Search Engine Optimisation - Revision history

Andrew: /* More resources */

2025-09-18T12:23:29Z

‎More resources

Andrew: /* More resources */

2023-02-14T15:00:20Z

‎More resources

Andrew: /* Don't be evil */

2023-02-14T14:18:52Z

‎Don't be evil

Andrew: /* Basic Guidelines */

2023-02-14T14:18:04Z

‎Basic Guidelines

Andrew: /* Sitemaps */

2023-02-14T14:01:05Z

‎Sitemaps

Andrew: /* Google Search Console */

2023-02-14T13:55:22Z

‎Google Search Console

Andrew: /* The next steps */

2023-02-14T13:52:57Z

‎The next steps

Andrew at 07:28, 20 November 2012

2012-11-20T07:28:44Z

Andrew at 07:25, 20 November 2012

2012-11-20T07:25:44Z

Andrew at 07:24, 20 November 2012

2012-11-20T07:24:38Z

@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 ==More resources==
-[[https://developers.google.com/search/docs Google Search Central]]
+[https://developers.google.com/search/docs Google Search Central]
 =Telling search engines that you exist=

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:00, 14 February 2023
Line 39:		Line 39:

	==More resources==		==More resources==
		+	[[https://developers.google.com/search/docs Google Search Central]]

	=Telling search engines that you exist=		=Telling search engines that you exist=

@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 ==Don't be evil==
-Google's company statement applies to web developers as well. Don't host malicious content, and don't link to sites know to spam users or to host malicious content.
+Google's old company slogan applies to web developers as well. Don't host malicious content, and don't link to sites know to spam users or to host malicious content.
 ==More resources==

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 * Avoid duplicate content -- more occurrences of your key words all over your site won't produce better result. Rather be clear, informative, unique, and useful.
-==Using Meta tags==
+==Use Meta tags==
 Google recognises the following meta tags which will assist searching and indexing:
   meta name="description" content="A description of the page"
@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 Further information on other meta tags recognised by Google, and how these tags can be used can be
 found at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=79812
 ==Use a robots file==
@@ Line 33: / Line 37: @@
 ==Don't be evil==
 Google's company statement applies to web developers as well. Don't host malicious content, and don't link to sites know to spam users or to host malicious content.
 =Telling search engines that you exist=

@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 <br />
 When you've added all the URLs, close the urlset tag, save the file as sitemap.xml, and upload and submit as for a txt Sitemap.
 ==Advertising==

@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 =The next steps=
-==Google Search Console==
+==Track your site's performance==
-[https://search.google.com/search-console]
+[[Viewing and interpreting your website hit stats|Activate detailed logging and track your hits]]
 [https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome Add your website to search console]. More info can be found [https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34592 here].

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:28, 20 November 2012
Line 69:		Line 69:
	<priority>0.8</priority>		<priority>0.8</priority>
	</url>		</url>
		+	<br />
		+	The loc tag specifies the URL, lastmod is the last modification date of that page, changefreq specifies how often the page changes, and priority is the relative importance of the page to the rest of your site. For example, your homepage might have a priority of 1.0 (most important) whereas a page of unimportant links would only have a value of 0.2 or so.
		+	<br />
		+	When you've added all the URLs, close the urlset tag, save the file as sitemap.xml, and upload and submit as for a txt Sitemap.
		+
		+	==Advertising==
		+	The more you advertise and the easier it is for clients to find you, the higher your ranking will be on large search engines like Google. Remember that participating in lining schemes, and linking to malicious sites or "bad web neighbourhoods" will only serve to damage your results. Your advertising should be useful to the users of your site.
		+
		+	===Free classified adverts on the web===
		+	* Gumtree – Johannesburg and Cape Town http://capetown.gumtree.co.za/
		+	* Orange Pages www.orangepages.co.za
		+	* Online Shopping http://www.onlineshopping.co.za/addasite.php
		+
		+	===Google AdWords===
		+	Imaginet advertises with Google Adwords, as it's pay-per-click, it's a very effective way to make your
		+	business known. Adwords will not increase your search rank, but you will be able to advertise in sidebars,
		+	and ad blocks in certain sites. The service also allows for very precise budgeting, and campaign planning.
		+	Further information on this service can be found at https://adwords.google.com

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:25, 20 November 2012
Line 61:		Line 61:
	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>		<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
	<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">		<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
		+	<br />
		+	You can now add URLs using the following format for each URL:
		+	<url>
		+	<loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
		+	<lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>
		+	<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
		+	<priority>0.8</priority>
		+	</url>

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:24, 20 November 2012
Line 45:		Line 45:
	<br />		<br />
	Should you want to submit your site to other search engines, the relevant links should be available on those pages.		Should you want to submit your site to other search engines, the relevant links should be available on those pages.
		+
		+	=The next steps=
		+	You can now consider the final few stages of optimisation, which would increase your page rank over time. Consider making use of Google's webmaster tools at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/?hl=en and think about advertising, and submitting a Sitemap to search engines.
		+
		+	==Sitemaps==
		+	A Sitemap is a file based on a specific protocol, which basically lists all of the pages of your site. You can submit one to Google via your Webmaster Tools account. Sitemaps are useful if you have a large number of pages which are not being indexed by a search engine (due to incorrect linking, missing links, etc), or if you have a large number of pages which change regularly, or need to be indexed in a specific way. You can go about creating one in a number of ways. We will outline the two easiest options below: You can create a list of URLs in a basic text file. This type of Sitemap will inform search engines that unlinked pages exist. Simply create a list of URLs, each fully typed out, one URL per line. For example:
		+	<br />
		+	http://www.example.com/file1.html
		+	http://www.example.com/file2.html
		+	Do not exceed 50000 URLs, and don't include any other text at all. Save the file in UTF-8 encoded text, and name it "sitemap.txt". Upload this file to your host server, to the highest level directory to be crawled.
		+	<br />
		+	<br />
		+	You can also create a sitemap using the Sitemap Protocol. Create an XML file with the following header:
		+	<br />
		+	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
		+	<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">