Since Jigsaw Design moved
from focusing strictly on Design to Search
Engine Optimizing, we have been spending a
lot of time researching this process and
reading feedback from other SEO Companies
via message boards, blogs and other
sources. We eventually came to the
conclusion that 90% of the people out there
really don't have much of a clue what they
are talking about. In the next few
paragraphs, we will be discussing some
methods and practices that will boost your
position and still keep you in good favor
with the search engines. We will also be
looking at some practices that SEO's put a
lot of stock into that may not necessarily
be as important as they will lead you to
believe.
IMPORTANT
Less code more content
When a web crawler visits
your site, it is there to read your title,
description and content. What it doesn't
want to do is wade though pages of code in
order to find a few lines of content. There
are two reasons why this is bad:
-
It looks to the crawler
that you are trying to hide something
(spammers will use code to hide hidden
text or redirects). If the crawler
doesn't understand something, it will
ignore it and, most likely, your site.
-
The web crawler may
think you don't have enough content to
put any importance into your site and,
if it doesn't think your site is
important, then it will not list you too
high in the returned search results.
What you should be shooting
for is at least a 2/1 ratio in favor of
content on 75% of your pages. This will let
the web crawler know your site has some sort
of relevance and also gives the crawler more
content to index, which it really likes.
Frames and Flash
I have addressed this
subject before, but I want to go into it
again because it is one of those things
which a lot of SEO's just don't understand.
The major search engines, i.e. Yahoo, Google
and MSN, will all say the same thing on
their web masters pages and that is "some
web crawlers have difficulty reading the
context of these pages". What it doesn't
say is don't use flash or framed pages
because this is a no-no. The reason why I
want to make that clear is a lot of SEO's
will try and tell you that this is a bad
thing and that all your pages need to be
flat static pages with lots of alt text
behind your flat images. This is not the
case. We have gotten many websites in the
top ten and number one spots, some of which
use both flash and framed pages. Some do
not even have any indexable text or links on
the home page. So how do we do it? Simple
and its something you should be doing
anyway. You should have an alternative
version of your site which viewers with
flash installed will be directed to. For a
framed site, you should also have a
non-framed version for people whose browsers
don't support framed pages. Now that you
know how simple it is, here is the
temptation. Because your index page will
most likely only be seen by maybe 10% of the
people that come to your site, the
temptation will be to flood that page with
keywords and search text to get yourself
bumped up the search and that will happen.
However, when you get caught (which you
will), you will be dumped. This page should
only contain a stripped down version of your
site and should only contain the same text
content as your flash or framed site.
Keyword overindulgence
When writing the copy for
your site, write it for your viewer and not
for the web crawler. A lot of people get
tempted to use the same word or phrase over
and over to try and get themselves placed
first on an web search. This is a total
rookie move and can also get you bumped for
what's called keyword flooding. Here are
some examples:
-
Bad
Bay Area Search
Engine Optimizing
Bay Area search engine
optimizing company, located in the bay
area. Our services include search
engine optimizing, SEO and search engine
placement. As part of our search engine
optimizing service, we guarantee you top
placement on all search engines within
30 days or your money back. When you
chose our company for your search engine
optimizing needs we will........ I
think you get the point.
-
Good
Bay Area Search
Engine optimizing
Jigsaw design is located
in the Bay Area California. We are
committed to serving all your design
needs. Also, as part of our service, we
also include search engine optimization,
web hosting and online store
solutions...... bla bla bla
I'm sure you notice the
difference. Our web site does show up in
the top ten for the search term "bay area
web search engine optimizing". However,
that was before we wrote this article. So
how many times can you include the same
search term? That only the Search engine
companies know for sure. However, based our
experience with sites we have successfully
placed in the top ten, we would say no more
than once every two paragraphs or once every
100 words.
Out of style sheets
Style sheets are one of
those things that are easy to abuse and can
get you in trouble. When use correctly,
they can really help you when optimizing a
site. To abuse the use of style sheets is
simple. All you have to do is make your H1
tag the same as your normal text style to
try and make the crawler think that all your
text is important. The trouble is crawlers
are not as dumb as the used to be. They
figured out that nobody has a header that
lasts 5 paragraphs. The proper use of the
H1 tag is your main page header. For
example, this page is "SEO Secrets". Sub
headers like "out of style sheets" should
use the H2 tag and your content should
always be normal text. Never, no matter how
tempting it is don't make any text hidden by
use of style sheets or any other method
because your site will be bumped. Also do
not make the folder that your style sheet is
in hidden or private because, if the web
crawler can't read your style sheet, it's
not going to trust that everything is
legitimate.
Stale content
You may be able to get your
site listed in the top ten within 30 - 60
days, but that's no guarantee it will stay
there. If your site is not continually
being updated with fresh content and
growing, then the search engines will simply
dump it in favor of newer fresher sites.
You should be adding a new page to your site
every time the crawler visits and updating
your old content as much as you can. Daily
is preferred, but weekly at the very least.
This will mean that the crawler will have
fresh content to index and new links to
explore. Thus, it will never see your site
as stale and drop it.
NOT
AS IMPORTANT AS A LOT OF SEO'S WOULD HAVE
YOU BELIEVE
Page Rank
If you have downloaded
Google's toolbar, you will see a bar at the
top of each page which gives you a rating
from 1 to 10 of how Google ranks your site.
This means absolutely nothing when it comes
to search engine optimizing. Some search
engine companies think that getting a high
page rank means you are going to be listed
higher in the search. This is not the
case. In fact, it couldn't be further from
the truth. What this little bar indicates
is simply how important Google sees your
site and it makes that judgment on the
quality of sites that link to you. The
single most important thing about your site
is not page rank, it is not how many
incoming links you have and it is not how
long your site has been up. It is your
content, plain and simple. If your content
matches the search criteria, then you will
be listed. The more relevant content you
have, the higher your site will be listed.
There are a lot of sites listed in the
number one spot that don't have any page
rank.
Incoming links
Don't believe a word you
hear about incoming links, the quality of
the link or anything to do with link
exchange because the truth is; it doesn't
really matter how many links you have to
your site and what sites link to you. What
does matter is the way the sites link to you
and how often new links show up to your
site. If you wake up tomorrow and,
overnight, 1 million other sites decided to
link to you, that would not affect your
position in any way (what it may do is hurt
your listing because it will look like
spam). Here is how links work for you:
-
If you are a plastic
surgeon and another plastic surgery site
links to you, that will give you a boost
because you are being linked to a site
that has some relevance to yours.
-
If your site sells used
network equipment and the link to your
site is like this
used network equipment that will
give you a boost because the link is a
search term.
-
If you acquire new links
slowly over the course of time, that
will give you a boost because it looks
like your site is gaining popularity.
-
If people link to
internal pages of your site, as well as
your home page, that will give you a
boost because it looks like you have
lots of pages of relevant information.
Back to Search SEO
