 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
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|| Opportunities
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|| Video's
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