Intermediate SEO

Posts discussing intermediate SEO techniques and situations. Analysis and suggestions may not help people who are new to search engine optimization. No warranties or guarantees are implied.

Search Engine Submission - Web Site Submission

Posted by Michael Martinez on September 29, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

It’s unfortunate that many SEO firms still offer “search engine submission” as part of their services. Most people in the SEO industry know there is little to no value in using search engine Submit URL pages, although Google has just updated its Google web site submission interface.
The major search engines (Ask, Google, Live, and [...]

Leveraging Small Resources For Traffic

Posted by Michael Martinez on August 27, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

There are hundreds of search resources across the Web that may drive traffic to your sites. Those search resources usually fit into one of these categories:

Algorithmic search engines using their own software
Algorithmic search engines using someone else’s software
Meta search engines
Web directories

Ask, Google, Live, and Yahoo! are the major algorithmic search engines using their own [...]

How to use search to build visibility

Posted by Michael Martinez on July 31, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

One very underdeveloped skill in the SEO community is search. If you browse a random selection of SEO blogs, forums, and articles that discuss ways to use search engines, you’ll mostly find rehashes of advanced query operator functionality, special query tricks that reveal “secret” stuff, and queries that really don’t have any relevance to [...]

Search optimization and the keyword matrix

Posted by Michael Martinez on July 30, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

David Szetela wrote a post on Search Engine Watch that discusses a PPC keyword matrix technique he calls “personas and buckets”.
Ken McGaffin wrote about basic keyword matrix technique for WordTracker in 2006.
Keyword matrix techniques have been around for a long time. When you deal with a lot of query data, organizing your terms into [...]

Three SEO Tips For People Who Like SEO Tips

Posted by Michael Martinez on June 5, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

Tip #1: Replace that spammy footer with an elite on-site directory.
Scenario: You have 20-30 Web sites and you cross-link them in your footers. Change all the Web sites to do the following:

Remove the footer links
Add a crawlable link to each site’s navigation that leads to an internal directory. Call it “Properties”, “Affiliations”, “Sister [...]

Microsoft’s innovative approach to 404 errors

Posted by Michael Martinez on June 4, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

What do you do when someone clicks through on a dead link or mistypes a URL for your Web site? Years ago when I first learned about error 404 handling I was appalled to discover that my hosting service at the time didn’t even set up a default page for me. Many Web [...]

In SEO, you can always say it again

Posted by Michael Martinez on May 30, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

It never ceases to amaze me how people find Web sites through the most obscure queries. You can do all the keyword research in the world and conclude you’ve never every logical phrase and expression people would use to find content you create and then look at your search referrals and see queries you [...]

Page URLs versus Domains: Brands, Queries, and Identities

Posted by Michael Martinez on May 21, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

There are three types of domain names:

Brand Domains
Query Domains
Identity Domains

Brand and Identity Domain names share similar characteristics but the Identity domain name has little to no brand value and cannot be used to springboard other identities or brands. When a domain name becomes well-established and capable of serving as a springboard for other domains [...]

How much content justifies a site search box?

Posted by Michael Martinez on May 20, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

Site search is one of the most useful tools in Web site promotion and marketing because once people start searching your site they are expressing the faith or hope that they will find what they are looking for on your site.
A good question to ask yourself on every Web site you design or enhance is: [...]

Google adds a third index for site search

Posted by Michael Martinez on May 12, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

Matt Cutts mentioned on his blog that Google Custom Search Engines now have a special site search index.
This seems like a major step in the right direction as site search has been a real issue for me. Site search is the third navigation tool that every Web site designer (and SEO) MUST take into [...]

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