Optimizing Sites for Search Engines

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Optimizing Sites for Search Engines

• Dave Poortvliet
• Web Manager
• Grand Valley State University
• poortvld_at_gvsu.edu
• www.gvsu.edu

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Common Search Engine Questions
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How do search engines work?

• Search engines use automated software (known as
  robots or spiders) to follow links on Web sites,
  harvesting information and compiling large
  databases.
• Each search engine uses its own set of criteria
  to decide what to include in its database and how
  to rank its results.

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Which search engines should I register with?As
many as you can. The top 7 search engines account
for 95 of web traffic combined

• Google
• Yahoo!
• AltaVista
• Excite

• Infoseek
• HotBot
• Lycos

Dont forget about open directories www.dmoz.org
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How long does it take to be listed?

• It can take anywhere from 24 hours to 6 weeks or
  more! It depends on the search engine.

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How do I get my Web site to the top of search
engines?

• There is no guaranteed way to get your Web site
  to the top of search engines. However following
  these steps will increase your ranking.
• Organize meta tags keywords correctly
• Increase your link popularity
• Avoid spamming search engines
• Remember, search engines change the way they
  prioritize the listings every few months.

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Meta Tags
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Meta Tags

• Title Tag
• 80 characters or less
• Do not repeat words more than once
• Should appeal to search engines and people
• Here's where your title would go

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Meta Tags

• Meta Title Tag
• If you've developed a good title, that describes
  your site well, you can repeat it here, or place
  your main keyword or key phrase here.
• here"

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Meta Tags

• resource-type
• Tells the search engine that this is an HTML
  document.
• revisit-after
• Invites the search engine to revisit your website
  every 30 days.

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Meta Tags

• Description
• Limit it to 150 characters
• Include keywords
• Don't repeat keywords more than 5 times

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Meta Tags

• Keywords
• 500 characters or less
• Develop your keywords first, then build your
  other meta tags around these keywords.
• Do NOT repeat key words more than 3 times. Many
  search engines will consider this "Keyword
  Stuffing" and will not list your site at all.
• We will go into this in more detail later in the
  presentation.

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Meta Tags

• Robots
• This tag is asking the robot to list all of your
  site. Some engines only list your entry or index
  page. But, if this tag is present, the "robot"
  will list the maximum pages it's been programmed
  to list for your site.

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Meta Tags

• Distribution
• This tag tells the robot that your site is of
  interest to the whole world and not just
  "regional" or "limited" in some other way.
• Rating
• This tag rates your site. Similar to the Movie or
  TV rating of programs.

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Finding Those Magic Key Words
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Finding Those Magic Key Words

• Compile a list of a few words you feel will work,
  go to your favorite search engine, enter them,
  and see what comes up.
• When you find something that ranks your
  competitors high in the list, check out the
  sites.
• View the page source code and find the keyword
  meta information they are using. Add as
  appropriate to your list.http//www.keywordcount.
  com/
• Check the page content to see which keywords are
  sprinkled throughout it. See how the keyword you
  used to get this page is handled. You may find
  clues as to how best to use it on your page.

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Finding Those Magic Key Words

• Write a good description of your service or
  product like you are writing an ad. Hand it to
  several people and ask them if they were looking
  for this product or service on the web what
  keywords would they type in.
• Read message boards and newsgroups on your
  product or service and find out what keywords
  people are using in their discussions
• Check the popularity of the keywords you have
  chosen in search engines. http//www.goodkeywords.
  com/
• Trends show that people are not searching with
  one word in search engines anymore, they know to
  type phrases to narrow their search. You can
  capitalize on this with your keywords.

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Key Word Tips
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Key Word Tips

• Brainstorm
• Thesaurus
• Ask others
• Check competitors keywords
• Related keywords
• Misspelled words
• Add Location
• Long Short
• NO SPAM no unrelated keywords
• Check Popularity

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Key Word Tips

• Include at least 100 words in page text and
  repeat keywords through out page text
• Use keywords at the beginning of the page
• Place keywords close to each other
• Repeat keywords 3-5 times for every 100 words
• Include keywords in ALT tags
• Create a site index page

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Link Popularity
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Link Popularity

• What is link popularity?
• When some search engines index a page, they will
  check their database for how many pages are
  linking to that page (or domain). This will give
  the page a 'link popularity' rating.

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Link Popularity

• Due to the success of Google, major search
  engines have decided to rank sites based on link
  popularity. (techpreview.search.msn.com)
• Not only is the number of links important, but
  the quality of the links is very important.
  Therefore, a link from a more popular site or a
  site with related content is going to give your
  site a higher rating.

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Link Popularity

• To find web pages linking to your site, simply
  search Google for
• linkwww.YourDomain.com

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Link Popularity

• Now that you can find out who links to your site,
  it's just as easy to find out who's linking to
  your competitors' Web sites.
• linkwww.CompetitorDomain.com

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Link Popularity

• So how do you go about getting a site to link to
  yours?
• Simple. Just ask! You can now find what sites
  are linking to your competitors sites. Email the
  webmasters of these sites and ask if they would
  create a link to your site.
• Make it easy for them to link to you.
• Offer a variety of links banners, buttons, and
  text links.
• Email them the HTML link code, so all they have
  to do is copy and paste the code into their
  pages.
• Offer to create a link on your site back to
  theirs

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Spamming Search Engines
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Spamming Search Engines

• Also known as spamdexing. This is the practice
  of using unethical or unprofessional techniques
  to try to improve search engine rankings.

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Spamming Search Engines

• Keyword stuffing.
• Invisible text.
• Tiny text.
• Page redirects.
• Meta tags stuffing.
• Unrelated keywords
• Do not submit the same page more than once on the
  same day to the same search engine.
• Do not submit virtually identical pages
• Code swapping.
• Do not submit more than the allowed number of
  pages per engine per day or week.

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Tools

• KeywordCount.comside by side comparison of
  keywords from two separate websites
• GoodKeywords.comfree Windows software for
  finding popular keywords
• SearchEngineWatch.com
• a great source for all things pertaining to
  search engines
• www.widexl.com/remote/search-engines/metatag-analy
  zer.html
• Meta Tag analysis tool
• www.widexl.com/remote/link-popularity/index.html
• Find out how popular your site is