What up Rockstars!? I took a few days off with my Rockstar SEO Series so just in case you missed it, my last post was an Intro to Universal Search. Be sure to check that out first if you’re unfamiliar with Universal Search.

As I’m sure most of you already know, it’s ridiculously competitive within the search engines. There are plenty of verticals that almost seem impossible to show up on the first page for certain keywords. Well now with universal search, there are a few ways to gain some competitive advantage. Image search is still relatively under-utilized. So… by utilizing image searches you can now get a piece of that massive traffic.

Getting down to the Nitty Gritty

Today I’m going to show you the “recommended” ways to optimize your images for image search.

Ready. Set. Go!

Essentially, all the search engines are looking for are a few references about the image on your site. They can define your image based off your use of proper XHTML attributes.

Let me explain.

• Description – The search engines put a big emphasis on the alt attribute. Be sure to give your image a useful description rather then stuffing it full of keywords.
• Where is the image located? A src attribute or the URL of the image. (e.g. image-file-name.jpg)
• What’s the size of the image? It needs the  width & height of the image specified in pixels. (e.g. 250 x 250)
• Mouse Hover All of your images need to have a title attribute. As users roll over the image with their mouse, they’ll see the title of the image “pop-up”.

TIP: Whenever you name an image file always be sure to use hyphens. NEVER use underscores.

Good Example: this-is-my-image.jpg

Bad Example: this_is_my_image.jpg

Now I know what they want, now how do I optimize for it?

Ok cool, so you know what the spiders are looking for. Let’s look at a few examples to show you how to do it.

Just like we talked about creating content the search engines love, the spiders are also pretty particular with how they scan images. First of all, search engines can’t read text inside images. If you want search engines to understand your content, keep it in regular HTML.

Rather than the spiders reading the embedded text on the image above, they use the image file name. The file name is where the image is located. For all you WordPress users out there, after you upload an image you can click on “File URL” and that will show you where your image is located. Be sure you’ve used hyphens and described it appropriately.

The image src attribute

http://www.jrfarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/snorkeling-trip-st-thomas.jpg

Which is much more descriptive than DSC00856.jpg

The alt attribute

This describes the contents of the image file. It is the KEY attribute for the spiders.

• Search engines use this information to determine the best image to return for a the given search query.
• If for some reason the file doesn’t load it will show that text to the user. So rather then it saying “DSC00856.jpg” it displays your alt attribute.

Stay away from “Keyword Stuffing” the alt attribute:

<img src="snorkeling-trip-st-thomas.jpg" alt="snorkeling ocean scuba diving fish goggles with snorkel virgin islands snorkeling ocean scuba snorkeling"/>

The End Result – “Best Practice”

<img src="http://www.jrfarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/snorkeling-trip-st-thomas.jpg"
title="Honeymoon Snorkeling Trip in St. Thomas"
alt="Honeymoon Snorkeling Trip in St. Thomas"
width="500" height="338" /></a>

That’s a wrap.

Well… if you really read through this you should be ready to rock and/or roll. Start taking advantage of this right away and test this out in different niche’s and see what results you get.

Often times people complain about the quality of traffic received from image search. Of course this isn’t paid search so yeah the quality is down but here’s my advice. Try doing some CPM advertising or throw up some Adsense and see how you do. You may be surprised!

I’m guessing you guys are liking this Rockstar SEO Series because I’m getting more & more followers and subscribers. Thanks! Follow JR Farr on Twitter or Subscribe to my RSS Feed so you don’t miss a post!

Previously in the Rockstar SEO Series

Intro to Universal Search

This is a quick overview of what universal search is and I’ll follow up on several sub-topic posts on how to optimize for universal search. The idea hasn’t been around for long but it’s slowly becoming more useful & popular among the search engines. Are you optimizing for it?

I remember almost a year ago, I was in San Jose, CA sitting in a SES (Search Engine Strategies) session that was all about universal search and where it was going. I sat there and listened to a panel that consisted of high-end engineers from the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN & Ask.

Hearing it first hand from the “source” was very interesting and they talked about plans that would improve universal search. It’s been neat to watch it evolve and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned from real experiences since then.

First things first, What is Universal Search?

The funny thing is, you’re using it everyday and probably don’t even notice. This is something that has slowly come into play throughout all the major engines over the past few years. I guess they call that Web 2.0ish or something like that.

Anyway, take a quick look at an example below:

You’ll see in the example above there’s more than just text links. Essentially, universal search blends different types of mediums together. These mediums range from:

• Images
• Videos
• Blogs
• News
• Products
• And the list goes on.

I searched the term “Michael Jackson“, (I know, I know…) and the search engines didn’t know if I was looking for videos, albums, images, etc. Therefore, the results range from news sources and a mix of images & videos to attempt the most relevancy possible. Since launching these type of SERPS, there has been more diversity and they have expanded to become more blended & relevant.

The Question is… How do you Optimize for it?

Funny you should ask

This is just a brief introduction to universal search. I wanted to be sure I explained what the concept was before I really got into it in my next posts. Over the next few Rockstar SEO installments, I’ll be sharing some great tips & tricks on how to rank for more than just a text link. Obviously, being ranked for a text link is a bad thing either.

I’ll cover these main points:

• How to Rank well for Image Search
• Video Search Optimization
• Google Base Optimization Tips & Tricks

Stay tuned…

Be sure that your either following me on Twitter (@jrfarr) or you’re subscribed to my RSS Feed because you don’t want to miss this.

In this installment of the Rockstar SEO Series, I follow up on a post titled — Creating Killer Content that Search Engines Love. Your readers are so important to you, so you need to be sure your writing content your readers love as well.

Often times, you see people getting so caught up in writing content for the search engines. I mean everyone wants to rank well in the engines but don’t forget who else is reading it. It’s a game of balancing the right amount of search engine jargon & easy-to-read content for your viewers. I’ll be breaking down you a few ways to display your content in “reader-friendly” format.

Get to the Point Already

One of the best ways to write your content is to think about how the search engines read it.

Your readers are no different.

Basically, your readers don’t have time to read your content word for word. Why not make it more simple to get to the meat of what you’re saying? Just like a search engine spider, your readers scan your content.

Use Sub-Headlines to Highlight what the Post is all about

This is a fantastic way to give your readers a choice. They can read a majority of the post with a birds-eye view. Just remember to make sure you use the proper format when choosing sub-headlines.

TIP: If you’re using WordPress, use this quick drop down in the visual editor. Your sub-headlines should be <h2> tags or <h3> tags. Capeesh?

Bulleted Lists & Numbered Lists

I can’t think of a better way to highlight the main points of a post or idea then a bulleted list.

• Talk about giving your readers something easy to navigate.
• They can scen through the main points quickly & easily.
• Well isn’t that nifty?

Get Bold & Italic

Not only does bolding keywords and phrases catch your readers attention, it also catches the search engine spiders attention. By bolding and italicizing throughout your posts, you can help your reader and engines find the most important sections of a sentence or paragraph.

Using compelling Images to Grab your Readers Attention

Sometimes I can actually relay what I’m trying to say better through a picture.

Or sometimes it just spices up your posts a bit.

Either way, this kid looks like a stud right? I think it’s the Boston Red Sox hat

In the end… It’s just more Natural

Try writing out your post in a Word doc or just write a draft post without worrying about the search engines. After you write the post, read through it and optimize it for both your readers and the engines where it makes sense. You’ll see your writing begins to read more naturally, which keeps your readers more engaged and tells the engines you’re not keyword stuffing.

Good Luck!

I sure hope you’re enjoying the Rockstar SEO Series. Don’t be afraid to chime in or leave feedback on this subject. Remember to Follow JR Farr on Twitter or Subscribe to my RSS Feed so you don’t miss a post!

Previously in the Rockstar SEO Series

Creating Killer Content that Search Engines Love

Quick note: As I’m writing these posts, I refer a lot to WordPress as it is my publishing platform of choice. One of the reasons I love WordPress from an SEO standpoint is because of how well I can talk to Google and the other engines. XML sitemaps, ping notifications, ya know just more reasons you should be using it.

I‘m a visual person, so a lot of times when someone takes an idea and paints a pretty picture for me, I catch on instantly. With that being said, try to picture this.

What’s Happening Behind the Scenes is what Matters

Now remember, we’re talking about creating killer content for the search engines, not your readers. Forget about how pretty your site looks for a moment. You know, the fancy Twitter badge, cool logo and tricked out colors that you love so dearly. You’re now a mighty search engine spider or bot and you’ve just landed on one of your most recent posts. Does the content look like you need to be Bear Grylls to survive? Or is it tightly constructed with a nifty road map?

From start to finish the search engine spiders need to crawl through all the content. Without it being laid out in nice Semantic Web Markup, it’s sayonara. It’s adios. It’s later dude. It’s peace out. I think you get the point.

So what Exactly are the Search Engines looking for?

How about Semantic Web Markup for $1,000 please.

What’s Semantic Web Markup? Simply put, it’s what gets your site humming the way Google likes it. What you’re shooting for is to lay out your content to the search engines by using XHTML tags (<title>,<h1>,<h2>,<h3>,<strong> and so on.) When these XHTML tags are used properly in a clear, well-organized manner, you’re golden.

In other words, the search engine spiders are doing something like this as they “spider” your content:

The spiders initially come to your site from the <title> of your post via the search engine results. (having a compelling & keyword targeted <title> tag is a absolute must.) It then hits the headline of the post (which should be an <h1> tag) and ask’s, “is this relevant?” Moving along, it then crawls through the contents of the post looking for sub-headlines, bolded keywords, lexical keywords, keyword density, etc.

TIP: For your sub-headlines be sure to use <h2> tags or <h3> tags. Don’t ever have more then ONE <h1> tag on the same page. This goes back to presenting those XHTML tags in a hierarchical model.

Then of course making its way to the posts ending. It arrives in hopes to see the same keyword or phrase that originally pointed it there. Bolding the keyword again always helps.

TIP: Bolding the keywords you’re focusing on, does in fact tell the engines — “Hey, these keyword(s) or phrase(s) are more important. Be sure to write that down.”

For the most part, if your running a platform such as WordPress, this is pretty much taken care of to an extent. But there are plenty of Free & Premium themes that don’t execute this in the right way. Yes, you most likely paid $80 bucks for a premium theme and they used an <h2> tag for all your post titles instead of an <h1> tag. Oops!

And in case you didn’t know, besides the <title> tag, the <h1> tag is one of the most important tags on the page for the search engines. Go check if your theme is setup this way and make changes if necessary.

In conclusion, here’s a few things to Consider when Publishing New Content

1. Give each post or page a unique title.
2. Give each post or page a unique description.
3. Never have more than ONE <h1> tag on the same page.
4. Bold the keywords or phrases you’re targeting.
5. Use synonyms or lexical keywords to reduce keyword frequency & reinforce the keywords you’re targeting.

• (All in One SEO plugin for WordPress works great for 1 & 2 if you’re using WordPress.)
• Use the the Thesaurus to find synonyms.

I sure hope you’re enjoying the Rockstar SEO Series. Don’t be afraid to chime in or leave feedback on this subject. Remember to Follow JR Farr on Twitter or Subscribe to my RSS Feed so you don’t miss a post!

Previously in the Rockstar SEO Series

• How to Use Social Media to Boost SEO

Follow up to this post:

• Creating Killer Content that your Readers Love

This mouth watering & appetizing SEO goodness is another component to the “Rockstar SEO Series” brought to you by JR Farr. If you’re loving it, be sure to share it to everyone you think would find value in it!

Now let’s dive right in!

Are you Paying Attention to What’s Happening Off your Site?

If you’re not, you should be. If you are, well… good on ya With the emergence of Social Media, anyone and everyone can talk about your brand or product. This can be looked at in a negative or positive way. I think it’s all positive.

For one, you now have the customer feedback you’ve always wanted at your fingertips and you can interact with them in seconds. Secondly, it’s now making it possible for anyone to build up one of the single most important aspects of SEO. What am I referring to? Drum roll please…

Backlinks my fellow Rockstars, Backlinks.

Most people that have danced in the SEO arena would argue that “backlinks” (sites linking back to your site) are in fact, one of the single most important aspects to your SEO campaigns.

Why are backlinks so important?

For starters, backlinks are important because search engines like Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks. Google then considers those websites more relevant among the results of any given search query. Just remember it’s not always the quantity but the quality of the backlinks your site has. Getting links back to your site does a number of things:

• Raising your page rank.
• Building your site as an authority.
• And of course, gives you more exposure.

So how does Social Media Create Backlinks to my site?

Well in a way, your readers use Social Media to sort of guide the search engines to what content is really unique & fresh.

With the new social media component, your readers now have a vote in telling the search engines if your content is all that and a bag of chips. When you create something valuable, those votes (e.g. links, tweets, bookmarks) really get your SEO efforts cookin’.

In other words, your readers have loads of platforms to re-syndicate your content in a viral way.What are these platforms?

• They can use social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, Delicious and more to share your content with more viewers. Creating a link back to your original content and giving you exposure to thousands.
• They can tweet or re-tweet it via Twitter.
• Bloggers & publishers can link to your article from their site, blog or forum. Gotta love that

Ok, so what control do I have in using Social Media do to boost my SEO efforts?

Well here’s a live example. From a personal branding standpoint, look what happens when you Google “JR Farr”. Starting from the first ranking, my brand name is fortunately taking up the entire first page of Google. Now, I know that example was pretty simple but even Social Media at it’s simplest form can be very powerful.

There’s more backlinking strategies that this Rockstar SEO Series will cover so I don’t want to go too far off subject.

What about you? Have you seen a boost in SEO rankings from Social Media?

I sure hope you’re already enjoying the Rockstar SEO Series. Don’t be afraid to chime in or leave feedback on how you’re using Social Media to boost SEO. Remember to Follow JR Farr on Twitter or Subscribe to my RSS Feed so you don’t miss a post!

A component of the Rockstar Marketing Series – Custom crafted by JR Farr.

SEO is changing constantly & this my friends, is SEO for today’s world… 2009.

Changes are always taking place within the webmaster guidelines, search engine algorithms, etc. which ultimately shifts our SEO techniques. In fact, a big change happened in 2006 when Social Media started making waves.

Not too long ago, SEO (search engine optimization) use to consist of stuffing keywords into your sites content while completely negelecting keyword density & frequency. Writing quality content & keyword density was an after thought and the internet was already being polluted at such a young age. This same technique is still being practiced today and sadly, the pollution of ridiculous content continues. *Sigh*

Let’s change that.

Right now, most are still trying to adjust to the new web 2.0 phase, so you need to make sure you’re adjusting your SEO strategies as well. That’s exactly what Rockstar SEO will cover.

The Techniques You’ll Learn – On Site SEO & Off Site SEO

When executing proper SEO campaigns or techniques it is actually split up in two different types.

• On-site SEO & Off-site SEO

Nowadays, because of Social Media, I believe a big part of your SEO success is actually what’s happening “off your site” (off-site seo).

Often times, most people think SEO success only comes from what SEO strategies you’re deploying “on your site”. Yes, this is a large part to your success but it’s only some of the ingredients to the SEO stew. A few on-site strategies to consider:

• Well Structured Content
• Semantic Web Markup
• SEO-Friendly URL’s
• Unique & Fresh content

We’ll go into these in future parts of this series

So… What’s Next in the Rockstar SEO Series

This Rockstar SEO Series is for today’s world, 2009. With that being said,  my plan is to talk about best strategies right now and how to leverage the new “Web 2.0″. Here are more topics you’ll be sinking your teeth into. These aren’t quite set in stone… yet, so don’t hold me to them.

• How to use Social Media to Boost SEO.
• Creating Killer Content that Search Engines Love
• Creating Killer Content that your Readers Love
• Never underestimate the <title> of your posts.
• Social Media and How it Effect’s SEO.
• Semantic Web Markup
• Unique & Fresh Content

Check back soon for new posts on these topics as this series gets underway.

How do I hop on this Rockstar SEO Series train?

What do you have to do to get your hands on this series?  Pretty simple really. Just follow me, JR Farr on Twitter or simply subscribe to my RSS Feed and witness some insane content about to be published right in front of your eyeballs. Not too painful right?

What do I get out of this?

I’m providing this quality content because I believe in providing more value then you consume. I’m putting myself out there and sharing my knowledge because this is my passion. You’ll see it through my series and on the chance you’re diggin’ it… I just want you to share it with everyone! Oh and comments are nice too