2006 Dec 05 - Tue

Google Webmaster Tools

I cover a number of different topics in my blog. I'm interested in finding out how people arrive on those pages. From a Google perspective, they have a convenient tool for analyzing some of this information.

Google has a site called Google Webmaster Central. On that page is a link for Webmaster Tools (including Sitemaps). I've added my web site to the tool. As part of that process, they generate a verification key. I've installed the verification key in the footer file that gets included on all generated webpages on my site. This verification key is part of a script that talks to Google each time a web page is rendered by a web browser.

As part of each rendering, information is sent to Google that logs the queries used to get to the specific page. Google summarizes this information and reports this to me each time I visit the Google Webmaster Tools.

I've also uploaded a simple site-map so Google knows which pages to visit.

Now that I've provided some basic information to Google, I can now get an idea of how pages are crawled, when they are crawled, and how the pages are ranked within Google's system.

I also have the ability to download a spreadsheet of queries Google has recorded for reaching each page set. This will help me to optimize the keywords in each document. It also gives me an idea of people's interests, and thereby provide additional content focussed to those topics of interest.

I have a Google search tool at the top of my pages. The searches entered in that box are also recorded so I can tell for what people are searching once they reach my site.

There is also a set of index statistics provided which include: the pages indexed by Google, sites that Google knows that link to my site, and presents a list of sites related to my site so I can have an idea of who my competition might be.

I've found the Google 'link:' not quite as detailed as I think it should be. Google has maybe twelve sites showing information for link:www.oneunified.net. On the other hand, Alexa shows around 74 sites linking.

Anyway, for a high level view of what GoogleBot thinks about my site, Google Webmaster Central provides a good summary.

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2006 Dec 04 - Mon

Keywords for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engines like keywords, keywords that are balanced, not overused, not underused. Both copy writers and site designers need to be involved in optimization of keywords and phrases. Once appropriate keywords and phrases have been determined (more about this in another entery), copy writers need to work them into the text of the website. In addition, the keywords and phrases can be incorporated into meta-tags of the page, but I've heard that you can't overboard here, nor can you rely only on meta-tags to carry the day.

Another trick is to incorporate the keywords into web site structure and navigation. For example, on one my pages I discuss a set of HD-600 headphones by Sennheiser. The page references the word AudioPhonics and the directory structure in which the article rests has that word as part of the path.

That article has a Google rank of 7 or 8. It has reached that rank within a few weeks of posting. However, that page is actually about the Sennheiser HD 600 headphones, and if I do a search on that phrase, page rank is very very low. It is somewhere between 140 and 745,000. So, in effect, people will land on that page due to a search of the nebulous topic of AudioPhonics rather than the more specific topic of Sennheiser HD 600 Headphones about which I wrote.

Because there are so many other pages out there that have Sennheiser HD 600 in the title bar, which my page doesn't (I'm going to have to move to different blogging software to make that happen), they probably enjoy higher rankings. However, an appropriate title is only one of many attributes a search engine will use to compute a page rank.

Those other pages also probably use meta-tags.

Those other pages may also have inbound links of one form or another to gain them extra visibility.

Those other sites may also have related content that helps a search engine's related content matchers. (I'm still finding out about this one to see how true it is).

But you'll also note that when doing a search on the phrase 'Sennheiser HD 600', a bunch of other kind of related pages show up: ones that have a portion of the phrase repeatedly, ones that include the phrase in passing but related to similar equipment, and ones that have them in the url somewhere.

So, after having mentioned what search engines like, we'll see what happens with this page in the page rankings in a few weeks for the search topic 'Sennheiser HD 600'. I've mentioned the product multiple times within the text of this document, which is what Search Engines seem to like. I'm still missing the text in meta-tags, the title, and the url, but we'll see how things go. It will be form of double irony that people come here because they searched for 'Sennheiser HD 600' when in fact this page is actually is about Search Engine Optimization, in another form: Optimzation for Search Engine Findability.

In summary, if you are looking for visibility and findability, each page you write needs to be hand crafted with these various techniques in mind. And even if you've crafted a page for a certain phrase, you may find a search engine likes it differently based upon user's search patterns and preferences. But if you watch these patterns, you can use them to your benefit to further enhance your findability.

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2006 Dec 03 - Sun

Book Review: Ambient Findability by Peter Morville

As I've been adding content to my blog, I've also been looking into methods and mechanisms of promoting it .

Over the last few years, I've been receiving JIll Whalen's High Rankings Advisor Newsletter. She devotes her time to educating her readers in the subject of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I've been reading the newsletter ever since the time that meta-tags had significant meaning. Now they represent only a portion of toolset needed to successfully promote a web site.

Web site promotion is really all about 'findability'. Peter Morville presents this topic in a very readable book called 'Ambient Findability' available from O'Reilly Press. The sub-title of his book is 'What We Find Changes Who We Become', which I think is very apt, based upon the research he presents within the pages of his book. We as Blog authors and web page developers provide content so that we can share it with others, and perhaps make some money from it, if not for other altruistic reasons. As they say, content is king. But if no one knows about the content, what good does it do? So the key question is: how does one get others to visit? Obviously, other's can't visit if they don't know where to visit. One concept that comes immediately to mind is a one called viral marketing. Marketing Terms defines it as a 'marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message'. If you can get a snowball of a message rolling, people will come.

On the other hand, in order to build a base of respectability and long term associations, any number of ideas and philosophies need to be considered. No one promotion gimmick will yield results. Around 175 pages of book can be boiled down to this meaning laden quote:

Semantic Web tools and standards create a powerful, enduring foundation. Taxonomies and ontologies provide a solid semantic network that connects interface to infrastructure. And the fast-moving, fashionable folksomonies sit on top: flexible, adaptable, and responsive to user feedback.

The book is much more readable than what is found in that exerpt, but hopefully the exerpt provides a desire to find out more of what it takes to build a successful web site. Search Engine Optimization is part and parcel of semantic content. Tag building through such sites as Flickr and Del.icio.us provide the folksomony, or user ratedness of a site. And search engine classification schemes provide accessibility.

Many different topics related to finding things are presented within the book. It is an excellent first book for those involved with the multi-role task of making web sites findable, as well as usable.

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