|
Essential
Tools
Link
Building Software
Axandra
Search Ranking Study
Free
Trial WordTracker
AdWords
Select Report
Web
Position Gold
Search
Engine School
|
|
SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION)ARTICLES
Getting Honest With The Search Engines
I spend a lot of time reading newsletters and forum
postings about search engine marketing. More often
than not, people are asking about methods used to
improve search engine rankings: what works, what
doesn't, and what will get you in trouble.
Search Engine*:
A program that searches documents for specified
keywords and returns a list of the documents where
the keywords were found.
Algorithm*:
A formula or set of steps for solving a particular
problem. Frankly, no one can predict what will happen
from day to day with the search engines. Only the
search engine companies themselves know if the algorithms
will change from one day to the next. Even the search
engine rules change from month to month, sometimes
daily. Think of the changes that have happened since
pay for inclusion and pay-per-click have taken over
the market for search engine results.
It seems so simple to try and comply with the search
engine rules. Even though optimization adds to the
basic content of a site and source code, there are
ways to approach this without stepping over the
line.
We personally do not use the methods mentioned below
(methods to avoid, methods to be wary of) in order
to play it the absolute safest way, using a long
term plan in providing you optimum ranking in the
search engines.
Methods to avoid
* Keyword stuffing. "Stuffing"
keywords into places where keywords don't belong,
such as comment tags, image ALT tags where the keywords
have nothing to do with the specific image
* Invisible text. Text color the same as
background color
* Automated submissions. Using automated
tools to deliver huge numbers of pages to submission
pages of search engines
* Submissions to "thousands" of search
engines. A waste of time, since the major search
engines/directories drive the majority of the traffic
to websites
* FFA (free for all) links. Link popularity
is good, but only when the links are relevant; a
link from a page of random links is not worth nearly
as much as a link from a site that is relevant to
your site
* Search engine marketing companies hosting
your pages on their server. The marketing company
"owns" your pages, and if you decide you
want to move them, you may have a hard time wresting
them away. (This is not always the case with marketing
companies that also provide hosting, but you need
to carefully choose when using this option.)
Methods to be wary of
* Cloaking
* Doorway pages
* Maintenance programs
Cloaking*:
Also known as stealth, a technique used by some
Web sites to deliver one page to a search engine
for indexing while serving an entirely different
page to everyone else.
Cloaking is very difficult to do correctly, if you
do not have an expert providing this service you
could well be banned by the search engines. There
are ways for this to be done that are accepted by
some search engines. In general, cloaking is not
always accepted by the search engine rules and can
be a gamble unless you are certain your service
provider knows what they are doing. Check credentials
and get referrals from people who have used their
services.
Doorway page**:
A page made specifically to rank well in search
engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry
point through which visitors pass to the main content.
Doorway pages are not accepted as they used to be
by the search engines. A carefully crafted doorway
page done by hand is entirely different from an
automated doorway page generated by software. A
few well-designed pages are a far cry from mass
generated automated pages
sent in large numbers through the search engine
submission page, which are often considered as spam.
Again, check credentials and get referrals from
people who have used their services.
Maintenance programs
There are times when a page drops from the search
engine listings or you re-design the page which
might give you a reason to re-submit the page to
the search engine. Re-submitting your pages every
month is not always
necessary. Having a log stats program in place will
help you see which pages are still listed, along
with a monthly ranking report. If you have these
tools you should be able to see if any of your pages
have changed.
Be wary of people who consistently re-submit your
pages, since re-submission can sometimes cause your
pages to be dropped if they are already listed in
the database. My own experience with a very large
website I did search engine marketing for, showed
that the older (longer)
the pages were in the search engine results, the
better for link popularity and ranking. Of course,
paid inclusion can give you more security in having
your web pages stabilized in the search engine results.
A good maintenance plan will include providing a
ranking report, tweaking keywords in your source
code as needed for a monthly/six month/yearly fee
and may also include log stats so you can see where
your traffic is coming from and what keywords your
visitors are using to visit your website.
Methods that work
Good content
Content is one of the most important items you need
for your website. Once visitors arrive, you need
to keep them there. Adding keyword-rich text that
makes sense and serves the concept of the web page
improves your ranking and keeps your visitors interested.
The more text, the better for search engine spiders
when they index a website.
Good navigation
There is nothing worse than arriving at a website
and having difficulty understanding where to go
for the information you are seeking. Have easy to
use, clearly marked navigation so your visitors
click through instead of click-away in frustration.
Search engine spiders (robots) index text and links;
having good navigation is important to the indexing
of your web pages.
Title/META tags
Individualized Title and META tags for each of your
important web pages gives you the best chance for
optimum success in ranking. Title tags are necessary
for search engine ranking, in particular with Google's
search engine. META tags have decreased in importance,
but are worth using for clarity and search results.
The META description is still used by some search
engines as the default text indexed by search engine
spiders for the search results. The keyword tag
is the least important but is still used by some
engines. My theory is, you never know when the rules
of the search engines will change, or a new engine
will want them, so take the time to include these
tags in all your web pages.
Link popularity
Links from other popular websites back to your website
are one way of increasing your site's popularity.
Finding websites with similar content (but not your
competitors) and high link popularity, then trading
links to be posted on each site, is one way of increasing
your site popularity. Good content is vitally important
because visitors who stay longer while visiting
a website help measure the popularity of the site
in the search engines.
Paid Inclusion
Paying a one-time fee or (as is most recently the
case) a yearly renewable subscription fee to be
included in the search engine results. Directories
also use this style of service to accept submissions.
Paid inclusion does not guarantee that you will
be listed with the search engine
or directory, but gives a shorter time-line of acceptance
if they do.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
Overture is the most popular PPC engine. You bid
an amount per keyword phrase to get the highest
ranking in the Overture search results compared
to your competitors.
Google AdWords Select
Google AdWords is a program that uses your chosen
keywords in an ad in the Google search engine results
in order to promote click-throughs.
Log Stats programs
Having a log stats program is very helpful in tracking
your visitors, finding which keywords they are searching
on to enter your website, tracking which pages they
leave from and much more. Analog is a good free
log stats program. WebTrends is a popular paid logs
program used by many businesses.
Free submissions take patience
After paying for inclusion, try submitting to some
of the secondary search engines and directories.
Long before Google was a household word, I thought
it might become popular and submitted the company
website. It certainly paid off a year later when
Google became the best of the upcoming search engines.
Another avenue to venture down are specialty directories.
As the web grows larger over time, specialty directories
(also known as vertical portals or "vortals")
focused on your business area may help you get more
link popularity and your company name out to the
public.
Stay Honest
Stay honest, create good content and do your homework
when hiring for services. Using affordable search
engine marketing services you will add to your audience
exposure on the web. In this way you will always
be ahead of the game and hopefully, ahead of your
competitors.
*definitions supplied from Webopedia website:
http://www.webopedia.com/
**definition supplied from Marketing Terms.com website:
http://www.marketingterms.com/
###
Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing
Consultant for Search Innovation (www.searchinnovation.com),
a Search Engine Promotion company serving small
businesses. She has specialized in search engine
optimization since 1998, including three years as
the Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly &
Associates, a technical book publishing company.
Copyright © 2002 Search Innovation. All Rights
Reserved.
Return
to FREE articles index |
Search
Engine Marketing: Special
Reports from Page Zero Unleash Amazing Profits
with Google AdWords Select! You advertise your
product, service, or cause online. You've decided
to pay for targeted traffic on a "pay per click"
basis. And now you're considering Google
AdWords Select. Great decision. But if you
don't use the techniques taught in this
special report, you could cost yourself a
fortune. Use it right, and you'll clean up.
Limited
time Special
Get a FREE $10 credit toward your PPC campaign
@ Overture!
|
|
Visit Our Sponsor! WebPosition Gold