As stated earlier, search engine optimization involves altering
both visual and non-visual characteristics of a web page.
First, we will discuss the logical steps in determining
the most relevant keyword phrases and then we will discuss
the specifics of Meta Tags, Page Layout, Body Text, Page
Tags and, finally, the importance of linkage.
The first step, and one of the most critical, is determining
the appropriate keyword phrase(s). A thorough analysis combines
the analysis of 'real' search phrase data (the frequency
of specific search phrases actually used) to the most appropriate
keyword phrases relevant to a specific pages content. Remember
that the more focused the keyword phrase, the more biased
the viewer.
The beauty of selecting the appropriate keyword phrase
and optimizing a web site or web page for that phrase is
that you will be 'found' by the individual who is searching
for your specific content. Some individuals view number
of hits as a means of judging a web sites success, but really
success for an Internet web site is the number of 'interested'
or 'biased' views. Search engine derived traffic to a properly
optimized web site gives you just that - a very targeted
viewer.
Proper optimization is continued by adding, altering or
manipulating specific characteristics of the web page using
the selected keyword search phrase(s). This includes the
page layout, the actual text used on the page (body text),
certain page tags, and non-visual Meta tags.
Meta tags are non-visual elements placed in the beginning
of a document between the header tags.
<head>
<title> The Title of Your Page</title>
<meta name="description" content="Description
of your page here.">
<meta name="keywords" content="something,something
else">
</head>
<title> The Title of Your Page</title>
Every page should have an appropriate title which should
contain selected keyword phrase(s). The title should be
between 6 and 12 words.
<meta name="description" content="Description
of your page here.">
Should contain keyword phrase(s) and between 10 and 25
words.
<meta name="keywords" content="something,something
else">
The list should be in hierarchical order, without spaces
and no more then 50 words. Do not dilute the importance
of each keyword by including words that are not likely to
be used in a given search. Each keyword used within this
tag should also appear somewhere within your pages content
to avoid spamming penalties. The last keyword should be
your site identification from your URL (www.your_URL.com).
There are other Meta Tags, but they do not add any significant
contribution to search engine optimization, so I will not
mention them here.
A search engine spider 'reads' the source code (HTML; Hypertext
Markup Language) from top to bottom and from left to right.
Logically, text in the beginning of a document is more relevant
to the subject of the page then text near the end. Therefore,
a page layout should emphasis relevant keyword phrases near
the top of document ('top of the page text'). Consider placing
link menus on the right side of a page as opposed to the
more common placement on the left. In addition, I would
not recommend using frames.
The body text should obviously be well written. The text
body is for 'real' people, therefore, give pertinent information
in an easy, readable fashion. Remember that content is king,
you could have the highest ranking site, but if the content
is not what the viewer is after, then all is for not.
It is wise to begin sentences with keyword phrases. In
addition, you want to be sure to use the keyword phrase
multiple times throughout the text body. You quantify your
keyword density by dividing the number of 'keyword' by the
total number of words in the text (do not count stop words:
e.g. a, and, the, etc.). Example: the phrase 'ladybug' is
repeated 13 times and there are 365 words in my body text.
Therefore, 23/365 = 0.063 which equals a keyword density
of 6.3%.
Header Tags
<h1>My Header Here</h1>
Include keyword phrase in header tags. A header tag can
be placed anywhere within your page.
Alt Tags
<img src="my_image.gif" alt="the name
of the image" height=50 width=400>
Alt tags should be included on all images. In addition,
adding height and width dimensions to all images will increase
page load speed. When one places a cursor over an image,
a small text box appears displaying the contents of the
alt tag. If reasonable, include keyword phrases in alt tags.
Link Tags
<a href="New_Page.html">Text to the New
Page</a>
The anchor text ('Text to the New Page') should annotate
the page it is referencing (i.e. linking to). Therefore,
make the text appropriately descriptive, and include keyword
phrase if applicable.
The first step of a sound link strategy is to understand
the various types of hyperlinks.
A link (hyperlink) is simply a unidirectional pointer from
the source page that contains the link to some destination,
generally another page. Within a web page, links fall into
five different categories: internal links, inbound links,
outbound links, dangling links and dangerous links.
Internal Links
These are all the links within one web site. A site map,
which shows all the relationships between the various pages
within a particular web site, is actually showing the internal
link structure of the site.
Inbound Links
All external links, those outside of the site, which 'point'
to a page within your site. An inbound link can add to the
importance of a page with regard to search engine indexing.
Outbound Links
All the links within a particular site that point to a
page which resides outside of the specific web site.
Dangling Links
Dangling links are simply links that point to any page
with no outgoing links or, in some cases, links to pages
that have not been indexed. From a spider's point of you,
a dead-end (i.e. no place to go from here).
Dangerous Links
A type of outbound link which points to a site that is
detrimental to a web site's search engine 'score'.
Each type of link: internal; inbound; outbound; dangling
and dangerous should be strategically considered when designing,
optimizing or maintaining an Internet web site.
Internal Links
The structure of a site's internal links should be designed
with search engine rank in mind. One should cluster pages
within general themes. Key pages should be the recipient
of links from all the various theme pages. I would also
recommend having any 'links' page (e.g. a resource page)
possessing a relatively few number of internal links directed
towards it (this will be further explained in the discussion
of outbound links).
Inbound Links
One of the most important aspects of high rankings and
maintaining high rankings is the number of inbound links
coming into your site, what is referred to as 'link popularity'.
The nature to this 'popularity' is not so simple as just
the total number of sites that link back to your site.
There is also a qualitative characteristic to the 'vote'.
A page that links to a site that has a higher search engine
ranking will contribute more 'points' to the ranking score
then a page with a lower score.
Page 'x' linking to page 'y': the amount of importance
conferred on page 'y' is proportional to the importance
of page 'x' and inversely proportional to the number of
pages 'x' points to. This is further explained in the 'Google
Elaboration'.
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I do not want to over simplify the search engine spider's
algorithms, there is more involved in the analysis. For
instance, the more 'theme related' sites that reference
your site (with a link) the better the search engine ranking
score. Theme, as defined by the content of your site (e.g.
a computer software site linking to a computer software
site is more valuable then a dog food site referencing a
computer software site).
In addition, some links from certain pages carry no weight
in ranking the referenced page. It is also possible for
your ranking score to be penalized for having a link from
a certain 'flagged' site, dangerous links (e.g. link farms).
Note: No inbound link can cause rank penalty to the targeted
page. This makes total sense, in that one does not have
control over the external pages that link to their site.
Outbound Links
All the links within a particular site that are directed
away from that site have a negative affect on the search
engine ranking score. This simply means that one needs to
be very discriminating concerning outbound links. Discriminating
web site 'theme' relatedness and site quality should be
used to justify all outbound links.
Dangling Links
Dead end pages have a minimal affect on the overall search
engine ranking score of a web site. This being said, one
is loosing valuable opportunity by designing pages with
dangling links. Therefore, every page within a web site
would have at least one link to another page within that
site.
Dangerous Links
Be very discriminating concerning outbound links, requests
for inbound links and, most importantly, avoid any site
with link farm characteristics. Link farms were setup to
exploit the quantitative nature of ranking link popularity.
They are not 'theme' related, rather their sole purpose
was to develop mass 'group' linking to and from all of those
who join the 'scheme'. These are now identified as a spamming
technique, which will result in rank penalty or index removal.
Avoid all link farms or any sites that even closely relates
to them! Make sure none of the outbound links are dead links.
Requesting inbound links from sites with good search engine
ranking scores and focus on those sites with similar themes
to the requesting web site.
Once you have completed the above optimization procedures,
it is time to submit your pages to the various search engines.
This should be performed by an individual not automated
by software (i.e. a submission service should not be used).
There are search engines with free submissions (Google,
AltaVista, DMOZ, etc.) and search engines that charge a
fee (Yahoo, Inktomi, FAST, etc.). Fees charged for submission
are generally annual recurring fees.
It is worth noting that the search engines themselves have
formed relatively complex relationships.
Google feeds AOL, Teoma, Netscape, Iwon, AskJeeves and
Yahoo.
Overture feeds Go, AltaVista, Yahoo, MSN, AllTheWeb, Lycos,
Excite, and IWon.
Inktomi feeds Hotbot, LookSmart, Overture and Excite.
Yahoo recently bought Inktomi. DMOZ feeds Lycos, Google,
AllTheWeb and Hotbot.
LookSmart feeds AltaVista and MSN.
Fast feeds AllTheWeb and Lycos.
Ever since search engine algorithms have been written there
have been individuals who have used 'tricks' to abuse them.
This is referred to as 'spamming'. It has included such
devious tactics as placing multiple keywords in a color
that matches the background (e.g. non-visual to the human
eye but the spiders read them), submitting your site multiple
times at a high frequency to the search engine, multiple
URL's pointing to the same pages, the use of Doorway pages
(pages optimized for a single keyword that re-directs to
the 'real' target page)... the list goes on and on.
Therefore, the algorithms have increased their complexity
to scout out such deviant acts. When the spiders identify
spamming techniques, the corresponding page will be penalized.
The penalty could be a simple reduction in rank score or
in some cases, all out removal from the search engine directory.
Be Careful!
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