Ten-Plus Ways to Stay Updated - The Part of Tens - SEO For Dummies, 6th Edition (2016)

SEO For Dummies, 6th Edition (2016)

Part V. The Part of Tens

Chapter 23. Ten-Plus Ways to Stay Updated

In This Chapter

arrow Staying updated with search engine technology

arrow Finding detailed information for particular projects

arrow Getting information directly from search engines

arrow Discovering what people are searching for

arrow Finding people to help you

The naysayers said it couldn’t be done, that a book about search engine optimization couldn’t be written because the technology is changing so quickly. That’s not entirely true — I wrote the first edition of this book eight years ago, and the basics are still the same: creating pages that search engines can read, picking good keywords, getting lots of links into your site, and so on.

But some details do change. Where are people searching these days? What tricks are search engines really clamping down on? Why did your site suddenly drop out of Google (as many thousands do now and then; see Chapter 21)?

You may also need more detailed information than I can provide in this book. Perhaps you have a problem with dynamic pages and you need to know the details of URL rewriting for a particular Web server, for instance. You need to know where to go to find more information. In this chapter, I provide you with resources that you can use to keep up-to-date and track down the details.

Let Me Help Some More

Visit my Web site at www.SearchEngineBulletin.com. I point you to important resources, provide links to all the Web pages listed in this book (so that you can just click instead of typing them), and provide important updates. I also have bonus chapters on pay per click, copyright law, and Google search techniques.

I also provide consulting services, including phone consultations. I can examine a company’s online strategy from not just the perspective of search engines but also a wider view; I’ve been working online for over 30 years and have experience in Web design, e-commerce and online transactions, traffic conversion, non–search engine traffic generation, and so on. An hour or two of advice can often save a company from the huge expense of going down the wrong path!

The Search Engines Themselves

One of the best ways to find information about search engines is by using carefully crafted search terms at the search engines themselves. Say you want to find detailed information about dealing with session IDs (see Chapter 9). You can go to Google and search for search engine session id. Or perhaps you have a problem with dynamic URLs and know that you need to use something called mod_rewrite. Go to a search engine and search for mod_rewrite or mod rewrite. (The former is the correct term, although many people talk of mod rewrite in the vernacular.)

It’s amazing what you can find if you dig around for a little while. A few minutes’ research through the search engines can save you many hours of time wasted through inefficient or ineffective SEO techniques. I suggest you read the bonus chapter, from an earlier edition of this book, posted at www.searchenginebulletin.com and www.dummies.com/go/searchengineoptimizationfd, which explains various techniques for searching at Google. A good understanding of how to use search engines will pay dividends.

Google’s Webmaster Pages

Google is happy to tell you what it wants from you and what it doesn’t like. No, it won’t tell you exactly how it figures out search result rankings, but good information is there nonetheless. It’s a good idea to review the advice pages Google provides for Webmasters. You can find them at the following URLs:

· Google Webmaster Guidelines: www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

· Google Webmaster Help Center: www.google.com/support/webmasters

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Late in 2008, Google finally decided, “If we can’t beat them, join them,” and published its own SEO guide.

It’s basic but useful stuff, and I find it particularly handy when I’m arguing with Web developers. For instance, when a Web developer says, voice dripping with skepticism, “Why should we bother using H1 tags; nobody does anymore,” I can say quite simply, “Because Google says so,” and end the conversation right there.

You can find the guide here:

www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Bing SEO Tips

You can find information about optimizing pages for submission to Bing (and, through its partnership, inclusion in the Yahoo! search results) at http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/gg132923.aspx. You’ll find a wide range of information, from how the MSNbot works to how to handle a site move.

Matt Cutts

Matt Cutts is a well-known employee of Google (well known in SEO circles, that is) who works for the Search Quality team. He maintains a blog (www.MattCutts.com/blog) about a wide range of issues, including many related to SEO issues, is frequently interviewed, and has created hundreds of videos on SEO issues (search www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp for matt cutts). There are even Web sites that collect and summarize his words of wisdom, such as www.theshortcutts.com (get it?), and a quick search for any SEO topic, combined with the search term matt cutts, will often lead to some really useful information.

I like to use Matt’s info to find out the real answers; when I hear an SEO tip that I think perhaps is unlikely to be true, yet oft quoted, I sometimes think, “Let’s see what Matt has to say on the subject.” It’s also a great way to deal with uncooperative Web developers and difficult clients who have been hearing some kind of SEO nonsense.

Here’s an example. I sometimes hear from clients that “Google doesn’t care about links anymore.” My answer? “Oh, really? Well, perhaps you should hear what Matt Cutts has to say about that!” (What does he have to say? “I think backlinks still have many, many years left in them. But inevitably what we’re trying to do is figure out how an expert user would say this particular page matched his information needs. And sometimes backlinks matter for that.”)

warning Watch out! Just because someone on the Interwebs says “Matt Cutts said x” doesn’t mean it’s true.

In fact, that “many, many years” quote came from a video that was described on TheShortCutts.com with this simple statement: “Will backlinks lose their importance in ranking? Ideally yes, as Google better understands content.” Read just the summary, and you could be forgiven for thinking that links are already dropping in importance; if you listen to the video, you get a very different impression. I’ve frequently seen people misinterpret what Matt says to an even greater degree than this. If I see someone claiming Matt believes something that sounds unlikely to me, I try to dig down until I find the original Matt Cutts video or document. All too often, I find that, in fact, he’s said something quite different.

Search Engine Watch

The Search Engine Watch site gives you a great way to keep up with what’s going on in the search engine world. This site provides a ton of information about a very wide range of subjects related to not only search engine optimization but also the flip side of the coin — subjects related to searching online. In fact, perhaps this site’s greatest weakness is that it provides so much information; it’s really intended for search engine optimization experts rather than the average Webmaster or site manager. The site is divided into a free area and a paid-subscription area.

Visit the site at www.searchenginewatch.com.

The Official Google Webmaster Help Group

Google Groups hosts a very useful resource, the Official Google Webmaster Help Group, which has tens of thousands of members and hundreds of thousands of archived messages. It’s a great way to find out what people in the business are saying about, well, just about anything. Find it at www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters.

Here are a couple more great ways to peek into the mind of Google:

· Google Webmaster Central Blog: A very useful site, with information from actual employees of Google providing the Google view of search engine optimization. Visit http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.

· Google’s Inside Search: This is really a promotional site targeting Google users rather than the SEO community, but it’s a great way to keep up-to-date with new search features as Google introduces them. See https://www.google.com/insidesearch.

· Google Trends: This is an analysis of what people are searching for, when, and where. You can find the most popular brand-name searches, charts showing how searches peak for particular keywords during news events or in response to TV shows, the most popular searches for particular men, women, and fictional characters, the most popular movie searches in Australia, the most popular brands in Italy, and so on. Google provides weekly, monthly, and annual reports. Check it out at www.google.com/trends.

· Google Correlate: Enter a search term to find frequency over time or by location: www.google.com/trends/correlate.

Moz

Moz (originally SEOMoz) is a software company providing SEO tools. The company also maintains a very good blog on SEO issues, and of course learning from other SEOers in the industry is extremely valuable. See http://moz.com/blog.

WebMaster World

WebMaster World (www.webmasterworld.com) is a very good discussion group, with many knowledgeable people. It’ll cost ya, though: $89 for six months, or $149 for a year.

HighRankings.com

Hosted by a search engine optimization consultant, HighRankings.com is a pretty busy forum (free at this time) with discussions covering a wide range of subjects. Check it out at www.highrankings.com/forum.