2007年国外SEO高手技巧总结[英文原版]

5. HTML Comment Tags/ External File Names/ Optimised PDF Documents
 
It seems like a small thing, and even overkill to some, but I have participated in some testing on these suggestions and in all instances positive results were seen.
 
The first, rewriting external file names, would be taking your external css or javascript files and using your keyword/keyword phrases within their actual file name. As I believe meta tags (keywords and descriptions) are still in use to a point, I believe things like the file names and html comment tags are as well.
 
Google mentions looking at html comment tags in their Adsense Help Centre. Does this mean that their algo also looks at html comments? Maybe, maybe not. But It can’t hurt. (Only add 1 keyword phrase though, and use it in a sentence, and not the first word).
 
Last, but not least, create PDF versions of your pages that are already ranking well, or have had content written for optimisation purposes. In other words, I have pages that have what I feel is the perfect SEO formula, with on and off-page optimisation. Take these pages and get the trial version of Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional. This will allow you to automatically create PDF versions of your pages, and add a few other optimisation elements.
 
Be sure to name the files with your keywords. Take these PDF files and put them in a subdirectory off of your root, and in the same directory add a your-keywords-here.xml sitemap, separate from your site xml map. Submit it separately to Google for a crawl.
 
 
 
6. Site Navigation and Usability
 
Navigation and usability is a fundamental element to search engine optimisation. It is also one of the first things I look at.
 
Unfortunately in most situations there is a Director, Manager or Webmaster that is married to the current design. If we see a need for complete redesign, hopefully we are lucky enough to be given the “nod”, but in most cases that does not happen, so we are forced to change bits and pieces.
 
Before I touch on some good tips, let me just say this to the site owners, webmasters and upper-management people out there. If you are not ranking well, not getting a good click-through rate, experiencing high bounce rates or cart abandonment, or a you get a myriad of traffic without a minimum of 3% conversion, then you probably have usability issues.
You have more than one choice.
 
You can let us redesign your website and almost guarantee every element I mention above will be resolved.
 
You can let us create microsites in subdomains with full access to tinker around, test and improve. This way your “top-secret” back-end won’t be exposed (or cause any infrastructure or complicated matrix/server issues).
 
You can let us change elements within your current site and test them with the knowledge that we really know what we are doing.
 
At the end of the day what I am getting at here is that this is a serious fundamental element in a successful website. We typically sit down with 10 or 12 of our best people when looking at the websites functionality. This is about the best focus group you could ever wish to have looking at the website because we also know end-user behavior. Keep an open mind to these types of suggestions because they are usually one of the major issues most websites have.
 
So on to the tips.
 
Be sure you have definitive CTA’s (Call To Actions) throughout your site, preferably in the navigation bars. These can be Call Us, Contact Us, Get a Quote, Add To Cart, Sign Up, Request Information or whatever. These CTA’s should be in an abridged form that has as few fields as possible.
 
I recently looked at a website (a major name that you would recognize) that sells insurance online. Being an ex-insurance agent I know the information that they need to give a quote is certainly not 15 pages long. We actually timed it at close to 20 minutes to complete.
 
Checkout procedures, whether for an ecommerce site selling widgets, or an insurance company trying to give a quote, the information that is required should be kept to a bare minimum. Human nature is the “path of least resistance” and you can scare them off with a daunting list of required fields when all they were looking for was a quick comparison quote. People don’t want to have to give this personal information away in the first place, and doing it online is an even scarier scenario, but now you want it all!?!?
 
Cut this down to just a few fields over a maximum of 2 pages…and even just 1 if possible.
 
Using javascript/ajax style forms are great. With these you only show a few fields at a time and if the appropriate radio button is selected, it opens additional fields to be filled in. The idea is that if you get them mentally committed by filling out a few fields, they are more likely to fill out the remaining fields.
 
Placement of “information request” forms are important as well. If you carry 100’s of products, don’t put a “request more information” button or form in your side navigation bar. Put one below each product and add script that will pre-fill the request form out so that all the end user need do is add minimal personal information.
 
For those that are eTailers, or those who have actual physical products that they sell (not necessarily affiliate marketers) and are competitive with their competition and their pricing, put a Low Price Guarantee like the one that you see here. You’ll be surprised at the increase in sales opportunities that you will see.