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Search Engine Articles
Plant Your Site at the Top
of Mt. Search Engine
by Jill Whalen (The Web Whiz)
Written January 2000 - Updated October 2001
You can get the page one search engine results you want if you follow a few
basic fundamental search engine optimization rules.
My name is Jill Whalen (aka "The Web Whiz"). I've been in Web development and
search engine optimization for seven years and am looking forward to sharing
some great insights with you on how to obtain and retain high visibility for
your sites on the leading search engines and directories.
Top level listings are absolutely critical for the success of your Web business.
Why? According to most studies, the average user never goes past the third page
of the search results. But there is some good news -- you can get the results
you need if you follow a few basic fundamentals.
Understand the Basic Terminology
There are two basic types of search sites: pure search engines and directories.
Pure search engines add Web site pages to their databases automatically based on
user submissions. However, these search engines also periodically send their
automatic robots or "spiders" out to "crawl" for new and updated Web sites.
Individual search engines use complex algorithms based on a site's information
and html code to rank sites. Google is an example of a pure search engine.
Directories are the second type of search site. To get listed on a directory,
you must actually submit your front page URL on the directory's submission form.
Unlike pure search engines, directories don't automatically add sites. Human
reviewers check every submission to decide if it's appropriate for the
directory. Web sites submitted to directories are usually ranked according to
the information provided on the submission form, as opposed to actual
information on the Web site, so what goes on the form is critically important.
The Open Directory, Yahoo and LookSmart are the main Internet directories in use
today.
Most of the major search sites on the Internet today combine search engine and
directory functionality. Major search engines like Google, MSN, AltaVista,
Excite, Lycos and HotBot all have some form of directory associated with them.
The opposite is true of major directories such as Yahoo! and LookSmart. If no
results from their human-edited directories match your search query, their
search engines then search through a database of spidered sites to give you
results. For example, at Yahoo!, Yahoo! Websites provides directory results, and
Yahoo! Web Pages provides spidered results from Google. Many site owners have
mistakenly believed their sites were added to Yahoo!'s human-edited directory
after seeing their sites appear in the Yahoo! Web Pages results. However, in
reality, they're not in Yahoo!'s directory at all, but in Google's database.
(You'll always receive e-mail notification when and if your site gets added to
Yahoo!'s actual directory.)
Be Realistic About your Keyword Choices
First, be realistic about your keyword choices. Never expect a high ranking for
one-word keywords -- there are simply too many sites on the Internet for a
one-word search to be effective. In addition, it's practically impossible to
create a one-word search that is targeted to your specific Web site.
For example, suppose you sell real estate in Florida. You might assume that
using the word "home" as your keyword would produce a lot of targeted traffic.
Wrong. Obviously, just because people search for the word "home" doesn't mean
they're looking to buy or sell a home in Florida. However, if you choose "moving
to Florida" as your keywords, most of your site visitors will be people actually
interested in moving to Florida, and therefore probably needing real estate.
This is the beauty of choosing the proper keyword phrases: you get an extremely
targeted audience!
Once you do have reasonable and relevant keyphrases chosen for your site, you
absolutely MUST write good, professional, keyword-rich marketing copy (or hire
someone to do so) on every page of your Web site. You almost don't have to do
anything else and you will rank high.
Meta Tags Aren't a Panacea
Second, don't put all your eggs in the meta tags basket. Most clients that come
to me are under the false impression that they simply need to put some keywords
into their meta tags (a hidden bit of code that is read by search engines to
help properly index Web sites), and high rankings will be the natural result.
The meta keyword tag is helpful, but also highly overrated. In almost every case
the reason a Web site is not highly ranked is simply a lack of good,
professional marketing copy. Period. (See Heather Lloyd-Martin's article
entitled, "How to Write a Keyword Rich Homepage" for more information.
Design Your Site with Search Engines in Mind And third, watch out for site
designs that aren't search engine-friendly. I often encounter poor Web design --
incorrect usage of frames, java-enabled mouse over buttons (as opposed to
javascript or simple .gifs), or dynamically generated pages that cannot be
indexed by many engines. It's no fun telling these site owners they'll never see
high search engine rankings unless they go back to square one with their site
designs. Many of these people just spent a ton of money on some fancy design and
are less than thrilled to hear what I tell them. The smart ones listen and do
what it takes; I'm not sure what happens to the other ones. (See Shirley
Kaiser's article, "Designing for Search Engines and Stars" for more information
on how to design a search engine-friendly site.)
Stay Tuned...
We've just touched the tip of the iceberg in this first column. In other
articles we'll drill into the specific things that you can do to boost your
rankings such as title tags, meta descriptions, image alt tags, headers, and
submission and reporting tools. We'll also explore more general issues such as
determining the best keywords for your site and understanding doorway pages.
Contact Jill Whalen by e-mail at
jill@highrankings.com, or by phone at 508-309-3037
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Jill Whalen of High Rankings is an internationally recognized
search engine optimization consultant
and editor of the free weekly High Rankings Advisor
search engine marketing
newsletter
She specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations and seminars.
Jill's handbook, "The
Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" teaches business owners how
and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make
sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines.
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