Web Cosmo Forums / Marketing / Search Engine Optimization

SEO 101- ComputerBuddy

Amirmullick3 — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:27:52 GMT

Search Engine Optimization 101 - ComputerBuddy

In this massive network of communities and businesses we are all trying to find a place in line that attracts the most people and fires our websites, blogs, forums, and directories into the position of a popular money making monster. Every person on the web wants to reach out to thousands of people, gain the top spot on Google, and above all else spend as little money as possible. In the hopes to provide every webmaster out there with a quality source to turn to for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) the ComputerBuddy Company has a few words to share about the topic.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You can’t just jump into a topic such as SEO. It must be taken apart and analyzed to be effective. Done right this tactic could make a business while done wrong could make one completely fail.
Your Website
The first thing that you want to do is take a good look at your own website. Analyze the hell out of it because that’s what is important right now. Here are some questions to ask while looking over your site:

What is the main idea?
What do I want my site to become?
How do I want people to see my site?
What am I selling ($$$) or what am I offering(FREE)?
What kind of people do I want viewing my site?
Answer and write it all down for later reference.

The Competition

Here is the part of SEO that everyone misses. After you have figured out what your website is about go and find your competition because it does exist.

Say that your site sells ringtones. Go to Google and type in the keyword "ringtones" and click on the top non-sponsored link in the search results. That one site is the only site that you are going to analyze. You have to ask yourself why this website is #1 in the google results for the keyword "ringtones" (ill give you a hint, its not because of the site design). Look at the websites page source and take a look at the meta tag if you can. Take an important note of the site’s Meta title, keywords, and description. Once you are done compare your sites info (what you recorded earlier) to this sites meta tag and see if any of your information, even down to one word match up with any of the other sites.

Now you are off to a good start, you know what you want out of your site and what your site is about and you know what information the top site in your competition is giving Google.

Keywords

Because you have done the research for your site and the competition you should have noticed some similar keywords between the two. Note that any keywords that you use should be specific and not broad. For example, you will obtain better results for having the key phrase " kanye west ringtone" rather than "ringtone". The rest of this section will be discussed later.
Keywords should also be used in links placed on pages. Do not place a link that says "click here" because god knows how far off that is from your actual topic. Instead make it so the link reads "free ringtones" or something similar to your content. This way it shows search engines that the links are keyword rich.

Meta Tags

I don’t know how many people I have seen with ridiculously long meta tags telling everything on the earth but I cannot stress enough that you do not need all of this information. You do need a meta tag though and in order from most important to least important although all of them are important are below.

1.) Title Tag - It is the heading of the search listing, nearly every search engine uses the title part of the meta tag to list your site. So make sure that the title matches the idea and content of your site. For example, a site about ringtones should not have a title that reads " Moes shop for music" or simply "Moes" if that is what your company is called. Instead it should read "Ringtones for sale - Kanye West Ringtones, Mariah Carey - Moes" The more specific your title is to your content the high it will be placed in the search results.

2.) Keywords - I told you I would come back to these. Each meta tag has a specific part for simply listing keywords. My advice simply separate every keyword with a space and nothing else. Next....Your keywords should match the text on the page and the title text. If your title reads "Ringtones for sale - Kanye West Ringtones, Mariah Carey - Moes" and your content has lots of stuff on the same subject have keywords like " ringtones kanye west mariah moes sale"

3.) Description - Usually the little description that you see under the header of the search result are pulled directly from the meta tag supplied by the website. Go figure its importance should be self explanatory. This should also have similar keywords to those used in the title.

URL’s

As a side note
Make sure that all of the URL’s for your website are Search Engine Friendly as in the search engines can easily index your pages.
Bad Example of a URL - http://www.computerbuddy.org/forums/...c?9879?_56.htm
Good Example of a URL - http://www.computerbuddy.org/forums/seo-article.htm

Backlinks, outside links, links links links......

The goal here is simply to explain that the more links that point to your website from outside websites the better. Good quality links on sites that are similar to your site are the best thing that you can get to help boost your PageRank and optimize your site. Link popularity is like the next big fashion statement for every search engine out there. Now the question is, how do I get quality backlinks in order to improve my PageRank?

Directories

Submitting to directories is one of the best things to do to get quality backlinks because search engines index there pages like wildfires spread. Below is a list of some highly recommended Directories that will really get your site moving.

Dmoz
Yahoo
v7n
01webdirectory
web-beacon
ComputerBuddy Directory

But hey don’t just stop there. There are lists and lists of free directories that will also greatly help so stop and go and submit your links......RIGHT NOW!

Don’t think that that’s the only way to get quality links.

You can:
Become a member of any forum or multiple forums - and contribute to the discussions taking place. Place a signature link to your website and you get at least one link for every posts you make.

Write articles - and give them to companies and article directories everywhere. Place a link at the bottom to your site and BAM! hundreds of links for free.

Write a blog - many people love to subscribe to blogs and if you have some good content to share put it out there. Every subscription usually counts as a link.

So there it is - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 101. Of course there are many other do dads out there to help in optimizing your site but I cannot cover everything on 100 pages so to get the most important ideas out there I give you this above article to read over and over again until your heart is content.

Thanks

Yahoo SERP help

savantcreative — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:09:18 GMT

Does anyone have any specific strategies of optimizing for Yahoo?
Thanks

Dedicated British IP Address to watch BBC anywhere in the World.

rocketbulls — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 05:38:21 GMT

Yes, we have set up a program within our organization to issue all interested parties a dedicated British ip address to enable them to watch the BBC no matter what country they are located in. We have 2 dedicated servers located in the United Kingdom, in London actually, that were designed for one purpose: to allow those abroad to watch the BBC as though they were located in the United Kingdom. We have done extensive tests from 39 separate countries now and all have come back successful. We do offer an immediate money back guarantee if you are not happy with our services.
Accounts are set up using the SSH Tunnelling Protocol,
No matter what your hosting needs are, International Alliance Privacy Services has you covered. With multiple hosting options in several offshore countries, we guarantee your complete privacy. Our SSH Privacy Tunnel Accounts are guaranteed to give you a new dedicated ip address any time you need it. With VPS & VPN options in multiple countries as well, all your needs are covered. Sensible pricing tops this package off!
For details visit : http://www.intl-alliance.com
Does your countries government restrict what websites and content you can access over the internet? We can solve that problem once and for all for you! Our ip addresses are not restricted in any way and can enable you to view any material you want from your current location. This service is guaranteed to work for every country and on any internet connection type.
For those of you who have been struggling for years to watch the BBC from abroad on a fast and dedicated server, your wait is over. Our United Kingdom server was created specifically for this purpose. Our services work from all countries so every one has a chance to watch the BBC, use the iPlayer, and can download and watch tv programs through the BBC website. Our service provides you with a dedicated British ip address and genuinely makes you appear to be from the United Kingdom. This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. You can use our service any time to watch your favorite shows!
For details visit : http://www.intl-alliance.com

SEO Amir's Way

Amirmullick3 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:05:03 GMT

Part One - Defining SEO

First, let's get one thing out of the way. Search engine optimization is not synonymous with Internet marketing.

SEO Isn't The End All, Be All Of Internet Marketing. Perfectly profitable business models exist without even a whiff of SEO.

Search engine optimization is an activity that concerns itself solely with achieving higher rankings for specific keywords on search engines such as Google. Search engine optimization is not building brands. Search engine optimization is not marketing, nor is it advertising.

An Internet marketing scheme may employ search engine optimization as one of its tactics, but it is just that - one tactic available in an Internet marketing campaign. Many other tactics of equal or more value are also available. Creating a strong brand which consumers are able to emotionally connect with is probably one of the more important activities of an Internet marketer, and something that has nothing to do with search engine rankings.

Conversational marketing, buzz marketing, viral marketing campaigns and good old fashioned advertising are also great ways of promoting a web site. And let's not forget the single most effective way of promoting a web site; becoming the market leader. When you become the market leader, folks no longer search for "carbonated soft drink" (generic) but instead search for "Pepsi" & "Coke" (brands).

All of these other marketing techniques are just as effective or more effective for promoting your web site and should not be overlooked in favor of search engine optimization. I tend to be anti-SEO at times, but that's just a knee-jerk reaction to the common practice of ignoring more effective marketing techniques in favor of blindly chasing after search engine rankings.

Having said that, search engine optimization can make or break a business. More than a few businesses have been made and lost fortunes based on their search engine rankings.

How content is duplicated

webdigo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:28:27 GMT

Duplicate content is a common issue. There are many reasons why content is duplicated on more than one page, or why documents are very similar:

1. The content of a web page is available in different formats: web page, printable page, PDF, mobile phone page, etc.

2. The content of a web page is syndicated, for example news articles or blog posts.

3. The content management system (CMS) displays the same content in different locations. For example, an item might be listed in a "Size" category and in a "Color" category.

4. The website owner offers mirrors to make sure that a website does not slow down when many people want to access the same page at the same time.

5. Someone stole the contents of a web page to reproduce it on other websites.

Do not SEO your website?

webdigo — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:50:04 GMT

I was reading this interesting article today "[url=http://forums.webcosmo.com/Topic1043-53-1.aspx]SEO Amirs Way[/url]" on this forum. Best part I liked on the article is "Search engine optimization can make or break a business. More than a few businesses have been made and lost fortunes based on their search engine rankings."

After reading the article I realized it is kind of true. Lets say you start a online business, and your business depends heavily on SE traffic. You are probably happy since money is flowing. You hire more people, new big office etc etc. Then there comes the bad time; you loose your SE rankings. Why? May happen for many reasons(use your imagination). What you do now?

Few months back I wrote an article "[url=http://www.cosmocentral.com/post/Do-Not-Rely-Much-on-Search-Engine-Traffic.aspx]do not rely much on search engine traffic[/url]". This article kind of reminded me of that. A useful business should split its dependencies without relying too much on one source. Thats a disaster time insurance.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't SEO your website. You should do SEO for bringing in free fresh new traffic as much as possible. But relying too much on it may cause big problem over the time.

what is seo

omari — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:38:37 GMT

What is seo, how does it help my site, what does it do to my site, how does it work, and how can I get it.

Keyword stuffing

webdigo — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:11:44 GMT

Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique. Keyword stuffing occurs when a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content. The repetition of words in meta tags may explain why many search engines no longer use these tags.

[b]Outdated Method[/b]
Keyword stuffing had been used in the past to obtain maximum search engine ranking and visibility for particular phrases. This method is completely outdated and adds no value to rankings today. In particular, Google no longer gives good rankings to pages employing this technique.

[b]Hidden Text[/b]
Hiding text out of view of the visitor is done in many different ways. Text colored to blend with the background, CSS "Z" positioning to place text "behind" an image – and therefore out of view of the visitor – and CSS absolute positioning to have the text positioned far from the page center, are all common techniques. As of 2005, some of these invisible text techniques can be detected by major search engines.

[b]NoScript[/b]
"Noscript" tags are another way to place hidden content within a page. While they are a valid optimization method for displaying an alternative representation of scripted content, they may be abused, since search engines may index content that is invisible to most visitors.

[b]Popular Keywords[/b]
Inserted text sometimes includes words that are frequently searched (such as "sex"), even if those terms bear little connection to the content of a page, in order to attract traffic to advert-driven pages.

[b]Summary[/b]
In the past, Keyword stuffing was considered to be either a white hat or a black hat tactic, depending on the context of the technique, and the opinion of the person judging it. While a great deal of keyword stuffing was employed to aid in spamdexing, which is of little benefit to the user, keyword stuffing in certain circumstances was not intended to skew results in a deceptive manner. Whether the term carries a pejorative or neutral connotation is dependent on whether the practice is used to pollute the results with pages of little relevance, or to direct traffic to a page of relevance that would have otherwise been de-emphasized due to the search engine's inability to interpret and understand related ideas. This is no longer the case. Search engines now employ themed, related keyword techniques to interpret the intent of the content on a page.

Description Tag

mit — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:08:01 GMT

Hi all here,

I had a debate today in a popular forum about the Description tag. Some of people over there have denied this fact that Description tag is useful. They are just saying - [b] "Description Tag is not going to effect your ranking any how."[/b]

I want to have your useful points on this - Is there description have any effects in Search engine rankings?

Is it helpful or not?

If not, then why not?

[b]My View[/b] - Changing Title will definitely effect the site rankings in Search engines. Even, I have analyzed that Description tag is also helpful in bringing good keyword ranking and effective in attracting visitors. So, always try to use an attractive and useful content in description tag.

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, for Meta Keywords

webdigo — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:22:58 GMT

Meta Keywords lost its importance over the past years mainly because of keyword stuffing by people. Google put very little, none according to some SEO, emphasis on meta keywords. But still some other search engines like MSN, Yahoo values meta keywords quite a bit.

[b]So whats the best practice for Meta Keywords SEO?[/b]

- Don't put too many keywords on your meta keywords tag. I suggest limiting to 10 or so. Putting more keywords dilutes the importance of the meta keywords in general.
- Put most important keyword on leftmost, next important keyword next, and so on. Search engines gives most weight to the leftmost keyword, then second one, and so on.
- Don't repeat keywords, it will devalue your ranking for repeating keyword. This has been abused by many people to bias search engines as website having higher keyword density.

htAccess File; Know What It Is

webdigo — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:36:54 GMT

.htAccess file is often used by webmasters for rewriting urls; which happen to be an important factor determining search engine rankings for keywords.

.htaccess (pronounced as hypertext access) is the default name of Apache's directory-level configuration file. If .htaccess file is placed in a particular directory, the directives in the .htaccess file apply to that directory, and all subdirectories inside it. It provides the ability to customize configure requests to the particular directory. The file name starts with a dot because dot-files are by convention hidden files on Unix-like operating systems.

[b]Common usage[/b]

=> [b]Authorization, authentication:[/b] .htaccess files are often used to specify the security restrictions for the particular directory, hence the filename "access". The .htaccess file is often accompanied by an .htpasswd file which stores valid usernames and their passwords.
=> Customized error responses: Changing the page that is shown when a server-side error occurs, for example HTTP 404 Not Found.
=> Rewriting URLs: Servers often use .htaccess to rewrite "ugly" URLs to shorter and prettier ones.

[b]When .htaccess files should be used[/b]

For servers with multiple users, which is common in shared web hosting plans, it is often desirable to allow individual users the ability to alter their site configuration. In general, .htaccess files should be used by users who do not have root access. Using the .htAccess file you can define permission settings for each user.

[b]When .htaccess files should not be used[/b]

To control Apache server settings, using the main server configuration file httpd.conf is preferred for security and performance reasons.

As an overhead there is a performance loss - for each HTTP request there are additional file-system accesses for every parent directory when using .htaccess.

Cloaking

webdigo — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:50:22 GMT

Cloaking is a black hat search engine optimization, SEO, technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the users' browser. So search engine spiders will see the page content not same like regular visitors.

[b]How its done[/b]
Cloaking is done by delivering content based on the IP addresses or the User-Agent HTTP header of the user requesting the page. When a user is identified as a search engine spider, a server-side script delivers a different version of the web page, one that contains content which is not visible to general visitors. The purpose of cloaking is to deceive search engines so the page is ranked better for different keywords on SERPs.

[b]New methods better then Cloaking[/b]
Better methods of accessibility, including progressive enhancement are available, so cloaking is not considered necessary. Cloaking is often used as a spamdexing technique, to try to trick search engines into giving the relevant site a higher ranking for keywords; it can also be used to trick search engine crawlers show a site which is substantially different then the actual site e.g. porn sites. For this reason, major search engines consider cloaking for deception to be a violation of their guidelines, and therefore, they delist sites when deceptive cloaking is reported.

How different is Google from Yahoo as per SEO

Manik — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:23:54 GMT

Yahoo tend to emphasize more on title, domain name, meta keywords as compared to Google.

Whereas Google seems to value more on off-page optimization. Links to your site plays a major role determining your site PR as well as SERPs ranking.

WebCEO FREE SEO TOOL

hyperabsinthe157 — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:46:36 GMT

WebCEO is an SEO tool. I believe it's a free tool. Try it out!

http://www.webceo.com/download/

Basic SEO techniques

webdigo — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:47:42 GMT

Lot of people struggle with search engine optimization. Most don't even realize where to start. Here is a list of Basic Search Engine Optimization Techniques to get you started, hopefully they will help you.

* Shorten the title to 55 characters or less.
* Put important keywords at the beginning of the title.
* Make different titles for each pages.
* Use H1 tag for page headings.
* Put links to your pages with Keywords as anchor text, where possible.
* Use title attribute for anchor links.
* Use Alt attribute on img tags.
* Add the robots tag on page.
* Place the robots.txt file in your root on your server. Submit it to search engine Webmaster Tools.
* Add a Sitemap of your site. Submit it to search engine Webmaster Tools.
* Get rid of the js in the code and put it in an external file.
* Use css instead of color, size and font tags.
* Change the link buttons or js links in to text links.
* Make sure to have a site map page.
* Make sure you have 404 "Page Not Found" page.
* Make menus as text links.
* Make sure your page code is not bigger than 100 KB.
* Submit your site to ODP and Yahoo Dir, make sure to select the right cat.
* Pay special attention to your content.
* Try to get as much as possible from sites relevant to yours.
* Read each search engines guide lines and follow them strictly.
* Don't spam.
* Don't use doorway pages.
* Don't cloak.
* Don't use invisible links.
* Name file with keywords. e.g. Search-Engine-Optimization.html etc.
* And hope search engines will appreciate your hard work.

Matt Cutts Tips

webdigo — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:36:20 GMT

Matt Cutts tips for better SEO:

1. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/[/url]
Matt recommends using dashes over underscores to delimit words in urls. 2005.
Google does not algorithmically penalize for dashes in the url despite the fact that some have raised it as a possible heuristic for spam detection. I think WordPress pretty much precludes this anyway. 2005.

2. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-sneaky-javascript/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-sneaky-javascript/[/url]
Google takes action on individual instances of spam when they find it, but they focus on creating better algorithmic solutions. He states that he would not recommend using sneaky JavaScript redirects because your sites may get nailed in the near future. 2005.

3. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whats-an-update/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whats-an-update/[/url]
Google updates their index data -- including backlinks and PageRank all the time. However, they export and publish new backlinks and PageRank data approximately every three months. New backlinks and PageRank are meaningless -- it is not an update. The information is likely already factored in for awhile before you see it. 2005.

4. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-nearly-hidden-text/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-nearly-hidden-text/[/url]
Hiding text using similar colors and background colors can actually be worse than using the same colors. Using “#EEEEEE” instead of solid white on a solid white background can look worse -- as if you’re trying to hide it. I suspect this is a heuristic for detecting hidden text. 2005.

5. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/q-a-thread-march-27-2006/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/q-a-thread-march-27-2006/[/url]
If you sell links, Matt says you should use link condoms. Otherwise your reputation may fall. I assume this means they will devalue your outbound links. 2006.

6. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/[/url]
Googlebot can only crawl the free portions that non-subscribed users can access since it does not log in. Therefore, be sure to excerpt material in the free version that that offers value. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

7. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/[/url]
If you must use Flash, you must also make an HTML version available as well. Block the Flash version from the crawlers with a robots.txt file. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

8. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/[/url]
Use user-friendly URLs like "african-elephants.html," and not "343432ffsdfsdfdfasffgddddd.html." Don't overdo it either -- african-elephants-and-their-habitats-etc-etc-etc-etc.html. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

9. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/[/url]
Assign unique, descriptive tag and headings to every page. Vanessa Fox. 2006. 10. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/[/url] Minimize the number of redirects upon hitting a URL. Vanessa Fox. 2006. 11. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/[/url] Minimize the number of URL parameters -- 1-2 parameters if possible. Vanessa Fox. 2006. 12. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/[/url] Don’t use a parameter named “id=” in a URL for anything other than a session ID. Otherwise, it may not be included in the index. Vanessa Fox. 2006. 13. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/[/url] Earned-links are earned and given by choice. Google does consider buying text links for PageRank purposes to be outside our quality guidelines. Vanessa Fox. 2006. 14. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-analytics/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-analytics/[/url] Blackhat SEOs may be leery of using Google for analytics, but regular site owners should be reassured. Vanessa Fox. 2006. 15. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-link-follow-up/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-link-follow-up/[/url] Google’s is against selling/buying links, and Matt indicates they are good at spotting them -- both algorithmically and manually. Sites that sell links can lose their trust in search engines. 2006. 16. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-spam-in-other-languages/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-spam-in-other-languages/[/url] Google is focusing on detecting spam in other languages in 2006 -- Italian, Spanish, Chinese, etc. 2006. 17. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-discussing-302-redirects/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-discussing-302-redirects/[/url] External (domainA -> domainB) 302 redirects are largely treated as 301s now. 2006. 18. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/[/url] Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages -- www.example.com vs. example.com vs. www.example.com/index.html. Since all these urls are different, a web server could return completely different content for all the urls above. When Google “canonicalizes” a url, it tries to pick the best one and elimintes the others. To help Google, link to resources on a site consistently, and use 301 redirects to enforce it. 2006. 19. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/[/url] Do not use the URL removal tool to remove domain.com if you are worried about URL canonicalization and have both domain.com and www.domain.com in the Google index. This will remove the entire site. 2006. 20. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/[/url] Search engines can perform canonicalization for things like keeping or removing trailing slashes, upper vs. lower case, or removing session IDs from bulletin board or other software. 2006. 21. [url=http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/sitemaps-interview/]http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/sitemaps-interview/[/url] 404s (Gone, but may reappear) are treated the same as 410s (Gone, but will not reappear). Most web masters use 404s as 410s anyway. 2006. Following these tips will probably help you rank better, as long as you actually trust Matt Cutts :). I'd assert it's wise to approach some of his advice with skepticism, since I'm sure Google gives him guidelines as to what he can actually say, but following the advice above won't get you into any trouble for sure. </article> </main></body></html>