7
Necessities To Do Well In Google
7 Necessities To Do Well In Google
By Mark Daoust
Search engine optimization is one of the most popular topics in
Internet Marketing. The reasons are obvious. Search engines provide
highly targeted traffic at a zero or very low cost. There are a
lot of myths, debates, and disagreements over what is good Search
Engine Optimization (SEO). We have decided to look at 7 principles
that you should definitely follow when optimizing your site for
search engines.
Use Meta Tags
You will certainly here a large number of people tell you that
meta tags are not important and are useless. There is some truth
to this, however, it is largely untrue.
Meta tags were first included in web pages primarily for search
engines and directories. Meta tags are to be used as summaries as
to what your website is about. Because they were good summaries
and a logical way to identify and classify a website, search engines
used meta tags in their ranking algorithms. This method was good
in the early days of search engines and the Internet.
Unfortunately, everyone else figured out that by “optimizing”
their meta tags, they could better their rankings. This optimization
quickly turned into spam. Search engine technology developed and
soon most search engines would remove meta tags from their ranking
algorithms.
However, meta tags are still extremely important in SEO. You want
your site to be easy for search engines to crawl. Meta tags are
still used by spiders to make a quick assessment as to the nature
of a website. Meta tags are also used to identify the author, the
company name, various rules for the spider to follow, and a general
rating for the spider. An example of the meta tags that you should
have are listed below:
This describes what language and format the site is in. This would
be different for an XML document or other formats.
Is this site up for only a short time? If so, let the engine know
how long the information is good for.
Do you only have regional content, or should the whole world be
opened up to see you?
Who owns the site, or who designed the site. This WILL help your
rankings if someone does a direct search on your company name.
Obvious important copyright information.
This should be one or two sentences. Make them well-formed sentences…don’t
use sentence fragments. Use a few of your desired keywords, but
do not spam the sentences with your keywords.
Use anywhere between 6-15 keywords or phrases in this section.
Tell the search engine robot to follow all of your pages. This
doesn’t mean that it will, it just gives them permission.
How often do you change your content? Once a day, once a month?
Let the robot know this information, but be truthful!
Do you have an adult website? Make sure you indicate that here.
If it is for the general public, then let them know that as well.
Meta tags, although not crucial to your ranking, are helpful for
search engines. For this reason alone it is good to employ them
on your website.
Use Properly Formed HTML
One of the biggest mistakes people fall into is that they use improper
HTML on their sites. HTML is relatively easy to code. Well formed
HTML is structured clearly and neatly. Poorly formed HTML includes
open tags, closing tags out of order, minimal information when forming
your tags, and errors that may not show up in a browser.
When a search engine spider visits your website, its task is to
ascertain the information on your website and give it a grade. If
you have poorly formed HTML on your website, you are making the
task of the spider more difficult. Additionally, if you have poorly
formed HTML on your website, the search engine may not consider
your website to be the best candidate for your desired keywords
as poorly formed HTML represents a lack of professionalism.
You should always follow a few rules when forming your HTML:
A. Close All of Your Tags
Every HTML tag has an open and a close tag, with the exception
of a line break (). Do not leave tags hanging. For example:
This is my text
The problem with this code is that the person forming the code
did not close out the tag. This means that it is still open.
B. Close Your Tags In Order
Although a minor issue, closing your tags in order creates better
HTML. For example:
This is my text
These tags are closed out of order. You should always close the
last open tag first.
C. Use ALT Tags on Images
A search engine does not know what an image looks like. Most spiders
can figure a few things out about an image by its file name, but
an ALT tag should tell a spider everything about that image. For
example:
Properly formed HTML will make it easier for search engines to
know what your site is about. The faster they can digest your information,
the more they will digest.
Avoid Excessive JavaScript
JavaScript is a great tool to have. It can make your site interactive
and provide better, stronger interfaces for your users. However,
it should be avoided at all costs when implementing content.
JavaScript is different than most every other technology on the
Internet as it is a client-side technology as opposed to server-side.
The difference is simple. When a person views your webpage, if there
is JavaScript, the JavaScript will be downloaded to that person’s
computer and executed on their computer. If JavaScript were server-side,
then the execution of the code would happen entirely on the server
where the website is located.
Because JavaScript is a client-side language, search engine spiders
are not able to read what they output. So, if you are trying to
update your content frequently using JavaScript, the search engine
will never know the difference.
JavaScript is still a great resource for forms, validation, and
other parts of your page that are not crucial to the meaning of
your page.
Avoid Dynamic URL’s
A URL such as(http://www.anydomain.com/program.php?id=456&p=4)
is not search engine friendly. Search engines have come a long ways
in their ability to spider
URL’s such as the one above. In fact, you will probably be
included in an index with that style of url, but it is not a friendly
URL.
With the introduction of mod_rewrite, you can easily make dynamic
URL’s into search engine friendly URLs. Mod_rewrite would
give you the ability to make the above url into something that looked
like this:
(http://www.anydomain.com/program-456-4.html)
Search engines will be more inclined to index this type of URL.
Don’t “Over-Optimize”
There really is no such thing as over-optimization. Over-optimization
is actually search engine spam. Search engines hate it when people
spam them with keywords. A few examples of search engine spam. If
you make your site sound natural, but form it around a central topic,
you should obtain the perfect balance of keyword density on that
page. If you do not, then you should rethink what your website is
really about.
Spending all of your time making sure every Alt tag has your targeted
keyword in it, or finding a way to include very small or close to
invisible text so that you may spam a certain keyword, is a sure
way to waste your time and ruin the appearance of your website.
Keep Content Fresh
Search engines LOVE fresh, new content. Constantly add new news
to your website, new information, and change your front page. You
do not need to change the look of your website, just the content
on the front page.
Search engines are always trying to provide searchers with the
most relevant, up to date information possible. A page that hasn’t
changed since 2000 will not have as relevant content as a page recently
published with updated information.
There is also an issue of pride with the search engines. Part of
the search engine wars has been to see who can keep the freshest
index. As a result, search engines such as Google take note of sites
that change frequently. The more frequently your site changes, the
more frequently they will come back and re-index your site.
Don’t Rely on SEO
This article has focused on some basics of SEO, but if there is
one rule to follow in developing your website it is this: do not
rely solely on search engines. There are plenty of ways to develop
a steady stream of traffic to your website outside of search engines.
Link exchanges, purchasing links, advertising, participating in
online communities are great ways to build your traffic. Don’t
be afraid to purchase advertising. If you have a great website,
people will refer others to your website.
The lesson in all of this is that good search engine optimization
stems from organized development, fresh content, and generally an
attempt to develop a useful website for your visitors. If you do
this, you will be surprised at how SEO really takes care of itself.
Search engines are looking for well-developed, content-rich websites.
Simply give them what they are looking for and let them worry about
filtering out all the people who are attempting to “trick”
them.
About the Author Mark Daoust is the
owner of Site-Reference.com and TowerSearch.com. Add your site to
TowerSearch to receive a guaranteed #1 position for free!
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