Easy Site Optimizer

EasySiteOptimizer (ESO) is a useful tool for modifying your website to improve its ranking with search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Excite. Websites which have a high ranking on search engines will appear near the top of their list of search results. The ESO interface is divided into four sections: Keywords, Optimization, Submissions and Reports.

• The Keywords interface allows you to create or manage your list of keywords which are submitted to search engines. If you get stuck, it can also suggest alternate keywords which may be relevant.

• The Optimization interface is a valuable tool for improving your website's ranking on search engines. When you view the results of a scan, you will be provided with an editor to make changes to your site.

• The Submissions interface allows you to select which search engines you would like to submit your site to. All you have to do is fill in some basic information about your site; submission process is completely automated.

• The Reports interface generates charts which the position of your website among the major search engines.

The keywords interface

The Keywords interface allows you to create or manage your list of keywords (to a maximum of 15) which are submitted to search engines. If you get stuck, it also suggests alternate keywords which may be relevant.

Note: Keywords are important, but if too many are used, or if they are used in order to try to "catch" people searching for information which is unrelated to your website content, then search engines typically refuse to list the site. Essentially, the role of keywords on a website is to provide a short, relevant list of popular words that are commonly used to search for the content contained on your website. For consistency, it is also essential to use these same keywords in your website content; depending on the search engine, using keywords which are not used in your website can be as detrimental as keywords which are completely unrelated to your website.

Managing your keyword list

Adding a keyword:

• Type your keyword into the field provided and click “Add Keyword”. The keyword will appear in the list below.

You can also click “Suggestions” if you only want to see a list of suggested keywords, without adding the keyword you entered.

• If you have difficulty trying to come up with additional keywords, refer to the keyword suggestions located in the bottom-right corner of your screen.

Adding suggested keywords:

• Click on the “ < ” button beside the keyword you want to add.

All suggested keywords are ranked by “relevance”. Relevance is determined by examining what other keywords are commonly used on websites alongside the keyword you entered. The more often the suggested keyword is used, the higher the relevance rating.

Changing the order of your keywords:

Ideally, your keywords should be ranked in order of importance; most search engines assume that the first keyword is the most relevant; the second is slightly less relevant, and so on.

• To change the order of the keywords in your list, click on a keyword and then use the up- and down-arrow buttons below.

Saving keywords:

To save your keyword list, click on “save keyword list”.

If you want your keywords to be written to your index.htm or index.html page when you save, place a checkmark beside “save these keywords on my index page”. Your keywords will be placed in the keyword metatag; all existing keywords are overwritten. Note that this is only done on your index.htm or index.html page; no other pages will be affected.

Deleting keywords:

To remove a keyword from the list, select a keyword in your list and click the delete button, located at the bottom-right corner of the list.

The submissions interface

The Submissions interface allows you to select what search engines you would like to list your website on. ESO will assist you in submitting your website details.

To submit your site to one or more search engines:

• From the list provided, select the search engines you would like to submit your website to.

• Enter a description for your website. To help ensure that your site will be added to the search engines you submit to, Website descriptions should be concise and well-written; they should be factual as opposed to promotional in nature.

• Click “submit now” to complete the submission process.

The site optimization interface

The site optimizer is a valuable tool for improving your website’s ranking on search engines. It is important to note that the site optimizer does not make any changes to your website’s code; it provides an analysis in the form of a list of suggestions for improvement, and a simple editing interface which will allow you to make the suggested changes.

Starting an optimization scan

The first time you open the site optimization interface, or whenever you publish changes to your website, you must run an optimization scan in order to collect new data and generate a list of relevant suggestions for improving your content. To start a new scan, follow these steps:

1.Click on “New optimization”.

2.In the interface that opens, enter the exact path to your website content in the “web address” section. This should be the directory on your domain that your website has been published to. For example:

• If your website is located at “http://mydomain.com/”, then leave the location text box empty.

• If your website is located in a subdirectory, such as “http://mydomain.com/specialdirectory/”, then enter “specialdirectory” in the location text box.

Please note that directory names are case-sensitive: using the example above, if the directory name is “SpecialDirectory”, entering “specialdirectory” will prevent the optimizer from finding your website.

Note: if your site uses a security cert, then select “https” form the drop-down menu provided. If your site does not use a cert, then leave the drop-down menu at its default setting (“http”).

3.The list of keywords which will be used for the analysis is displayed beneath the “web address” section.

• If you do not have any keywords listed, or an older, out-of-date set of keywords are displayed, click “cancel” and click on the “keywords” option to set your keywords.

Note: You can run a site optimization without any defined keywords; however, this will limit the optimizers ability to provide content suggestions. Using an out-of-date or invalid keywords list will cause the optimizer to provide inaccurate or suggestions.

4.A window will open, indicating the site optimization scan has begun. Click “ok”.

It is not necessary to leave the ESO interface open while the scan runs. You can perform other activities in ESO, or in WebsiteOS in general, while the optimization scan progresses. The next time you return to the ESO Optimization interface, the current status of the optimization process is displayed: “in progress” or “completed”.

If you wish to wait until the optimization process is completed, you can update the status of the scan periodically by clicking “check status”; this will let you know when the scan has finished.

Optimization summary

When the optimization scan is complete, a brief summary of the results are displayed as follows:

• Pages: The number of pages which were scanned.

Notes: The total number of optimization suggestions, across all pages in the following categories: TITLE, META, BODY, HEADER, LINK and ALT tags.

To view the detailed results of an optimization scan, click “view summary”. In the window that opens, you will see up to six categories of results: TITLE, META, BODY, HEADER, LINK and ALT tags. Click on a category to view a list of pages with notes in that category; select a page, and click “view notes” to view each note.

• While reviewing notes, you can use the basic editor provided to make modifications suggested by the notes.

• You can jump to the notes for another page by using the drop-down menu at the top of the page.

Generally, the optimization scan looks at the usage of these six tag types on each page, and determines if they have been used optimally. If not, then it suggests changes which enforce proper usage.

The reports interface

The reports interface allows you to chart the ranking of your website, by keyword.

• Select a keyword to see a chart that ranks the position of your website among the major search engines.

• A high ranking indicates that your website is one of the first few websites listed on search engines for the selected keyword.

• Charts only display the top 20 results from search engines, and all charts are automatically updated on a monthly basis.