Definition: The process of increasing the amount of visitors to a website by
ranking high in the search results of a search engine
If you want your online business to be successful, it's a good
idea to optimize your site on a regular basis to make sure it's got
a good position in the web's top search engines. And it's important
to keep on top of the latest developments in the search engine
industry and what key tactics you should--and shouldn't--use to
optimize your site to make sure it gets a high ranking with all the
major search engines.
For the past few years, the major search engines have been
preparing to square off against each other and battle it out for
the industry's top spot. Google has been No. 1 for a while now,
with Yahoo! and MSN coming in at numbers two and three. Keep in
mind, however, that Google and Yahoo! power many of the smaller
search engines. For example, Google powers the free listings
featured on AOL and Netscape, plus the paid listings featured on
AOL, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, HotBot, Teoma and Lycos. Yahoo! powers
free listings featured on AltaVista, AllTheWeb and HotBot, plus the
paid listings on MSN, AltaVista and AllTheWeb.
Search engines frequently change the algorithms they use to rank
sites. They don't want unscrupulous site owners manipulating their
indexing methods in order to get high rankings. By doing so, they
damage the integrity of free search. As soon as the search engines
become aware of a trick being used by "search engine spammers" to
boost their site ranking, they figure out a way to catch them.
The search engines don't want to be manipulated by marketers.
They want to provide the best unbiased results possible for any
given search--or they'll lose users. That's why they need to change
their algorithms so frequently-to stay ahead of the tricks people
use to get top rankings.
So be careful! You don't want to catch yourself employing a
great strategy promoted by a marketing "expert," only to find out
it's a tactic the search engines hate! That could get you booted
off their listings in no time flat. Let's take a look at what
exactly the search engines are looking for when indexing sites--and
what they'll punish you for.
The Dos
There are still a lot of legitimate ways you can optimize your site
to generate or maintain a high ranking without angering the search
engines and causing them to drop you from their list. Here are some
of the best things you can to do ensure your site has a high
ranking:
1. Ask relevant sites to link to your site. In the past,
scoring a high ranking with a search engine was all about
positioning your keywords in "prime real estate" positions in your
text and site coding. All that has changed, however, because these
days, links are king.
Search engines place a huge amount of importance on the number
of sites that link to yours. But it's not just the quantity of
links that matter, it's also the quality. Search engines look at
how relevant the links are, that is, how much the content of the
linking site has in common with the content on your site. The more
relevant, the better.
Search engines also look at how important the linking site is.
What kind of online presence does it have? How much traffic does it
get? For example, your site will get a higher ranking if it's
linked to by sites such as BBC.com or nationalgeographic.com
instead of, say, the personal homepage of your friend's neighbor's
kid.
2. Pay attention to keyword inclusion and placement.
Keywords may no longer be the sole determining factor of a site's
ranking, but they're still pretty important. The most useful places
to include them are:
- In your domain name--only make sure your keywords
are in the root of your URL, not the stem. For example, if your
main keyword phrase is "cell phones," try to get a domain name such
as "www.cell-phones.com" instead of
"www.mobileusa.com/cell-phones." Some search engines will actually
penalize sites for including key words in the stem of a URL.
- In the title tags in your source code
- In the meta description of your site. This is much
less important than it used to be, but it can't hurt.
- In your meta keyword tags
And be sure you only include relevant keywords. Search engines
will penalize you if you try to sneak in keywords that have nothing
to do with the content of your site.
3. Create content-rich information pages to direct traffic to
your site. An easy way to boost the number of pages that link
to your site is to create some pages yourself. However, you have to
make sure these pages contain valuable content that provides people
with useful information. Search engines hate "pointer pages" that
have no content and exist only to add to the number of links
pointing to a site.
Be sure the information relates to the content on your site and
has your keywords placed in advantageous positions. This will boost
the ranking of your pages with the search engines and ensure they
get lots of traffic-which they can then redirect to your site.
4. Submit your site to online directories. Be sure to
submit your site to important directories such as Yahoo!, the Open
Directory Project and About.com, as well as smaller directories.
Your listing on these directories will help your ranking with the
major search engines.
5. Multiply and conquer. Create a community of related
sites that link to each other. Why stop at only one information
page? The more content-rich sites that point to your site, the
better.
You can also boost the number of links that point to your site
by dividing it into several separate sites that all link to each
other. This works especially well if you sell a number of different
products or services. If you build a different site to focus on
each of your products and services, then you can also concentrate
the use of specific keyword phrases on each site. That's another
great way to boost your search engine ranking.
The Don'ts
Now that we've covered the dos, here come the don'ts. Although
these questionable tactics have worked well in the past, the search
engines absolutely hate them. If they catch you using any of these
tricks, they may go so far as to drop you from their listings.
1. Beware of irrelevant links. Yes, it's a good idea to
get a lot of different links pointing to your site, but the search
engines only like relevant links. If they find sites that have
nothing in common with the content on your site linked to your Web
site, they'll lower your relevancy rating.
2. Beware of irrelevant keywords. Search engines hate
finding irrelevant keywords on your site-especially in your meta
tags. If they catch you using keywords that have nothing to do with
the actual content of your site, they'll penalize you for it.
3. Don't "keyword stuff" your meta tags. In the past,
people used to repeat their keywords in their meta tags over and
over again. This used to get them a high ranking with the search
engines-but not any more. Search engines are on to this trick and
will punish you for it by dropping your ranking.
4. Don't create "link farms." Link farms are the evil
cousins of the information pages we discussed above. In the past,
some spammers used to build multiple "doorway" sites that existed
only to multiply the number of links pointing to their sites.
Unlike content-rich information pages, these doorway pages would
usually only include a string of keyword terms that would earn them
a high ranking with the search engines. The search engines have
caught on to this tactic, however, and will drop you from their
listings if they find you using it.
5. Avoid "free for all" link pages. Don't bother placing
links to your site on pages where everyone and their cousin is
invited to put up a link. Such sites have extremely low relevancy
ratings and will cost you points with the search engines.
The following resources are good to check out to keep you on top
of the changing world of SEO:
Search Engine News. Planet Ocean's online resource,
"The Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars," is
updated monthly and provides excellent optimization tips and
information on the search engine industry.
Search Engine Watch. This free site is another rich
source of tips and information on the search engine industry. Paid
memberships are available for more advanced content.
Search Engine Guide. This free site contains a lot of
useful information about the smaller search engines on the Web and
who you should submit your site to in order to get a better ranking
with the bigger search engines.