Search Engine Optimization Strategies

Title

Many search engines weigh the data in your title more heavily than other data in your page. Make sure that your title has keywords that represent your site effectively. For the most part the title should be short but always include your keyword(s).

Meta tags

Use the meta-tag description and meta-tag keywords attribute on every page of your site that you want the search engines to index. If you don't want a page indexed, then try the robots exclusion tag. The robots.txt exclusion protocol has more support with spiders.

Content

Write great content using your most important keywords prominently throughout your web site. Visitors who read great content will link to your web site and recommend it to others.

Keyword planning

Always do keyword planning on both the search engines and directories to determine the best set of keywords and keyword phrases your target audience is using. Look for "related searches" in search results for ideas.

Alternative text

Put alternative text in your graphic images that clearly describe the graphic image and using your keywords whenever possible. Do not put text in a graphic image that has nothing to do with your web page.

Frame Pages

Most search engines simply can not index a frames page. They get to your site and can't go anywhere. Consider frames like a big 'GO AWAY' sign. If your site does use frames, doorway pages are ideal for better rankings.

Don't try to fool the search engines.

This is probably the biggest trap people fall into. People come up with ways to 'fool' search engines, and they work for a little while...sometimes. But then the search engines catch on and write routines that penalize sites that use this practice. Examples of this include, but are not limited to: repeating keywords over and over; using invisible text (white text on white background); using very small text to jam the keywords in a small area.

Keep the important content near the top of your pages.

The actual text on your website is very important. Search engines (spiders) read this to determine rankings. Some engines will place a higher rating of importance based on where they find the text in your page. Closer to the top is usually better. But having keywords throughout your page develops a "theme" and that too is important.

Don't stuff the top of your pages with data the engines can't read.

As with the last example, something higher up in your page can be more important that something further down. Therefore, HTML formatting, images, scripts, etc. toward the top of your page can result in lower ratings.

Website Content should be your #1 priority.

Your quest for high placement must start with a good website. It is important to have a lot of text describing what you do. Use your keywords in the content, but don't repeat them over and over. Many search engines rate sites based on 'keyword density'. This is usually a formula that looks at META Keywords, words in your TITLE, words in paragraph text, words in links to other pages, and even words in the 'ALT' text on your images. They will even look at different forms of your keywords. For example, if an important keyword for you is 'FISH', the word 'FISHING' in the body of your document will raise the confidence in the word 'FISH' on some engines

Keep your site updated.

Make sure that your site is up to date. No one likes to go to a page that never changes or that is very out of date. Make sure that the data in your page portrays the message that you want to send. Check the links on your site every now and again. Make sure the links are still active. Dead links are not only an inconvenience for the visitor, but can also negatively influence your rankings.

Don't go image crazy.

We have all seen pages that are almost all images. Usually they are the most beautiful sites. After all, your artist can make beautiful screens that display your content in the most eye-pleasing way. However, the search engines don't have eyes. They don't see the beautifully formatted text in your image. All they see is 'yourimage.jpg', and 'yourimage.jpg' doesn't go far in terms of content and relevancy.

Links to Other Pages.

We can't emphasize enough the importance of links. Both from your page to other pages, and from other pages to yours.

First consider links on your pages.

When many search engines see them, they consider your site more 'real'. It also give the search engine spiders a place to go. Make your links meaningful. Make sure they relate to what you do (and keywords that are important to you). You can't have too many links on your pages.

Links from others websites.

Some search engines place a very heavy rating of importance on how many other sites in their index have links to your website. Think of it for a second. If you knew that a company was only linked to by one website, versus a company that was linked to by a thousand websites, which one would you consider more important? If you were a search engine, you would surely try to link the more important ones first.

This is where patience comes in again.

It can take some time to get a ton of links to your website. We help quite a bit here, the fact that we submit to so many sites will help you get a great head start in this area!

Consider Banner Ads.

These are a very popular method of promoting your Web site. They are the little rectangular graphics that you see near the top or bottom of some popular Web pages. If you click on them, they transport you to another Web site. You can make your own banners using one of the many "banner creating" websites. Most offer free banner making.

Things NOT to Do !!

Spamdexing

Generally, you should NOT submit every single page of your website to search engines. In most cases, you should submit only your home page and perhaps a couple of other very important pages at most. The rest of your website will be indexed by the search engine's spider naturally after the first page is submitted. Over-submitting your website can get you blocked from being listed!

Invisible/Tiny Text and Keyword Stuffing

Once a very popular form of inserting tons of key words and phrases into your pages, this is now considered a BIG no-no even though you'll still see it from time to time! This is achieved by placing very small text at the bottom of a page and/or text the same color as the page's background. This, too, can get your website blocked from search engine listings. Let your website's content speak for itself!

Use of non-compliant HTML to manipulate relevancy

multiple titles and other techniques which aren't HTML standards compliant, used specifically to raise relevancy. The first 2 in the grey area would be real candidates for this area as well. An example of non-compliant HTML would be using a title that does not reflect the content of the page. A table of HTML standard elements is available here. The links lead to information on proper implementation of elements

Use of CSS (cascading style sheets) to manipulate relevancy

Using hidden elements (layer or span elements etc) that can't be seen by executing code to reveal them. This activity, to my knowledge, has not been addressed in SE content guidelines
Comments: Comments help maintain the code in an HTML document. Comments should not be used to raise relevancy or manipulate SE descriptions. Previously *on site* in Excite content Guidelines

Invisible form elements

used to hold keyword values, not a well known technique, however they can be used this way. Not known to be mentioned specifically in any SE content guidelines or "unwritten policy"