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Let me put this as clearly as possible. A domain that forwards to an existing site does not provide any Page Ranking benefits to the forwarded domain. In fact the domain name that forwards to the existing website will not even be available in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). This is because when you do a forward you are informing Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other Search Engines that this site does not have any content but instead the site exists at the forwarded domain and that should be indexed. The only time when a fowarding domain assists in the Page Ranking of the forwarded domain is when you migrate a website to a new main domain as the Page Ranking will be associated with the new domain instead of starting off as a new website.

If you are looking to increase your Page Ranking within Search Engines the main factor you should focus on is writing unique and worthwhile content. Don’t get sucked into the whole keyword feeding frenzy. Yes you should include terms that are relevant to your content but only if they make sense in the context of your content. If you do buy multiple domain names do so only to secure those domains with the purpose of stopping competitors from buying and using them.

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) you will find numerous tips & tricks on how to increase your page ranking. When it is all said and done the most important thing you can do is write unique and informative content. Regardless of the Keyword Stuffing or shear number of articles, the best way to get search traffic to your site is to write an article/post that is purposeful and informative to it’s target audience. To help get you on your way to increasing your own page rank below are some tips on writing a good article.

1: Write with a Purpose

When writing you need to have a reason for doing so. Don’t simply feel you need you need to write an article every day or on a regular schedule. Only write an article when you have a specific information you want to get across. For example lets say you just learned ruby and have decided to write an article on it. To make a good article or set of articles decide what about ruby you want to write on. Do you want to write a beginner’s guide to using ruby? Is it a comparison of ruby vs php or another programming language? If you write your article for a specific purpose there is a greater change of someone reading the article as well as it benefiting, or answering their questions.

2: Write for your target Audience

Knowing your audience helps to define the contents of your article. If you are writing a topic for individuals knowledgeable on the subject vs beginners then your content is going to be different. For example a How to article for beginners may need additional details on each step including references to special techniques while an advanced article can be slimmer with point by point instructions that gloss over the explanations of how and why.

3: Don’t be afraid to get personal or be opinionated

This is your article, yes you are trying to get a point across but never the less it is yours. Include your own opinions say if you agree or disagree with a subject. The one caveat is to remain on task, don’t go rambling on for 2 paragraphs on a side topic that doesn’t match the purpose of your writing.

4: Keep your writing organized and easy to read

No mater how good the information is in your writing if the reader can’t follow it or understand it then it is bad. Keep your writing organized by each topic smoothly transitioning into the next. Also keep your language appropriate to the target audience so they can follow along with out having to look up words or wonder what you are trying to say.

5: Titles are important

The title of an article is supposed to give the reader an overall glimpse of what they can find or will learn in the article. Be sure to keep them brief but also informative. Some writers find it easier to write the title after an article, while some find it is easier to write it first then jump into the article. Whichever works for you just remember that article and page titles are used in calculating your page rank and also are viewable to searchers on Search Engines.

6: Understanding how to use Keywords

Keywords are an important part of any article, by including them in your writing you are helping to associate your article to specific searches. However this does not mean you need to force keywords into your article. After you write your first draft simply review and you should find that main keywords already are present simply revise and add in any others when they are appropriate and flow seamlessly within your article. If your keywords don’t seem to fit then leave them out or add them into the keywords META tag.

Wrapping it all up

The most important rule to increasing your page rank is to write good informative content for your website. Don’t be fooled into thinking that SEO techniques will push your site’s traffic to number 1 in its category. Instead focus on writing purposeful content for your audience and the rest will take care of itself.

The Description Meta Tag exists to provide an overview or summary of what you will find on the current page of your web site. This element serves multiple purposes in that it can effect your Search Engine Page Ranking and that if present it is also displayed in Search Results to provide search users with a brief summary of what can be found on the web pages listed. This summary displayed can greatly increase your click-through rate of your web-page leading to more traffic, more links, and a higher page ranking.

As always when it comes to SEO practices it is important to keep in mind that any and all content needs to be written or created for the end user and not targeted at Search Engines. This means that yes you will want to have keywords in your description but you do not want to have your description tag simply be a list of keywords. Below are some basic guidelines for creating Search Engine Optimized Description tags that are user friendly.

• Keep the description short. The typical guideline is to keep the description text to 1-2 sentences or up to 160 characters, however use as much space as needed to provide the overview of what is to be found on your site.
• While writing the text try to include keywords that are found within the content of the page or that will be used by searchers to find your page.
• Don’t simply copy and paste text from your existing page content. Use this area to intrigue potential viewers and to provide additional slightly different content.

Meta Tag Format

<meta name=”description” content=”Your User Friendly Search Engine Optimized text here”>

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques can be categorized as white hat or black hat. White hat optimization is when approved techniques are used to enhance your website’s page rank, I have covered the basics of those in a previous post in this entry am going to focus on black hat or in more forwardly: what a professional Search Engine Optimizer or website admin should not do!

Rule 1: Do not use invisible or hidden content

Invisible Text is the practice of embedding textual content in your site that is not visible to users but instead is placed for the sole purpose of being crawled by search engines. This violates search engines guidelines not to display different content for spiders that a user would not see.

Rule 2: Don’t stuff your keywords

Keyword Stuffing is when you overload your keywords meta data tag with an excessive amounts of keywords that do not match content on your site. Keywords should be used for your pages but should not be abused.

Rule 3: Don’t Cloak

Cloaking is the practice of displaying different content to spiders then what a user would see. This is similar to Invisible Text but instead of some additional content this displays a completely different page that may not be related at all to the real one.

Rule 4: Doorway’s are bad

Doorway Pages are pages built specifically to obtain high page rankings and contain links to other sites that the creator really wants you to visit. These initially may increase your ranking but when found out your page ranking will be affected by being affiliated with the site.

Rule 5: Interlinking is just darn confusing

Interlinking or Link Farming is when a group of individuals come together and incorporate links to each others site with the purpose of increasing each others rankings and not providing relevant content.

Rule 6: Everyone one hates Spam

Spam comes in a multitude of forms including Comment Spam and Spam Pages. Like the name suggest comment spam is the creation of comment on other people’s websites with links to your own site with no relevance to the content of the page you are on. Spam Pages on the other hand are entire pages created with keyword embedded content that provides no real use and contain links to sites that they really want to drive traffic to.

In summary website optimization can be done correctly to realize long term gain or it can be done by violating search engine guidelines to realize short term gain but hurt you over the long term. Like everything else in life I find that real pride and satisfaction comes by doing things right and realizing long term results not just short term ones. If you are serious about your search engine optimization then don’t use black hat techniques.

Overview

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is straightforwardly the modification of your website to make it friendlier to Search Engines with the goal of increasing your page ranking from Organic Search. Unfortunately implementing SEO on a site is not as straightforward as Google and other Search Engines  utilize proprietary algorithms that utilize hundreds of variables to rank your site.  Although SEO is an important step needed be forewarned there is no silver bullet that will get you the #1 ranking and know also that fluffing your site with false content or doorways specifically for Search Engines can and will hurt your ranking and might even get you black listed.

Basic Guidelines

Rule #1 : Create your site for your users and not for search engines.

No matter what anyone tells you your site needs to speak to your visitors with search engines an after thought.  The premises are these if your content is not useful for your visitors as all it does is spit out generic keywords then a user is not going to stay on your site as their is no point.  Create rich, unique, and useful content that users will want, by doing so you may not be seeding organic search on the short term but sites linking to your site will enhance your ranking over the long term.  Seriously you built your site for a purpose make sure you meet your goals.

With that important fact out of the way lets move on to some of the basic SEO techniques.

• Page Title
  The title of your page should be precise and informative. This tells the user where they are and what they can find on this page.  It is good practice to keep your name in the title with the title of the page. For example if you are a website developer and your company is XYZ corp and your tag line is “The Website Experts” then a reasonable title for the main page could be “XYZ Corp : Thew Website Experts”. However once inside the site the title should be more specific to the content on the page, for example a contact page could be “Contact Us at XYZ Corp” or “XYZ Corp : Contact Us”.

  <title>XYZ Corp: Portfolio of Short Films</title>

• Keywords
  Keywords is debated as not being used by Search Engines due to their abuse by web sites. However it is a good practice to add keywords to your page as long as they are relevant to your content. The keywords meta tag gets placed in the head tag of your html.

  <meta name="keywords" content="Search engine optimization"/>

• Description
  The description meta tag is used to place  a short description of the page. It is good practice to utilize keywords as part of your sentences inside this tag.

  <meta name="description" content="Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips and Tricks">

• URL Structure
  The url or the page is displayed in search results and possibly when users link to your site. Making the link user friendly also can notify Search Engines what content to expect on the page.  For example if you are an online store and are selling antique lamps then a posible url for your products could be www.antiquecompany.com/products/lamps/Red_Floral_Shade_Lamp/ This provides the user with information on what they can find on the page instead of a url like www.antiquecompany.com/?cateogry=1&product=237 which tells the user nothing about what to expect on that page.
• Site Map
  Having a site map for your website can provide users and search engines the ability to readily find pages in your site that is of interest to them.  I highly, highly recommend that you utilize a separate page for this with a link of every page in a utility navigation (not the main nav), please do not add it to the bottom of every page as it just adds clutter to your site.  A site map is a last resort for users to find content, your navigation should readily provide them access to content that they want, if users are repeatedly accessing the site map then you may want to reconsider the structure of your site.
• Content
  Content is the most important element of your site. Regardless of the above if your site does not provide new, unique, compelling, and above all else useful content a visitor will not stay. A visitor to your website is there for a purpose and your site should provide the information they are looking for. If you simply regurgitate information without providing anything new or different then users will not revisit your site.  When writing content keep in mind the keywords that users could be looking for and add those in to the content if appropriate. Do not force them in though having good content regardless of keywords will lead to visitors which could lead to links to your site and content increasing your ranking.
  • Anchor Text
    Anchor tags or a tags provide links to other sites. Utilize descriptive text instead of click here or similar general text so that users and search engines to understand what the page you are linking to is about.
  • Heading Tags
    Heading Tags or h1, h2 tags are meant to be used to specify the importance of content use them as such.  Place titles in header tags so that users and search engines realize their importance.
  • Images
    Search Engines can not view images instead the utilize the image name and alt property to gather information on what the image is.  Utilize short but descriptive names and place a description of the image in the alt tag as this will be displayed to users if the image can not be loaded.

Conclusion

Search Engine Optimization is a fickle topic, with each Search Engine utilizing their own algorithms and variables. The simplest and most often forgotten rule is simple build your site and write content for your users.  As for the rest be wary of SEO professionals who guarantee results as there are numerous “black hat” methods used that can get your black listed and removed from results.  Simply provide valuable and clear content following the basic guidelines is more than enough for most websites.