SEO Update

SEO Excel Functions

LEN

Character Length in Excel

The LEN function returns the number of characters in a cell. It’s particularly handy in creating the right title and meta descriptions. Remember to keep your titles to ~60 characters and meta descriptions to ~150 characters.

TRIM

Phantom spaces at the beginning or end of a cell can be maddening. So before you go Office Space on your keyboard use the TRIM function which gets rid of any spaces before or after text. It’ll also get rid of any extra spaces between words. Think of TRIM as a vacuum cleaner for spaces.

SUBSTITUTE

This is just what it sounds like. Using the SUBSTITUTE function you can find specific text and substitute it for different text. It doesn’t sound all that interesting but it turns out to be vital in creating useful formulas.

Word Count Formula

There’s no out of the box word count function. But with a little creativity you can create a useful word count formula using the three functions above.

=LEN(TRIM(A1))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,”"))+1

via 18+ SEO Excel Functions | Blind Five Year Old.

#1 – Links Higher Up in HTML Code Cast More Powerful Votes

Whenever we (or many other SEOs we’ve talked to) conduct tests of page or link features in (hopefully) controlled environments on the web, we/they find that links higher up in the HTML code of a page seem to pass more ranking ability/value than those lower down. This certainly fits with the recently granted Google patent application – Ranking Documents Based on User Behavior and/or Feature Data, which suggested a number of items that may considered in the way that link metrics are passed.

Those who’ve leveraged testing environments also often struggle against the power of the “higher link wins” phenomenon, and it can take a surprising amount of on-page optimization to overcome the power the higher link carries.

Read more

Why Don’t We Always Obey These Rules?

That answer is relatively easy. The truth is that in the process of producing great web content, we sometimes forget, sometimes ignore and sometimes intentionally disobey the best practices laid out above. On-page optimization, while certainly important, is only one piece of a larger rankings puzzle:

(FYI – The new ranking factors survey data is set to release very, very soon)

It most certainly pays to get the on-page, keyword-targeting pieces right, but on-page SEO, in my opinion, follows the 80/20 rule very closely. If you get the top 20% of the most important pieces (titles, URLs, internal links) from the list above right, you’ll get 80% (maybe more) of the value possible in the on-page equation.

Best Practices for Ranking #1

Curiously, though perhaps not entirely surprisingly to experienced SEOs, the truth is that on-page optimization doesn’t necessarily rank first in the quest for top rankings. In fact, a list that walks through the process of actually getting that first position would look something more like:

1. Accessibility – content engines can’t see or access cannot even be indexed; thus crawl-ability is foremost on this list.
2. Content – you need to have compelling, high quality material that not only attracts interest, but compels visitors to share the information. Virality of content is possibly the most important/valuable factor in the ranking equation because it will produce the highest link conversion rate (the ratio of those who visit to those who link after viewing).
3. Basic On-Page Elements – getting the keyword targeting right in the most important elements (titles, URLs, internal links) provides a big boost in the potential ability of a page to perform well.
4. User Experience – the usability, user interface and overall experience provided by a website strongly influences the links and citations it earns as well as the conversion rate and browse rate of the traffic that visits.
5. Marketing – I like to say that “great content is no substitute for great marketing.” A terrific marketing machine or powerful campaign has the power to attract far more links than content may “deserve,” and though this might seem unfair, it’s a principle on which all of capitalism has functioned for the last few hundred years. Spreading the word is often just as important (or more so) than being right, being honest or being valuable (just look at the political spectrum).
6. Advanced/Thorough On-Page Optimization – applying all of the above with careful attention to detail certainly isn’t useless, but it is, for better or worse, at the bottom of this list for a reason; in our experience, it doesn’t add as much value as the other techniques described.

Let’s turn our attention to those pesky H(x) tags again, and see if the ranking model has more to say about their impact/value.

via SEOmoz | Explaining (Some of) Google’s Algorithm with Pretty Charts & Math Stuff.

Introduction

Much has happened in the world of Local Search since last year’s edition of the Local Search Ranking Factors was published. We’ve seen a major quantitative study of Google Maps, detailed interviews with the heads of both Google Maps and Yahoo Local, the launch of a number of new portals, and just in the last few weeks, Google’s introduction of the Local 10-pack for generic keywords.

It is my hope that this study will help small business owners confused by Local Search, or those strapped for time, to prioritize their marketing efforts.

With that in mind, I felt that it was time to survey the experts once more to gauge the factors most helpful for ranking well in the Google and Yahoo Local algorithms, as well as techniques to be avoided. This year’s edition of the LSRF contains responses from 27 prominent bloggers and practitioners.

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Top 5 Ranking Factors

1. Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links
73% very high importance

2. External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)
71% very high importance

3. Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)
67% very high importance

4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag
66% very high importance

5. Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains (e.g. TrustRank, Domain mozTrust, etc.)
66% very high importance

via Search Engine Ranking Factors | SEOmoz.

Navigational Queries:

Opportunities – Pull searcher away from destination; get ancillary or investigatory traffic
Average Value - Generally Low

Informational Queries:

Opportunities - Brand searchers with positive impression of your site, information, company, etc; Attract inbound links; Receive attention from journalists/researchers; Potentially convert to sign-up or purchase
Average Value - Middling

Commercial Investigation Queries:

Opportunities – Convert to member/sign-up; Sway purchase decision; Collect email; Get user feedback/participation
Average Value - High

Transactional Queries:

Opportunities - Achieve transaction (financial or other)
Average Value – Very High

#1 – Relative Search Volume from 3 Sources

There are three sources on the web that I’ve found to work best for comparative numbers research. These are:

1. Google Adwords: Keyword Tool – enter any term or phrase and get back data about both the average search volume and the volume from the previous month.

2. MSN AdCenter: Research Keywords Tool – you need to be logged in to use this, but the data is solid and shows actual counts.

3. Wordtracker: Keyword Tool – although the numbers Wordtracker shows are frequently less accurate than the two above, they are reasonably decent for estimating comparative search volume. Unfortunately, due to the declining share of Wordtracker’s data sources (the Infospace owned search engines – Metacrawler, Dogpile, DoGreatGood, etc.), niche and long tail term volume estimates can be way off.

via SEOmoz | 10 Steps to Advanced Keyword Research.