This page deals with
the bare basics of how to get the best
possible ranking results in search engines
and online search directories.
Search engine optimisation
is highly complex; technical experts in
this field charge large amounts of money
to provide this service. At B2B Web Consultants
we include search engine configuration
at not extra charge whenever we design
or revamp a web site.
These notes offer some
tips and suggestions but they only scratch
the surface of this very involved subject.
They help students on our training courses
to understand what this subject is about.
The material on this page will not tell
you al you need to know about how to optimise
your web pages for best results in search
engines - not by a long way.
Good web site design
If it is important that
your web site is found in major search
engines, then you must design it correctly.
DO NOT use frames or host your web site
on cheap hosting services that put your
web site into a frame.
DO NOT employ a cover
page that has no content on it as your
index.htm(l). Get your most important content
into your home page. If necessary use introductory
statements that lead into pages that carry
more detailed information. DO NOT use pages
that are composed solely of FLASH or are
made up only of images.
Title tags
The title tag is part
of the header code in HTML. It is important
that the text in this tag is correct. Put
your most important word at the start of
the title tag. NEVER leave a title tag
empty.
The title tag is very
important for most search engines and it
is important to write each page's title
tag and put some thought into this.
Make sure that your most
crucial keywords appear in the title tag.
Meta tags
Meta tags are bits of
html code that sit between the <head></head>
tags at the top of a web page.
The description meta
tag is very handy because many search engines
display it in their results.
The description tag for
this page looks like this:
<meta name="description" content="Search
engine optimisation guidance and rules">
So, should we bother
with meta tags? Most major search engines
ignore them. The keyword meta tag is the
better known and the one for this page
looks like this:
<meta name="keywords" content="search
engines, optimisation, ranking, popularity
indexes, online directories, keyword density,
meta tags, meta, tags, title, submit your
site">
Notice that each keyword
is separated by a comma and a space and
the whole string of keywords is one continuous
line.
Few search engines both
with meta tag keywords and those that do
don't attach much importance to them. You
can put single words or phrases with several
words between the commas. The golden rule
is: never repeat any word more than 3 times
anywhere in the keyword tag.
Robots meta tags
Often confused with the
keyword and description meta tags are the
robots meta tags. Well they are meta tags
but they play a very different role and
are vastly more important.
These also sit between
the head tags and they issue instructions
to visiting search engine spiders. For
most pages in your web site, you will to
instruct the spiders to index the page
and to follow the links contained within
it.
The robots tag is therefore
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,
FOLLOW">
If you do not want your
page to end up in the search engines (maybe
because its just a systems page), then
you would put
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX">
Just to add to your confusion,
there are also things called robots text
files. These are very small text files
that sit on the root of your web server
(where your home page is) and also issue
instructions to visiting spiders. They
are mainly used to disallow spiders from
visiting certain files and folders on
your web site. They exclude them from places
you don't want them to go.
What is written on the
web page in main body text is the key to
ranking results in search engines. Nearly
all the major search engines index words
and phrases that are found in the text
of a web page. Getting this right is mission
critical to getting good scores in the
search engine game. Make sure your most
valued key words are in your title tag.
Write a fresh title tag for each page of
the web site.
Try to get your most
important text as high up the page as possible.
This not only helps readers but also help
search engines.
Make good use of titles
and subtitles to split up your text and
make it easy to read. This will also help
to win points with the search engines.
Content
If you have a topic that
is specialised, make a separate page for
it. Look at the words, terms and phrases
that makes your web site unique - look
for words that are the focus of what you
have to offer. If you your site is about
clothes, for example, and you have a lot
to say about skirts, then make a page with
the filename skirts.htm, with the word
skirts in the title tag and with a range
of skirt related phrases in the body text,
for example, grass skirts, pleated skirts
or angle-length skirts.
If you have several pages
that relate together in terms of their
content, then make a separate folder for
them. Use a key word in the name of that
folder, e.g. /skirts/ and then have a series
of pages with the word skirt in, like,
/skirts/grasskirts.htm
Aim to place at least 500 words of text on each
web page.
Getting links BACK to your web site
Some search engines - Google in particular - count
the number web pages that link to your web site. You can read more
about this on the Google
web site.
Each link to your web site counts as a vote for
that site. If you have the Googlebar installed on your browser,
you can see the popularity ranking index for any site. Ideally you
would want to get your site up to index 4 or above. Scored are out
of 10.
There is some indication that the links that work
best are those from pages that have a similar content to the content
on your site.
Hence, if your site is about, say, "red roses",
then the link backs that will work best for you will be those from
other pages concerned with "red roses". Links from sites
concerned with roses in general might also be of help.
Useful online resources
Here are some web sites
that you might find useful:
SEO
Chat - very useful
forum on optimising web pages
Find a web site called
Overture - its a major resource for serious
students of web search engine optimisation
and marketing. It is part of Yahoo.
If you are working with
a site concerned with online shopping or
stores, have a look at Froogle, which is
part of the Google search engine. Kelkoo
is the Yahoo equivalent.
Domain names
Search engines will also
search domain names. So if your business
is called Bloggs Limited and you make Steele
Bearings, do not use bloggsltd.co.uk as
your web site's main domain name. Try to
get steelebearings.co.uk or bloggsteelebearings.co.uk
If you web site is relevant
only to the United Kingdom, then use a
.co.uk domain name for your it, NOT a .com.
Make sure your web site (in this case)
is hosted on a web server that has a UK
IP address.
Many major search engines
are based on a .com address (e.g. google.com).
But a user is in the UK, they will be directed
to the UK version of Google.
Search engine results
often default to the country of the user.
They will be able to tell the IP address
of the computer/Internet service you are
using to make the search.
Submit your web address to major search
engines
If you have registered
a new domain name and have made a new web
site for it, you should manually submit
to the top 4 or 5 search engines. To do
this you have to visit each search engine
in turn and find the place where it says
you can add your URL (i.e. web address).
You should also submit your site to DMOZ
(the open directory project) as this feeds
most of the major search engines with data.
It can take up to 3 months
for your submission to get into a search
engine. You can speed this process up by
using "pay per click" services.
Do your own search
engine optimisation by all means.
But, if getting good
results in search engines is mission critical
to your bushiness, then use an expert to
do this work for you.
It will be worth the
extra cost because this is a very complex
field.
