Search Engine Optimization is Simply TEXT!
by Mike Banks Valentine
Small business webmasters often believe search
engine optimization is a complex and mysterious
art that they must struggle to understand and
master. It couldn't be further from the truth.
SEO is basic and simple - TEXT.
As a search engine optimizer, I'm faced daily
with the errors of well-meaning webmasters who
have unknowingly done their best to hide their
site and its topic from the search engines. They
do this by naming image files with numbers or
word fragments unrelated to the image. They have
splash page with an image named "product.gif"
containing no "Alt" tags, no text and
a link to their inside page named "intro.html"
which is full of images!
Even if you use the most basic of web authoring
software, SEO can be built in to your site simply
by naming your HTML files with important keyword
phrases, naming the image directory with more
important keyword phrases dropping those same
keyword phrases into headlines and body text.
Oh, and let's do have body text of at least 500
words. Many site owners seem to believe that a
few product photos and a nice looking logo will
suffice.
Wrong. You must have text using keyword phrases
within your site or the search engines have no
way of knowing what those products or services
*are* that you sell.
Text is all that the search engines have to determine
what your site is about. Text in your metatags,
text in your headline, text in your body copy,
text in image filenames and text in your domain
name and directory names. SEO is all about words
on the page NOT images of words in gorgeous graphics
created by your designer and displayed in IMAGES
of words in fancy fonts. This includes those menu
links from image maps and buttons.
I have a new client whose resort has been positively
written up in dozens of national magazines. I
was glad to see links to those articles within
their site until I clicked on one and got an IMAGE
of the magazine page instead of text from the
magazines. Many magazines do not allow reproducing
their content without licensing, but all allow
a limited quote with attribution along with links
from the quote to the article on their site.
Those quotes would serve as dramatic testimonials
for the client and there are dozens of important
keyword phrases in those rave reviews that would
be good stuff for both the search engines and
the site visitors. Even if there were only one
paragraph from each of the dozen great reviews
on a single page, that TEXT would be just what
the search engine doctor ordered. This will be
our first move in working with this new client.
I've got another client that sends out press releases
on a regular basis discussing their latest partnership
or new product. These press releases are chock
full of keyword phrases and important industry
lingo and buzzwords. The catch? They distribute
these press releases as PDF files and serve them
to visitors via FTP, which essentially hides them
from the search engines! Their partners then distribute
them via FTP as well because that is how they
received it. This strategy cheats my client out
of links from their partners because those press
releases are NOT posted as HTML pages anywhere!
The thing that I always emphasize to new clients
is that search engines read text that appears
on their web page only. Search engines don't *read*
images or pretty graphics, they can only make
assumptions based on those image *names* and the
image "alt" tags. Try doing an image
search at Google for "logo" and
see what you get!
Now try an image search for common words to compare
the filenames used to describe those images. Search
for any number
combination and you'll see how common numbers
are as image filenames.
Try another *image* search for keyword phrases
that are important to your industry and I'll wager
that is your competition. If you take an extra
step and review the filenames in the URL that
appear directly below those results describing
where that keyword named image turns up. I'll
bet the competitors who are tops in non image
searches for similar important keyword phrases
use those phrases in image filenames, directory
names and domain names.
I've had clients that get their site redesigned
soon *after* I've done site optimization who come
back to me asking why their search engine rankings
dropped.
Inevitably their site designer has not only used
word fragments or numbers as image and page filenames,
but removed hyperlinks from important keyword
phrases in body text, text that was maintained
at our instruction. Text hyperlinks are another
important ingredient to SEO that designers dislike
because it changes text colors in order to help
visitors know it's hyperlinked phrase.
Although designers and search engine optimizers
rarely work together, they should be required
to. Even though the SEO's job would simply be
to type keyword phrases in the "save as"
box because designers won't do it on their own.
If a copywriter is hired, they should work with
the SEO as well, although the SEO's job would
be only to convince the copywriter that it's OK,
indeed is necessary, to use keyword phrases more
than a single time. Copywriters don't like repeating
themselves and often pride themselves on saying
the same thing in various creative ways. Search
engines don't yet fully support using a thesaurus
to determine page content.
The
Linking Matters Report
A free report to help website owners and publishers
plan effective linking strategies and boost link
popularity - includes guidelines, worksheets and
links to over 50 articles on linking.
Return
to SEO articles index
|
