Thing 20: Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is making content on your Web site more likely to come up in a keyword search. According to the Wikipedia article on the topic,

Because search engines are the most common ways people will find a Web site's content, it is important to tailor your site so that engines can easily find what they are interested in. The Diplopedia article, Search Engine Optimization Tips, has several simple ideas on how you can do this.

• Create useful and engaging content
• Use common language -- opt for terms that people most commonly search for
• Create meaningful titles -- search engines weigh heavily on page titles when determining search results
• Increase your connections by encouraging inbound links -- the more people link to your site, the more apt your site is to come up higher in a search results list
• Determine your connections -- using Google, do the following search to find out a sampling of other sites that link to yours: link: your URL (there is a space after the colon). For example, this search:
  "link: http://xyz" results in a list of over 20,000 Web sites that link to U.S. Embassy Nairobi's Web site.
• Use internal links to take people to relevant, related content on other parts of your site.
• Analyze site statistics. See Thing 19.
• Use appropriate keywords.
  *Google Trends can help you do this. It shows how often a particular keyword or keyword phrase is used, and where in the world it is used the most. You can also compare the usage of two similar terms. For example, go to Google Trends and search for h1n1, "swine flu". Note that in some parts of the world, swine flu is used almost exclusively, whereas in other areas, h1n1 is used. You can use this information to make sure that your site is using the appropriate keyword for your audience.
  *Google Ad Words can give you ideas of other keywords to use. Simply type in a keyword or phrase and the tool will give you the search volume for that particular term and ideas for other keywords to use.
  *Google Insights for Search lets you compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories and time. You can find out what the world is searching for here.
  Do not add blocks of keywords to your metatag area simply to improve your site's ranking. This can results in the search engine banning your site.

Assignment:

1. I used the word Iftar Vs Breaking Fast (the time when Muslim eat after fasting in the month of Ramadan):

Iftar generated

1.Turkey (highest)
2.United Arab Emirates
3.Pakistan
4.Netherlands
5.Germany
6.Austria
7.India
8.Belgium
9.United Kingdom (non)
10.Canada (almost non)
while breaking fast generated:
1. Malaysia (highest)
2.United States
3.Canada (medium)
4.Australia
5.United Kingdom (low)
6.India (lowest)

2. i brok down the search to region: Oman. The words Iftar and breaking fast have no result. it only accepts the word Ramadan which had high ranking.

3. Now go to Google AdWords and type in a keyword or phrase that you commonly post information about on your Web site. Note how often that term or phrase is used in searches. See if you can find another keyword that means the same thing that is used more often:

i typed the word visa vs. trave to USA. Travel to USA has more search results than visa

4. results of face book in Oman using Google Insights for Search: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=face%20book&geo=OM&cmpt=geo