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Optimizing for Search Engines
( www.searchengines.com )
Search engines are very friendly!
- The vast majority of Internet users find new web sites by using a search engine.
- A position within the top 20 listings of a major search engine tremendously increases
traffic to a web site.
- Search engine placement can be a low-cost process in marketing your web sites.
- Search engines help people find relevant information on the Internet.
- Major search engines maintain huge databases of web sites that users can search by
typing in some text.
DO'S:
<title>
- HTML <title> is the most important part of your page,
- <title> should appeal to search engines and people,
- <title> needs to interest the reader,
- <title> should appear right after the <head> tag,
- Don't repeat the same keyword in your <title> more than twice; it's considered spam.
Keywords in page text
Choosing appropriate keywords is extremely important; keywords are what lead search
engine users to your site. Use alt tags to describe images. keywords can be included
in these alt descriptions to pull a higher weight factor for your pages. It's also
accessibility friendly.
- include at least 100 words in page text,
- use keywords at the beginning of the page,
- place keywords close to each other (proximity),
- repeat keywords 3-7 times for every 100 words.
Meta-description
The meta description tag describes your site's content, giving search engines' spiders
an accurate summary filled with multiple keywords.
Some engines use it as a site's summary on their results pages. If they do, the reader
may actually see this hidden tag. Make sure its contents are enticing to the reader.
- use meta description tag on all pages,
- limit it to 150 characters,
- include keywords (near the beginning of the summary),
- don't repeat keywords more than 7 times.
Meta-keywords
List your keywords in order of importance. Include all your most important keywords.
It's recommended that you repeat the same keyword 3-7 times, but not in a row.
- use it to list keywords,
- limit it to 1024 characters,
- list keywords in order of importance,
- don't repeat the same keyword more than 7 times.
Comment tags
Comment tags are another great way to add keywords to your site. (<!-- webmaster comments
go here -->)
- should be placed on every single page,
- can be used to boost keyword counts,
- shouldn't include more than seven repetitions of a keyword.
URL name
The URL name is the part of the URL that comes between "www" and ".com."
URL Keywords:
- name files with keywords,
- consider alphabetical hierarchy,
- relies on a hierarchy including special characters and numbers as well as letters,
- is used by directories and small search engines,
- should be considered when naming files, creating a title or buying a URL,
- look for a URL name containing keywords.
DON'TS:
Search Engine spam
Don't use:
- Meta refresh tags,
- invisible text (background and text are same color),
- irrelevant keywords in the title and meta tags,
- excessive repetition of keywords,
- overuse of mirror sites (same sites that point to different URLS),
- submitting too many pages in one day,
- identical or nearly identical pages (dynamic sites are prone to this),
- submitting to an inappropriate category,
- link farms.
Frames
- present problems for search engines and people,
- should be avoided when possible,
- must be supplemented by text in the <noframes> tag,
- are ideally accompanied by workaround pages.
Files that search engines don't use
Text in graphics (use ALT tags).
Pages that require registration, cookies, or passwords.
- XML,
- Java applets,
- Acrobat files (PDF),
- Dynamic content (URLs with "?" in them), except Google, Altavista, FAST and Inktomi,
- Multimedia files (Flash, Shockwave, streaming video),
- Don't use spam or frames,
- Create workaround pages for dynamic and framed sites.
See also: Meta tags
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/),
Search Engine Optimization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization)
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