How many times have you heard an SEO consultant go on and on about getting H1, H2 and H3 tags straight? Many times obviously. The usage of H1 tags in particular is one of the most popular SEO tricks utilized by SEO professionals. Apart from the written content, H1 tags are considered to be the second most important on-page factors that have a direct effect on a website’s rankings.

Although the H1 tags haven’t changed much since their inception, their value has increased due to the massive level of competitive among websites. Heading tags are often used as a base for a search engine’s crawler. The presence of a clearly visible H1 tag acts as an arrow that points toward the most important part of your site.

The value of a good H1 tag is determined by the power of the keyword it is associated with. We all know that search engine crawlers have a long standing grudge against keyword stuffing. The same rule of maintaining the quality of the content applies to heading tags just as well as the rest of the on page content. Therefore, making sure that you use a valuable keyword on the H1 tag along with some supporting content is a good way to make sure that the crawlers crawl your way.

Many people have expressed concern about how the H1 tags are not as effective these days. In reality, they are still just as effective as ever, only if you know how to strike the perfect balance between keywords and content. Aside from H1 tags, H2 and H3 tags are also important when it comes to increasing the SEO value of your on-page content. Once again, people tend to take this the wrong way and scatter heading tags all over the page. The right way to do this would be to have the main title as an H1 while the H2 and H3 tags can break down the main topic into separate segments.

The recurring rule of SEO is to make sure that you market your website with keywords without being a flashing arrow. The same guideline applies for just about every single one of your SEO tricks, including the heading tag usage.

Just about everything that happens on the internet, has some kind of effect on Search Engine Optimisation. On 21^st November 2011, Yahoo closed down their backlink checking tool. This is definitely something that has an effect on SEO as Yahoo Site Explorer was one of the best tools to keep track of backlinks. Needless to say, Yahoo Site Explorer will be missed by most of the SEO community whether they are website owners or providers of SEO services.

Yahoo Site Explorer is among the very few genuine backlink checkers that offered their services completely free of charge without even requiring registration. While most backlink checkers will simply offer rounded figures of the actual number of backlinks or simply settle on a random round number, Site Explorer offered accurate results. However, when it comes to the backlink source sites, Yahoo only displayed a maximum limit of 1000 links. Then again, unless you are planning to examine each and every backlink, it’s not a major disadvantage. In addition, Site Explorer also offered plenty of assistance when it comes to categorizing the backlinks according to the landing page. All this was offered in an easy to use format to allow anyone to make use of the service.

In general, a backlink checker is essential to keep an eye on the links that they invested time and resources on to build. For instance, if you are an SEO services provider, it is important to keep track on the amount of backlinks obtained by a particular client when work started and how the amount changes as the link building continues. The main use of these tools is the ability to keep an eye on active links as well as any lost links without resorting to time consuming, manual means. In other words, a backlink checker takes a great deal of work off your shoulders.

Now that Yahoo Site Explorer has closed, it is necessary for SEO professionals to find something that is just as good to maintain operations as before. It is highly recommended that you should try your hand at a paid backlink checker for results that are similar to Site Explorer’s.

Search Engine Optimisation is all about the keywords. Keywords can be defined as the lifeblood of SEO that connects the client along with websites. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that one selects the ideal keywords that will generate enough visits to get you to the top of the search engine result lists. However, simply being on top of the ranking is not enough when you are a business. You need to generate revenue. To generate revenue, you need to make sales and for that, you need to attract genuine customers in to your site. How can you achieve this feat? Three words: Long tail SEO.

Long tail SEO is the art of utilising key-phrases that tend to be more specific and longer to attract people with genuine intentions to purchase whatever it is that you are selling on your website. Take the word ‘shoes’ for example. This is definitely the first word on the list of potential keywords when you layout your SEO strategy. However, it also happens to be the most competitive and least effective at generating specific sales. It is highly unlikely that someone who is looking for a specific type of shoe will type the term ‘shoes’ in to the search engine. So, why not give them what they are looking for? Say, ‘Faux leather peep toe platform pumps’. Although this may seem unnaturally long and a bit tricky to work in to the content, phrases like this are definitely capable of attracting genuine customers (who are looking for the exact item) who will make purchases.

In addition, long tail SEO has the ability to make your website more visible to customers who ate geographically closer. If you are a business that works online as well as offline (such as a clothing store or an antique store), it is best to settle on some keywords that specify the store’s location as well. This could encourage your offline clients to physically visit the store and well, bring you some revenue.

However, taking on more competitive and general keywords is the way to go if you are intent on getting more visits. The ideal SEO strategy would be to pay attention to a few short keywords as well as to select some specific, long ones to focus on your popular products or services. Although SEO is defined as a practice that generates web visits, the idea behind attracting visits is ultimately, making sales: and long tail SEO does just that without beating about the bush.

Whenever word comes out about a Panda update or an upgrade to Google search, the SEO community and website owners start twitching and panicking. Why? Most web owners and SEO specialists are on an endless, losing battle with Google. Instead, it’s time to start considering Google as a friend and to try and understand it rather than covering your ears and backing down in to a corner whenever an update strikes.

The first step of understand that Google is not at war with website owners. It is a search engine and the job of a search engine is to offer relevant results for search terms entered by web surfers. Since some websites are trying to sneak their way in to the rankings by mentioning these search terms, or keywords, without the creation of coherent content that someone can make sense of. So, the first step of making sure that the next Panda Update doesn’t kick you out of the rankings is to make your content valuable and useful.

But on-page content is not the only thing Google is keeping a close watch on. Websites cannot beat the massive competition for the top spots solely with the aid of on page content. Inbound links from external sources also generate a sizeable portion of the traffic generated by a website. One of the most effective ways of generating inbound links is by posting articles on article directories. As directed by the latest Panda update, certain article directories have been labelled with the undesirable ‘content farm’ title and were dishonoured. The reason for this is the fact that most of these directories are a breeding ground for poorly written articles stuffed with keywords and uploaded with the sole purpose of exploiting the directories’ popularity. In the end, the blacklisting of these popular article directories affects the rankings of those who have posted the sub-standard articles.

Of the quality of your content is not an issue, you may think that algorithm updates are irrelevant. In reality, it is important to keep updated and adjust when the need presents itself during a major change. However, the wisest choice is to continue researching, reading and testing to find effective and legitimate methods to boost your rankings as time goes by. Bear in mind that Google is evolving with time and is thinking of providing a satisfactory web searching experience for its users. To be truly successful as an SEO services provider or a website owner, you need to think beyond climbing the ranking lists.

The name itself sounds a bit dangerous (and oddly reminiscent of pirate ships and holy water), however, this is something important when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Canonicalization occurs when a particular website is able to be accessed with two addresses.

Canonicalization is a process where a search engine picks up the best URL when there are several options floating about cyber space. This could result in the popularity of a web page to go down. Since the incoming traffic that is supposed to go to a single URL now gets split up between two URLs. While sometimes, this might be nothing more complicated than one web page loading with the “www.” And the other loading without it, other, more extreme cases could result in more serious errors where two identical copies of your website ranks on two far apart pages on the search engine.

It is a complicated issue, but when it comes to SEO, you can’t really afford to have identical copies of your website on different rungs on the rankings ladder. So, in order to prevent search engines from making odd decisions about your website, you need to employ a few precautions to make sure that viewers are headed the right way. A ‘301 redirection’ is the most effective method to let the search engine know what your preferred URL to be directed is. This involves in the setting up of a .htaccess file in your domain root file to permanently redirect visitors to your preferred version of the URL.

Depending on the particular environment of your web, you can employ one of the many methods available to set up a 301 redirection. You will have the ability to set up the redirection using PHP, classic ASP, ColdFusion, ASP.NET or Perl. If your website has been subjected to canonicalization, it’s not the end of the world, simply employ a viable redirecting mechanism and you will be up and running in next to no time.

However, although there are other methods of redirecting to your favoured URL, they are to be avoided like the plague. The reason for me to say this is the fact that, methods such as Javascript and META refresh have been in use to obscure and disguise malicious redirection for quite a while. It is best to stick to legitimate methods rather than to experiment with fishy techniques (which could result in your website getting kicked out of the ranking lists for good. Believe me, it has happened.)