As I’ve said before, each one of these SEO tips should not take a long time to fix (or to check to see if you are following the search engine optimization best practices), and will be rather “short and sweet” and directly to the point. Take a look through the list and see if there’s anything that you might have missed.

Links Across Multiple Domain Names - It is important to make sure that you don’t have a lot of links from the same domain name. I recommend trying to get one or two links from one domain name, and spreading out your links across multiple domain names. One link from one web site should be sufficient.

Issue a Press Release - Consider issuing a press release and distributing it not only via press release distribution sites but send it directly to those who you think will be interested in it, including the reporters who have written about you in the past; and don’t forget the bloggers out there.

Link Building Using Coupons - Everyone nowadays is always looking for a deal. Why not issue a few coupons and let people know about those coupons; other websites will link to it.

Redirecting Traffic to Your Site - Pay attention to how your are redirecting traffic to your web site.

Whois on Domain Name - Check the whois listing on the domain names you own; if they’re not correct then make sure they are correct. Sometimes we overlook things like this.

Move JavaScript to External File - Moving code off of your web page and into an external file can help with “code bloat” on your web pages. Focus on putting the content that matters on your web pages.

Linking within Sentences - The search engines are looking for links that make sense, those links that are in the middle of a sentence. It’s better to have a link in a sentence rather than have a link buried in a footer or somewhere where someone won’t see it.

Review Links and Reputation - Review the links to your web site and what others are saying about you and your web site. You might miss a good linking opportunity if you don’t look at what others are saying.

Add a Breadcrumb Trail - Adding a breadcrumb trail on your site is not only a good idea to help your visitors see where they are. It is good for the search engines, and you may be able to include link text that will help rankings.

Adding Content to your Web Site - Add content to your site on a regular basis. Don’t just have a static web site that sits there and doesn’t have new, fresh content.

Fix Duplicate Content - Duplicate content can be a real big issue for some web sites. Google does not like lots of duplicate content. Every page on your web site should be unique.

Remove Unused Meta Tags - There are a lot of meta tags that you just do not need on your web site. I only really recommend that you have a meta description tag on your site and a few others. Remove the meta tags that are not necessary.

Text Surrounding Links - Carefully watch the text that surround the links on your site and the links to your web site. That text is imporant, as it can help the search engines figure out what your site is about and whether or not they will “count” your link or not. Read this tip to learn more.

Keywords in Heading Tags - Heading level tags like the H1, H2, and H3 tags are important to use on your web pages, and it’s important to put your keywords in your heading tags. Just don’t overdo it.

Checking External Links - From time to time it’s important to take a look at who you are linking to. You might have a link on your web site that used to be pointing to a great resource: but it since might have gone away and some domainer bought the domain name and pointed it to a site where you don’t want to link. Check your outgoing links.

Linking Out to other Web Sites - Not only is it important to link to your own internal web pages, it’s important to be a good internet citizen and link out to other trusted web sites. I always try to link out to a trusted source like Wikipedia or another trusted source: directly to a resource on the topic you’re talking about. So, if your page is about search engine optimization, link out to the Wikipedia page about search engine optimization like I just did in this sentence.

Keywords in Alt Tags - Not only will this help your web site be more ADA compliant by helping blind people read your web site, you will help the search engines learn more about the images on your web pages.

Anchor Text of Internal Links - Pay attention to how you are linking to your other web pages on your web site internally. Describe each web page using the appropriate anchor text. The anchor text of the link should match the main keyword(s) in the title tag of the page you’re linking to.

Keywords in your URL - Name your web pages appropriately. If your web page is about search engine optimization, I would expect it to be called “search-engine-optimization.html” or something similar to that. I wouldn’t expect that web page to be named 12363.html.

Linking to your Home Page - Link to the real home page of your web site, this is http://www.yourdomainname.com/ and not http://www.yourdomainname.com/index.html. That’s pretty simple and make sense: I’m amazed at how many web sites do NOT do that.

Meta Keywords Tag - If you use this meta tag on your web page, and you should, then make sure that the keywords you use in that meta tag are used on the web page where that meta tag appears.

Keywords on Your Web Page - Use the keywords on your web page in your copy. If your web page is about SEO, then mention SEO several times on your web page. Don’t just mention it once, mention it more than that. But don’t overdo it.

Meta Description Tag - Always use a unique meta description tag on your web pages. Don’t use the same one, use one that is unique to the web page where it appears. Make sure it is custom-written for that web page. The meta description tag is often used in the search results, especially if they keyword someone searched for appears there.

Title Tag - Probably one of the most important search engine optimization ranking factor, the title tag must contain the keyword that you’re targeting on the web page where it appears. All web pages need a unique title tag.

So, there you have it, an overview/wrapup of all of my search engine optimization tips that I have added to the blog so far. Take a quick look and perhaps bookmark this post as a reference. I certainly have, as I refer back to it quite often when optimizing a web site. I am certainly not done with these tips, so as I add more in the future I will continue to update this web page with the tips. So, stay tuned…

Not following along with our Search Engine Optimization Tips? Our last last three search engine optimization tips were about issuing a press release, link building using coupons and understanding redirects and the type of redirects you can use to direct traffic to your site or to another site if you change your site’s location or a page’s location (its URL). Before that, I talked about search engine optimization tip 20, was about checking the whois of your domain name: checking the public domain record. Before that, in search engine optimization tip 19, was about code bloat and moving your JavaScript code to an external file. And before that, I wrote search engine optimization tip 18, which was about linking within sentences. There are a lot more search engine optimization tips coming in the future. In fact, to keep up with these SEO tips you might want to subscribe to our SEO RSS Feed.

This search engine optimization tip is probably something that you have not heard before: make sure you spread the links to your site out: it’s often better to have links from multiple domain names and not just a few domain names. In fact, it’s most often preferable to have 10 links from 10 different web sites than 100 links from 5 different web sites.

Take a look at the links that are going to your web site. There are, in fact, a lot of free seo tools out there that will show you the links to your web site. You can even verify your site with Google’s Webmaster Tools and Google allow you to download a spreadsheet of all of your links (it typically will be about a month old). And I especially like to perform a search like this at Yahoo! or use the Yahoo! Site Explorer to get a list of links.

However you get your list of links, you will need to analyze them in a unique way. Don’t just look at the links, look at how many different domain names are represented on the list. Ask yourself the following questions:

– How many different domain names are represented on the list of links to your site?
– Are there a lot of links coming from a few select domain names?
– How many of the links are coming from a web site’s home page? (e.g., domain.com versus domain.com/page.html)
– Are there any web sites linking to you that have hundreds of links (or more?) from internal web pages?
– Of those web sites linking to you that have hundreds or more links from internal web pages, do all those links have to same link text? The same anchor text? Can you get that anchor text changed?
– Are those multiple links from the same domain name(s) really necessary?

What your focus here should be is this: concentrate on the links from web sites’ home pages (typically these are the web sites’ most powerful pages). You do not necessarily need a link from thousands of web pages on a web site (unless you’re running a banner ad on that site or some other type of promotion). In fact, one link from a web site’s home page can be more important than hundreds or even thousands of links from the same web site.

So, when you are looking at your list of links, look for something that will stick out like a sore thumb: hundreds or even thousands of links from the same domain name pointing to your web site. Re-evaluate some of the “site wide” links that you have: and if you can get a home page link instead then you might just be better off.

Not following along with our Search Engine Optimization Tips? Our last last two search engine optimization tips were about link building using coupons and understanding redirects and the type of redirects you can use to direct traffic to your site or to another site if you change your site’s location or a page’s location (its URL). Before that, I talked about search engine optimization tip 20, was about checking the whois of your domain name: checking the public domain record. Before that, in search engine optimization tip 19, was about code bloat and moving your JavaScript code to an external file. And before that, I wrote search engine optimization tip 18, which was about linking within sentences. There are a lot more search engine optimization tips coming in the future. In fact, to keep up with these SEO tips you might want to subscribe to our SEO RSS Feed.

This search engine optimization tip is most likely something that we all forget to do: issue a press release. Writing a press release about your business or about your web site does not have to be that difficult. In fact, you can even look at press release web sites that have archives of press releases to get ideas about what to write about. Or you can search for a press release on your topic: and then see what they previously wrote to get some ideas about how press releases are typically written.

Many companies issue press releases on a regular basis. And if you’re using a press release distribution service like AddPR.com or PR Web or even PR Newswire, there’s a good chance that it will be included on lots of other web sites, including Google News. And if you’re really lucky then your press release will be seen by a reporter or journalist looking to write on your press release’s topic.

There are a few good places to learn about how to write a search engine optimized press release including this article and especially this search engine optimization press release article. The best thing you can do is to put your major keywords in the title of the press release and include links to your web site’s interior pages (perhaps some product pages, if appropriate).

There are several reasons that you might issue a press release. There’s a great blog post here that lists 55 reasons, including:

1. Announce a new service.
2. Announce a new product.
3. Tie in with a national holiday, a birthday or anniversary.
4. Report a new study of your own and your analysis or forecast.
5. Tie in with a controversy by commenting on it.

So, if you want to get a few more on-topic links to your web site then consider issuing a press release or having someone write one for you. Submit it to the proper press release distribution web sites and don’t forget to add it to your own site first.

Not following along with our Search Engine Optimization Tips? Our last search engine optimization tip was about understanding redirects and the type of redirects you can use to direct traffic to your site or to another site if you change your site’s location or a page’s location (its URL). Before that, I talked about search engine optimization tip 20, was about checking the whois of your domain name: checking the public domain record. Before that, in search engine optimization tip 19, was about code bloat and moving your JavaScript code to an external file. And before that, I wrote search engine optimization tip 18, which was about linking within sentences. There are a lot more search engine optimization tips coming in the future. In fact, to keep up with these SEO tips you might want to subscribe to our SEO RSS Feed.

This search engine optimization tip is really for those who are selling something on your site. In other words, it works well if you have a shopping cart. But, even if you are not currently using a shopping cart and you have your customers call you on the phone, you can use this tip.

If you are selling something on your site you need to offer a coupon code or “promo code”. Then, go out and publicize your code on other web sites that offer coupons and promo codes. For example, let’s take a look at this search result at Google, which shows a LOT of coupon code web sites: these sites are looking to list coupon codes and would be happy to list your coupon code and link to your web site.

There are also a lot of message boards out there that you can sign up for (register on) and post your coupon code or your promo code. Quite often if you are selling a popular product then others will start doing the posting and linking for you once they learn of your promotion.

Generally there are two benefits to offering coupons and promo codes: additional traffic, additional sales, and links. These links should help your organic search engine rankings, which will help over the long run.

Keep in mind that there are some coupon web sites out there that are essentially “affiliate sites” that will want something in return for listing your coupon or promotional code: you really should not have to pay to list your code. You might initially skip over those sites. There are other things that you can do once you have your coupon code or promo code set up, including:

- Issue a press release. This should be a good reason for issuing a press release (the press release will get you some links) and you might get a mention in a news article (often reporters and journalists pick up on these sorts of things, especially during the holiday season).
- If your site has a blog you might mention the promo code or the coupon code on your blog. Talk to your readers and explain what they need to do to get the discount: you might also mention any terms and conditions of it, as well, and mention any dates involved (perhaps it’s only good until the end of the year).
- If you can offer a free sample of a product it will go a long way. I once worked with an online retailer who offered a free sample of their product (they even shipped it out for free). The response was unbelievable and they had to shut down the offer after they shipped 5000 free samples. Furthermore, the number of links that they generated was unbelievable: thousands of links were generated and the site’s search engine rankings skyrocketed as a result.

So, since the holiday season is starting, now would be a great time to start thinking of offering a coupon or a promotional code. People are looking for a deal this holiday season because of the economy in the United States, and a coupon just might be your ticket to online success this holiday season.

Not following along with our Search Engine Optimization Tips? Our last search engine optimization tip, search engine optimization tip 20, was about checking the whois of your domain name: checking the public domain record. Before that, in search engine optimization tip 19, was about code bloat and moving your JavaScript code to an external file. And before that, I wrote search engine optimization tip 18, which was about linking within sentences. The SEO tip before that, search engine optimization tip 17, was about links and your reputation and finding additional links to your site by searching at your favorite search engine for your name or your company name. The SEO tip before that was about creating a breadcrumb trail on your site. To find the previous search engine optimization tips, take a look at one of my previous SEO tips; you should find some links there. All of these “search engine optimization tips” are things I look at when analyzing a site or optimizing it for the search engines. Keep in mind, though, that this is only the beginning. There are a lot more search engine optimization tips coming in the future. In fact, to keep up with these SEO tips you might want to subscribe to our SEO RSS Feed.

There are many different reasons why you will need to redirect web site traffic to another location (another URL) on your site or even to another domain name that you own. There are several types of redirects that you can use, and although they all technically will send some from one web page to another web page there is only really one type of redirect that you will want to use: always use the 301 Permanent Redirect.

If you are a regular reader of this search engine optimization blog, you might recall that recently Google themselves did not set up the proper type of redirect when they released their Search Engine Optimization Guide. I am glad to report that apparently Google has taken our SEO advice: the domain name in question, brandonsbaseballcards.com, is now redirecting with a 301 Permanent Redirect to Google.com.

Types of Redirects
There are several types of redirects that you can use to redirect visitors to another web page or another web site. I’ve outlined each below and made some comments as to why or why not you would want to use it.

302 Temporary Redirect - The 302 redirect is essentially a “temporary” redirect. This type of redirect might be okay to set up if you are going to temporarily redirect visitors to another URL. I would say that if you need to redirect visitors for a few minutes or a few hours it might be okay to “temporarily” use it. But, since there are so many issues that can arise when using the 302 I tend to recommend that you never use it at all. In the past, there have been problems with domain name hijacking and even basic search engine ranking problems that occur when using a 302 Redirect. I wouldn’t use it.

JavaScript Redirect
There are ways to redirect human visitors using web browsers to view your site without redirecting the search engines. The search engines currently do not execute JavaScript code, so they won’t be redirected. If you want to hide something on your web page then you might use a JavaScript redirect to give content to the search engine spiders and not to the humans. This is typically a method that search engine spammers use, so if you’re using it then the search engines could potentially look at you in a negative light or even ban your site or penalize your site for using it. I wouldn’t use it.

Meta Refresh Redirect
The meta refresh is really an outdated type of redirect. Although it will still redirect visitors, it does not give the site you’re redirecting to any SEO value: so there’s really no need to use it.

301 Permanent Redirect
The 301 Permanent Redirect tells the search engines that you are permanently redirecting visitors to the new location: so since you’re telling them that this is a permanent change, they can rely on it. You are redirecting visitors, but at the same time passing on “link credit”, PageRank, and other SEO value to the site that you’re redirecting to. The search engines themselves recommend that we all use 301 Permanent Redirects to redirect visitors.

When you set up a 301 Permanent Redirect, the important thing to remember is that you are “transferring” SEO value (link value, PageRank, etc.) to the domain name you’re redirecting to: which is a good thing. If you use another type of redirect then you don’t get the SEO value passed to the new location.

A Simple Link
I have also seen people use a simple web page: they set up a web page and add a message telling visitors to click on a link that they provide to go to the new location (or the new site). While it might be a good idea to tell your visitors that you are now at a new location (a new domain name, a new URL), you’re still not passing any SEO value to the new location. So, while that might be okay I don’t necessarily recommend using it.

What’s the bottom line here? We have seen Google themselves set up a 302 Temporary Redirect from an example site they have in their Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide and then change it to a 301 Permanent Redirect. This is enough proof for me that the proper type of redirect to use when redirecting visitors is a 301 Permanent Redirect. While there are other types of redirects that you can use, you should be concerned about passing search engine optimization values (Link Credit, PageRank, etc.) to the new location.

As a creative professionial i always look for new ways to get inspired. Inspiration comes in many shapes and forms and can be found in the most unusual of places. Yesterday i made a trip to the Clampitt Paper Company to get paper samples for putting together wedding invitations. Upon walking in the door, i was greeted with a smile and led to the paper sample department in the back.

One of their “Paper People” immediately offered his help and showed me around. He explained the differences in the types of paper and weights and how i can order them. Certain types of paper can only be ordered in large quantities, while others can be ordered in smaller runs. College students are welcome at Clampitt, but limited to 7 paper samples. Well, and then there’s the hidden goldmine: Paper sample books. Cabinets along the bottom of the paper shelves are stuffed with free-to-take Sample booklets - all meticulously designed and laid out. Each of these books can offer a plethora of inspiration in both their layout as well as the construction. Different paper textures, thicknesses and lustres are represented in each and can serve as inspiration for all kinds of applications. First and foremost, if you’re designing print collateral, these books are a gold mine - as are the paper samples you can take with you to test colors and provide prototypes to clients. Their helpful staff answered all of my questions and even provided me with bags and envelopes to take my collection of samples home - yes, i nearly emptied the place.

Take a trip to Clampitt - it’s fun and their friendly staff is always there to help. They’ve got locations in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. Remember to bring a post-it note pad and pen to keep track of the types of samples you pull of the shelves. If you’re like me, bring a box for paper sample books, or ask for a sample cabinet to be sent to your agency.

Google has been awarded a patent for a “system and method for providing preferred language ordering of search results”. This means that Google can serve up search results based on your preferred language.

In this latest patent, there are 83 claims. I’ve picked out several of them that I would call “important” and detailed them below:

1. A method, comprising: receiving, from a user, a search query; performing a search based on the search query to identify search results in a plurality of search result languages; identifying a particular language for the search results based on characteristics of the search query, characteristics of a user interface via which the search query is received, and characteristics of the search results; ordering the search results to create an ordered list of search results; determining whether the search results in the ordered list of search results are in the particular language; adjusting the ordering of one of the search results among other ones of the search results to create an adjusted list of search results when the one of the search results is in the particular language; presenting the adjusted list of search results; and permitting the user to toggle between presentation of the adjusted list of search results and the ordered list of search results.

Based on the search query, they will identify the language based on the characteristics on the query. So, if your search query is in English, they will identify the language based on the characteristics of the “user interface” (i.e., Google’s web interface) where you enter the search query. I believe that if you search at Google Spain that they would identify that you probably want to search results in Spanish. I believe that they could also obviously identify your preferred language based on what you specify in the preferences.

Google will create an ordered list of search results (perhaps in the background), determine whether the search results in the ordered list are in the particular language, and “change” or “adjust” the search results if one of the search results is in the particular language. They will then allow the user to toggle between the adjusted list of search results and the ordered list of search results.

2. A method according to claim 1, where identifying the particular language includes: determining the particular language based on the search query by evaluating at least one of a language used in the search query or a character encoding used in the search query.

This seems obvious: they will identify the language based on the query you use. If they can determine that you are searching in Spanish, they will deliver Spanish search results. Seems simple enough to me.

6. A method according to claim 5, where identifying the particular language includes: evaluating a language used in a majority of the search results to identify the particular language.

They will look at the search results and evaluate the language used in a majority of the search results to identify the language. This is the first time that I have heard that they not only will look at the query that YOU use but they will look at the current search results to determine a language.

8. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: assigning a numerical score to the search results; and adjusting the numerical score of at least some of the search results in the particular language.

This is interesting. There’s a numerical score assigned to the search results and they will adjust the numerical score of at least “some” of the search results in the language. Perhaps this numerical score is PageRank? Perhaps.

21. A system according to claim 20, where: the search result orderer demotes the search results in a language other than the particular language by a predefined shifting factor.

Again, we’re talking about a number. This talks about changing the search results and demoting some search results if they’re in something other than the preferred language: and changing it based on a predefined “shifting factor”.

22. A system according to claim 21, wherein the predefined shifting factor substantially equals two (2.0).

Well, apparently the predefined shifting factor is two. Does this mean that the PageRank would go down 2 points if the search result is not in the preferred language? That’s just my guess, perhaps Google is the only one who really knows.

33. A system according to claim 12, where the memory further stores instructions for implementing: a language selector selecting a second language that is different from the particular language.

34. A system according to claim 12, where the memory further stores instructions for implementing: a language selector including one or more related languages with the particular language.

This part of the patent goes into determining the other languages that they will present to us (figuring out what other language to let us toggle back and forth). So, if you use a search query in Spanish they would also allow you to toggle between Spanish search results and another language such as English. This is how they would determine that other language.

42. A method according to claim 35, further comprising: ordering the search results based on a match of a language of such search results to the particular language.

They will change the order of the search results based on a “match” of the language.

69. A system according to claim 58, wherein the search query request message and each search result response message is HTTP-compliant.

This is interesting: there’s something to do with http compliance. But, it looks like it’s tied to the search query and whether or not the search result response message is HTTP compliant.

User preferred and less preferred languages are determined based on an evaluation of search query, user interface, and search result characteristics. Search query characteristics are determined from metadata describing the search query. User interface characteristics are determined also using the search query metadata, as well as client-side and server-side preferences and the Internet protocol (IP) address of the client.

Based on several factors, including your search result query (the keyword phrase you use when you search Google), the user interface (what you’ve chosen as your preferred language), and the actual search results, as well as search query data, and client-side (your browser) and your IP address (your location), the search results will change.

What does all of this mean?
Well, what does all of this really mean? We are getting to a point in time where the search results are going to be personalized. There will no longer be a “number one ranking” that’s the same for everyone “across the board”. We’re getting to the point where Google has the technology and the know-how to deliver personalized search results based on many different factors. There is a belief out there that if search engine results are personalized they will be more relevant. I tend to agree.

Google, via a recent blog post, has recently released their search engine optimization starter guide to the public. Previously a document that first began as an effort to help teams within Google, this document aims to be a guide that we can follow to find tips that could improve our sites’ crawlability and indexing.

There are a lot of good basic search engine optimization tips in this Google SEO starter guide. However, apparently Google engineers don’t know everything: the example site noted in the guide is set up as a 302 Temporary Redirect to the Google.com home page. OOPS! This is not something that you ever want to do. In fact, Matt Cutts has talked about 302 Redirects several times and it’s actually been a major issue not only with Google but with other search engines.

So, I would like to be the first to say (just like Bill Engvall says): Google, Here’s Your Sign!

Let me explain this a bit further for those of you who don’t know the differences between the different types ways that you can redirect a web page to another web page.

There are several types of ways that you can “automatically” redirect visitors from one web page to another web page. There are also many reasons why you would want to redirect a web page to another one, like when you buy a domain name and need to redirect people to your current web site (rather than just letting a domain name “sit there” idle). But, whatever you do, I strongly recommend that you always ALWAYS use a 301 Permanent Redirect rather than using a 302 Temporary Redirect to redirect visitors and search engines. There are also other types of redirects like a “meta refresh” and the use of JavaScript code to do the redirecting.

Matt Cutts has said on his blog that URL canonicalization is an issue: and he said it back in 2006. You might want to read Matt’s blog post about it if you’re not familiar with it.

As I was reading the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, the author explains:

An example may help our explanations, so we’ve created a fictitious website to follow throughout the guide. For each topic, we’ve fleshed out enough information about the site to illustrate the point being covered. Here’s some background information about the site we’ll use:

* Website/business name: “Brandon’s Baseball Cards”
* Domain name: brandonsbaseballcards.com

As someone who is very inquisitive, I immediately looked up Brandon’s Baseball Cards to see if Google had actually registered that domain name: and yes, it was purchased a few days before the Google Starter Search Engine Optimization Guide was released. It’s owned by Brandon Falls, Search Quality Analyst II at Google. This makes sense; Brandon Falls wrote the guide, registered a domain name to use and set up the domain name: and redirected it the WRONG way to Google.com.

If you run the domain name through this tool, you will see what a search engine sees when they visit a web page (along with the page’s “headers”). Upon checking the server headers (the redirect) to verify what type of redirect is being used, I found that there is a 302 Temporary Redirect being used, not a 301 Permanent Redirect. Here’s the actual header data (just in case it’s actually updated by Brandon Falls at Google after reading this):

Google in the past has been notorious for having issues with 302 Redirects. My search engine optimization suggest/tip is that you always use a 301 Permanent Redirect: if you use anything else to redirect visitors you’re hurting your site’s potential search engine rankings.

In this case, Google’s Brandon Falls registered a domain name and set up the wrong type of redirect to redirect visitors to Google.com because this example web site is not live right now. The redirecting is probably a good thing to do: but the type of redirect being used is not being used. If you take a look at the server headers on the domain name, you’ll see that not only does it redirect with a 302 Temporary Redirect it actually redirects to another URL (some page named ?3dbdb1c0 that then redirects again with another 302 Temporary Redirect to Google.com. This is not recommended, and I am extremely surprised that a Google Search Engineer would not set up the proper redirect.

So, Google and Brandon Falls: Here’s Your Sign!

Update November 19, 2008 I’m not sure if this has anything to do with our post, but it appears that Google has now changed the redirect from a 302 Temporary Redirect to a 301 Permanent Redirect.

Not following along with our Search Engine Optimization Tips? Our last search engine optimization tip, search engine optimization tip 19, was about code bloat and moving your JavaScript code to an external file. Before that, I wrote search engine optimization tip 18, which was about linking within sentences. The SEO tip before that, search engine optimization tip 17, was about links and your reputation and finding additional links to your site by searching at your favorite search engine for your name or your company name. The SEO tip before that was about creating a breadcrumb trail on your site. To find the previous search engine optimization tips, take a look at one of my previous SEO tips; you should find some links there. All of these “search engine optimization tips” are things I look at when analyzing a site or optimizing it for the search engines. Keep in mind, though, that this is only the beginning. There are a lot more search engine optimization tips coming in the future. In fact, to keep up with these SEO tips you might want to subscribe to our SEO RSS Feed.

For this search engine optimization tip, let us talk for a minute or two about the Whois and the data that it contains. Technically speaking, Whois is is a query/response protocol which is widely used for querying an official database in order to determine the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the Internet. When I’m talking about whois from a search engine optimization perspective, I’m talking about who owns your domain name. If you go here to this page you will see the whois domain record for the domain name vizioninteractive.com, which looks like this:

Here’s one tip: if you add a domain name to the end of whois.domaintools.com/ and go to that URL then you will bring up the whois record for that domain name. There’s a lot more data there, but for this search engine optimization tip, let’s look at the whois record.

There are several things that you need to take a look at on the domain name’s whois record. I’ve included each item below and made a quick comment about each of them:

Registrant - This part is important. You (not some other third party like your web designer or web host or your yellow pages company) needs to own your domain name. If you do not own your domain name then your online business could suddenly go away. Your domain name goes with you, even if you change web designers.

Created on - The “create date” can be an important SEO factor in organic search engine rankings. You don’t have too much control over this date, but it’s important that your domain name be at least a few years old. The search engines tend to like older, more established domain names. The older the better. I know you don’t have much control over this, and if you have a brand new domain name there’s a way to get around this, contact me if you would like more information about it.

Expires on - Is your domain name going to expire soon? I would renew your domain name for a while, perhaps a few years. If you renew your domain name for more than a year then that shows more of a commitment to your domain name. That might be a factor in organic search engine rankings. Did you know that you can register your domain for 100 years into the future?

Last Updated on - This is not very important, but generally should be fairly recent.

Administrative Contact - This is who gets the bill for the domain name. Generally this is most likely going to be the same as the Registrant unless you have another division of your company that pays your bills.

Technical Contact - This is the technical contact, the person or company that is behind your web site. Generally this probably should be the same as the Admin and Registrant contacts, but you may have this set up as your web hosting or web design company so they can make changes as necessary. For example, if they need to change the name servers (where your site is hosted) then they would need access. This is how to give them access, which is to list them as the technical contact.

Domain servers in listed order - These are the nameservers for your domain name. When someone types in your domain name in their web browser, this is where your web site’s files are located. You have to have at least two listed, and sometimes there are more than two listed if you have a backup of your web site. For SEO purposes, the search engines could potentially look to see if a site is hosted on the same nameserver that is linking to you: we don’t know for certain if and when this might be the case, but if you want to make sure you get credit for a link then you might want to make sure that that link is not on a site hosted on the same class “C” block of IPs or on the same nameserver.

Too often I’ve seen people overlook their whois record: sometimes there are issues that might effect not only their search engine optimization but their whole entire online business. In fact, I recently talk to a neighbor of mine that has a web site: it turns out that he’s paying $300 a month for the web site and he does not even own his domain name! His yellow pages company owns the domain name.

Take a look at your whois listing for your domain name every so often to make sure that there’s not something that needs to be fixed.

Not following along with our Search Engine Optimization Tips? Our last search engine optimization tip, search engine optimization tip 18, was about linking within sentences. The SEO tip before that, search engine optimization tip 17, was about links and your reputation and finding additional links to your site by searching at your favorite search engine for your name or your company name. The SEO tip before that was about creating a breadcrumb trail on your site. To find the previous search engine optimization tips, take a look at one of my previous SEO tips; you should find some links there. All of these “search engine optimization tips” are things I look at when analyzing a site or optimizing it for the search engines. Keep in mind, though, that this is only the beginning. There are a lot more search engine optimization tips coming in the future. In fact, to keep up with these SEO tips you might want to subscribe to our SEO RSS Feed.

For this search engine optimization tip, let us talk about all of the excess code that is on your site. Our tip is to move that code (specifically the JavaScript code) to an external file. In other words, we want to make our html pages smaller in size, thus putting more focus on the actual content on those web pages: the content that matters to the search engines.

If you take a look at your html code you may JavaScript code in there. That JavaScript code takes up valuable real estate in your html file. Rather than putting all of the code into the html file itself, you can move that code to a text file (also called a .js file) and “call the file” in your html code. Doing this will not change any of the functionality of your web site. In fact, you will not notice any changes when you view your web page. However, the html file itself will not have as much “code” on it. Here is how to move your JavaScript code to an external JavaScript file:

1. First, you need to evaluate whether or not you have the technical expertise to actually move the JavaScript code to an external JavaScript file. If you’re not that technical, then you might want to outsource this task to someone who is more experienced at doing this. (By the way, if you need help doing this feel free to contact us and you can outsource this task to Vizion Interactive.)

2. The next step is to identify the actual JavaScript code that needs to be moved. Generally speaking, you will want to look for a the code. It will start with: <script></script> and end with . Essentially, you’ll want to copy everything (including the script and ending with script) and save it in a text file named something.js (whereas something in the filename describes what that script does. The filename doesn’t really matter, but naming it with a memorable name will help you in the future.

3. Once you copy the JavaScript code out of your html file and saved it into a file called something.js you will need to get rid of the code on your html page and “call the file” instead. So, if you’ve copied the code you can delete it in your html file.

4. Upload or save the something.js text file on your web site somewhere. Some prefer to make a new folder or directory specifically for the external JavaScript files, but they really can be saved anywhere on your site. As long as you remember where they are, you can call them in the html file.

5. In the html code where the JavaScript used to be, you need to call the file. You can do it just like this:
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="/javascript/something.js"></script>
That is the code for “calling” your JavaScript file named something.js in a folder called javascript.

After you have saved your html file, go to that web page on your web site. The code will have been moved out of your html page and your html pages won’t suffer from what I call “code bloat” which ultimately hurts your search engine optimization. The more you can focus the content in your html files the better.