search engine optimization | Jason Palmer, CPA, CITP

Google Webmaster Tools

June 30, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

Google Webmaster Tools provide you with detailed reports about how visible pages on your site are to Google.

Using Google Webmaster Tools you can:

See how Google crawls and indexes your site and see specific errors generated such as “page not found.”
Learn about internal and external links and which key word search queries bring traffic to your site.
Upload a Site Map file which tells Google which pages are most important and which URLs (pages) you want Google to index.

One of the most helpful aspects of Google Webmaster Tools is the “Site Health” area. Here Google tells you about Crawl errors. Google is extremely efficient and subsequently many sites have their generic sample posts indexed at Google. You delete them but Google still thinks they exist. The Crawl Error report will tell you the exact page location and the date the error was detected giving you the opportunity to investigate further.

Google has no way of knowing, without a little human intervention, if a “Page Not Found” is a technical problem, a page that is now behind a secure login, or has been removed. Once Google indexes a page or is told to index a page at a certain URL, it will keep trying until told otherwise. It is through the Google Webmaster Tools that you can mark these errors as “fixed” or permanently remove a URL from Google’s index.

Similar to Google Analytics, (Read my post on “Google Analytics for WordPress“) Google Webmaster Tools provides specialized traffic analysis focusing on and listing the search terms that caused your site to be displayed somewhere in the results listing of the query and its’ average position. And there are extensive reports on which sites link back to your site as well as how your site links to itself between categories and pages. Of course, Google+ activity reports are included showing search impact, activity, and audience.

The most important feature of Google Webmaster Tools is the Optimization Section. It is here that you can upload a SiteMap.xml file that tells Google about pages that it might not otherwise find during the Index Crawl and it gives you an opportunity to definitively tell Google about the content of your site. In a similar manner to the Search Engine Optimization discussed in my Post, “All in One SEO Pack for WordPress”, the SiteMap file can also provide metadata about the types of content on your site such as video, images or news. A SiteMap entry for a video might include the run time, category, and format information. For an image, the subject matter, type, and any license information. A SiteMap file can also alert Google to the last time of a site update and the frequency of change of or addition of new content to the site. (A future post will discuss how to create SiteMap.xml file.)

In short, using the Google Webmaster Tools Dashboard allows me to keep my site as “Google Friendly” as possible by alerting me immediately to any Indexing Crawl Errors, the status of my SiteMap.xml file updates, and it helps me determine which keyword searches are drawing traffic to my JasonPalmer.com WordPresss web site.

Useful Google Webmaster Links:

Google Webmaster Tools:
– http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

Google Webmaster Academy – Everything you ever wanted to know about Google
– http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=checklist.cs&tab=1095542

Google Webmaster Tools Help:
– http://support.google.com/webmasters/?hl=en

All in One SEO Pack (Search Engine Optimization) for WordPress

June 27, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

The All in One SEO Pack for WordPress makes Search Engine Optimization for your site in to an automated, mechanical process while still allowing advanced configuration for the purist.

Each page of a site needs to be properly formatted with “Meta Data”, (which is “data about data”), that includes information such as the Page Title, Description, Keywords, Category, and Site Name in a format that a Search Engine can quickly recognize and properly index. So, how do you do it? Use the All in One SEO Pack for WordPress.

Imagine if a Public Library had no card catalog and all of the books were just placed on the shelves with nothing printed on the outside cover. You would have to open each book, look inside, and memorize what was on each page.

Without Meta Data, in essence, the short “Cliff’s Note’s” information describing each page, a web site looks like a large disorganized pile of paper and the Search Engine has to read each page in its’ entirety and guess how the pages should be organized and indexed.

When you use the All in One SEO Pack Plugin for WordPress, you and the plugin determine and automatically add this Meta Data information to every static and dynamic page on your site so that the Search Engines see the organization, description of the pages on the site, and other key meta data as exactly as you intended.

For example, one set of meta data tags are those containing the web page title and description. This title and description meta data are usually what the Search Engine will display, word for word, in the results listing for a given page. The All in One SEO Pack for WordPress enables you to explicitly set the content of these tags as well as a number of others giving you complete control over what is displayed in the Search Engine results.

Although through the advanced options of the plugin you have the ability to fine tune a number of settings, for beginners, the All in One SEO Pack works right out-of-the-box. Just download and install the plugin and let it do its’ magic.

There are three items in the plugin settings that you should configure manually:

The “Home Title” is the site title displayed in the top bar of the web browser. For example, if you look at the top of your web browser, you should see it says, “Jason Palmer – Technology Consultant”.
The “Home Description” which is the site description, recommended not to exceed 160 characters, is almost exclusively used by the Search Engines and is what will be displayed in Search Results for the home page of the site. For JasonPalmer.com the description is “Complex Solutions to Complex Problems.”
The “Home Keywords” are descriptive words about the site. It makes sense to research various key words through the Search Engines to see which ones are most applicable to the content on your site. Keywords that describe the services offered at JasonPalmer.com include: Management Consulting, Technology Consulting, WordPress How-to.

In addition to setting these three Meta Tags for the Site Home Page, the Search Engine friendly Post Title, Post Description and Relevant Post Keywords each must be set for each individual post as well for SEO to be effective.

The All in One SEO Pack plugin is available in both a Free and Pro version, both of which can be installed on an unlimited number of sites – the key difference being the elimination of Advertising and the availability of Priority Support with the Pro version.

Learn more about the All in One SEO Pack Plugin at:
– http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Purchase the All in One SEO Pack Plugin for a one-time fee including lifetime upgrades and support at:
– http://semperplugins.com/all-in-one-seo-pack-pro-version

WordPress and ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization

June 25, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

When writing an article, the author usually has a target audience in mind and members of that audience are human, and therein lies the problem. Along the lines of a reverse “Turing Test”, we need to optimize our content not only for readability by humans but also by search engines as we never know if the reader is going to be human or machine. Furthermore, the language of search when people are using a search engine is somewhat different than that which we use colloquially. The ultimate test of the correct keywords to focus on is those which are the most popular search terms entered by billions of people every day.

This is where the ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization Plugin, comes in to help. ScribeSEO helps you find the keywords that are used when people are looking for the kind of content you are providing. Then, it analyzes the writing style of your post and makes suggestions on how to make minor changes so that the Search Engines enjoy reading it too. Finally, ScribeSEO provides link building tools so that you can build back links from other sites as well as cross-link content within your own site and identify other sites that might want to promote your content as well.

ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization Plugin analysis covers a number of areas to create the SEO Score:

First, it looks at the Title of your site: number of characters, number of words, primary keywords and do those keywords appear at the beginning of the title?

Second, it looks at the Site Description: again number of characters, primary keywords and do those keywords appear at the beginning of the title?

Finally, the Body, for number of words, keyword density, number of hyper-links, are these hyper-links towards the beginning, and the Flesch Reading Ease Score for the “readability” of your article.

The person who originally told me about ScribeSEO tried to prepare me for my first automated analysis by saying that writing optimized content for the Search Engines might take some time to master and get used to. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I analyzed my first organically written article and received a 100% on the SEO score by ScribeSEO. (Office Applications in the Cloud – Google Apps for Business and Office365, click here to read.)

You mileage may vary but realistically, ScribeSEO gives you plenty of feedback on your article so that it is pretty easy to make the subtle changes to optimize for Search Engine readability. Candidly, many of my posts score over 90% consistently with the only shortcoming being keyword density or positioning of the hyper-links to referenced content. (This is probably due to my preference of using the noun instead of a pronoun which eliminates ambiguity and enhances readability.) Only my most technical of posts, the ones that are predominately “tech notes,” score lower.

Another great feature is the suggestion of Tags for your articles as well as a full discussion of SEO Best Practices which provides a number of guidelines and tips so that you can start to learn to optimize your writing style. It also displays a proforma “Search Engine Results Page” showing what the result of someone searching for your content might see in the results listings of a search. Lastly, ScribeSEO provides heavy analysis of current keywords, suggestions on how to change keywords in the article to be more prominent, and alternative keyword suggestions for maximum impact.

ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization Plugin has a number of affordable pricing plans and various discounts are available.

Learn more about ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization Plugin at:
– http://www.scribeseo.com

Footnote: ScribeSEO analyzed and rated this post at 100% “Search Engine Optimized.”

Becoming the “Jason Palmer” on Google

June 21, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

Anyone who meets me would never confuse me with any other Jason Palmer. In fact, people say that I make a strong first impression that makes me virtually unforgettable – all good of course. You may read in to that as you will but it is along the lines of “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. And that brings us to a new series of articles on becoming “the” Jason Palmer on Google.

For the past twenty-five years of my career, I have been virtually invisible. To use a term of art, I was “off-the-grid” and nowhere is that more apparent then if you try to find me in a Google Search. Much of my consulting work has been for high profile accounts where being below the radar and discrete is good form. Almost all of my work has come from referrals where I am a well-known quantity prior to the introduction, and my credentials and references, if even asked for, are more than sufficient for me to be essentially hired before I actually meet the client. You could say in my field that I am a little like the “A-Team”, if you have a job, and you can find me, I can definitely help you. And there in lies the issue: Since most of my work comes from referrals, you have to know someone who knows me to find me.

To that end, approximately two weeks ago I decided to start to make myself visible on the Internet – Google specifically. There is no magic bullet but there are specific tried and true techniques that I will be sharing to demonstrate that one can go from invisible to highly visible in a reasonable period of time. In fact, the very first article I posted, if you search the proper two keywords, (M451 Error 13 – click here to see the proof), will appear as the very first listing in a Google Search. That is actually pretty impressive – if you are looking for one of my serious tech articles or what I call “Complex Solutions to Complex Problems.”

However, that simply demonstrates that I have highly specialized knowledge to solve a very specific problem with a very specific solution. It does nothing in particular for making me “the” Jason Palmer on Google. Search “Jason Palmer” (click here), and I am buried amongst a sea of “Jason Palmer’s” not appearing until the third page – at least as of the date of this post.

So, how am I going to become “the” Jason Palmer on Google? The answer? Incrementally. First if you look at the title of my site, I am not just “Jason Palmer” but “Jason Palmer – Tech Consultant.” My name is not so unique that there are not many other “Jason Palmer’s” but by adding the “Tech Consultant” tag line, I can narrow the field. This change alone, along with two weeks worth of daily posts allows someone to put in “Jason Palmer Tech” (Click here and see) and put me on the first page of Google.

It’s a start.