 Design
Tips for Search Engine Placement. Top 10 - 20:
A search engine query often
turns up hundreds or even thousands of matching web pages. In most
cases, only the 10 most "relevant"
matches are displayed on the Search Engines 1st page.
Naturally, anyone who owns
a web site wants to be listed in that "top ten" results. This
is because, most users find what they are looking for on the 1st page of
the search engine results. So, being listed number 11 or beyond means
that many people miss your page listing.
The tips and comments
below will help you come just that much closer to being listed in the
top 10, both for the keywords you think are important and for the
short phrases you may not even be anticipating.
Selecting
- Your Strategic Keywords:
How do you
think people search for the information contained within your pages?
Well, the
words that you imagine them typing into the search box should be
your strategic keywords.
EG:
Let’s say that you have a page devoted to stamp
collecting, well every time someone types in the words or phrase
"stamp collecting" you want them to find your page in the top
ten results.
* Then the keywords "stamp collecting" are your STRATEGIC
KEYWORDS for that page.
Each page in your site will
have different strategic keywords that reflect in the page's content,
you may have another page all about the history of stamps. EG:
Then "stamp history" might be one of your keywords (phrases)
for that page.
Your strategic keywords
should always be at least two or more words long. Usually, too many
sites will be listed relevant for a single (keyword) word, such as
"stamps." With all this competition, it means your odds of
success are lower. Don't waste your time fighting the odds.
Pick short
phrases of two or more KEY WORDS (PHRASES)
and you'll have a much better chance of success.
Keyword
Positioning
Page Title - Headlines & Sub Headings:
Make sure that your most
important (strategic) keywords appear in crucial locations on your web
pages. The MOST important place, is the PAGE TITLE. Failure to put
strategic keywords in the title is the main reason that most web pages
are ranked poorly.
Search
engines like (CONTENT), pages where keywords appear
"high" on the page.
To accommodate the search
engine spiders, use your strategic keywords in the page HEADLINE
and SUB HEADINGS where ever possible.
Make sure
that your (keywords) also appear in the first paragraphs of your pages.
The use of TABLES
... can "push" the (rating) of your text further down the
page. Making your keywords less relevant, they appear lower on the page.
This is because tables break apart when the search engines robots read
them. There's no easy way around this, except to use META tags.
Consider carefully how
tables will effect your page layout, but don't necessarily stop using
them.
JAVASCRIPT
... also have the same affect as tables, the engine reads this
information first, and this will cause the normal HTML TEXT to appear
lower on your pages. Place your script further down on the page, if at
all possible.
As with
tables, the use of META tags can also help.
Content
- Content must be relevant (HTML Text):
Page TITLES
and META TAGS are not necessarily going to help your
page do well if your strategic keywords have nothing to do with the
topic. Your keywords need to be reflected in the page's CONTENT.
NOTE:
you need HTML TEXT on your page (CONTENT).
Why? Because some sites use large amounts of graphics (images), the page
may look pretty, but the search engines can't read & don’t index
graphics.
Some of the engines will
index ALT TEXT and COMMENTS information (KEYWORDS),
along with META TAGS. So, using lots of images will only slow down the
load time of your page - use images wisely.
* Play
it safe, use HTML TEXT when ever possible.
Use "Visible Text"
- Some site designers try to spam search engines by repeating keywords
in a tiny font in the same colour as the background colour to make the
text invisible to browsers.
NOTE:
the spiders or engines will rate this as SPAMMING.
Next,
you may consider "expanding" your text references, where
appropriate. EG: I'll use the stamp collector again as
the example. A stamp collectors page might have references to
"collectors" and "collecting".
Expanding these references
to "stamp collectors" and "stamp collecting"
reinforces your strategic keywords in a legitimate and natural manner,
edits may have reduced its relevancy unintentionally.
Search
Engine Stumbling Blocks
How to avoid them:
Some search engines see the
web the way someone using a very old browser might. They may not be able
to read image maps or frames, anticipate these problems, or the search
engine may not index any or all of your pages.
HTML LINKS: Designers
often create (only) image map links from the home page to the inside
pages. Search engines can't follow these links, so they won't be able to
get "inside" your site where the most descriptive relevant
pages are, rather than the home page.
You can solve this little
problem by adding HTML HYPERLINKS to the home page, you
can also put them at the bottom of each page. This will help your
visitors to navigate around the site as well (making it user
friendly) The search engine robots will also (then) be able to find the
links and follow them as well.
Consider creating a site map
page with text links to everything within your site, when you submit
this page, it will help the search engines locate the other pages within
your site.
FRAMES - CAN
KILL:
Some of the major search engines cannot or DON'T follow FRAME LINKS.
If you intend using frames,
then make sure you use an alternative method for the robots to enter and
index your site, either through META tags or by using a PUSH PAGE.
META
TAGS:
As I mentioned before, META
tags can help you over come some of the problems with TABLES, FRAMES,
& other troublesome areas.
META
TAGS will also help you to control
your PAGE DESCRIPTIONS and PAGE TITLES.
Use META tags, but keep in
mind that they are NOT a guarantee that your site will appears first or
within the top 10 - 20. Adding META tag code is not the magic
bullet that will cure your site of dismal ranking's, but it
is an important part of your overall strategy for boosting your
ratings.
EXAMPLES
of TAGS:
- Title =
* Dunway Enterprises Suppliers: Mail Order Products/Ebooks
- Description
= Ebooks, Books, Cds,
Business Opportunities, Software, Reports and Videos
- Keywords =
dunway enterprises direct mail order, Ebooks, eBooks, ebooks,
business opportunities, books, software, cd's, reports, videos, free
classified ads, mail order buyers, mail order businesses, dunway
mail order, australia, australian, australia, Australian, Ken Dunn,
ken dunn, reprint, reprint rights, home based entrepreneur, direct
marketing
- Resource-Type = document
- WebMaster = Ken Dunn -
Dunway Enterprises
- Classification = Index
Site
- copyright = Dunway
Enterprises
- reply-to = dunway@dunway.com
- Distribution = Global
- language = en-us
- rating = General
- revisit-after = 30 days
- robots = ALL
- robots = index, follow
Search
Engine Spamming - Keywords & Resubmitting:
Spamming doesn't
always work with the search engines, it can backfire. You may be
detected for spamming, and penalize or even banned from their
listings. Spamming attempts usually centre around being top ranked for
extremely popular keywords, so be prepared to spend a lot of time
defending your ranking.
SUBMIT KEY
PAGES at least every 3 Months.
PAGE CONTENT should
be enough for the search engines to determine relevancy without
webmasters having to resort to repeating keywords for no reason other
than to try and "beat" other pages ratings.
Try and use
networking and other alternative forms of publicity as well.
Key
Pages - Re Submit at Regular Intervals
(3 to 4 Mths):
Most search engines will INDEX the
other pages from your web site by following the links from a page that
you have previously submit to them. But sometimes they will miss, so
it's good submission practice to submit the pages that best summarize
your web site. Submitting alternative pages is
added insurance.
Just in case the search
engine has trouble reaching one or more of your pages, you've covered
yourself by giving it another page from which to begin its indexing of
your site.
You should submit
all the key pages from your site, not just the top
two or three.
It can take from 48 Hrs and
up to two months for your pages to appear in some search engines, and
some may not list every page from the site anyway.
Keep
an eye on your listings - pages - links & images:
Once your pages are listed,
monitor your listing every week or two, strange things happen. Pages
disappear, links go funny so watch for trouble and resubmit if you spot
any. A number of the major search engines are now providing
country-specific versions of their directories. These work mainly by
FILTERING sites by domain.
EG:
.au or .com
Resubmit
your site any time you make significant changes.
Search engines usually/ should revisit on a regular schedule. However,
some of the search engines software have been modified to realize that
some sites only change content once or twice a year, so if this is the
case they may visit less often.
Re-submitting after you
have made major changes to your page or site, will help ensure that your
site's content is kept current. Make sure that you also include META
Tagging for the Robots to revisit.. say, every 30 Days.
Search
Engines & Beyond - Reciprocal Links:
Take the time to make your
pages/site more search engine friendly. Simple
changes may pay off with bigger results, you may find an improvement for
strategic keywords you weren't anticipating. The addition of just one
extra word may suddenly make a site appear more relevant, & it’s
impossible to guess what that word will be - so keep TESTING.
If your still not having
any luck at becoming #1 - then consider negotiating RECIPROCAL
LINKS with sites that do appear in the search engines top ten
lists. You may consider these sites as competitors, but you'll be
surprised at just how many of these sites are happy to link to your site
in return for a LINK BACK.
Remember that while search
engines maybe your primary way that people find your site, they are not
the only way. Pursue non-search engine publicity methods, like
word-of-mouth, traditional media, newsgroup postings, web directories
and FFA links pages.
Include your sites URL
(address) on all of your other normal advertising, such as Letter Heads,
Fax Sheets, Labels, Signs, Radio, TV ads, Brochures, Quotes, Phone Books
... the list goes on and on.
FFA
LINKS & Popularity Ratings:
One of the most popular
methods currently being used to draw traffic to a site, is the hosting
of your own FFA Links Page - that’s FREE FOR ALL LINKS.
This will give you an extra POPULARITY RATING with the Search Engines,
especially if you ask the link posters to link back to your site.
Plus you
have the added advantage of being able to display your SITE BANNER
(advertisement) at the top/bottom of the page.
And, you can also gather
the email address of each visitor to the page. This enables you to build
a DATA BASE of like minded sites ... you can
also customize the listing Categories to suite your site or range of
products.
GUEST
BOOK - SURVEY PAGES - COMMENTS & FEEDBACK:
Add on’s, that you may
wish to consider (GUEST BOOK, SURVEY PAGES, COMMENTS
& FEEDBACK FORMS. These can be packed with KEYWORDS &
META Tags - more pages for you to list in the Search Engines, find out
what others are thinking, for "FREE".
CUSTOMER
OR FREE NEWSLETTERS:
This method will get your
foot in the door and keeps it there. Besides the advantage to you of
having a MAILING LIST of your present customers
- you get to build on and enlarge your DATA BASE by offering a "FREE"
NEWSLETTER and you can archive the old newsletters - this acts
as a vehicle to the search engines (MORE LISTINGS) ratings.
Other places, where you can
promote and offer your products include: press releases, product R&D
notices, announcements of up coming events - change of address/phone
numbers and email addresses, competitions (with prizes), hey you can
also use your newsletter for announcements of internal promotions -
order HOT LINES - branch addresses - phone and fax numbers.
SAVINGS
$$$$ ...
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE - FREE:
What I’m saying is, with
a Newsletter (ONLINE & DOWN-LOADABLE) or
sent by BULK EMAIL, you SAVE MONEY in the following areas: Paper/
Printing/ Folding/ Inserting/ Envelopes/ Stamps/ LABOUR and the best
part is it’s delivered within minutes all for "FREE",
because you are already paying for your online expenses, and as a bonus
you have all of the above mention advantages as well.
AUTORESPONDERS
THEY NEVER SLEEP - OPEN 24 Hrs every day:
Give
your customers INSTANT - 24 Hr / 365 Days a Year Information.
Information,
on whatever (?) is the most (requested) asked for information on your
site, at almost no cost. Again - NO staff tied up answering the same old
questions.
- NO delays, instant
replies (CUSTOMER SATISFACTION)
- NO phone costs
- NO printing
- NO postage and you get
to gain the prospects email address, so that your sales staff can FOLLOW
UP the enquires the next working day.
FAQ’s
Frequently Asked Questions:
Another LABOUR SAVING
DEVICE for your site. FAQ LIST: post all the
common questions that your staff are NOW answering, and keep adding to
the list in the future, keep the list updated this keeps customers
coming back to your site for current updated information.
PRODUCT
REVIEWS
"FREE" Advertising:
Get your self an IN
HOUSE EXPERT on !!! or out house (little joke)
This will give your site
CURRENT CONTENT - UPDATED MONTHLY.
A good reason why people
should buy your (product) WIDGET .
Who better to tell them
about it, than YOU ?
MEMBER
OF AN ORGANIZATION
Trust & Creditability:
If you are a
member of a prominent Group or Organization, announce it on your site.
This gives
you creditability - trust - believability
BEFORE
YOU SUBMIT TO THE SEARCH ENGINES:
All of the above SHOULD
HELP boost your position in the search engine ratings race/war, if they
are done before you submit to the search engines - but it's up to you.
WHEN
YOU HAVE FINISHED ALL OF THE ABOVE
You
can sit back - put your feet & Submit Your URL
to the
Search Engines - Directories & Free For All Links Pages.
THE
SOFTWARE THAT I PERSONALLY USE & RECOMMEND IS:
SubmitWolf
Ebooks
|| Books || CD's
|| Opportunities
|| Reports || Software
|| Video's
Catalogue || FREE
Classifieds || Lots
of FREEbies
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