Sober Intellect – SEO Consulting Services

Although its not a huge factor,page speed is a factor in Google’s search ranking algorithm accoding to Google’s Matt Cutts.  Over the last year Google has introduced the ‘Site Performace’ in the Webmaster Tools user interface and a Firefox plug-in named Page Speed.  Page Speed is an Add-on to Firebug in Firefox.

So how do you get it?  You can follow the directions below, or If you would like to run a test without a plug-in try zoompf.com.  This site will allow you enter in the URL of a site of your choice and run a page speed analysis.

To use Page Speed (Highly recommended)

1. You must have Firefox
2. Download the Firebug plug-in
3. Download Google’s Page Speed add-on

Here are a few additional tools that are very helpful as well

• YSlow, a free tool from Yahoo! that suggests ways to improve website speed.
• WebPagetest shows a waterfall view of your pages’ load performance plus an optimization checklist.

Search Engine Optimization is important for users to find your site, but once they are there usability becomes the most important factor.  You want them to return, right?  Your site should have a good balance and your SEO strategy should include some type of survey or feedback mechanism in order to determine what exactly the users are looking for and expecting.

Meta tags are labels that are inserted into the top of a web document and explain the content of the web page to the search engines.  The meta tags are not seen on the page itself but can be seen from the search engine results page (SERP).

<title>Best Buy</title>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”<!– –>”>
<meta name=”description” content=”Best Buy’s online source for electronics, televisions, DVD players, home audio, car audio, computers, cameras, music, movies, software, GPS, video games and more. Research, compare and buy securely online; pick it up in a store.”>

In the image above you can see where the meta tags are visible.  The <keywords> meta tag is never visible and not as important as the <title> and <description>.

• The title tag should be concise and specific to the content of the page.  It is recommended that it be no longer than 60-70 characters.
• The description tag should be consistent with the title tag and content of the page.  It is recommended that this description be no longer than 160-170 characters.

Both the <title> and <description> tags should contain the keywords that the page is targeted for.  DO NOT REPEAT THE KEYWORD IN ORDER TO FOOL THE SEARCH ENGINES! This is considered to be “keyword stuffing” and could get your page penalized.

Do not repeat the same title and description across your entire site.  This can cause “duplicate content”.  Duplicate content is not rewarded and could actually depreciate the value of your page.

How do you change your meta tags?

This can be done in your content mangement system (CMS) or by using an HTML editor.    The easiest way to achieve this is by asking your webmaster to do it

If you have any additional questions about online strategies or online consulting send us an email.