{"id":460,"date":"2010-10-18T09:05:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T17:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/?p=460"},"modified":"2010-10-18T09:08:18","modified_gmt":"2010-10-18T17:08:18","slug":"my-seo-journey-through-a-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-through-a-website\/","title":{"rendered":"My SEO Journey Through A Website"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever wondered exactly how an <acronym title=\"Search Engine Optimizer\">SEO <\/acronym>can make your site more profitable?\u00a0 Well, I am here to offer you a little more insight about that very thing.\u00a0 You see, I am not just writing about all of the wonders of search engine optimization, I am actually helping websites achieve it.\u00a0 To give you an example, I would like to take you along on my <acronym title=\"Search Engine Optimization\">SEO<\/acronym> journey through a website.\u00a0 Hopefully at the end, you will see just how simple it is to turn some things around for your own site.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_80 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"#\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-through-a-website\/#The_Initial_Consultation\" >The Initial Consultation<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"#\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-through-a-website\/#Meta_Data\" >Meta Data<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"#\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-through-a-website\/#Homepage\" >Homepage<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"#\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-through-a-website\/#About_Us\" >About Us<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"#\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-through-a-website\/#Site_Map\" >Site Map<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"#\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-through-a-website\/#Fixing_the_Problems\" >Fixing the Problems<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Initial_Consultation\"><\/span>The Initial Consultation<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>So, the first thing I do is offer the customer a website consultation to find any big problems that stand out on their most significant pages.\u00a0 I usually spend about one hour doing this consultation.\u00a0 I will typically look at the meta data, the homepage, about us page, and site map.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Meta_Data\"><\/span>Meta Data<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The source code contains the meta data for TITLE, KEYWORDS, and DESCRIPTION.\u00a0 It looks something like this<\/p>\n<pre lang=\"html4strict\" escaped=\"true\">&lt;title&gt;Website Title\/title&gt;\r\n&lt;meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=iso-8859-1\" \/&gt;\r\n&lt;meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"insert relevant keywords here separated by a comma,\" \/&gt;\r\n&lt;meta name=\"description\" content=\"A brief description of what your website is about\" \/&gt;<\/pre>\n<p>I check to ensure that the title makes sense, that the keywords are relevant for the website and are the ones they wish to target, and that the description reads well since it will be the information that appears in the search result.\u00a0 For instance, one of the sites I evaluated needed some help in all three of these areas.\u00a0 Their title needed to have a bit more structure and the site name at the beginning.\u00a0 The description needed to be cleaned up grammatically, and they needed to cut down on the large number of keywords and ensure they were using their most relevant ones.\u00a0 I made these changes and we are expecting to see increased traffic to their site over the next few months.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Homepage\"><\/span>Homepage<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>From their I move on to the homepage.\u00a0 This is where I spend most of my time.\u00a0 Some of the things I am looking at here are the images and the links.\u00a0 I want to make sure that all images have some alt text with them.\u00a0 This is text that will appear if for some reason the image does not load.\u00a0 This not only helps the user, but allows the search engine to more easily index the image as well. The code looks like this:<\/p>\n<pre lang=\"html4strict\" escaped=\"true\">&lt;img width=\"100\" height=\"27\" title=\" Glass Tile Polished Glossy 1 x 4 Mediterranean \" alt=\"Glass Tile Polished Glossy 1 x 4 Mediterranean\" src=\"bmz_cache\/9\/9c37509ebb2cdd7df7d2997ac1bd3330.image.100x27.jpg\" \/&gt;<\/pre>\n<p>You want to make sure that both the title and alt attributes\u00a0 are included in your code.\u00a0 Every image needs both the title and alt attribute.\u00a0 I also look at the links on the page to make sure that they have a title attribute as well.\u00a0 Here is an example of link code:<\/p>\n<pre lang=\"html4strict\" escaped=\"true\">&lt;a title=\"Flooring Supply Shop's Shipping Return Policy\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flooringsupplyshop.com\/pages\/shipping-return-policy-pv-c0-15.html\" target=\"_self\"&gt;Shipping\/Return Policy&lt;\/a&gt;<\/pre>\n<p>The area at the beginning of this code is the title attribute.\u00a0 Notice how I have used the title attribute to make the link even more descriptive than the link text alone by adding the company name.\u00a0 I make sure that every single link on the page has this key information.\u00a0 Almost every website I have evaluated has been missing this key information either on their images or links throughout their site.\u00a0 Fixing the images and links make it so much easier for the robots crawling the website to index it quickly and effectively.\u00a0 It also helps your users and makes their experience more enjoyable.\u00a0 As always, make sure the titles you use are specific and relevant to the link and website.\u00a0 In addition, I make sure the meta keywords described at the beginning of this article are actually used, effectively, inside the content.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"About_Us\"><\/span>About Us<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>I usually take a look at this page, and ensure that all images and links have the proper attributes.\u00a0 I will also take a look at the information on the page and make sure it is correct in terms of language, and that it flows well.\u00a0 The keywords on this page should describe the company and its products and services.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Site_Map\"><\/span>Site Map<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>I always look at the site map because it is full of links to other pages.\u00a0 I want to again make sure that all of the links have title attributes, and that the links are sending people to the correct page within the site.\u00a0 Another type of site map, usually in XML format, also needs to be present on the website and referenced in the robots.txt file so that the search engines can more easily index the website.\u00a0 Once I do this, my initial evaluation is complete.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Fixing_the_Problems\"><\/span>Fixing the Problems<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>After sending in the report to the site owner, I wait to see if they agree to allow us to make the changes.\u00a0 If so, I begin the process of fixing all of the concerns that I pointed out in the report.\u00a0 I start with the links.\u00a0 I will add title attributes or modify them as necessary.\u00a0 I will then go through and add alt attributes and titles to all of the images.\u00a0 If any of the links take visitors to the wrong page, I will change those as well.\u00a0 I know these fixes seem simple.\u00a0 That&#8217;s because they are.\u00a0 However, if these simple changes are implemented, the results could be enormous.\u00a0 So make sure someone takes the time to go through your site and look for opportunities to make these small changes.\u00a0 You may find that they add up to big revenue coming in to your site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever wondered exactly how an SEO can make your site more profitable?\u00a0 Well, I am here to offer you a little more insight about that very thing.\u00a0 You see, I am not just writing about all of the wonders of search engine optimization, I am actually helping websites achieve it.\u00a0 To give you&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,38,127,642,34],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-search-engine-optimization","tag-content","tag-keywords","tag-links","tag-search-engine-optimization","tag-seo"],"modified_by":"Jeff Lew","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.numinix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}