` A study of Search Engine Optimisation methods by Gareth Rogan ...

`
A study of Search Engine Optimisation methods
by
Gareth Rogan
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in
Software and Information Systems
National University of Ireland, Galway
Department of Information Technology
August, 2009
Head of Department: Professor Gerard Lyons
Project Advisor: Mr. Colm O’Riordan

Acknowledgements
There are a number of people whom I would like to thank for their help and support in
the creation of this thesis!
I would like to thank the lecturers and staff of NUI Galway and Regis University for their
support, guidance and patience of the past two years, but especially Colm O’Riordan for
his support as thesis advisor.
I would like to thank my employers CPL for allowing me the chance to continue my
education and for their understanding whenever I required time to study or research. I
would like to give special thanks to my colleagues in the IT department, especially
Declan Corry and Rebecca Mourski for allowing me to interfere in their development
plans with these SEO methods.
And finally, I would like to thank Paula for listening to my problems, offering advice and
putting up with my ramblings throughout the course. Without you I would have not
finished at all!
3

Table of Contents Gareth Rogan
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
I. Acknowledgements 3
II. List of Tables 6
III. List of Figures 7
IV. Abstract 8
Chapter 1 Introduction 9
Problem Motivation 12
Thesis Objectives 13
Thesis Structure 14
Chapter 2 Literature Review 16
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation 16
Techniques 17
Google and PageRank 18
Chapter 3 SEO Methods 20
3.0 Introduction 20
3. 1 What hat should I wear? 21
3.2 Keywords and Keyword Selection 22
3.3 Tagging 26
3.31 META and Title Tags 26
3.32 Image ALT Tags 28
4

Table of Contents Gareth Rogan
3.4 Content 28
3.5 Robots and Internal Linking 29
3.6 External Linking 30
Chapter 4 Case Study (Application of different methods in chapter 3) 32
4.1 Case Study 1 32
4.2 Case Study 2 33
4.3 Case Study 3 35
4.4 Case Study 4 36
4.5 Case Study 5 37
Chapter 5 Analysis of Results 39
5.1 Measurement 39
5.2 Case Study 1 39
5.3 Case Study 2 40
5.4 Case Study 3 40
5.5 Case Study 4 41
5.6 Case Study 5 41
5.7 Conclusions and Recommendations 42
Bibliography 44
Appendices
Appendix 1 Website Tags 46
5

List of Tables Gareth Rogan
Table 1.1 Jobs Keywords Search
Table 1.2 Case Study 1 Results
Table 1.3 Case Study 2 Results
Table 1.4 Case Study 3 Results
Table 1.5 Case Study 4 Results
Table 1.6 Case Study 5 Results
List of Tables
6

List of Figures Gareth Rogan
Figure 1.1 Search Engine Rankings
Figure 1.2 Google Insight Webpage
List of Figures
Figure 1.3 SERP screen shot with Title Tag
Figure 1.4 KCR Homepage
Figure 1.5 MRS.ie
Figure 1.6 Artemis-Europe.com
Figure 1.7 Nursefindersuk.com Homepage
Figure 1.8 Richmond Homepage
Figure 1.9 CPL Homepage
7

Abstract
Search Engines have become an integral part of daily internet usage. The search engine is
the first stop for web users when they are looking for a product, service or some
particular information. The search engine will return a list of results to a given search
query, based on the particular searching technology in use. The user will select websites
from the search engine results pages to locate the sites they wanted.
The internet has grown dramatically, so much that the scenario described above could
result in hundreds or thousands of pages being returned by a search engine. The user is
more likely to select the top results, rather than trawl through each page. Therefore, how
do web designers or managers promote a website so that it appears at the top of these
results pages?
The answer which is commonly given to this question is Search Engine Optimisation.
SEO is the process of designing (or modifying) a website to improve its search ranking.
This thesis sets out to determine if SEO methods can improve the ranking of a website.
The different methods of SEO will be identified. These methods will be tested on
different websites in order to determine the SEO methods that improve ranking most.
The results of the improvements should form a set of guidelines for web developers who
wish to improve the traffic to their websites via search engines.
8

Introduction Gareth Rogan
Chapter 1
Introduction
Background
In the mid 1960’s, at the height of the cold war, a US Military division named the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (or ARPA) was working on a new type of computer
system. The US department of defence needed to find a way to share information
between different research teams, and provide a system which was capable of continuing
to function in the event of a nuclear strike. This was the origins of the Internet, and it
could not be further from the Internet of today. The functionality which the internet now
provides has far exceeded simply sharing of information between groups. The internet
provides a forum for shopping, social networking, information gathering, as well as a
host of other functions.
With the sheer number of websites offering services to web users, information overload
has become a problem. According to Google engineers, the Google search index hit 1
trillion unique URLs in 2008 [Alpert, Jesse & Hajaj, Nissan (25/7/2008) We knew the
web was big… Google Blog retrieved on the 17 th August 2009 from
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/we-knew-web-was-big.html]. A simple quest to
locate some information could become a mammoth task. Enter the Internet oracle, the
search engine. A search engine is the yellow pages of the internet. It allows an internet
9

Introduction Gareth Rogan
user to search for a particular text and returns results based on some kind of ranking or
ordering.
The Search Engines are the first stop for searchers and the results they return can make
all the difference to service vendors on the internet. For example, if an internet user
searches for a particular service on a search engine and is presented with 100+ pages to
go through, it is highly likely that they will not go past the first couple of pages.
In Ireland, according to a CSO report on ICT and Telecommunications, nearly 65% of
companies had an internet presence, and 98% of enterprises use the internet. For this
reason vendors need to appear high on search engine results pages if they are to guarantee
custom.
Computerised information searching evolved from three main information retrieval
methods, the Boolean model, the Vector Space model and the Probabilistic models.
Boolean is one of the earliest information retrieval methods, based on Boolean algebra
(logical statements put together using the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT). In
searching, the Boolean model works on determining if keywords exist in documents,
while meeting the Boolean expression, for example job AND Ireland. Simple Boolean
statements can be extended using Fuzzy Logic to return documents which nearly meet the
search statement. The problems with the Boolean model are that of synonymy, where
multiple words have the same meaning, and polysemy, where words have multiple
meanings. The vector space model works by transforming textual data into numeric
10

Introduction Gareth Rogan
vectors and matrices. Matrix analysis is used to determine if documents mean with search
criteria. The vector space model also uses relevance scoring, which allows documents to
be returned in a list, ordered by the relevance score. This is not possible in the Boolean
model. Probabilistic models use an estimation score to determine the relevance of
documents.
Web search engines draw from these information retrieval methods, but given the
dynamic nature and sheer scale of the internet, many differences exist. Web search
engines need to regularly index the web to keep up to date with the ever increasing
number of websites. Search engines use “Crawler” or “Spider” modules in order to
constantly trawl the internet, adding new pages to the engines search index. A query
module is used to search the indexes in order to return sites which meet the criteria,
similar to the methods described above. Despite whatever methods of information
retrieval the query module uses, the sheer amount of information on the internet means
there should be a large number of information which meets the search criteria. Web
Search Engines will use a Ranking module, in order to provide a results page to the end
user which is ordered by some criteria. And there exists the problem, how does one make
certain that their site appears on results pages so that web users can find it?
Techniques designed to improve the search ability of a website and making it appear
higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) are known as Search Engine
Optimisation.(SEO)
11

Introduction Gareth Rogan
1.1 Motivations and Research Objective
Do SEO techniques result in improved search ranking on sites? This thesis sets out to
determine if applying SEO techniques to a website will result in an improvement in the
search ranking of that site. The thesis will also determine which, if any, of the most
commonly recommended SEO techniques can give the best improvement in results?
There are numerous techniques, both accepted and frowned upon, that are considered to
be SEO techniques. In order to determine if SEO techniques will improve site ranking, it
is necessary to define the most widely used and recommended SEO techniques. The key
to applying these techniques successfully will be to determine how and why the
technique works.
Although it is not part of this thesis, the research within should be able to form the basis
for a methodology for creating high ranking websites as part of the initial website
development process.
In order to determine the success or failure of the SEO techniques a search engine must
be used. There are many search engines available on the internet, so using all the search
engines would not be feasible. A ComScore report (2009, February). US Search Engine
Rankings retrieved on the 20 th August 2009 from ComScore website:
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/3/US_Search_Engine_Ran
king, shows Google to be the top search engine (see figure 1.1). Given Google’s market
12

Introduction Gareth Rogan
dominance and the information available on the methods Google use to search, Google
will be used as the test search engine for this thesis.
Figure 1.1 Search Engine Rankings
1.2 Significance of research
The research is significant for the following reasons:
1. Determine if SEO techniques in general work.
13

Introduction Gareth Rogan
2. Describe how each of the selected SEO methods works.
3. Determine the most successful SEO methods. It will be possible through this
research to find the SEO techniques which yield the best increase in search
engine ranking.
4. Explain the workings of Web Search Engines. In understanding the SEO
techniques, it is necessary to describe the basic workings of search engines
and how the search engines return results, providing a better understanding of
Search Engine technology.
1.3 Thesis Structure
Following on from the introduction, this thesis will review important works in the area of
SEO and SEO techniques which have been used in the research. The literature review
research forms the basis for building a selection of the most common SEO methods
which are examined and discussed in more detail in the SEO methods chapter.
The SEO methods chapter will form the research methods of the thesis by investigating
the methods, their application and the premise behind each of the methods. This section
will describe each of the main SEO methods which will be assessed in the case studies.
14

Introduction Gareth Rogan
A number of case studies will then be used to test the SEO methods. The sites chosen for
case studies were selected due to their level of traffic and frequency of indexing by the
major search engines, particular Google. The use of these sites allow changes to
monitored over shorter times than the alternative of building a website and waiting for the
site to be indexed. This method was selected over building a site for each SEO technique,
as the newer sites may take some time to appear at all on search engine results pages. It
is envisaged that this thesis would act as a basis for a methodology for building fully
optimised sites from initial conception, rather than after the site has been designed and
built.
The results of the case studies will be examined and the conclusions defined in the final
chapter.
15

Literature Review Gareth Rogan
Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
How does a webmaster ensure that they appear high on search results? The answer is
SEO (search engine optimisation). Jerri Ledford (2008) defines the term SEO as
“Improving a web site in an attempt to attract search engine crawlers”. A crawler is a
piece of software that selects websites and indexes their contents for the purposes of
building a search database.
SEO is not a new idea; it has been around nearly as long as the search engines. However
with the massive increase in traffic and usage on the internet, it has become a hugely
important part of the design process.
This thesis sets out to determine and document the main search engine optimisation
techniques used today. In determining the different SEO techniques, this thesis will also
determine how they affect the traditional design of a website.
The search engine which has been selected to test the ranking of the SEO techniques is
Google. Although not part of this thesis, the basics of the Google engine itself will need
to be understood in order to understand the SEO techniques. The final part of the thesis
16

Literature Review Gareth Rogan
will apply these techniques to a website and determine whether they actually yield a
significant result.
2.2 The Techniques
In order to see if there is a clear improvement in the ranking of the website, it is first
necessary to establish the baseline for the website currently. Grappone Jennifer &
Couzin, Gradiva (2006) Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day. Indianapolis,
Indiana: Wiley Publishing, advice that this process should start with selecting the
keywords for which we want to optimise our site for. Once the keywords have been
selected, there popularity should be determined, and a list of competing websites can be
compiled.
The basic optimisation starts with working on the page titles on the site. It is important
that these are carefully written. The page title should contain the keywords that we have
selected (or those keywords which relate to the particular page in the site). Each page
within the site should have its own page title.
Similar to the page titles, the Meta tags must be optimised. The Meta tag needs to be
informative and contain the keywords that have been selected. It should not be a copy of
the page title and should be contain as much information as possible about the page,
without writing an entire document.
17

Literature Review Gareth Rogan
The text on the page itself is the next item the optimisation plan. It is here that the biggest
change from traditional design appears. A site could be artistically brilliant, containing
flashing images and graphical animations. However, to a search engine, this is not going
to provide a higher ranking. The search engine uses a crawler (or robot) which will visit a
site and send content back to the search engine. These robots cannot read flashing images
or animations and all the artistic value of them will be wasted as no one may ever see
them. The site should contain text in place of images etc where possible and that text
should contain the keywords from the keyword list and the company name.
The above are the main SEO techniques commonly employed in websites. These
techniques are referred to as White Hat. There are other methods to improve the ranking
of a site, referred to as Black Hat. Ledford, Jerri (2008) defines Black Hat as unethical
SEO, and will not be considered outside of the boundaries of this thesis. These methods
can result in websites being removed from the search engines if the methods are
discovered on a site.
2.3 Google & PageRank
Google uses system known as PageRank in order to determine the popularity of a site.
This popularity score, along with traditional searching techniques are used to create the
ranking for the search results page. PageRank is one of the foundations of the Google
search engine. Langville, Amy N & Meyer Carl (2006) performed a details mathematical
analysis of the Google search engine and PageRank. PageRank was originally patented
18

Literature Review Gareth Rogan
in 1998 by Brin and Page, the founders of Google. PageRank works on the idea that a
link is a recommendation or endorsement of the linked site. Langville et al (2006) note
that PageRank scores form part of an enormous Markov Chain, and the mathematics
behind how PageRank utilise Markov Theory. The exact details of these mathematics
extend beyond the boundaries of this thesis, however the basic premise behind PageRank
should allow us to use SEO techniques to improve our PageRank scoring.
19

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
Chapter 3
SEO Methods
Introduction
This chapter will introduce the main SEO techniques which have been selected through
research to test on a selection of websites. An important point must be introduced first,
the distinction between Black hat and White hat SEO techniques and why this is
important for the SEO techniques selected. Another important point is the Keywords and
the selection of keywords which are identified as an SEO technique. It is important to
note that Keywords and their selection is more of a universal step in the optimisation of a
website as these keywords will be used in other techniques.
The main techniques which will be discussed are:
1. Keywords and Keyword Selection
2. Tagging
3. Content
a. Meta and Title Tags
b. Image Tags
4. Robots and Internal Linking
5. External Links
20

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
3.1 Which hat should I wear?
There are numerous different techniques which can be labelled SEO methods. These fall
into two categories, white hat methods and black hat methods. Black hat methods refer to
SEO techniques which attempt to “fool” or “cheat” the search engine into incorrectly
pushing the search ranking of a site higher. Black hat methods are considered dubious
and underhanded. A site employing these Black Hat techniques can be removed
completely from search engine results pages (SERP) by the search engine. Black Hat
techniques will not be considered as part of this thesis.
White Hat techniques are methods that do not involve deception and are not in breach of
a search engines rules. It is the White Hat methods which will be examined in this thesis.
Methods such as sitemaps, reciprocal links, and content management are White Hat
techniques.
Grappone Jennifer & Couzin, Gradiva (2006) defines another category, Grey Hat SEO,
which falls between the two main categories. A change in Search engine can quite easily
change their rules and these techniques become Black hat.
The following are methods identified through research to be standard white hat SEO
methods which can be applied safely to websites to improve search ranking.
21

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
3.2 Keywords and Keyword Selection
One of the primary steps in building an optimised SEO site is the selection of the
keywords which the site should be optimised for. The selection of keywords is hugely
important as it not only effects further SEO techniques but it also acts as the
measurement for confirming if the SEO techniques have been successful or not. Ledford,
Jerri L. (2008) refers to keywords as a capture of the essence of the website.
The selection of keywords should be well researched. It is important to investigate the
current search results of the selected keywords and research the sites that rank highly
with these terms. According to Standring, Chris (2006) it is important to find two or three
word key phrases and checking that these are actually been searched for. The internet
offers numerous sites which help in the selection of keywords, both for standard SEO and
pay per click (PPC) campaigns such as Google Adwords. PPC campaigns will not be
considered as part of this thesis as it is not a design technique which will result in better
ranking on SERP (search engine results pages)
Google Zeitgeist is a selection of tools available from Google which allows users to
research search trends [http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist/index.html]. The
tool can be used to determine the popularity of a given keyword, by the number of
searches, how it appears, and the regions by which it is searched from, for example, a
search for the keywords “jobs” and “careers” for the region Ireland.
22

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
Figure 1.2 Google Insights Website
This will show the top searches for both keywords in the given region. For example the
keyword “jobs” appears in the following searches:
Top searches for jobs
jobs Ireland 100
irish jobs 60
jobs Dublin 55
jobs in Ireland 40
fas jobs 40
Fas 40
jobs in Dublin 20
jobs cork 20
23

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
public jobs 15
jobs.ie 15
uk jobs 10
part time jobs 10
london jobs 10
limerick jobs 10
jobs in cork 10
jobs ie 10
jobs Canada 10
jobs Australia 10
hotel jobs 10
google jobs 10
galway jobs 10
fas.ie jobs 10
fas.ie 10
fas jobs Ireland 10
fas Ireland 10
facebook jobs 10
construction jobs 10
waterford jobs 5
teaching jobs 5
summer jobs 5
sales jobs 5
retail jobs 5
recruit Ireland 5
nursing jobs 5
monster jobs 5
Monster 5
24

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
Table 1.1 Jobs keyword searches
jobs in London 5
jobs in limerick 5
jobs in galway 5
jobs in Canada 5
jobs in Australia 5
jobs abroad 5
jobs .ie 5
it jobs 5
hse jobs 5
hospital jobs 5
Gumtree 5
graduate jobs 5
dubai jobs 5
driving jobs 5
Tools, such as those available from Google Zeitgeist can be used in the selection of
keywords. The other main research method used is competitor analysis. Competitor
analysis is simply using the search engine to determine what website already rank highly
on a given search term and then determining what keywords are defined on those
websites.
Adwords is a Google product which allows keywords to be purchased. When the
purchased keyword is entered into a search string then the site which owns the keyword
will appear in the “sponsored link” section of the Google SERP. As an SEO technique
25

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
they can be useful in driving traffic to a site and thus improving the popularity of the site
(see PageRank). These methods are often employed for short term targeted campaigns,
and not as a general optimisation technique. SEO is a marathon, PPC is the 100 metres.
3.3 Tagging
HTML tags are not seen in the page view of the web site, but are read by the search
engines crawlers, which makes these hidden tags important to search engine optimisation.
There are two main categories of HTML tags which can be modified to improve search
rankings, tags appearing in the HEAD of the site and tags appearing in the BODY of the
site.
Not all search engines recognise Meta tags and therefore they should be used in
conjunction with other HTML tags.
The main HEAD tags which will be tested for SEO improvements will be the META tags
and title tag. The keyword, description and abstract are examples of META tags. The
body tags which will be tested are Image tags.
3.31 Tagging: Meta and Title Tags
26

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
The Title tag is the text which appears on the title bar of the browser window, it is
indexed by the search engines and it appears on the SERP. [see figure 1.3 below] It is
very important to have title tags which not only allow the search engine to correctly index
a site, but also to be eye catching to the user according to Standing, Chris (2006).
Figure 1.3 SERP Page example with Title Tag
The title tag is not limited within HTML but browsers will only show a finite number of
characters (Internet Explorer will only display 95 according to Search Engine Marketing
FAQ, MIR Internet Marketing, retrieved on the 18 th August 2009 from
http://www.seologic.com/faq/title-tags.php) This is due to the page size and number of
pixels which can be displayed. More importantly Google only display approx 60
characters according to Standing, Chris (2006) so the Title should be brief and to the
point. It should also contain the main keyword(s) for which the site is being optimised
for. The Title Tag usage is: TITLE GOES HERE
Keyword tags allow keywords to be added to the site. It is not clear if the keywords are
used in modern search engines but the keywords tag is useful to help the web designer to
27

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
record the keywords which are important for the particular web page. In large web sites
with multiple pages this organisation is important. The keyword meta tag usage is: . The use of Keywords in the
correct location can also help in preventing keyword stuffing.
The description tag is used to give a narrative of the purpose of the webpage. It can be
used to expand on the title tag of the site in order to use more keywords other than those
already mentioned in the Title tag. The Description tag usage is:
3.32 Tagging – Image Tags
Images and animations can be quite visually impressive. Robots used by Search Engines
cannot read images and animations. In order to build a successful SEO web page both the
human and robot must be impressed by the web page. The use of images and animations
could be removed completely, but a text only web page is not visually impressive. The
Image ALT tag allows the image to have an associated text element, and this can contain
keywords which can be indexed by a search engine.
Again, it is important in the Image ALT tags to avoid keyword stuffing. The Image ALT
tag should be short and to the point.
3.4 Content
28

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
The content on the page should be related to the keywords which the page is been
optimised for. This text is what will be read by the search engine crawler and needs to be
relevant, or the site could be incorrectly indexed by the search engine.
There are some Black Hat methods which should be avoided while creating (or editing)
content. Keyword stuffing involves repeating the keywords multiple times. This not only
makes the site unpleasant to read for the human viewer, but it is also frowned on by
search engines. Ledford, Jerri L. (2008) advises only using keywords the number of
times absolutely necessary.
3.5 Robots and Internal Links
In order for a search engine, such as Google, to keep up to date with the vast amount of
sites on the internet they utilise a piece of software which visits sites, collects content
from the site, and then uses that site to update the search engine database. This software
can be referred to as a web crawler, spider or a robot. Optimising a site so that the robot
can easily navigate and collect content is essential to a good search engine ranking.
When a robot visits a site and begins to request pages from the web server some problems
can occur. The web server may become overwhelmed with requests and become slow or
even crash. There may be pages which are incomplete or still under construction or
29

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
private which the administrator may not want to have “spidered”. In order to set some
rules for the robots a set of guidelines know as the Robots Exclusion Protocol (or
robots.txt) are used. The robots.txt file is a text based document that is included in the
root of the domain. Within the robots.txt file the administrator can specify which pages
to index (spider)
The alternative to using a robots.txt file is to use the a meta tag called the Robots Meta
Tag, which is inserted in the tag of the site and allows similar functions to the
robots.txt file. Some search engines robots do not recognise either robots.txt or robot
meta tags and offer no way of controlling how a site is indexed.
It is very important that each page on the site can be visited by the robot. If a page is not
linked to other pages it cannot be visited by the spider. “Your internal links (links to
pages within your domain) should be all connected together so a spider can get anywhere
from any point wherever it starts from” - Standing, Chris (2006).
The other design elements of the site should not present any blockages to a robot. A robot
will only view text so any JavaScript, Flash or pages which require cookies to be
downloaded will not be “spidered” or crawled successfully. These should be removed in
order to improve ranking.
3.6 External Links
30

SEO Methods Gareth Rogan
Google uses its PageRank system to determine the “popularity” of a site by the inbound
and outbound links. This “popularity” score is used by Google in order to rank the results
of web searches. To fully explore the PageRank system would require a thesis itself,
however its results and how to effects is very important to SEO. Linking to popular sites,
such as news site or popular blog sites can improve the PageRank of the site. Link farms
however, can be considered to be bad practice and even listed as a black hat technique.
3.7 Summary
These methods will form the basis for case studies which will determine the changes of
search ranking based on their application. The Keywords, and keyword selection features
in most case studies as it is a requirement for some SEO techniques.
31

Case Studies Gareth Rogan
Case study 1
Website: KCR.ie
Chapter 4
Case Studies
Method: Keyword tags in of pages
The KCR.ie website is aimed at the recruitment of nursing staff for hospitals and nursing
homes. The main business of the company was the recruitment of nurses from outside
Ireland to work in Irish hospitals in order to fill skills shortages.
The KCR.ie website however was not appearing on any searches for nursing in Ireland,
or London. KCR.ie was expanding its business model, and it was essential that the site
appear on searches for nursing in Ireland and UK (particularly London).
The keywords Nursing Jobs were added to the Meta Tags and to the Title tag of the page:
Keywords:
32

Case Studies Gareth Rogan
Description:
Abstract:
Title:
Kate Cowhig Offering Nursing jobs in UK for all nurse jobs in the UK and
Ireland
Case Study 2
Website: CPL.ie
Method: Keywords in Body
The CPL.ie site is aimed at job seekers in the Irish market. The site needs to compete
with all the main jobs board sites in Ireland. The keyword job was not appearing enough
in the body of the page.
33

Case Studies Gareth Rogan
One of the main sections on the website is the job search functionality. This allows a job
seeker to select some criteria for a job search, such as location, industry etc. The keyword
job was added to the categories.
All Jobs Categories
Accounting and Finance Jobs
Admin & Secretarial Services Jobs
Architecture Jobs
Banking Jobs
Beauty, Leisure & Well-Being Jobs
Construction Jobs
Customer Service & Call Centre Jobs
Education & Training Jobs
Engineering & Production Jobs
Health & Safety Jobs
Hotel & Catering Jobs
HR Jobs
Insurance Jobs
IT Jobs
Legal Jobs
Management Jobs
Marketing & PR Jobs
Marketing Jobs
34

Case Studies Gareth Rogan
Medical & Healthcare Jobs
Multilingual Jobs
Production, Manufacturing & Materials Jobs
Property Jobs
Publishing Jobs
Recruitment Jobs
Retailing, Wholesaling & Purchasing Jobs
Sales Jobs
Science, Pharmaceutical & Food Jobs
Telecommunications Jobs
Transport, Distribution & Warehousing Jobs
Case Study 3
Website: MRS.ie
Method: Keywords in Body Tags
MRS.ie is the main website of Medical Recruitment Specialists. MRS recruits for the full
spectrum of medical and healthcare jobs in Ireland. Two important keywords for the
MRS website are Medical and Healthcare.
These keywords are added were added to the image tags in the webpage as ALT tags.
35

Case Studies Gareth Rogan
Job Search
Register
Login
Case Study 4
Website: Richmond.ie
Method: Internal Links
In order to test the internal links SEO techniques on the Richmond site, firstly any
blockages to search engine robots or crawlers were removed. Secondly, the following
code was added to the pages for which the robots should index:
Any pages which should not be indexed were given the following in the HEAD section of
the page:
36

Case Studies Gareth Rogan
Case Study 5
Websites: nursefindersuk.com
Method: External Linking
External linking is the most challenging SEO technique to test. To be considered as an
external link, the site should come from a different subnet. Otherwise the site could be
considered within the same site. In the case of CPL, despite there being multiple
websites, Google may take the approach that links between CPL sites are internal links
rather than external. For example both www.cpl.ie and www.kcr.ie point to the same IP
address [159.134.95.180]
nursefindersuk.com is another medical recruitment site belonging to the CPL group. The
main difference between the nursefindersuk.com site and the other CPL sites is the
hosting. Nursefindersuk.com is hosted in a different location to the CPL websites. The IP
address for the Nursefindersuk.com site is 83.138.191.203. Therefore links from CPL to
Nursefinders will be seen as external links.
Link to KCR.ie site:
37

Case Studies Gareth Rogan
Links to new items from BBC new have also been included:
More...
Inbound links created:
From MRS.ie [159.134.95.180]:
From Nurses4london.co.uk [208.73.210.27]:
38

Results and Conclusions Gareth Rogan
Chapter 5
Results and Conclusions
5. 1 Measurements
The major difficulty in testing SEO techniques on websites is that there is no control over
when Google will index a website. Google does not index every site every day. However,
the sites used in this study were indexed weekly. The ranking was taken once each week
for each case study over four weeks. The first test is before any changes were made. The
tests searches were performed on Google.ie, and not Google.com.
5.2 Case Study 1
Site Keyword 1 st 2 nd
KCR.ie
Nursing jobs 34 2 9 9
Table 1.2 Case Study 1 Results
The changes took effect very quickly. The site was appearing on page 3 of the Google
SERP. After changing the site was ranked 2 nd , showing immediately that the keywords
added to the HEAD tags had an effect. However, over the following two checks the site
had moved back down the search ranking.
39
3 rd
4th

Results and Conclusions Gareth Rogan
One would conclude that Google indexed the competitor sites after the KCR.ie site, and
this pushed the ranking down or the competitors made changes to their own sites, which
cased the ranking of their sites to increase.
5.3 Case Study 2
Site Keyword 1 st 2 nd
CPL.ie
jobs 51 2 11 15
Table 2.3 Case Study 2 Results
The keywords “job” is a very popular keyword, given the competition between jobs
boards (Irishjobs, Monster, RecruitIreland) and recruitment agencie, such as CPL. The
addition of the keyword to the content had an effect but it was not sustained and the
ranking dropped again in the subsequent checks.
Again, the conclusion which could be drawn from this is that either the competitors sites
were not indexed when CPL was or that the competitors made changes to their sites
which affected their own ranking.
5.4 Case Study 3
Site Keyword 1 st 2 nd
40
3 rd
3 rd
4th
4th

Results and Conclusions Gareth Rogan
MRS.ie Medical
Jobs
MRS.ie Healthcare
Jobs
5 1 1 1
11 10 10 10
Table 3.4 Case Study 3 Results
The addition of the keywords to the body tags had a minimal change to the rankings, but
the rankings remained static in comparison to the other case studies. This could be a
result of less competition for the keywords in the Irish market.
5.5 Case Study 4
Site Keyword 1 st 2 nd
Richmond.ie Galway Jobs 217 218 218 218
Table 4.5 Case Study 4 Results
The internal linking and robots tags did not have any effect on the ranking of the
Richmond.ie website. As stated in the SEO methods chapters, some search engines do not
recognise the Robot tags, and one may conclude that Google is one of these search
engines.
5.6 Case Study 5
Site Keyword 1 st 2 nd
41
3 rd
3 rd
4th
4th

Results and Conclusions Gareth Rogan
Nursefindersuk.com Nursing
jobs uk
2 2 2 1
Table 5.5 Case Study 5 Results
The Nursefindersuk.com site was ranked quite highly prior to changes for the SEO
technique. After the changes were made no immediate effects were seen, however
subsequent checks resulted in a higher ranking.
5.7 Conclusion and Recommendations
In case studies 1, 2 and 3 the improvements in search rankings were not sustained, which
as stated could be due to a competitor was improving their own search ranking or other
sites been indexed subsequently. The main conclusion which can taken from these cases
is that the SEO techniques should be monitored and changed regularly to keep the site
refreshed and ahead of other sites in the same keyword searches.
Case study 4 which involved Robot improvements did not have any effect in the test
period. Case Study 5 was a difficult technique to test, as it involves creating links from
other sites. This could be improved by requesting link sharing with other popular sites.
The main conclusion from the research is that the process of SEO begins with the initial
planning for the site. It continues throughout the development of the site. It does not stop
42

Results and Conclusions Gareth Rogan
when the site goes live, and in fact it should continue as a regular exercise in order to
maintain a high search ranking.
43

Bibliography Gareth Rogan
Bibliography
Grappone Jennifer & Couzin, Gradiva (2006) Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a
Day. Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley Publishing
Ledford, Jerri L (2008) SEO Search Engine Optimization. Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley
Publishing.
Langville, Amy N. & Meyer Carl. D (2006) Google’s PageRank and Beyond: The
Science Engine Rankings. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press
Standing, Chris (2006) The Ultimate Website Promotion Handbook. London, England.
Montserrat Publishing.
Eisenberg, Bryan, Eisenberg, Jeffrey & Davis, Lisa T. (2006) Call to Action: Secret
Formulas to Improve Online Results. Nashville, Tennessee. Thomas Nelson Inc.
Fliess, Will (2007) SEO in the Web 2.0 Era: The evolution of Search Engine
Optimisation. Bennett Kuhn Varner Inc, retrieved on the 1 st July 2009 from
http://www.bkv.com/search-engine-optimization/SEO-in-the-Web-2.0-Era.pdf
44

Bibliography Gareth Rogan
Everything you need to know about Search Engine Optimization in 10 minutes. The
Useman Group, retrieved on the 1 st July 2009 from
http://www.theusmangroup.com/pdfs/seo-whitepaper.pdf
(2009) Information Society and Telecommunications 2008, Central Statistics Office,
(2007) Introduction to SEO Theory. Visible Technologies, retrieved on the 1 st July 2009
from http://www.seo-theory.com/whitepapers/introduction-to-seo-theory.pdf
(2007) Fundamental Principles of Search Engine Optimization. Visible Technologies,
retrieved on the 1 st July 2009 from http://www.seo-theory.com/whitepapers/fundamental-
principles-of-seo.pdf
(2007) Content Optimization Theory. Visible Technologies, retrieved on the 1 st July 2009
from http://www.seo-theory.com/whitepapers/content-optimization-theory.pdf
Ramos, Andreas & Cota, Stephanie (2006) The SEO Whitepaper. Insider-SEO.com
retrieved on the 1 st July 2009 from http://www.position2.com/downloads/SEO-
Whitepaper.pdf
45

Bibliography Gareth Rogan
Alpert, Jesse & Hajaj, Nissan (25/7/2008) We knew the web was big… Google Blog
retrieved on the 17 th August 2009 from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/we-
knew-web-was-big.html
(2009, February). US Search Engine Rankings retrieved on the 20 th August 2009 from
ComScore website:
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/3/US_Search_Engine_Ran
king
46

Figure 1.4 KCR homepage
Site: KCR.ie
Appendix 1 Website, Keywords & Tags
Title: Kate Cowhig Offering Nursing jobs in UK for all nurse jobs in the UK and Ireland
Description: Nursing Jobs. Kate Cowhig International Nurse Recruitment - is a leading
healthcare direct placement company which has been in operation sice 1990. We
specialise in the recruitment of registered nurses, midwives and allied health
professionals, for many of the largest teaching hospitals in Ireland, and the UK
Abstract: Kate Cowhig - Irish Jobs in Ireland, Nursing Jobs in ireland. Nursing jobs in
the UK, Nurse jobs, Irish Jobs
Keywords
kcr.ie,
46

nursing jobs uk,
nurses jobs london,
nursing recruitment agency,
nurse jobs, nursefindersuk,
dublin,
ireland,
Nurse Jobs,
nhs jobs,
healthcare
Figure 1.5 MRS homepage
Site: MRS.ie
Title: CPL Healthcare - Offering Medical Healthcare and Nursing Jobs. The Medical
recruitment specialists nursing jobs, pharmacy jobs, healthcare jobs for Irish Jobs in
Ireland
47

Description: Offering medical jobs, healthcare jobs, ireland, hospital jobs, nursing jobs,
nursing jobs uk, uk hospital jobs, healthcare jobs, recruitment services
Abstract: CPL healthcare.com - Irish nursing Jobs and medical jobs in Ireland, Dublin
Cork & Galway. Irish Jobs
Keywords
healthcare jobs ireland,
nursing jobs uk,
nursing jobs,
nursing jobs in ireland,
medical jobs,
nhs jobs,
hospital jobs ireland,
healthcare,
ireland,
pharmaceutical jobs
48

Figure 1.6 Artemis-Europe.com
Site: Artemis-Europe.com
Title: Artemis-Europe - Offering medical jobs, nhs jobs, nursing jobs uk, uk hospital
jobs, healthcare jobs recruitment services
Description: Offering medical jobs, nhs jobs, nursing jobs uk, uk hospital jobs,
healthcare jobs recruitment services
Abstract: Artemis-europe.com - Offering medical jobs, nhs jobs, nursing jobs uk, uk
hospital jobs, healthcare jobs recruitment services
Keywords
medical jobs,
nhs jobs,
nursing jobs uk,
uk hospital jobs
49

Figure 1.7 Nursefindersuk.com
Site: nursefindersuk.com
Description: Nursing Jobs : NurseFindersUK is a nursing recruitment agency near
London, which finds nursing jobs in London, the UK and nursing jobs abroad in Ireland,
Australia and New Zealand for registered nurses
Title: nursing jobs uk nursing recruitment agency uk nhs jobs london : NurseFindersUK
Keywords
nursing jobs uk,
nurses jobs london,
nursing recruitment agency,
nurse jobs,
nursefindersuk,
london,
uk,
australia,
50

new zealand,
dublin,
Ireland
Figure 1.8 Richmond Homepage
Site: Richmond.ie
Description: Richmond.ie - Jobs in Ireland, Dublin Cork Limerick & Galway. Irish
Jobs
Abstract: Richmond.ie - Jobs in Ireland, Dublin Cork Limerick & Galway. Irish
Jobs
Title: Richmond Recruitment - Irelands number 1 regional recruiter
Keywords:
Richmond,
recruiters,
jobs.ie,
51

jobs,
jobs Ireland,
irish jobs,
Dublin,
Cork,
Galway,
Limerick
Figure 1.9 CPL Homepage
Site: CPL.ie
Description: Search for irish jobs in Ireland. CPL Jobs - the best Irish recruitment agency
for irish jobs- IT jobs, multilingual jobs, science jobs, engineering jobs, sales jobs and
more
Abstract: CPL Jobs.ie - Irish Jobs in Ireland, Dublin Cork & Galway. Irish Jobs
Title: CPLJobs - search for Irish jobs. The best recruitment agency for jobs in Ireland.
Irish Jobs.For Irish Jobs. The recruitment specialists for Irish Jobs in Ireland
52

Keywords
cpljobs.ie,
jobs,
jobs Ireland,
irish jobs,
job search,
recruitment agency,
recruitment,
jobs in ireland,
it jobs,
cpl.jobs,
cpl.ie,
recruit ireland,
cpl jobs.ie
53