If you want your online business to be successful, it’s a goodidea to optimize your site on a regular basis to make sure it’s gota good position in the web’s top search engines. And it’s importantto keep on top of the latest developments in the search engineindustry and what key tactics you should–and shouldn’t–use tooptimize your site to make sure it gets a high ranking with all themajor search engines.
For the past few years, the major search engines have beenpreparing to square off against each other and battle it out forthe 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 inmind, however, that Google and Yahoo! power many of the smallersearch engines. For example, Google powers the free listingsfeatured on AOL and Netscape, plus the paid listings featured onAOL, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, HotBot, Teoma and Lycos. Yahoo! powersfree listings featured on AltaVista, AllTheWeb and HotBot, plus thepaid listings on MSN, AltaVista and AllTheWeb.
Search engines frequently change the algorithms they use to ranksites. They don’t want unscrupulous site owners manipulating theirindexing methods in order to get high rankings. By doing so, theydamage the integrity of free search. As soon as the search enginesbecome aware of a trick being used by “search engine spammers” toboost 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 anygiven search–or they’ll lose users. That’s why they need to changetheir algorithms so frequently-to stay ahead of the tricks peopleuse to get top rankings.
So be careful! You don’t want to catch yourself employing agreat strategy promoted by a marketing “expert,” only to find outit’s a tactic the search engines hate! That could get you bootedoff their listings in no time flat. Let’s take a look at whatexactly the search engines are looking for when indexing sites–andwhat they’ll punish you for.
The Dos
There are still a lot of legitimate ways you can optimize your siteto generate or maintain a high ranking without angering the searchengines and causing them to drop you from their list. Here are someof the best things you can to do ensure your site has a highranking:
1. Ask relevant sites to link to your site. In the past,scoring a high ranking with a search engine was all aboutpositioning your keywords in “prime real estate” positions in yourtext and site coding. All that has changed, however, because thesedays, links are king.
Search engines place a huge amount of importance on the numberof sites that link to yours. But it’s not just the quantity oflinks that matter, it’s also the quality. Search engines look athow relevant the links are, that is, how much the content of thelinking site has in common with the content on your site. The morerelevant, 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 itget? For example, your site will get a higher ranking if it’slinked to by sites such as BBC.com or nationalgeographic.cominstead of, say, the personal homepage of your friend’s neighbor’skid.
2. Pay attention to keyword inclusion and placement.Keywords may no longer be the sole determining factor of a site’sranking, but they’re still pretty important. The most useful placesto include them are:
- In your domain name–only make sure your keywordsare in the root of your URL, not the stem. For example, if yourmain keyword phrase is “cell phones,” try to get a domain name suchas “www.cell-phones.com” instead of”www.mobileusa.com/cell-phones.” Some search engines will actuallypenalize 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 muchless 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 engineswill penalize you if you try to sneak in keywords that have nothingto do with the content of your site.
3. Create content-rich information pages to direct traffic toyour site. An easy way to boost the number of pages that linkto your site is to create some pages yourself. However, you have tomake sure these pages contain valuable content that provides peoplewith useful information. Search engines hate “pointer pages” thathave no content and exist only to add to the number of linkspointing to a site.
Be sure the information relates to the content on your site andhas your keywords placed in advantageous positions. This will boostthe ranking of your pages with the search engines and ensure theyget lots of traffic-which they can then redirect to your site.
4. Submit your site to online directories. Be sure tosubmit your site to important directories such as Yahoo!, the OpenDirectory Project and About.com, as well as smaller directories.Your listing on these directories will help your ranking with themajor search engines.
5. Multiply and conquer. Create a community of relatedsites that link to each other. Why stop at only one informationpage? The more content-rich sites that point to your site, thebetter.
You can also boost the number of links that point to your siteby dividing it into several separate sites that all link to eachother. This works especially well if you sell a number of differentproducts or services. If you build a different site to focus oneach of your products and services, then you can also concentratethe use of specific keyword phrases on each site. That’s anothergreat way to boost your search engine ranking.
The Don’ts
Now that we’ve covered the dos, here come the don’ts. Althoughthese questionable tactics have worked well in the past, the searchengines absolutely hate them. If they catch you using any of thesetricks, they may go so far as to drop you from their listings.
1. Beware of irrelevant links. Yes, it’s a good idea toget a lot of different links pointing to your site, but the searchengines only like relevant links. If they find sites that havenothing in common with the content on your site linked to your Website, they’ll lower your relevancy rating.
2. Beware of irrelevant keywords. Search engines hatefinding irrelevant keywords on your site-especially in your metatags. If they catch you using keywords that have nothing to do withthe 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 andover again. This used to get them a high ranking with the searchengines-but not any more. Search engines are on to this trick andwill punish you for it by dropping your ranking.
4. Don’t create “link farms.” Link farms are the evilcousins of the information pages we discussed above. In the past,some spammers used to build multiple “doorway” sites that existedonly to multiply the number of links pointing to their sites.Unlike content-rich information pages, these doorway pages wouldusually only include a string of keyword terms that would earn thema high ranking with the search engines. The search engines havecaught on to this tactic, however, and will drop you from theirlistings if they find you using it.
5. Avoid “free for all” link pages. Don’t bother placinglinks to your site on pages where everyone and their cousin isinvited to put up a link. Such sites have extremely low relevancyratings and will cost you points with the search engines.
The following resources are good to check out to keep you on topof the changing world of SEO:
Search Engine News. Planet Ocean’s online resource,”The Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars,” isupdated monthly and provides excellent optimization tips andinformation on the search engine industry.
Search Engine Watch. This free site is another richsource of tips and information on the search engine industry. Paidmemberships are available for more advanced content.
Search Engine Guide. This free site contains a lot ofuseful information about the smaller search engines on the Web andwho you should submit your site to in order to get a better rankingwith the bigger search engines.
