MORE SEO / SEM QUESTIONS

What is Boolean Searching?

Boolean searching is a method of combining search terms in database searching using Boolean operators: AND, OR and NOT.

What do you mean by Proximity Searching?

A feature that allows searchers to search for words that are near each other in a document.

Why this Syntax is used in Google ( allinurl: ) ?

If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: goggle search] will return only documents that have both "Google" and "search" in the url.

Why this Syntax is used in Google (flink:) ?

What do you mean by Cached Pages?

A memory area where frequently accessed data can be stored for rapid access.

What do you mean by FFA sites?

Pages (Free For All) are not search engines or directory's. They are, for the most part, pages that simply take submissions that usually stay active for a period of time.

What do you mean by Peoximity Searching?

A feature that allows searchers to search for words that are near each other in a document.

What do you mean by Stop words?

A stop word is a word that is so common on the Internet that search engines ignore them. Some stop words are homepage, home page, www, Web, Web page, the, of, that, is and, to, etc.

How can you say whether a site is passing on PR ?

If Site A links to Site B, a percentage of Site A’s Page Rank is passed on, or credited, to Site B. Nothing is lost from Site A in terms of Page Rank unless the link is to a banned area, or bad neighborhood.

How do you know how many BL a site is having?

By using link: operator of Google.

What is the search syntax of google to know whether a site is cached or not?

cache:www.google.com

What is Google’s Bourbon Update?

The Bourbon update started around May 20th, 2005, and 10 days later has yet to settle down. This officially makes it the second longest update since Florida which lasted almost 20 days.

What has Bourbon filter/algo adjustment gone after? So far it looks like:

Non-thematic Linking

Duplicate Content*

Fraternal Linking

Run of Site Links

Low Quality Reciprocal Links

* Google Bourbon seems to have screwed up their duplicate content detector, and there are many examples of Google assigning "authority" to the duplicate page, and restricting the original page to the "similar results" filter.

The victims of the Bourbon Update are in panic mode - some hypothesize that Google misidentified their site as a "scraper site" due to their AdSense placement and penalized it; others are going as far as to speculate (incorrectly) that Google is somehow detecting their AdSense ads on scraper sites, and considering them to be links from "bad neighborhoods", which is patently incorrect, as none of the search engine bots will actually trigger the JavaScript that loads the ads.

However, upon viewing a few of the sites filtered by Bourbon, they have a number of things in common - basically 2 or more of the factors listed above.

Lesson to be learned? Don't reciprocal link with any old site - viagra-casino-porn.biz is not a good link exchange partner for a florist's website.

Think like Google - what "signals of quality" does your site have? How can you increase and expand those signals? What can they do to automatically detect both quality and low-quality signals.

Google is trying to present their users with the best search results - concentrate on what criteria, apart from the basic on-page factors, they are using to judge the quality of a given page. Google wants quality results - if your site isn't ranking well in the post-update aftermath of Bourbon, reassess your strategy and look into what factors Google's algo might use to rank sites now, and in the future.

What we shouldn’t do on a page?

What do you know by a Framed Page?

A framed page is usually created with a top border or design and has a cursor below the top pattern. When you cursor down the page the top pattern of the framed background stays at the top of your page.

How you’ll know whether a Page is Framed or not?

URL is always same in the address bar.

What do you mean by Deadlinks?

A broken link which does not lead to one website.

Why the command rel=”nofollow” Used?

An attribute used in a link to instruct search engines not to follow the link.

What do you mean by Multiple titles?

The usage of more than one Title tag in the header section of a web page. As this could artificially increase the relevancy of the web sites and was abused in the past it's treated as spam on search engines.

How to write a good Title?

Title which is free from encumbrances such as liens, pending litigation and other such defects.

What we’ll have to follow while writing a link request mail?

a. Give a clear and concise mail.

b. Never tell much about your site and your self.

c. The email format should be a requesting one.

d. No rudeness will be there on the mail.

e. Always use the spam law at the bottom of the mail.

What do you mean by a Domain name?

A domain name is the text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer on the Internet.

How we’ll count the internal and External links of a particular site?

What do you mean by 400 error?

(Bad request)

The request could not be understood by the server due to malformed syntax. The client SHOULD NOT repeat the request without modifications.

What do you mean by 401 error?

(Unauthorized)

The request requires user authentication. The response MUST include a WWW-Authenticate header field

What do you mean by 403 error?

(Forbidden)

The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it. Authorization will not help and the request SHOULD NOT be repeated. If the request method was not HEAD and the server wishes to make public why the request has not been fulfilled, it SHOULD describe the reason for the refusal in the entity. If the server does not wish to make this information available to the client, the status code 404 (Not Found) can be used instead.

What do you mean by 404 error?

(Not Found)

The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address. This status code is commonly used when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable.

What do you mean by 408 error?

(Request Timeout)

The client did not produce a request within the time that the server was prepared to wait. The client MAY repeat the request without modifications at any later time.

What do you mean by 500 error?

(Internal Server Error)The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.

In web design, the area that is not viewable to the visitor until they scroll down on the page is typically called what?

What is the difference between a 301 and 302 re-direct?

(301- Moved Permanently) The requested resource has been assigned a new permanent URI and any future references to this resource SHOULD use one of the returned URIs. Clients with link editing capabilities ought to automatically re-link references to the Request-URI to one or more of the new references returned by the server, where possible. This response is cache able unless indicated otherwise.

(302-Found)

The requested resource resides temporarily under a different URI. Since the redirection might be altered on occasion, the client SHOULD continue to use the Request-URI for future requests. This response is only cache able if indicated by a Cache-Control or Expires header field.

The temporary URI SHOULD be given by the Location field in the response. Unless the request method was HEAD, the entity of the response SHOULD contain a short hypertext note with a hyperlink to the new URI(s).

If the 302 status code is received in response to a request other than GET or HEAD, the user agent MUST NOT automatically redirect the request unless it can be confirmed by the user, since this might change the conditions under which the request was issued.

Which thing is least advisable to use for search engine friendly design?

Images and ALT Tags

Site Navigation

Make sure that every single page on your site has clear navigation, and users know exactly where they are and where they are going. Navigation buttons should not contain mystery meat terms like “stuff”, or “about me”, or “cool things”. All of your navigation should be painfully clear as to what page it is describing.

Make Your Text Easy To Read

you should avoid when designing your site for search engines and search engine users. A dark background, a table with jarring colors and light text - this sample, if let loose on the Web, would drive away visitors in droves. This might sound like a no-brainer, but sites with text that is hard to decipher tend to get less visits by search engine users. Make your text readable.

Don’t use silly fonts that might look really cool in your HTML editor, but are unreadable on the Web.

Avoid busy backgrounds that obscure the text; if site visitors have to slow down to interpret your text, you’ve just lost an audience.

Make your text scannable: use bullets, headlines, and bold text so users can scan your content quickly.

Keywords and Phrases in Site Design

Keyword phrases are the bedrock of search engine optimization. Keyword phrases used appropriatately in your site’s content will attract both search engine spiders and search engine users. The main thing with keyword phrases is that you need to come up with the keywords that are searched for most frequently and that are the most relevant to your site’s purpose.

Keep the goal of your site firmly at the forefront. If your site is about the Oregon Trail, then it makes sense to target keyword phrases that are relevant to this topic. It does NOT make sense to splash in a few keyword phrases that are searched for frequently, but have nothing to do with your site’s purpose.

You also need to target your audience. If you were searching for sites about the Oregon Trail, what would you look for? Make sure that your site is targeted at who you would like to come visit your site. Quality users beat quantity users any day, because the users who find your site because of the site’s purpose, and not because they accidentally stumbled upon it, will be the ones who will be your best

Title Tags

Meta Keyword and Description Tags

Doorway Pages and Splash Pages

Proofread Your Site

Site Design - Search Engine Optimization

What is mod_rewrite?

What do the acronyms CPC & CPM refer to in terms of Internet advertising?

Which organization is responsible for managing the assignment of domain names and IP addresses?

What is the difference between a usability test and a usability review of a website?

According to Google, how are style sheets applied to pages they index?

The "web-safe" color palette contains how may unique colors?

Which two Microsoft research papers share a common methodology and purpose for examining link and content data?

Which technology does AskJeeves use to serve the "related topics" suggestions?

In December 2004, Google opened a "secret" data center outside of what major metropolis?

Which is the typical order of operations for a search engine's primary functions?

Why do search engines measure incoming links when ranking a website in the SERPs?

If the nature of the WWW's link structure and document structure is fractal, what does this mean for search engines?

What do you mean by Co-document analysis?

What do you mean by Trokenization?

Yahoo! has recently concentrated on removing which type of website from its index?

Two Stanford graduate students released a paper in March 2005 on the subject of which type of spam?

Which Search Engine has been cited for having difficulty distinguishing real DMCA violation notices from false ones?

The term "churn & burn" describes what in relation to search engine spam tactics?

Which method of 'cloaking' is considered to be the most 'effective' for fooling the search engines?