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Discover the Top 5 "Dos" and "Don'ts" of Web Site
Optimization that Will Make or Break Your Ranking
with the Free Search Engines!
IIf
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.
However,
in order to maintain your ranking, you have to keep
on top of what's happening in the rapidly changing search
engine industry. The rules that affected your ranking
yesterday may be meaningless tomorrow!
Read
on to learn more about the latest developments in the
search engine industry and what key tricks you should
(and shouldn't!) use to optimize your site to make sure
it gets a high ranking with all the major search engines,
plus the tools and resources you can use to keep it
there.
The "Dos" and "Don'ts" are constantly
changing!
The
search engine industry is continually evolving. You
need to know which of the major "players" is powering
the smaller search engines if you want to know where
you should focus your optimization efforts.
1.
The battle of the titans
For
the past couple of 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 #1 for a while now, but Yahoo! and MSN have been making moves to steal the crown.
Google
is still extremely powerful, with about a 55% market
share. Yahoo! is the closest runner-up, with about 20%
of users choosing it as their main search engine. And
MSN is still a distant but threatening third, with about
10% of the global usage share.
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 MSN, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and HotBot, plus the paid listings on
MSN, AltaVista, and AllTheWeb.
However,
MSN won't be powered by Yahoo! for much longer! MSN
came out with a preview of their own long-anticipated
search engine technology earlier this month. They're
still working out the bugs, and the official MSN Search
engine is still being powered by Yahoo!. But you can
expect MSN to go solo sometime over the next few months.
You
need to be aware of these changes if you want to gear
your optimization efforts toward the engines that will
send you as much traffic as possible.
2.
The changing rules of search
Of
course, you also need to keep tabs on changes to the
search engines themselves!
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.
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.
In
fact, that's exactly what happened at the end of last
year, during what has come to be called the "Florida
Google Dance."
Google
made some major changes to their algorithms in November
2003 and started imposing an "over-optimization penalty"
on any sites that appeared to be artificially boosting
their site's relevancy for targeted keywords.
Many
members of the business community were surprised to
find their sites dropped from their high ranking in
Google's listings. These people had to put a lot of
work into revamping and resubmitting their sites in
order to get listed again.
And
many of the people who were penalized weren't "unscrupulous"
site owners! They weren't trying to pull a "fast one"
on search engines using frowned-upon techniques such
as "keyword stuffing." They were simply trying to be
smart marketers -- and some feel they were unfairly
punished for it.
You
don't want the same thing to happen to you!
So
let's have a look at a list of what exactly the search
engines are currently looking for when indexing sites
-- and what they'll punish you for!
The "Dos": Legitimate tricks the SEO
masters use to optimize their sites and maintain their
high ranking
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.
That
being said, there are still a lot of legitimate ways
you can optimize your site 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. 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 -- i.e.,
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 neighbour'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.com."
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
HOWEVER:
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 contents
that provide 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": Tricks the search engines
hate and why you should never use them, even if your
competition does
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 like a hot potato!
1.
Beware 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 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 dog is invited to put up a link. Such sites
have extremely low relevancy ratings and will cost you
points with the search engines.
Essential tools and resources to optimize
your site and stay n top of the search engine game
There
are a lot of great tools out there that can help you
optimize your web site while ensuring that you stay
on the good side of all the search engines. Here are
a few of our favorites.
Tools:
Wordtracker:
This great online tool helps you select specific
keyword phrases that will direct more traffic to
your site. Free and paid versions are available.
SitePromoter: This useful software program helps
you create individualized submissions to the different
search engines.
Optilink: A lot of search engine optimization
experts swear by this software. It's a "link reputation
analyzer" that helps you determine a site's reputation
and why the search engines like it or dislike it.
It certainly comes in handy when you're checking
out the competition or looking for reputable sites
to link to yours!
WebPosition Gold: This is a great piece of search
engine placement software that generates Web pages
designed to rank high on the major search engines.
It also analyzes your existing Web pages, providing
suggestions for improvement, and tracks your ranking
on different search engines.
Resources:
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.
Final thoughts
Recent
research by search engine optimization experts suggests
that there is a surprising lack of overlap between the
results produced by the major search engines. All too
often, sites that are ranked high on Google get a much
poorer listing with Yahoo! and vice versa.
This
could mean that webmasters are focusing their optimization
efforts solely on one search engine while neglecting
to improve their ranking with the other. They might
be using optimization tactics that work for Google on
Yahoo!, without being aware that Yahoo! uses different
criteria to index a site.
Either
way, sites that aren't optimized for both Google and
Yahoo! are missing out on a lot of potential visitors.
And
don't forget, MSN will soon be throwing its hat into
the ring and switching from Yahoo! to its own search
engine technology. When that happens, you should be
sure to submit your site to MSN as well.
No
one really knows what the future holds for the search
engine industry, but one thing's for sure: Businesses
that don't stay on top of the changes are going to find
themselves slipping behind. Don't let that happen to
your business!
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR: Corey Rudl is the owner of four highly
successful online businesses that attract more than 1.8
million visitors per month and generate over $6.6 million
each year. He is also the author of the #1 best-selling
Internet Marketing course online.
To
Find Out How To Market Your Business
Online CLICK
HERE
