The Internal Site Search: Why Should it be Implemented for Websites & How Can it Be Optimized?

Internal site search is essentially a search bar that is located on your website which allows people to search for information within your website. Over time this bar tends to show what is “broken” with your website. Often when individuals design websites and optimize web pages, they optimize the pages for external search not internal search; this is an important distinction to note.

When individuals search via a search engine, they are more often than not, searching for a relevant site. But when users search via an internal search bar, they are searching for a specific piece of information on a particular topic.

Internal searches help reveal what the “true” intent of a visitor on your site which can be used to make your web pages more accessible and more userfriendly. If for one of the top five key phrases in an internal search, you note that the customer types in support page or support portal and you do not have one, you can see that your customer is demanding that you do offer it.

To Optimize an Internal Search:

1. Identify & measure your top keywords and top key phrases (2 or more keywords). Check this information regularly and note down if there are any key phrases for things you put on your website or for things that you do not yet have. For example, people are searching for Google Android and you are a reseller of phones but you do not yet carry it.
2. Use the site overlay option in Google Analytics to see what links customers click on when presented with the results of their internal search query. This will give you a good idea of whether or not potential suspects are clicking on the links that you deem to be important (and which they might very well deem to be unimportant).
3. Also use the site overlay option in Google Analytics to measure the exit rates of the links presented by the internal search query. If a high percentage rate is shown for these links, you will want to update or remove these links and replace them with more relevant links. If it is low, then think of how you can get it to go lower.
4. In Google’s engine there is an autocompletion feature. You type in a word and it shows you what’s the best bet or the closest possible relevant match. You can do the same to your internal search, just make sure you measure the effectiveness of those best bets on a regular basis using the above-mentioned methods.
5. If you wish to purchase an internal search, who better to get it from than Google? The options are Google Site Search, Google Mini, & Google Search Appliance. Search for the best fit and talk to their customer service, do not automatically buy the most expensive one.

Cross-Linking – A Primer

What is cross-linking? Cross-linking refers to the purpose of using links to link one web page to another web page. This primer is a quick guide to understanding how a search engine determines which pages on a website are the most important by its internal links alone . 

Most websites are primarily linked internally to each page in their website. Their hierarchy represents a confetti mess, an engine will crawl from one page to the next and will not be sure which page is the most important based on hierarchy alone. The following is an image of a poorly linked website:

Poorly Linked Website

Using the above linking structure, one can arrive at the importance of the pages only by analyzing the content of the pages and the context of the words used in the pages. However if the same words are used on every page, it goes without saying that one will not be able to differentiate between any of the pages.

On the converse, consider the image below:

Well Linked Website

Well constructed websites display a clear hierarchy. Each set of pages typically revolve around a very specific theme. A product page, details of the product page, support page, specific support portals for different products, etc.

An example of a good website following this specific theme methodology is Mobile Messaging Solutions. There are three top categories: products, solutions, technology. Click on one and there are additional subcategories within that categories and no links to other categories in other pages. Go all the way to the bottom and you have the sitemap. Headings are used properly, on first look and second look, one can tell that keywords have not been abused in the content of this site’s pages – in addition, every category possesses very clear information – this would be a good example of a site that caters to its users.

Web Searches are Quantified into 3 Categories of Searches: Informational, Navigational, & Transactional

For this topic, searches and queries will be used interchangeably – both are identical, query is a more technical term for what an individual types into an engine. Web searches entered into search engines such as Google are quantified into three categories: informational, navigational, and transactional. If an individual types in “President Obama or George Bush”, these individuals are searching for information - hence it is an informational query or search. If an individual types in Apple or Verizon or brand names, they are searching for a particular website – which is classified as a navigational search. Transactional searches occur when an individual is looking to purchase something, for example “iphone price, red grapes for sale, etc.”

In addition to these categories of searches, there are particular ratings which are assigned to queries/searches and their destination pages. These include:

• Vital
• Useful
• Relevant
• Not Relevant
• Off-Topic

1. Vital pages: contain the highest ratings for a given query. Vital pages are web pages which are the Official page for the query in question. These are typically navigational and informational queries. For example, an individual who types in “President Obama” is given the website, whitehouse.org. This is the official page for the President of the United States and as such it will score a vital rating for the query “President Obama.” Sometimes when official pages cannot be found, the vital rating is given to pages which possess information with the same grade of an encyclopedic article.
2. Useful pages: are pages which are not official pages but contain substantial information about the search in question, these are pages which are one tier below encylopedic grade documents. Wikipedia documents will typically rank for these queries.
3. Relevant pages: are pages which contain less comprehensive information with regards to the query. For example, a search for “salon software” will return a page which contains information about one or two salon softwares but not every single kind of salon software in existence. These pages are still relevant, they are not classified as useful or vital to the query “salon software.”
4. Not Relevant: are pages which are not relevant to the query. These are  pages with heavy marketing collateral whose sole objective is to market a product and not provide information about the query. The key here is information –  relevant information and highly useful quality information. Putting up a quick web page without putting any thought into what keywords it may rank for – is a quick recipe for disaster.
5. Off-Topic: self-explanatory. These pages contain nothing about the query and often talk about something else. Avoid these at all cost.

10 Factors Which Influence Search Engine Rankings

A general look at the ten factors which influence search engine rankings (feel free to jump to the portions which interest you the most). I will go into more detail as time passes on each specific factor.

1. Inbound Links
2. Page Titles
3. Metas
4. Cross-Linking
5. Outbound Links
6. Relevant Content
7. Descriptive Alternative Text
8. Anchor Links/Text
9. Relevant Keywords
10. Sitemaps

1. What are Inbound Links? Inbound Links are links from other web pages which point to your own website or web page(s). For Google, each inbound link counts as a vote towards the destination webpage. The more inbound links to a particular web page, the more popular & influential that page becomes to a Search Engine. In addition, the types and quality of Inbound links matter when determining how one’s web pages rank.

2. Page titles: These are the words that fall between <title>tags</title>, usually located at the top of a web page. Duplicate titles and content are ignored by search engines. Make sure your title is unique and completely relevant to your web page. Do not put keywords in your title unless they are fully relevant to your page’s content, else you will be penalized.

3. Meta-tags: are divided into two categories. There are Meta-Keywords and Meta-Description tags. Limit your keywords to seven or less. Keywords should be separated by commas. Keywords in excess of 7-10 run the chance of getting your site flagged as a keyword stuffing site which will get you blacklisted/banned on Google. In addition, try to keep your keywords as highly relevant as possible to the page in question.

Meta-description tags should primarily contain a summary or a description of the page in question. Never put marketing collateral into these tags. The goal is to convey information about the page in question which will help guide the correct audience to your site.

4. Cross-Linking: refers to the purpose of linking your pages to each other. Remember, search engines are first and foremost – robots. A human being can look at the different menus and easily discern which is the most important based on location and size of font used, but a search engine cannot. 

If there are five pages and each of the five pages link to each other, a search engine cannot discern which page is the most important page and which is the least important. In addition, according to Google’s PageRank engine, when a page links to another page, it is essentially giving that page one vote. The more votes a page contains from internal sources as well as external, the more importance that page has.

All pages start with one vote each. One link = one vote. Two links = half a vote. Three links = 1/3 a vote.  

5. Outbound Links: These are links that point to other website pages outside of your own website.

6. Relevant Content: This cannot be stressed enough. 

7. Descriptive Alternative Text: When one’s cursor is over an image, well-optimized sites will contain text for people with disabilities & search engines which will float into view on top of the image. Descriptive Alt tags are a must for successful search engine optimization campaigns.

8. Descriptive Link Text: Descriptive links follow the following definition. Google is the world’s number one search engine. The term Google is a link. The sentence describes exactly what will happen if one clicks on the link. For a search engine, more weight is given to the word Google as a possible keyword choice because the page in question is linking somewhere which contains content on Google. Take a look at the keywords on your page and try to build your content so it utilizes your keywords as descriptive links. As with all things, do not go overboard. It should be like a well written essay with proper headings describing the content of each topic paragraph.

9. Relevant Keywords: Possible keywords can be generated using Google’s Keyword Extraction tool which can be accessed via Google’s Adwords Interface. Select the page & country and Google will crawl it and pull out all the keywords which it thinks are relevant to your page. The keywords generated by Google are based on actual Google Searches. The other way to do it is to generate the keywords yourself – but this is highly prone to errors. Companies and individuals tend to think that they know exactly what goes on in the mind of the customer, most do not. Another good way to find relevant keywords is to install a Google Search Bar in your website and log the words that individuals enter when they visit your site. It will give you a good idea of what keywords suspects are using once they come to your website.

10. Sitemaps: are a listing of all the pages on your web page. These are typically submitted to search engines via their respective interfaces to help index your site. Sometimes web pages contain forms and dynamic pages which utilize flash which in turn possess links embedded in them. In order to help search engines realize that these “other” pages exist, sitemaps are submitted.

What is SEO & SEM? What is the Difference?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It refers to the process of increasing the amount of traffic to a website or increasing the quality of traffic to a website via natural searches (or in other words algorithmic searches). It involves (depending on the search engine), taking a website and gearing its pages towards a search engine so a website can rank higher on the search results (SERP – Search Engine Ranking Page – first page).

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. It is a form of internet marketing which promotes websites by using paid placements (such as Google Adwords, MSN AdCenter, Yahoo Search Marketing, etc.), contextual advertising, and paid inclusion (one pays the search engine and they list your website on their engine – Google does not do this). 

Identical? Different?

Comparing Apples to Oranges

 

 

SEO deals with only organic or natural searches, whereas SEM deals exclusively with inorganic or paid searches. Both SEO & SEM are two separate disciplines which can be pursued separately or hand in hand. Both have high learning curves with the potential to earn more than six figures with due diligence. Both SEO & SEM require strong analytical minds with a passion for manipulating & analyzing large data sets. 

 

That being said, let’s get started.

Seven Cures for a Lean Purse.

First Cure: Start thy purse to fattening.

“But when I began to take out from my purse but nine parts of the ten I put in,” Arkad said, “it began to fatten. So will thine.”

Second Cure: Control thy expenditures.

“That what each of us calls our ‘necessary expenses’ will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary,” Arkad stated.   “Confuse not the necessary expenses with thy desires.”

Third Cure: Make thy gold multiply.

“A man’s wealth is not in the coins he carries in his purse; it is the income he buildeth. That is what thou desireth: an income that continueth to come whether thou work or travel.”

Fourth Cure: Guard thy treasures from loss.

“The first sound principle of investment is security for thy principal.   The penalty of risk is probable loss.   Study carefully, before parting with thy treasure, each assurance that it may be safely reclaimed.   Be not misled by thine own desires to make wealth rapidly.”

Fifth Cure: Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment.

“Thus come many blessings to the man who owneth his own house. And greatly will it reduce his cost of living, making available more of his earnings for pleasures and the gratification of his desires.”

Sixth Cure: Insure a future income.

“No man can afford not to insure a treasure for his old age and the protection of his family, no matter how prosperous his business and investments may be.”

Seventh Cure: Increase thy ability to earn.

“The more of wisdom we know, the more we may earn. The man who seeks to learn more of his craft shall be richly rewarded. Cultivate thy own powers, study and become wiser, become more skillful, and act as to respect thyself.”

The 5 Laws of Gold

1. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.

2. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.

3. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.

4. Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those who are skilled in its keep.

5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.