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Search Engine Optimization For Dummies
Posted by randy on: 2005-11-11 09:56:17
John Fowler
Many people have said to me that they can't afford to employ a
SEO company, but they would still like to get better search
results on Google, Yahoo and MSN searches. Are there any basic
rules that they can follow to improve their ranking on search
engine results pages (SERPs)? In response to this question, here
are some basic things that people who have coded their own web
sites can do to make the web pages more spiderbot friendly and
so more attractive for search engines to crawl.
Let's start with the actual information on the home page of the
web site. What is the first thing that a spiderbot will see when
it crawls your web site - complex graphics, tables of
information that do not directly relate to your products or
company, or does it see some well-written, grammatically correct
text? We have found that the first 100 words on a web site are
of particular interest to spiderbots, and a lot of emphasis is
now placed by them on what is found there. This is the place to
put your key words, what search words and phrases do you want to
be found under.
But what about key words in the Meta tag statement? This was a
great idea, but unfortunately became abused by people doing key
word stuffing. Look at you own site, what keywords do you have
there. We would suggest that you consider putting up to 10 key
words in the Meta tag, and these words should re-enforce the key
words that you use in your actual text. I saw a site for buying
property that repeated the words house sales a hundred times; do
you think that fooled Google? Search engines are now trying to
ensure that the content and key words the actual web surfer
sees, relates directly to how the page is ranked.
On a similar theme, have you ever been to a web site that is
very difficult to navigate and you end up giving up because it's
just too difficult to find the information you require. Well,
think how the spiderbot feels when it hits such a site. Do you
think it will spend time and effort trying to build a complex
navigation map, or will it out the site it the too difficult
pile and move on. Make your site easy to navigate; on a small
site being able to access any page from any page is a useful
concept.
This brings us nicely on to the whole question of Inbound Links
(IBLs). Some sites have very few external IBLs, but still do
well because of the structure and linkage of their own pages.
Unfortunately, this can mean a fairly major redesign and
re-write of a site but if you can do this, you will improve your
visibility. Other ways of getting IBLs are link farms,
reciprocal links and one-way links.
We believe that link farms are a dangerous way forward. Search
engines do not like this idea as it cuts across the major
concept of searches that they should reflect the true popularity
of sites. Either now or in the future, sites using link farms
will be penalised and maybe sandboxed, a bit like being sent to
the sin bin for 6 months and not recommended.
Reciprocal links can again be seen as a false way of increasing
the popularity of sites. Many high ranking sites use this idea
and to date have not suffered. However Google and other search
engines are starting to take the relevance of the linking site
into account. So if you are a property company and you link to a
frozen food supplier and vice versa, yes I've seen this one,
then the search engines will ignore it as an IBL. We are aware
that more sophisticated companies are using a 3-way reciprocal
link procedure that is far more difficult to track. So 3
property companies work together, company A links to company B
that links to company C that links to company A. So at the
moment, the search engines probably cannot see the 3-way
reciprocal links, although this may change in the future.
Update on Reciprocal links. The latest Google Dance (update) is
taking place (end of October 2005) and many sites with lots of
reciprocal links are saying that their Google search rating has
disappeared. This leads us to believe that such links are
definitely not a good idea.
By far the best way of getting links is by having a quality site
that other people want to link to. So again, we are back to
content. If you provide quality information, over time, more and
more sites will link to you, and if they are in the same
business sector as you, so much the better.
Finally, we would like to stress the need to write the cleanest
and most error-free html code that you can. Again, it is fairly
obvious if you think about it, spiderbots want to be able to
crawl a web site quickly and efficiently. If you have bad html,
links that are broken or tables that don't have the correct
number of entries, then spiderbots will struggle to classify
your site. We have invested in a very sensitive html validator
that picks up lots of errors and potential errors. To date we
have not found any web sites that validate 100% error free using
this validator, except our own. When I mentioned the validator
in a previous article I was inundated with requests for
information on the product, so if any one wants to try it, I
have put up a 14-day free trial copy at HREF=http://www.seo-gurus.co.uk/csesetup.exe>http://www.seo-gurus
.co.uk/csesetup.exe. Don't be surprised if it throws up lots
of errors, I have seen 200+ of many web site home pages, often
with the same error replicated many times.
In summary, good clean readable text backed up by clean html
programming and some good solid inbound links will give you a
far better chance of good search engine rankings. So, if you do
all of this, will you need a SEO company? If you can achieve all
of the actions above, we believe you will have done about 40% of
the work we would expect to do for a client. Maybe that will be
enough for you, if not feel free to have a look around our
website.
And now a poem
Written by my partner, reflecting Search Engine Optimization for
Dummies.
Dummies are everywhere, They are dotted all about, Sometimes
they are within, Sometimes they are without, Sometimes in shop
windows, Looking sleek and tall, Sometimes in the living room,
Sometimes in the hall, But most of our dummies, That we deal
with every day, Are very much like you and me, But just stranger
in a way, For they are now on the net, Their 15 hours of fame,
They lose their sensible marbles, And are all soon fair game,
For unscrupulous and devious, Those twins of guile and charm,
Who in the blinking of an led, Soon strip off leg and arm, Thus
a dummy is so created, Whence can they become whole? Already
minus arm and a leg, To those who own their soul, And flailing
blindly in a net, More binding by the hour, With money leaking
from cards, All too sadly in their power, Yet just as the worst
seems likely, When hope seems yeste rdays dream, Yes, Seogurus
Superbeing appears, Almost serenely on the scene, "What seems to
be the problem2, His booming voice proclaims, "I will rid you of
your demons, Cast them out in your name, And take you to a
better land, Where everything works well, And where your website
flourishes", You see, he tells a few as well, Yet he's not such
a bad guy, Though he needs spell-check advice, In fact compared
to some, He's actually very nice, We may be slightly biased, We
may just overemphasise, But he really is a good guy, And he
really truly tries, To put you on the right path, Primarily to
help yourselves, He doesn't use a witchdoctor, Or consult with
toads or elves, He just uses simple tools, And a common sense
approach, He knows you can do most of it, And just acts as your
coach, And advises now and then, Of tools or websites to try,
And he isn't ever dodgy, And he isn't ever sly, He just tries to
help you, In an age where others abuse, So why not trust the
Superbeing, What have you got to lose? He's related to the
Ferrits, And cousin to the Stiffsteiffs Bears, And reportedly
the Frankfrogs, Though mad as March hares, But though they seem
a rum bunch, Above all this motley crew, Are beavering away on
your side, trying hard to help you through, And this month a
free trial, You can use to help yourself, Has been offered for a
while, Just download it from its shelf, And for zero pennies
outlay,
You can begin to see just why, The Seogurus Superbeing came, So
gloriously from the sky, And should you ever need him, Should
your efforts be not enough, Fear not for he will be with you,
Once emailed hell strut his stuff, And though he's a bit cocky,
And a bit "I've been here before", There are others out there
lurking, Who would hurt you for evermore, And make you pay for
nothing, Over and again quite dearly, For getting you "quite
close", For endless results of "nearly", So on balance a flawed
superbeing, With aging but true good intent, Is infinitely
preferable to those, That would help you spend your rent, Though
our cape flaps annoyingly, And our colours are almost luminous,
We are honest to goodness superbeings, And you can trust in us.
About the author:
John Fowler trained as a Mathematician and has worked in the IT
industry for over 30 years, much of the time in sales related
functions. He now spends his time between being a partner in SEO
Gurus and as a sales and management trainer for ICT companies.
John can be contacted via http://www.seo-gurus.co.ukOpen community website
http://www.business-business.biz
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