Opinions On How to Master SEO!
Search algorithms and opinions are changing every day. Mastering the changes are the keys to sucesss when marketing online.
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The htaccess file and SEO
The .htacess file is a simple txt base file that tells a browser or a search engine what to do when displaying or redirecting certain web pages. There are many more technical IT based individuals out there who can tell you the full benefits of the .htaccess file and may suggest my wording or explain nation is not technically right, but to be honest all I am interested in explaining is why in certain cases an .htacess file can be a major a huge difference to your SEO results.
It mainly relates around duplicate content of which Google does not particularly like and often can’t deal with very well. In better words it is possible you have more than one version of the same content on your website without you knowing how or why.
Here is an example. Have you ever typed in your URL without the www and found it still shows your homepage? Well the problem is, Google sees this as a different URL to the page with the WWW included. It may be the same physical copy on your local drive, but to Google this is 2 versions of the same thing.
The way around this is to create a simple .htaccess file in your route directory that redirects the non www version to the version with www. (you can do this the opposite way should you choose). Another version of your homepage could be shown as a index.html, php or asp file. Again this may be the same physical page as the URL without the files extension, but to Google this is another copy of duplicate content.
So by going through your site and identifying any pages that can be seen as duplicate content to Google should all be redirected to one master version? The other good news is that all the page rank is also diverted to the master version, as it is possible to have different page rank vales on every different URL version of that page.
The .htaccess file can only be used on Linux servers and not those that are Windows based, (that use asp or similar) to redirect pages in these, you need to go into the server to do so. I prefer Linux for this very reason, it give me more flexibility to deal with issue that Google do not handle very well from a SEO point of view, of course from a programmers point of view it could be a different story.
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How Long To Rank
When speaking to clients the inevitable question always asked of how long will it be before their chosen search term is ranked on Google. Actually sometimes some power does seem to give the impression that they can influence the speed of a certain search engine ranking position. An honest ethical SEO Company can find itself loosing business, purely because it refuses to be bullied into quick fixes or promising guaranteed rankings.
My explanation to my clients is based around what I call the natural timeline for gaining positions on Google based on the unique factors of each site. We pretty much know that the age of a site has a factor in rankings , so any new site will take longer than one just registered. We also know the competition is different for each search term, so yes it is possible to rank high for certain search terms very quickly, but it is unlikely to be a search term that is competitive.
This is where experience in SEO becomes fundamental to the success of the site. Too many times I have seen so called professionals send too many links too quickly to a new site, only for it to disappear into what is commonly know as the Google Sandbox. Of course the Google Sandbox is highly contended and many suggest it is nothing more than a filter that is automatically applied if Google finds anything that suggests someone is trying to influence the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).
As the URL ages (more accurate than saying site) a trust factor is applied and basically the more Google trusts the site, the more you can get away with in terms of link building. The safest way is to add a few links a day, small and often. I hate footer links that go through the whole of the site. This just tells Google you have paid or have exchanged links for this to occur.
Even genuine marketing banners should have the no follow tag applied so no page rank is passed over; otherwise you run the risk of the site being highlight as a site that has bought links.
So each site has its own timeline based on age, the current trust rank (this is a term seo professionals use not an official Google term) and finally how much competition that search term has in that sector.
If you are doing it yourself, then take you time, if you are a SEO Company or professional, always stick by your guns when discussing timelines with your clients and do not be scared to lose business if their requirements do not match reality.