Page Optimization Analysis

Today, we are going to analyze our competition's sites (actually, just the #1 site in Google's rankings or this will be a really long post), looking for potential weaknesses that we can exploit…
There are three major factors search engines use to evaluate your site:

1) Page Optimization - how well you page is 'search engine friendly'
2) Links from other sites
3) Site Content

Let's focus on Page Optimization analysis for the #1 ranked site in Google for the keyword phrase "amtrak train schedule". This happens to be ole' Amtrak themselves (www.amtrak.com).

So, let's get everything set up. Open a web browser (I am using Internet Explorer) and go to www.google.com. Search for "amtrak train schedule'. Click on the highest ranked site, which at the time of this writing is www.amtrack.com.

We need to look at the html code that comprises this site. In Internet Explorer (I.E.), it is <view> and then <source> (from the drop down list). A notepad window will pop-up with Amtrak's main page's html code. If you've never looked at html before, this is going to look a little strange - but I'm going to help you.

These are the elements that we are going to look for:

1) Title Tag
2) H1 Tag
3) Bold/Underline/Italics Tags
4) Image Alt Tags
5) Keyword/Keyword Phrases within the first 25 words
6) Keyword/Keyword Phrases within the last 25 words

Okay, now what is our keyword phrase?

"amtrak train schedule"

In notepad, search for the following items listed below.

Title Tag (<title>amtrak train schedule</title>)
Search for "<title>"
Here is www.amtrak.com's Title Tag -> <title>Amtrak</title>

Notice that only the word 'Amtrak' exists in the title tag. This is an area of weakness that we can exploit.

H1 Tag (<h1>amtrak train schedule</h1>)
Search for "<h1>"
There is no <H1></H1> tag .

Bold Tag (<b>amtrak train schedule</b>)
Search for "<b>"

<B><a HREF="javascript:if(location.href.indexOf('espanol.amtrak.com/amtrak/enes')!=-1){idx=location.href.indexOf('mp_act_url');if(idx!=-1){pidx=location.href.indexOf('&',idx);uidx=location.href.indexOf('=',idx)+1;url=unescape(location.href.substring(uidx,pidx));pms=location.href.substring(pidx+1);location.href=url+'?'+pms;}else{location.href=location.href.substring(location.href.indexOf(';')+1);}}else{location.href=location.protocol+'//espanol.amtrak.com/amtrak/enes/?24;'+location.href;}" CLASS="NavBarWhite">En Espa&ntilde;ol</a></B>

<B><a HREF="http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage" CLASS="NavBarWhite">Home</a></B>

<B><a HREF="http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/Help" CLASS="NavBarWhite">Help</a></B>

<B><a HREF="http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/ContactUs" CLASS="NavBarWhite">Contact Us</a></B>

<B><span CLASS="NavBarWhite"><a HREF="http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/Search/AdvancedSearch" CLASS="NavBarWhite">Search</a></span></B>

<b>Departs:</b>

<b>Departure Date:</b>

And so on - you get the idea

There are no bold tags

Italics Tag (<i>amtrak train schedule</i>)
Search for "<i>"
There are none - the would look like <i>text</i>

Underline Tag (<u>amtrak train schedule</u>)
Search for "<u>"
There are none - the would look like <u>text</u>

Alt Image Tags (Look for the text "alt=")

These are the pseudo pop-up labels that are displayed in browsers or browser configurations that block images from displaying.

Search for "alt="

Here is what I found:

ALT="Amtrak"
alt="spacer-blue"
alt="spacer-blue"
ALT="spacer"
ALT="Nav Angle"
ALT="Reservations"
ALT="spacer"
ALT="Schedules"

And so on - you get the idea.

"amtrak train schedule" appears in none of the Image ALT tags.

Keyword/Keyword Phrases within the first 25 words
Search for "amtrak train schedule".
The keyword is not found.


Keyword/Keyword Phrases within the last 25 words
Search for "amtrak train schedule".
The keyword is not found.


Summary
From a page optimization standpoint, this page is very weak for "amtrak train schedule".

Assignment
Perform the same analysis that we've just done on sites ranked 2 through 10 on Google.


Activities for http://Kitten-Pictures.com since my last post:

Solicited about 30 more link exchanges.

I changed my main text font on my site to Arial 8pt so that I more closely matches the Google adsense font and size

Posted new photos each day

Wrote another article called "Cat Dander Allergy - The Mystery Solved" - I didn't submit this one to the article submission sites. I'm going for the keyword 'Cat Dander Allergy" - it has a Google adword cost per click at about $.87


Search Engine Rankings for Keyword Phrase "Kitten Pictures" on http:Kitten-Pictures.com since my last post:

www.alltheweb.com - 0
www.altavista.com - 0
www.google.co.uk - 0
www.google.com - 0
www.google.de - 0
www.msn.com - 41 (was 0 previously)
www.yahoo.com - 0


Search Engine Rankings for Keyword Phrase "Kitten Pictures" on http://kitten-pictures.blogspot.com (this site redirects to http://Kitten-Pictures.com)

www.alltheweb.com - 0
www.altavista.com - 0
www.google.co.uk - 0 (I've fallen from 751 to zero)
www.google.com - 0
www.google.de - 0
www.msn.com - 3 (I was #1 yesterday and floated back down to #3 this morning)
www.yahoo.com - 0


Questions? Comments?

I welcome them. You can either post the question in the comments section at the bottom of this posting, or you can email me at Stan -@- StanBeck.com. Please feel free to tell others about this blog or my Kitten Pictures site.


Until next time…

Make it a great day!