COIN 72 - Lesson 11 Homework

Search Engine Optimization

This assignment assumes you have submitted your pages to the search engines. If you haven't, please go back to last week's assignment and complete that task. Then you can follow your page rank as you make the necessary changes to the site, especially the XML sitemap, to ensure that your pages are indexed frequently.

Page Rank

Determine your page rank for each of the pages within your website. This may take some effort, as they could be buried quite a ways back, but try to find search terms that you believe users would employ (use the refer stats to your site to determine that). Build a spreadsheet so that you can more easily accomplish this. Create a shore text summary that tells me where your website is at this moment (perferably use an Excel file, as that's an easier way to manage the large amount of information that you will have accumulated during this task).

Meta data

Add meta data to all of your pages, and try to use terms that reinforce the content of your page, as well as the desired positioning (relationships) of your pages within the domain that you need to be visible in. Copy and paste some meta tags, or send me a link to the page whose meta tags you need me to view.

Titles, Headings, Links, and Text

Now focus on the titles, headings, external and internal links, and finally the content in your website. Titles should be descriptive of the page, and not tool long, and not too short. Three to five words is typical. Headings should break a page up into logical (semantic) units, and use bullets to create an organized set on internal / external links (where appropriate). Your text should be succinct and as concise as possible - and not too wordy. send a link to a representative page.

Linking strategy

The linking strategy is essential to ensure high page rank for Google - as this is a key factor in ranking 'relevance'. Don't engage in link farms, use your basic business development skills to contact websites and particularly directories that you can participate in. Google is able to measure hits from pages that appear and then are clicked on - as well as links within the first basic page. Submit a short paragraph describing your linking strategy.

Lab Activity

Continue to monitor your page rank as you tinker with meta data, change titles, headings, and lists of links, and improve your text content as well. Double check that Google is reading your XML sitemap routinely, as this is a measure of how often your entire website is getting indexed. Keep a log in your spreadsheet as to what you do, and the effect it has on ranking in the various search engines. As your pages start to move, you'll feel a real sense of satisfaction - but don't grow complacent - you are also competing with pay per placement models as well.

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Lesson 11