Book Image

Drupal 6 Search Engine Optimization

By : Ben Finklea
Book Image

Drupal 6 Search Engine Optimization

By: Ben Finklea

Overview of this book

The earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. Despite several advantages, many Drupal sites suffer with poor search engine standings. Perhaps you are aware of the importance of SEO for increasing traffic to your site, but do you know how to apply it to your Drupal site? Here comes the first book about search engine optimization for Drupal sites. This practical, step-by-step guide takes the mystery out of Drupal search engine optimization (SEO) by showing you the tricks of today's top marketing pros to achieve top ranking in the search engines. This isn't a book of Drupal SEO theory ñ it's a practical guide showing you which modules to install, which settings to use, and dozens of the most closely guarded "tricks of the trade" to get your web site optimized, higher in the search engines, and more profitable. With this book and basic Drupal 6 knowledge ñ how to log in, create content, and install modules ñ you can build a perfectly search engine optimized web site. Each chapter uses easy, step-by-step instructions to walk you through the Drupal SEO modules, configurations, and content you will need to increase traffic on your web site. You start by reviewing the modules and tools that you should use to optimize your site, how to set up your analytics, and so on. Each subsequent chapter gives detailed instructions on implementing these features in Drupal. Later chapters cover topics like site organization, A/B testing, and automatic content tagging to maximize SEO and increase the conversion rate of your web site. When you have completed the book, you will have implemented the changes to your site required to rank well in the search engines. If you want to maximize the return on investment of your Drupal 6 web site and gain a significant advantage over competitors who are not using Drupal, then this book is for you. Imagine how great you'll feel when your site is optimized to increase the number of visitors and convert them into paying customers.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Drupal 6 Search Engine Optimization
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
Preface
Drupal SEO Case Study for Acquia Product Launch

Other Great Tools


There are several other great free tools you can use. Let's go ahead and have a look at them.

Installing two browsers

Why would I possibly need two browsers? One of the great features of Drupal is that it knows if you're logged in and will show different screens when you're the admin of the site than it would if you're an anonymous visitor. For example, you may have noticed an Edit link on each node of your site when you're logged in as the admin.

This little trick is cookie-based. Browsers don't share cookies so you can be logged in to your site on Firefox and show up as an anonymous user in Safari. With two browsers installed, you can make changes as the admin on one browser and see those changes as an anonymous visitor on the other.

Google Toolbar

Another helpful tool is the Google Toolbar. Google Toolbar gives you some very helpful tools like a Google search box and the Google Pagerank indicator. Visit any page on the web and the toolbar will tell you the Pagerank of that page. Currently, the Google Toolbar only supports Firefox and Internet Explorer. The following screenshot shows the Google Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox:

PageRank

PageRank is a very important factor which needs to be taken into consideration for the Search Engine Optimization of your site.

What is it?

PageRank is a number between zero and ten that expresses Google's view of the importance of a web page. Important pages receive higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of search results. Links pass PageRank value from one page to another. It's sometimes called link juice. A link from an important site passes more link juice than a link from a lesser site.

How do I get more?

You can get more PageRank simply by having pages with PageRank link to you. Each page that links to your site, passes a little of its PageRank to your site. The more links you have and the higher the PageRank of the sites that link to you the more PageRank you get.

SEO for Firefox plugin

Assuming that you're using Firefox, adding the SEO for Firefox plugin to your browser will add a plethora of great SEO-related tools to use right in your browser. When you view search results in Google, this nifty plugin overlays useful data about each site in the results. For example, it will show you the PageRank, domain age, and how many backlinks it has, as well as how many links from popular web sites like dmoz, twitter, del.icio.us, and Digg. This can be invaluable when you're doing keyword research (refer to Chapter 2, Keyword Research). Download it from the following link: http://budURL.com/seoforfirefox.

Yahoo! site explorer

Google isn't the only search engine that offers some great tools. Yahoo! is one of the few search engines that will provide you with a list of all the links you have coming into your site. Just point your browser at http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ and put in your URL. You can even add a badge to your site that tells you how many in links you have, as shown in the following screenshot: