Tag Archives: search engines

Using EasySiteOptimizer Pro for Website SEO – Code Validation

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A few months ago in our SEO Basics post, we showed you how to use EasySiteOptimizer Pro – which is free for all EarthLink Web Hosting and Ecommerce Hosting customers – for on-page keyword SEO optimization of your website.

SEO Basics - using EasySiteOptimizer Pro for code validation SEOBut that’s not all you can do with EasySiteOptimizer Pro. Today we’ll show how to use the Code Validation features to help you improve your website’s search engine rankings.

So let’s get started…

  1. Sign into your Web Hosting Control Center at with your EarthLink Web Hosting domain name, username, and password.
  2. On the Build tab, click the EasySiteOptimizer button.
  3.  From the Main Menu window, click the Optimization link. You’ll see an overview of your most recent optimizations, an optimization statistics graph, and page quality rankings (as shown in the screenshot above).
  4. Click the Code Validation link in the left-side navigation or the button at the bottom of the page. Code validation is to identify common errors on your site that can negatively impact your search engine rankings.
  5. Click the checkbox next to the page that you want to optimize and then click the Begin Code Validation button.
  6. SEO website code validation toolOn the Code Validation page, you’ll see a list of Notes on the left (Errors, Ignored Errors, Fixed Errors, and Notices). Click on any of the notes or errors to see a description of the problem and solution. For example, it may say that you are missing ALT tags for images, that you have a low density of keywords in a tag, that your page Title is too short or lacking keyword density, that you are lacking enough body copy, that you are missing one or more META tag (such as description or keywords).
  7. For some problems, such as keyword issues, you’ll have a link to click on to go and fix the problem. For others, such as Title problems, you’ll have an opportunity to correct the problem on the Code Validation page and then click the Fix button. Others, such as increasing the amount of body copy on your page, may require you to go back to the EasySiteWizard Pro tool (also within the Build section of your Control Center) to make substantial changes to your page.
  8. When you have finished fixing the code validation issues, click the Done button.

After you are finished validating your code and fixing problems, you may want to move on to the next step within the Optimization tab of EasySiteOptimizer: creating or updating your sitmap and submitting it to search engines. We’ll cover that in an upcoming post.

For more help with SEO problems that turn up in your Code Validation steps above, see our previous post about how to use keywords for website SEO (this includes help with Title and META tags).

Google Announcing New Products at I/O Conference

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Google 2013 developer conference - new google productsThe biggest Internet news of the week is coming from Google, which just yesterday kicked off its 6th annual Google I/O developer conference.

The conference, which over 6,000 developers are attending at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, is still going on right now and will conclude tomorrow. But there has been quite a lot of buzz about what Google has already announced.

Here’s a rundown of the biggest announcements from the Google I/O developer conference so far:

  • Google Play Music All Access: This is a new, unlimited streaming music/Internet radio subscription service. It offers access to millions of tracks, playlists and suggestions based on music you already own and like, and let you customize a streaming radio station based on specific songs or artists (a la Pandora). You can stream music on Web or Android phones and tablets. The service will cost $9.99 a month, but if you sign up for a free 30-day trial before June 30th, you’ll pay only $7.99 a month. CNET has a review of the new All Access service. Or visit Google Play Music.
  • Google Play social gaming: Google is launching a new platform that will allow game developers to build in more social gaming aspects as well as take advantage of Google’s cloud storage capabilities, so you could play and pause a game on Android devices, iOS decices, PCs or Macs. See the Wall Street Journal for a review.
  • Google Maps: The popular map and direction service has been totally rebuilt. The next generation of Google Maps offers a more full-screen, less cluttered view with a search box built into the map itself. You’ll get a lot more options with your map searches: more local points of interest, more business information, street view and satellite imagery options, photo tours, and more. You’ll likewise get more options for directions: car, public transportation, walking, biking, flying. The new maps is available for the Web, on Android devices, or iPhone. Google has a preview of the new Maps and links to downloads here.
  • Google Search: Google previewed its work on conversational search. When it launches, you’ll be able to say “OK, Google, will it be raining this weekend in Central Park?” and get your answer spoken back to you. You can then ask follow-up questions. Google also announced improvements to its Knowledge Graph, to answer factual questions more precisely and fully. And Google Now updates offer reminders based on time and your current location. See Google’s Inside Search blog for more details.
  • Google Hangouts: Google launched a new Hangouts chat, video chat and unified messaging app that works across platforms. You can use it to text, send photos, or have a group video conference; SMS integration is reportedly coming soon (but not for iOS). The new Hangouts replaces Google Talk and G+ Messenger. It’s now available on Android, iOS, Chrome and Gmail. Read a review of Hangouts on Techcrunch.
  • Google+: The social network site has been redesigned to work better across platforms (Web and mobile devices). Google+ Photos also features a number of important updates: Auto Backup, Auto Highlight, Auto Enhance, and the more-awesomely named Auto Awesome. Google has an overview of G+ changes here.

That’s not all. Watch for more updates on Google’s Official Blog.

You can also keep up-to-the-minute on Google announcements and even watch live streaming video of the ongoing developers conference here.

SEO Basics: Using Keywords for Website SEO

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Find popular keywords for SEO - Google Keyword ToolLast week, we started our SEO Basics series with a look at How to Use Title Tags on Your Website.

As a reminder, SEO stands for search engine optimization, and refers to all the techniques used to help your website and webpages rank well in search engine results.

When telling you how to optimize your Title tags last week, we talked about how it was important to feature the keywords that are most popular to describe your product or service.

The same is true for the content of your webpages: keywords matter.

Here’s what you need to know about keywords:

  • Ideally, each of the pages on our website should be focused on one keyword (with close variations).
  • “Keyword” often means multiple words: web hosting service and professional web design are multi-word keywords for EarthLink Web Hosting pages. High speed cable Internet is a keyword for our cable Internet access page.
  • Use tools such as the Google Keyword tool to find the right keywords.
  • Generally it’s recommended to shoot for the keywords with the highest volume, though you may decide you’re better able to compete for some more narrow, long-tail keywords with less traffic.
  • Keep in mind, your product name is typically not your keyword. Your keyword is the more generic term for what your product/service is. Think: what do people call products like mine, in general.
  • Ideally, keywords should be in the page’s Title tag, URL, page header (H1 tag), and used throughout the body of the page, especially near the top.
  • Do not stuff the page with keywords. This is a very old and now dangerous technique that is likely to backfire. Use your keyword (and variations) a natural number of times when covering your topic/product.
  • Vary your keyword on your webpage in natural ways: using singular and plural forms, different word orders for keyword phrases, close synonyms, and natural keyword modifiers.
  • Use your keywords as links on other pages in your website. Internal linking using keywords is another way that search engines determine what is most important about a page.

Using the simple keyword techniques above should help you get started with SEO and help you generate traffic to your website. Good luck.

SEO Basics: How to Use Title Tags on Your Website

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So, you’ve built your business website. Now you want some traffic.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the traffic-generating tools you have at your disposal.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of factors outside your control when it comes to SEO. Others can be controlled but take significant time or effort.

But here’s one that’s both fully within your control and super simple: optimizing the Title tags for your business website’s homepage and product pages.

The Title tag determines what appears at the top of your web browser window when visiting a webpage. The Title tag is also what Google, Bing, and other search engines use as the main link to your website in search results. The search engines also use the keywords in your Title tag to categorize your pages, which is why the tag is important for SEO.

One of the biggest, commonly missed SEO opportunities is a business homepage that says Welcome or Home.

Those generic Titles don’t brand your website at all. Nor do they give potential visitors (and search engines) any idea of what your website is about.

There are some different schools of thought when it comes to the perfect Title tag, but in general, the best practice advice is to lead with keywords that are the most popular for the products or services you offer and end with your website/brand name.

If branding is most important to you or you feel your brand name is strong and want to feature it more in search results, then flip the order and use your brand first, then keywords.

You should keep the Title under 70 characters (including spaces). Anything above that will get cut off in Google search results.

Because you don’t have much space, you really have to prioritize the keywords you use.

Here’s an example of our EarthLink Business website. The Title tag of 69 characters leads with the keywords for the main business service categories we offer: IT, Data, Voice & Internet Services for Business – EarthLink Business.

This is how the EarthLink Business homepage Title tag shows up at the top of a web browser (in this case Safari):

EarthLink Business - title tag for business services homepage

And this is how the Title tag looks in Google search results:

EarthLink Business in Google search resultsKeep in mind, you should have unique Title tags for each of your pages, so you need to plan out which keywords to use for which pages. Reusing the same Title tags on multiple (or all) pages is another one of the most common SEO mistakes.

Using the EarthLinkBusiness.com site as an example again, here are Title tags for some of our important business service pages:

Most content management systems (such as blogging software) let you update Title tags by simply typing in new text in the Title field and updating the page.

In the source code for your page, the Title tag is found in the <head> section and is whatever you put between the <title> </title> tags.

If you need help finding popular keywords related to your business website to use for your Title tag, try using this Google Keyword tool.

Good luck with your SEO.