subject: SEO 101 part 3 [print this page] SEO 101 part 3 SEO 101 part 3
So here's the third instalment in our 4 part SEO 101. We're covering those often used and often not totally understood terms banded about in SEO circles the web over. For those SEO gurus reading this then consider this a refresher and booster. For those new to SEO, those of you feeling your way through the online marketing maze one step at a time then hopefully you'll find this SEO 101 full of useful insight and explanations. Having already worked through;
SEO
SEM
PPC Keywords
Keyword density
Keyword stuffing
Back-link
Page Rank
Let's waste no further time. Here are another 3 more commonly used SEO terms defined and explained.
NoFollow SEO experts love inspiring inbound links. Why? Simple. Because Google credits sites that are linked to. If your site is worth linking to then your site must have value to visitors. Links are an endorsement. Not all sites share the love, however. Sites with the nofollow link attribute tell Google that they don't endorse the destination site. The nofollow attribute, see Twitter, the majority of blog comments and sponsor or advertiser paid links, nullifies any 'link juice' or PageRank benefits.
Canonical URL - Duplicate content is big problem on the web. Google dislikes it intensely for two main reasons. Firstly duplicate content potentially damages the user experience - people (and search engines) get confused. Secondly Google deems it suspicious and may penalise offending sites. Often the reason for duplicate content is simply the fact that there are a numerous ways that URLs can be represented. For example they can begin either using www at the beginning or not. They can also end in a variety of ways - dot html or dot asp, or forward slashes for example. Canonicalization is a process for converting a URL into a standard URL for accessing specific pages. Consistent, uniform, normalised URLs are what you should aim for.
Link farm You may have had emails from some kind people in far flung corners of the world offering to catapult your website into the Google stratosphere. Take care. Top of the act in haste repent in leisure' techniques that such companies use is the link farm. A link farm is a group of websites that link to each other with the sole purpose of artificially increasing each other's PageRanks. The links reflect no real appreciation of quality or value in the sites and has led to the search engines coming down hard on such practices. Avoid. What you want are genuine hand built links from quality sites.
So that's part 3 of our SEO 101. Tune in next time for the fourth and final part of our SEO speak catch up. If the suspense is too much to bear then make sure you talk to an SEO expert for straightforward, user friendly explanations.
