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Search Engine Ranking
Please Re--read a few times
Search engine marketing has come a long way in the past decade.
The technology used by search engines is improving fast, and poorly
programmed and written Websites simply do not make the cut these
days. Yahoo™, Google™, DMOZ™, Lycos™, HotBot™, Voila™, Magellan™,
InfoSeek™, and every other search engine or directory in business
today fulfills their objectives by providing informative and relevant
results for their search patrons. This is perhaps the most important
consideration when attempting to improve search engine ranking.
Website Content
There is no way around the importance of unique high quality content.
This is the single most important step to leading the way in search
engines. We will help you to improve the text content of your
Website. When search engines index your Website, they are looking
for many things, but most important is that your site has quality
content that matches their patron's search. Therefore, if I wanted
to attract more business in Kansas City, I would have the words,
Kansas City MO in my site content, and I would try to provide
some useful information for Companies or individuals in Kansas
City . This is a step to search engine positioning that you must
never skip.
In the past, it was common for a developer to try to "spoof"
search engines by adding false information to Meta tags, "invisible
text" or text matching the page background so search engines
would "see" it, but people would not. We have seen it
all, including Web developers who even had their site shut down
and domain name taken away by the registrar for spamming and adding
their link to every possible Web forum and newsgroup. These are
all things of the past. If your Website does not have valuable
content that matches your most important keywords and keyword
phrases, this will be your most important step to improving your
ranking.
Web Page Titles
Web page title tags are given more weight in search engines than
any other single coding practice of your Website. This is not
to say that other practices may be avoided, but this is one simple
point that should be taken very seriously. Always name your pages
according to the content displayed, and never waste this space
to share your site's purpose. The title of your pages should also
match the page content and heading tags, and never exceed recommended
lengths.
Selecting Effective Keywords
The process of selecting keywords varies for each industry as
much as the keywords themselves. Each page of your Website should
be focused on only a select few keywords; therefore it is important
to know where your market is searching. We will help by researching
your industry and choosing the proper keywords.
Heading Tags
Heading tags are an important step to telling search engines and
Web surfers why they are there, and what to expect.
Many search engines
and Web indexes will allow terms found in H1 tags a large boost
in keyword relevance. The H1 tag is designed to tell the page
topic.
External Styles - Style sheets
There are several ways to determine styles such as the font color,
font size, font family, background color, column width, page width,
scrollbars, and other style attributes of your site. By using
external style sheets, these styles are determined by a separate
file that is not on the page itself. Further, the style sheet
needs only to be downloaded once, and thereafter, it may be referenced
in the user's cache. This allows for faster load times, and better
parsing of your pages by search engines.
External JavaScripts
Similar to external style sheets, using external JavaScripts allows
for faster page load time, and faster parsing and more complete
indexing of your Web pages.
Local Styles
Although there are great benefits of using external styles, there
are some instances where it is best to make use of local styles
such as bold, italic, and bold italic, text.
Name Files Using Keywords - Keywords in URL
Some search engines will allow a greater value for pages with
keywords used in the URL. This naming convention has lost value
with many search engines, but is still valuable.
Input Tags
It is very important to never abuse this option, as with any tool.
However, it can be very important for sites using a lot of JavaScript,
Flash, and images. Input tags are not visible to visitors, but
they can help to describe your site content closer to the top
of the Web page where otherwise all the search engine robot may
see is programming code.
Search Engine Submission
This is a common mistake that many of our competitors overlook.
It is also a way to have your Web site penalized by some search
engines. Also, it is not important to submit your site to 40,000
search engines. There is a relatively small number of databases
that make up for the majority of all searches on the Internet.
If you are listed with these key search engines, the others will
find you. Many search engines will even give you a boost in their
rankings for having been found without ever having submitted the
site. Even if it takes a little extra time, it will be well worth
it.
Web Hosting
Your Web host can make a difference, but for more reasons than
you may think. The obvious reason is if a search engine tries
to visit your site and finds it unavailable, it will not be able
to index new content, and may lower your ranking. However, the
reasons go far beyond simply making your site available 24 hours
seven days per week. Many search engines will penalize Websites
for the company they keep. What this means is the other sites
"next door" may be reducing your property value. If
your site is on a server with objectionable content, it may be
penalized. Many Web hosting companies use "virtual hosting"
due to a shortage of IPs (the numeric Internet address where your
domain name directs visitors). If you share an IP range with bad
neighbors, it is much like placing your business in a bad zip
code. Excluding particular IP ranges is simply the most effective
way for a search engine to avoid inadvertently indexing objectionable
or non-commercial grade Websites. This is particularly common
when using a free Web host. Before you choose a Web host you should
carefully review their terms of service and acceptable use policy.
If they do not explicitly state their policy on SPAM and other
illegal content, you may find out too late that your neighbors
have effectively reduced your property value. Conversely, having
sites of high value next door tends to attract an overflow of
search engine indexing. If you question this theory, we welcome
you to join us on the good side of the Internet tracks.
Meta Tags and Search Engines
Meta tags can help to convey your Web site content, but search
engines are looking for much more than Meta tags these days. Although
Meta tags are important, if they do not agree with your Website
content, it will do more harm than help. Although we may use many
tags, the following are considered to be the highest priority.
Title
This is the highest priority Meta tag. It should include your
most important keyword phrase.
Description
This is the site description, it should include your most important
keywords and be written in sentence form. Some search engines
will use this as a brief description alongside your listing in
searches.
Keywords
The keywords Meta tags has lost much weight to most search engines,
but is still important. It is important to use words with a large
demand and where possible without a large supply. As with all
Meta tags, their content should closely match the content of the
page in which they are used.
Image Optimization
Slow loading pages are very seldom indexed well. Search engines
are much like Web surfers in this respect ... they simply will
not wait for slow pages. They do not have time, and also recognize
that a slow site is not commonly of the quality they are seeking.
Remember, search engines have a vested interest in listing high
quality Web pages.
Alternate Image Text
Image is important in today's Internet, but not every visitor
will see the images on your Website. Adding alternate text representation
for images will help visitors with text-only browsers, or with
their browsers image rendering turned off, to know what the images
represent. This is mandatory for sites bound by ADA (Americans
with Disabilities Act), and it is looked upon as a higher quality
Website. By using alternate text, you will also add to the overall
text within your site, thereby allowing search engine robots more
to index.
Name and Title Attributes in Text Links
Adding name and title attributes to anchor tags not only adds
to usability for your site's visitors, search engines will also
recognize your efforts. The title attribute in your links should
mirror the title of the page where it points. Always remember
that anything that makes your Website a better experience for
a visitor will also make it better for a search engine.
Text Links
If your site does not have text links to important pages, it should.
Adding text links with proper attributes is extremely important
to improving your site's indexing in search engines.
Never Cheat a Search Engine
Your parents probably told you to never lie. They may have been
preparing you for business on the Internet. If you try to cheat
a search engine, you will be caught, and it will show in your
search ranking.
If search engine ranking was easy, there would be more than one
#1 search engine ranking. As it is, there is little room at the
top, and your rank in search engines is imperative to your business
being found on the Internet. Search engine ranking will have the
largest impact on your online efforts, whether for the purpose
of e-commerce selling on the Web or simply an advertising Website
aimed at increasing name recognition. In order to excel, you must
select effective keywords, provide valuable page content, and
much more.
Search Engine
Motivations
Just in case you never thought of it, lets look at what keeps
search engines in business. If you were an executive at Yahoo!®,
would you think it was cool to earn your 6 or 7 figure pay for
providing a free search to every Website visitor? No, you would
more likely think it was cool that you were able to charge companies
for advertising to each of those visitors who are searching (and
keep coming back for more searches). This is to say that a search
engine provider has money at stake. When they serve out results
to your search, it is very important that the results are relevant
to what you were seeking. Otherwise, you would go to another search
engine the next time, and thereby reduce the value of their advertising
forum. If MSN had a billion visitors (or 50 ... the figure is
irrelevant), they can sell ads for a lot of money, but if it climbs
another hundred million, you can see the added value, right?
With search engine motivations in mind, why in the name of David
Filo (a founder of Yahoo!®) would a search engine want to
put your alarm company Website on the top of their list for security
alarms if your site was improperly programmed, or worse, not about
security systems? Further, if it was about security systems, but
not specifically about "monitored home security”, it would
not serve the search engine well to announce your alarms to their
Web traffic.
Of course, there are different types of search engines and information
index sites. However, regardless of their makeup, they have one
commonality ... they have a vested interest in serving out relevant
searches for the search string you entered. Even the bid rank
search engines (where you "pay per click" for top listing)
have some interest in making certain that when you search for
Web hosting that you do not get wedding dresses.
Keyword Usage
in Pop Up Pages
Pops up pages are additional HTML pages, but many developers forget
the value of adding links and keyword phrases. When pop up pages
include keywords and outgoing links, they may be added to links
pages and help search engines to index your site more thoroughly.
Is there really any difference? The correct answer is "Only
if you hope to see a return on your Web presence". Otherwise,
I suppose that it is fine to rest at the bottom of a list of thousands
of competitors worldwide (and yes, they are even trying to penetrate
your local market ... don't kid yourself).
Here are four examples of performing the function of presenting
an enlargement of a thumbnail image. For simplicity, let's say
that the focus keywords are all contained in the phrase
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