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How do I optimize my site?
Research has shown
that 80% of web site visitors from search engines come from the first 30
listings (the first 3 pages of results). Therefore, it is sensible to
do what we can to achieve these positions with the right keywords. The position
at which a search engine lists your website when a keyword search is made,
depends on how its crawler evaluates the relevancy of your site to the
word selected.
Make sure that your site is prominent within the relevant keyword search.
- Initial Design Problems and solutions
- Keyword Optimization
- Title Tag Optimization
- Content Optimization
- Meta Tag Optimization
- Alt Tag Optimization
- Hyperlink Optimization
- What Not To Do
- Initial Design Problems and solutions
Unfortunately there are some site design issues that can make it difficult for the search engines to list your web pages. The main problems are:
- Frames
If your site uses frames, you've got problems. Search engines do not index framed sites. We recommend redesigning your site without them if you want to get good listings in the search engines. If your site must use frames here are some tips we recommend
The problem
A frame is exactly what the name conveys - they are an HTML page that "frames" another HTML page. In most cases a framed site will only have one page you can submit, the home page. Since your site uses frames, the home page actually has nothing that the search engine can use i.e. content, to determine how to list your site.
The solution:
The best thing you can do to improve your results is to use the <noframes> tag within your frameset. The <noframes> tag can be used for content that will help your site get listed. You should also implement the best title tag and any relevant meta tags.
Where:
The <noframes> tag goes just before the </frameset> tag for your frameset, as you can see below in red.
Example Code of a Site Using Frames with <NOFRAMES> Tag <HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> Framed Site</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<FRAMESET cols="100,*">
<FRAME name="contents" target="main">
<FRAME name="main">
<NOFRAMES>
Optimized page content goes here for best results.
</NOFRAMES>
</FRAMESET>
</HTML>
Tag tips:- Insert content within the <body> tags that you see above within the <noframes> tag. An easy way to do this is to create a new un-framed home page for your site that describes your site and services. Once you have created the page then view the HTML of the page and copy everything from within the <body> and </body> tags. Then, paste the content within the <body> and </body> tags in the <noframes> tags of your frameset. All the HTML can be placed within the body tags.
- Search engines like simple HTML pages so keep it simple and text based for best results.
- Make sure your <noframes> content is optimized, as explained in this section.
- Include links in the <noframes> content to all of the other pages on your site so that the spider crawls and indexes them too.
- Dynamic URLs
Search engines cannot list dynamic URLs. Dynamic URLs are usually found on database driven sites.
If your URL contains any of the following elements, it is considered a Dynamic URL:
? & cgi-bin .cgi % + = $
If your URL contains any of the above it is likely that that it will not get listed in any of the main search engines. You should submit a different non-dynamic URL from your site, but if all of your URLs are dynamic, you should make a static page so that you can get listed.
- Flash Sites
You must be careful how Flash is used. The main problems are:
- Flash is often used on its own as a home page, commonly known as a "splash" page which the engines can't index. Avoid submitting pages that are made up mostly of Flash. If you do submit a page that is mainly Flash then improve your chances by adding content and having good meta tags and a title tag.
- When you submit to a search engine you can expect the spider to follow the links on the page you submit and spider those pages as well. Hyperlinks made with Flash do not allow this. You need to have standard HTML links to the other pages of your site or create a site map page in HTML with links to every page on your site (and add a standard HTML link on each page that links to the site map).
- Sites using Image Maps for Navigation
Due to the code involved in an image, search engines often get trapped and fail to spider your site.
If you use image maps you need to add HTML links. Yet again an easy way to get around this is to create a site map page using HTML links and also add an HTML link on each page of your site that links to the site map.
- Sites using Javascript for Navigation
Search engines can't follow links that are within Javascript, so your site will not get spidered unless you add standard HTML links. An easy way to do this is to create a site map page using HTML to link to every page on your site. Then add an HTML link on each page of your site that links to the site map.
- Frames
- Keyword Optimization
To get listed correctly in the search engines each page of your site needs to be optimized for the correct keywords. Choosing the keywords is critical so here are some tips on choosing them.
- Use specific phrases that describe your type of product or services
as the competition on general terms is so great that it is likely
that you will not rank well on them. The visitors created should
be much more targeted and of a higher quality if they come from
a specific term search.
Imported Furniture store example:
Too General and competitive Good chance! - tables
- chairs
- furniture
- imported Indonesian furniture
- Balinese tables
- Check out your competition. Make a search using keywords that you favor and once on a site view the source code (View then Source), and look at the keywords they use as meta tags.
- Develop a list of phrases, following the tips on this page, for each page that you wish to submit. Think of your main pages as separate submissions with an individual Optimization approach.
- Use specific phrases that describe your type of product or services
as the competition on general terms is so great that it is likely
that you will not rank well on them. The visitors created should
be much more targeted and of a higher quality if they come from
a specific term search.
- Title Tag Optimization
The title tag is the most important factor when optimizing a webpage. This is also what the engines usually use for the title of the listing in their search results and this can be found between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags within the html:
<TITLE>Your description here</TITLE>
The title tag should be between 50-80 characters long to satisfy the majority of engines.
Tag tips:
- You should include 1-2 of your most important phrases in the title tag, but do not just list keywords-make it an understandable sentence.
- Make your title attractive so that as a listing it will get the click throughs.
- Put the keywords at the start of the tag so the space restriction on search listings does not cut them off.
- Each page of your site should have its own title and keywords that are related to that specific page.
- Content Optimization
The page content is just as important to achieve better search engine rankings. The content is the text that a visitor to your site would read.
The search engine spiders read the content just like a visitor and they are looking for your keyword phrases.
Content tips:
- For best results each page should have at least 200 words of copy on it.
- The text should include your keyword phrases, but should also be readable and understandable.
- Be sure to use those phrases that you have used in your other tags on that page (i.e. metas, alt, headings, title, etc.).
- Meta Tag Optimization
Many people incorrectly believe that good meta tags are all that is required to achieve good listings. The engines look at a combination of all the best search engine tips to determine your listings, not just your metas. There are two meta tags that can help your rankings - meta keywords & meta description.
What and where:
The meta tags are between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags within the HTML
Description Meta:
<META NAME="description" content="Your description with your keywords.">
Keywords Meta:
<META NAME="keywords" content="keyword phrase, keyword phrase, keyword phrase, etc.">
- Your Keywords Meta should not exceed 1000 characters
- Your Description Meta should not exceed 200 characters
Meta description tips:- Describe the content of your page while trying to entice visitors to click.
- Include your most important keyword phrases, especially those in your title tag and page text.
- Place the most important keywords at the beginning of your description to avoid having any search engine cut off your keywords if they limit the length of listings.
Meta keywords tips:- Only use the phrases that you have also used in the text, title tag, meta description, and other tags.
- Don't forget plurals of your keywords and mis-spellings.
- Try not to repeat one word too many times in the keyword meta, say 5 times.
- Alt tag Optimization
Did you know that any images on your page can help your listings too? Each image can include a phrase or two in the image name.
What and where:
The alt tag can be added to any image but the description should be no more than a sentence
<IMG SRC="Imagename.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="Image description">
- Use the phrases that you have also used in the text of your page, title tag, meta description, and other tags.
- Only use a couple of phrases for each image alt tag.
- Describe the image - do not just list the phrases.
- Hyperlink Optimization
Search engines evaluate the links that you have. Some engines look for keywords in the hyperlinks and any text immediately surrounding the hyperlinks. You should include your most important keyword phrases in the link and possibly the surrounding text.
What and where:
A text based hyperlink is a standard HTML hyperlink: <a href="page.html">page</a>
- Place your phrases in the link itself and in the text immediately before or after the link.
- Do not keyword stuff- Make sure your link and text are still readable and understandable.
- What not to do
There are several approaches which the search engines deem to be spamming and should not be attempted due to the risk of being banned by the engine for a listing.
- Do not list keywords anywhere except in your keywords meta tag. By "list" this means literally list - keyword 1, keyword 2, keyword 3, keyword 4, etc.
- Do not use the same color text on your page as the page's background color This is typically used to keyword stuff a web page which a Search engine can detect and will view as spam.
- Do not use the same tag a number of times. For example, using more than one title tag.
- Do not duplicate a page of your site for submission purposes.
- Do not over emphasize words unrelated to your site's content.
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