.. -*- coding: utf-8; -*-

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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.

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
============================================
::

  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.
======

Statistics (most useful Top Search Queries)::

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

Google.
=======

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

Yahoo.
======

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

  linkdomain:DOMAIN -site:DOMAIN