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 WEB SEO (search engine optimisation)

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.. contents::

   :local:

General search engines

======================

Major search engines are:

* https://google.com from Google Co.

* https://bing.com from Microsoft Co.

* https://yahoo.com or https://search.yahoo.com/ from Yahoo Co and it uses Bing

  engine.

Major local search engine are:

* https://yandex.com from Yandex Co that have large market on Russia, Ukraine, Belarus.

Search engine webmaster tools

=============================

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home

  Google webmaster tools.

https://www.bing.com/webmaster/

  Bind webmaster tools.

https://webmaster.yandex.ru/

  Yandex webmaster tools.

Backlinks

=========

To find backlinks to your site/page use:

https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker

  Free version of Ahrefs' Backlink Checker.

https://www.bing.com/webmasters/backlinks

  Google Search console "Links report".

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9049606

  Docs on Google Search console "Links report".

https://www.bing.com/webmasters/backlinks

  Bing Webmaster SEO tools: Backlinks.

Some others:

https://app.neilpatel.com/en/seo_analyzer/backlinks

  Backlinks.

SEO tips

========

* Use pain text rather than images, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, SilverLite or other

  technologies for important content.

* Make sure your site work without with CSS, JavaScript, Flash, Java, etc

  disabled. Check your site with screen reader or text browser (lynx, w3m).

* Build valid HTML pages. Validate against W3C and other tools. Make site mobile

  friendly and use the mobile friendly test.

* Avoid HTML frames and iframes.

* Market your site so other sites link to yours. The more valuable and relevant

  site point to you the more rank you get!

* Tend to focus on single topic per page.

* Avoid cryptic URLs. Craft human attractive URLs as URL words directly can be

  indexed. Use dashes instead of spaces.

* Avoid duplication. Shutdown mirrors. Use ``<link rel="canonical" ...>`` tag to

  point to page on main version from mirrors or page variants. Avoid page

  variants (like embedding sid into URL). Use::

    <link rel="prev" ...>

    <link rel="next" ...>

  to gather paginated content.

* Tags ``title``, ``h1`` / ``h2`` / ``h3`` and::

    <meta name="description" content="...">

    <meta name="keywords" content="...">

  have great impact. As usual make sure them have unique content across the web

  and your pages.

* Use keywrds for internal ``a`` links.

* Add ``rel="nofollow"`` to spam or money making links.

* Mark up site using microformats: ARIA, schema.org.

* Keep navigational structure (global and hierarchical) easy to crawl.

* Submit sitemap to search engine webmaster tools.

* Ensure a fast load time and absent of HTTP errors.

* Make site sharable across social media.

* Use redirects when changes site structure. This usually move page value to new

  page.

* Produce new content frequently. That make crawlers visit your site more

  frequently.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/40349

  Steps to a Google-friendly site.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066

  Use canonical URLs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_link_element

  Wiki article.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663744

  Indicate paginated content.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/76329

  Keep a simple URL structure.

https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a

  Bing Webmaster Guidelines.

https://yandex.ru/support/webmaster/recommendations/intro.xml

  Рекомендации по созданию сайтов от Yandex.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769

  Google Webmaster Guidelines.

http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/22877/seo-where-do-i-start/

http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/10281/seo-tips-and-tricks-for-web-developers

http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/2/what-are-the-best-ways-to-increase-a-sites-position-in-google

http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/237/basic-seo-optimization

SERP structure

==============

All popular search providers use ``title`` tag content as text for main link to

result entry and ``meta name="description"`` or relevant page piece for

description.

Also ``title`` is used in browser window title bar and as bookmark title.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_results_page

  Wikiperia article.

https://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/good-titles.html

  <title>: the most important element of a quality Web page.

https://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/Use_h1_for_Title

  Use <h1> for top-level heading.

Informing search engine about site structure

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::

  http://www.example.org/sitemap.xml

  http://www.example.org/robots.txt

robots.txt

==========

Start line with ``#`` to commet it out.

Disable all robots (that respect ``robots.txt``)::

  User-agent: *

  Disallow: /

To allow all robots complete access::

  User-agent: *

  Disallow:

To allow a single robot::

  User-agent: Google

  Disallow:

  User-agent: *

  Disallow: /

All valuable search engines support ``Allow`` and ``Sitemap`` tags::

  User-agent: *

  Allow: /

  Sitemap: http://example.com/sitemap1.xml

  Sitemap: http://example.com/my_sitemap2.xml

The longer path the higher priority of ``Allow`` and ``Disallow`` tags.

http://www.robotstxt.org/orig.html

  Original specification. Only ``User-agent`` and ``Disallow`` tags supported.

http://robotstxt.org.ru/

  Russian followup to http://www.robotstxt.org

https://developers.google.com/webmasters/control-crawl-index/docs/robots_txt

  Google extension specification.

https://yandex.ru/support/webmaster/controlling-robot/robots-txt.xml

  Yandex extension specification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt

  Wiki article.

meta robots

===========

Instruction to not index current page::

  <meta name="robots" content="noindex">

Instruction to not follow links on current page::

  <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">

Pair combinations::

  <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

  <meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow">

  <meta name="robots" content="index, nofollow">

  <meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93710

  Block search indexing with meta tags.

http://www.robotstxt.org/meta.html

  About the Robots ``<META>`` tag.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noindex

  Wikiperia article.

rel nofollow attribute in link

==============================

To prevent spam on forums and blogs or to including commertial links::

  <a href="http://spam.com/sale/20-off" rel="nofollow">You win 100$!!</a>

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/96569

  Use rel="nofollow" for specific links.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/81749

  Ways to Prevent Comment Spam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow

  Wiki article.

https://codex.wordpress.org/Nofollow

  Wordpress suggestions.

sitemap

=======

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitemaps

* http://www.sitemaps.org/

Alexa.

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Statistics (most useful Top Search Queries)::

  http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/DOMAIN

Google.

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* http://www.google.com/trends

Yahoo.

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Give backlink (this page redirect to siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com)::

  linkdomain:DOMAIN -site:DOMAIN