A women’s issues and lifestyle blog ultra.zone: A sports news site Google has a domain registry service, called Google Domains, where you can register domains from a lengthy list of TLDs, such as .academy, .bike, .careers, .clothing, .industries, and many more. Check here for the full list and pricing of TLDs. There are 301 ccTLDs that are governed by individual countries. Though the use of ccTLDs is typically restricted, some countries have opened the domains up for anyone in the world to use. For example, you can register domains from Libya’s .ly at http://register.ly and register domains from Montenegro’s .me at domain.me and from other registrars. Which TLD do you choose? Whichever TLD you choose, it’s important to remember that no SEO benefit is tied to using specific TLDs. Choosing .movie rather than .com, for example, provides no SEO effect. In 2012, Google’s former Head of Web Spam Matt Cutts said that “We’ve always wanted to return the best results we can to users . . . whether it’s on a .com or a .de or a .whatever, and we’ll try to return that to users.” Choosing a TLD depends on your business and your goals. Although .com is always a great option (given that it’s the one people are most accustomed to using), a.com can often be unavailable or very expensive. In such cases, a less common gTLD can be a great alternative.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Search engine optimization (SEO) requires some technical knowledge about how search engines work and how to research what makes sites rank and find out how your competitor sites are successful. The advanced search operators in this table show you how to filter search engine results to find just the information you’re looking for, including limiting your results to just a single site or getting back results where your keyword is used in a page title or URL. Google Bing Yahoo Result cache: Shows the version of the web page from the search engine’s cache. related: Finds web pages that are similar to the specified web page. info: Presents some information that Google has about a web page. define: define: or definition: define: or definition: Provides a definition of a keyword. You must insert a space between the colon and the query in order for this operator to work in Yahoo! and Bing. stocks: stocks: stocks: Shows stock information for ticker symbols. (Note: Enter ticker symbols; don’t type web sites or company names.) site: site: site: Finds pages only within a particular domain and all its sub-domains. allintitle: Finds pages that include all query words as part of the indexed Title tag. intitle: intitle: intitle: Finds pages that include a specific keyword as part of the indexed Title tag. You must include a space between the colon and the query for the operator to work in Bing. allinurl: Finds a specific URL in the search engine’s index. (Note: You must include http:// in the URL you enter.) inrul: Finds pages that include a specific keyword as part of their indexed URLs. inbody: inbody: Finds pages that include a specific keyword in their body text. “phrase” “phrase” “phrase” Finds instances of the exact phrase within the quotation marks everywhere it appears within the search engine’s index. (Note: Substitute [phrase] in the search operator with the exact phrase you’re searching for.) - - - Removes results that contain the word following the minus sign. (Note: This search operator is added on to the keyword or phrase being searched for. It should follow the search query. For example, the query [site:www.bruceclay.com -training] will give you all indexed web pages on the domain without the word training on the page.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Search engine optimization starts on your own website. Focus on ensuring that your content, server setup, and internal links communicate expertise and professionalism to search engines and visitors. Strive to make your website equal to your competitors first, and then focus on surpassing them. As you work to improve your website, stay organized by using this checklist to coordinate your SEO campaign: Do keyword research. Create a Title tag (</span>).</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Create a <span class="code">Meta</span> description tag.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Create a <span class="code">Meta</span> keywords tag.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Create heading tag(s) in hierarchical order, headline style.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Have a minimum of 400 words of textual content.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Include descriptive <span class="code">Alt</span> attributes on all images.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Consistently use <span class="code">Strong</span> and <span class="code">Bold</span> tags (<span class="code"><strong></span> and <span class="code"><b></span>).</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Use fully qualified links (begin all links with <span class="code">http://</span>).</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Use a sitemap to outline silos.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Never exceed 99 links on a page.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Use text navigation, rather than image maps, JavaScript, or Flash-based navigation.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Externalize JavaScript/CSS code.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Have a <span class="code">Robots.txt</span> file.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Use web analytics tools to monitor traffic and ROI (return on investment).</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Include image names.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Create a privacy statement.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Include contact information.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Check server logs or webmaster tools for server errors.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Use 301 Redirects over 302 Redirects.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Test mobile usability of your site (with tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test).</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Check Google Search Console for reported manual penalties.</p> </li> <li><p class="first-para">Improve site speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.</p> </li> </ul>

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Your hard work on search engine optimization (SEO) won’t matter if your server isn’t set up to properly deliver pages and codes to search engines and your customers. You have to keep your server happy and healthy. Use this table to diagnose server problems, sort out redirects, and ensure that everything is working as it should, and you’ll minimize SEO problems. Code Description Definition What It Means 200 OK The web page appears as expected. You want to see this status. Your server and web page have the welcome mat out for search engine spiders (and users, too). 301 Moved Permanently The web page has been redirected permanently to another web-page URL. When a search engine spider sees this status code, it moves easily to the appropriate new page. A 301 Redirect status doesn’t cause a problem for search engine optimization. 302 Found (Moved Temporarily) The web page has been moved temporarily to a different URL. This status should raise a red flag if you find it on your web server. Even though people claim legitimate uses for a 302 Redirect code, this code can cause serious problems for your optimization efforts. Spammers frequently use 302 Redirects maliciously, so if you don’t want a search engine mistaking your site for a spam site, avoid them. 400 Bad Request The server couldn’t understand the request because of bad syntax. A typo in the URL could cause this status. Whatever the cause, you don’t want to block a search engine spider from reaching your content pages, so investigate what’s causing this status code on your site. 401 Unauthorized The request requires user authentication. Usually, this status means that you need to log in before you can view the page content. Not a good error for spiders to hit. 403 Forbidden The server understood the request but refuses to fulfill it. If you find this status code on your website, find out why. If you want to block the spiders from entering, have a good reason. 404 Not Found The web page isn’t available. You see this error code as the Page Cannot Be Displayed page that appears when a web site is down or nonexistent. You definitely don’t want a spider following a link to your web site only to be greeted by a 404 error! That’s like visiting a house and finding the lights off and the doors locked. If your server check shows that you have a 404 error for one of your landing pages, fix it ASAP. 500 and up Miscellaneous server errors The 500–505 status codes indicate that something’s wrong with your server. Check them out.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Some elements that are important for search engine optimization (SEO) are fairly well hidden in the HTML (programming code) of a page. Sure, you can see a web page’s source code by choosing View Source on each page individually, but that’s time consuming. A tool that can pick out just the important SEO elements and display them together, even for multiple pages simultaneously, is much more efficient! The SEO Multi-Page Information tool is one of the free tools created by Bruce Clay, Inc. to help make search engine optimization easier. With this free tool, you enter the URLs for up to six web pages and then view a report that shows each page’s Title tag Meta description tag Meta keywords tag Heading 1 Canonical link element Being able to view all these page elements at a glance can help you with website maintenance, new content creation, and even competitor research. Here are a couple of examples of this useful capability: Scenario 1: If you need to confirm that your pages have unique title tags, you can enter your own website URLs (six at a time). Scenario 2: When you’re writing a new web page, enter the URLs of the top-ranked pages for your topic. You may find comparing what your top competitors have written helpful so that you can create tags good enough to compete. How to use the SEO Multi-Page Information tool Go to SEOToolSet.com to access the SEO Multi-Page Information tool. Click on SEO Tools. Click on Free Tools. Click on the Multi-Page Information Tool. Type or paste in up to six web page URLs (such as http://www.domain.com/page-name.htm). Be sure to press the Enter key (the Return key on a Mac) after each URL you enter so that you have one URL per line. Click the Get Data button. While you’re at SEOToolSet.com, you can try out the many other free SEO tools besides the SEO Multi-Page Information tool.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Google Analytics is free software that helps website owners understand what’s going on with their online business. Besides collecting and analyzing data, you can set SEO goals — specific actions that you want website visitors to take. As you see how well those goals are being met, you can evaluate how effective your site is and make improvements as needed. Create a new goal Sign in to Google Analytics. Choose the Admin tab and then locate your desired account, website property and view. In the View column, click Goals. Choose +New Goal (or Import from Gallery) to create a new goal. You can also edit your previous goals from here. Instead of choosing +New Goal, just click the name of the goal you want to edit. Decide whether you want to set up your new goal based on a template (an existing sample) or from scratch. If you choose Template, you should select one from the list. If you choose Custom, click Next step and choose the type of goal you want to create. If you want, assign a monetary value to each goal (using whatever currency is appropriate). Setting up these goal values gives you a way to measure conversions (the actions visitors do to meet your goals) objectively and see what’s working and not working over time. If you don’t know what value to assign, you may leave it blank. Common goal examples An e-commerce site could set up a destination goal for reaching the Thank You page after completing a purchase, in order to track the percentage of time it takes a website visitor to buy something. Smaller goals can also be set up to track people’s progress to that point — for example, viewing additional images, clicking to read product reviews, or other. Think of all the little steps that contribute to making a sale or downloading a file and consider whether they can be made into goals or mini goals. An information site could set up goals for actions such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading an ebook, and so forth. After you set a few goals for your site, explore all the cool tools, charts, and reports that Google Analytics offers to help you pull insight out of your website data.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Themes are the foundation and keywords are the building blocks of your website SEO campaign. To optimize your website to attract search engine traffic, you need to know the topics and keywords to focus your web pages on. Some great tools for keyword research are available online. The most popular free keyword research tool might just be Google’s AdWords Keyword Planner. But there’s an obstacle to using it — you must have an AdWords account, which requires the setup of a payment method. Another free option is available, and this tool actually pulls keyword suggestions and data from Google along with Bing. This free tool is called the Keyword Suggestion tool, and a lightweight version is available to anyone to use without even logging in. You can use this tool when you’re Researching keywords from square one: Whenever you’re starting keyword selection with a mostly blank slate, use this tool to get keyword suggestions based on seed keywords. Vetting keywords by checking to see if searchers actually use them: You can check the keywords on your list to see how much people search for them and get trending data. Looking for new, relevant keywords to expand your keyword list: If you already have a list of keywords, you can open up opportunities you’re not currently aware of through keyword research. How to use the Keyword Suggestion Tool Go to SEOToolSet.com. Click on SEO Tools. Click on Free Tools. Click on the Keyword Suggestion Tool. Enter a single seed keyword into the box. Click the Get Suggestions button. What you get from the Keyword Suggestion Tool For your seed keyword, use a word or phrase that you think is a good starting keyword from which you would like more similar keyword ideas. The tool returns 20 suggestions along with the following: average monthly search volume, cost per click, and click-through rate — historical keyword statistics that help you assess how valuable and competitive a term may be.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

On the surface, creating content doesn’t sound so hard until you sit down and try to write. Your SEO strategy depends on that content. It’s even worse if you’re writing content for what many people might consider a boring industry. The good news is that it is possible to turn potentially boring subjects into good content. The following tips provide some ingredients of compelling content. No topic is truly boring. You just have to find the right angle and audience. Include real-life stories You can quickly catch your reader’s attention by including a story in your content. Stories are powerful because they allow readers to live an experience vicariously. Readers put themselves in the characters’ shoes and can relate to what is being said. Include a story in your content that entertains, teaches, or demonstrates your points. If you are developing content for a brand, incorporate stories that show how customers have used your product or service to solve their needs. Paint the entire picture for your reader. Look for inspiration Be on the lookout for inspiration. Pay attention to newspapers, magazines, social networks, blog comments, or anything else that could be a topic for your audience. Google Trends, BuzzFeed, and Buzzsumo are also great resources. Find a different angle or insight that you can provide and tailor the topic to your readers. Keep a file in your desk (or on your virtual desktop) labeled “Content Topics.” Anytime you find something interesting, put it in your file so that you have a wealth of ideas to choose from when it comes time to write. Make your content both practical and personal You should pinpoint the types of concerns your readers might have and address them in your content. Doing so generates your readers’ interest. Content should also be practical to the reader. Don’t just write an instructional article; explain how readers can fit the information into their lives. Is it something they can do right away? Where do they go? What is the next step? Think about these questions and make sure that your provides practical, useful information.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

The vast majority of Americans surf the web from their phones. Here’s a quick-reference checklist of mobile web design and optimization tasks. When making your site mobile, make sure you check off the items on this mobile SEO checklist! Choose a mobile platform Decide which method of mobile design you’ll implement for your mobile site. Choose between responsive design (Google’s preferred method), dynamic serving, separate serving, or some combination of the three. Optimize for crawling and indexing Use Google Search Console’s Crawl Errors report for details on URLs that Google has trouble crawling. Make sure what arch spiders can discover, crawl, and index your mobile-specific content — and discern it from your desktop-specific content — so that your content can render correctly and rank well. Optimize for page load speed Use front-end optimization strategies to address mobile performance issues and get mobile pages loading faster. Google prefers that above-the-fold content renders in under a second on a mobile network. Focus on mobile image optimization to reduce load times. Optimize design for mobile user experience More than half of your inbound traffic is unlikely to return to your mobile site if it is met with a poor user experience. Website navigation is an especially important design component of your mobile website that requires careful design and planning. According to a Google mobile research study, “61 percent of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site that they had trouble accessing from their phone.” Implement analytics to track mobile conversion goals Understand where your web pages are succeeding or failing by implementing analytics across your mobile site. Look at micro-conversions and device-specific bounce rates. Make reporting easier by setting up a custom mobile campaign dashboard. Monitor mobile site speed in Google Analytics by navigating to Content and then Site Speed. Optimize content for mobile Make sure that your content resonates with mobile users; what works and reads well on one device type might not work at all on another. Visit your website using your smartphone and ask these questions of your content. Is your content easily read without excessive scrolling or zooming? Are your calls to action front and center? Test your mobile site regularly Regularly verify that Google sees your mobile site the way it should be seeing it by checking the Fetch As Google tools in Google Search Console. Make sure that all the usability features you built are working correctly. As an optimizer, your work is never done!