Hi Wheelman ~
What a remarkably smart move, to actually 'plan' a site using the best
techniques for optimization. Most people bemoan *after* the fact that
their site isn't indexed, and it is so much easier to plan and design
it right than to try to 'fix' problems.
In a nutshell, you should design a VISITOR-friendly site, easy to
navigate, no frames, no Flash (at least don't design the entire site
in Flash), good HTML, and establish a linking structure to and from
other relevant sites.
=========================
What the Experts Say
=========================
The leading experts on search engines, search engine optimization and
search-engine friendly web design, such as:
* Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Watch
- http://www.searchenginewatch.com
* Detlev Johnson, Search Engine Guide
- http://www.searchengineguide.com
* Shari Thurow, WebProNews & Search Engine Guide
- http://www.webpronews.com/
* Jill Whalen, High Rankings Advisor
- http://www.highrankings.com/
all say the same thing ...
Content, content, content! Without rich content - actual text - using
those words and/or terms under which you want to be found, others
whose sites may not be as good as yours will end up with better search
engine results placement (SERPS).
Search engines search and index text. A lot of times people forget
that, but if there's no text there to index, the chances your site
doesn't exist, at least so far as search engines are concerned.
==========================
Design for Your Market
==========================
You know your market. Who are they? What information/products do they
look for? What search terms will they use to find your site?
If you're not sure, make a list of what you *think* it will be, and
spend a day with Wordtracker -
- http://www.wordtracker.com/
Seek out all the related phrases you can, then write your copy based
around the best, most relevant ones, and create your Title tags
accordingly.
==========================
Back to the Basics - HTML
==========================
Shari Thurow, one of the leading authorities in web design and search
engine optimization (and author of the book "Search Engine
Visibility"), recently made the following observation with regard to
HTML:
"Clean HTML is absolutely imperative for search engine
indexing. Browsers are extremely forgiving when it comes
to displaying pages with "unclean" HTML (unclosed tags,
no quotation marks, etc.). Search engine spiders are
not so forgiving. Even something as simple as a missing
quotation mark on the <.a href="page.html"> can cause a
spider to not index text or a link." (See: Link Exchange
Digest, July 3, 2003, "Clean HTML")
- http://list.audettemedia.com/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0307&L=led&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&F=&S=&P=282
She explained how errors in HTML can affect your ability to be
indexed, and ultimately, ranked.
Below are some HTML elements which are often overlooked or omitted,
but which play an important part in your visitor's experience when he
visits your site. A good rule of thumb is always "what's good for the
visitor is good for search engines." The following, considered
"basics" for the best visitor experience are:
1. DOCTYPE Declaration
----------------------
DOCTYPES are essential to the proper rendering and functioning of web
documents in compliant browsers. It is also essential for the search
engines to understand and follow the coding contained on your pages.
DOCTYPE is explained and discussed further in "A List Apart",
- http://www.alistapart.com/stories/doctype/
and in Web Design Group's article, "Choosing a DOCtype",
- http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html
2. Title & Alt Tags
--------------------
Google recommends the use of descript alt tags for every graphic. This
is because search engines cannot read graphic images. Instead of
"Click here for larger picture", use a description of the graphic.
This enhances accessibility issues for visitors who may have their
graphics turned off, as well as for those who use audible browsers for
their Internet browsing.
Google's suggestion: "Make sure that your TITLE and ALT tags are
descriptive and accurate." (See Google's Design and Content
Guidelines) - ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Putting both the TITLE and ALT tags to work for you makes sense, with
the bonus of giving the search engines substance to index. Your
descriptives should complement your content whenever possible.
3. Accessibility
----------------
Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. 794
and 794d, set forth the minimum government standards for
accessibility.
Among these standards are such items as ALT and TITLE tags (as
discussed above), and website design which will enable those with
special needs to be able to access and understand your web site.
You might want to run each page of your site through Bobby, which will
give you a full context report of any portions of your site which do
not meet the minimum standards. If you make all the corrections
suggested, it will greatly enhance any search engine's ability to
crawl your website as well.
The Bobby analysis page can be found here:
- http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp
4. Design For Your Visitors
---------------------------
Basically, understand your market and design for your visitors.
Providing them with what it takes to make them feel comfortable using
your services will not only increase your income, but will no doubt
help with your SERPs on Google. Since the search engines are almost
constantly changing and tweaking their algorithms to bring the visitor
relevant content for their search terms, designing your sites with
that content can help keep you from bouncing around each time there is
a change.
Add enough content rich in the words you want to be found under so
that the search engines can index each page.
=========================
What Google Recommends
=========================
Google indexes over 3 billion pages, and its responsibility is to
those who use the search functions, not to webmasters or website
owners who want to get listed. Moreover, Google enjoys the reputation
for returning results which are RELEVANT to the searcher's search
terms.
Other search engines are likewise trying to be the 'best' and return
the most relevant results, and you will see that term, "relevant" all
over the Internet by those who really understand search engine
optimization.
Here's what Google says about its technology in "Why Use Google?":
"The heart of our software is PageRank™ ...
"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of
the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator
of an individual page's value. In essence, Google
interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by
page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the
sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also
analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages
that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help
to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank,
which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of
course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't
match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with
sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that
are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes
far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and
examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content
of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match
for your query."
- ://www.google.com/technology/index.html
This does not mean go out and link with every free for all links or
linking scheme you can find. Google specifically warns about that in
its Quality Guidelines - Basic Principles:
"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your
site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to
web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own
ranking may be affected adversely by those links."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
the reason being that Google will penalize you for such machinations
in the form of banning your site.
"... We will not comment on the individual reasons a page was
removed and we do not offer an exhaustive list of practices
that can cause removal. However, certain actions such as
cloaking, writing text that can be seen by search engines but
not by users, or setting up pages/links with the sole purpose
of fooling search engines may result in permanent removal from
our index."
===========================
Establishing Links
===========================
As noted above, Google's PageRank is based on the number of pages
which link to your site.
There are many practical ways of establishing links which are
beneficial to you in your endeavor to get respectable position
placement on search engines. These methods may take time, but they
also help in establishing credibility and help with your page rank.
Approach like-minded or complementary businesses about linking to your
site (with a reciprocal link from your own). This works without
harming search engine positioning or page rank.
It stands to reason that what's good for Google, currently ranked as
the number one search engine is good rule to follow for other search
engines.
Articles on Link Popularity
===========================
In case you have some problems with establishing some links, I usually
recommend a couple of excellent articles on how to establish the right
kind of links are available in Traffick's "Ten Steps to Building Links
to Your Site", Craig Fifield - 5/3/2002
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=77
and "The Right Way to Improve Link Popularity", By Paul J. Bruemmer
-4/14/2002 -
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=41
Notice both articles offer suggestions which can be easily adapted for
use on any website without resorting to link farms. They both point
out the differences and offer easy ways to get started to the kind of
linking search engines prefer.
===========================
Pay Attention to
Google's Recommendations
===========================
Here are some important links from Google's Webmaster Information and
Webmaster Guidelines. Although I've covered some of the important
issues, I really recommend reading the pages (there aren't that many)
and making note of any that "ring a bell" as you are planning your
site's design.
* How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google?
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
* My Web Pages Are Not Currently Listed (a good 'primer'
on how and why Google works so well)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html
* PageRank Information (covers both Google's PageRank and
SERPS)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
* Webmaster Guidelines (contains both the dos and don'ts)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
* Google Facts & Fiction (can you buy your way to a
high ranking in Google?)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html
* Search Engine Optimizers (some good advice on what to look
for if you're going to hire a Search Engine Optimizer)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
* Frequently Asked Questions (pretty much what it says, but
definitely worth wading through)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html
Some of the information will seem like it doesn't apply to you, but
there will be some things that will be noteworthy as you are planning
- especially things to avoid before you make some grave mistakes.
In addition to the above, it never hurts to keep up with what's
happening. I almost always glean some advice I can put to good use
from subscribing or visiting the following sites.
* Webmaster World - this is an interesting mix of old hat
search engine experts and newbies trying to figure out how
to go about making things work. It covers most of the
important search engines. Obviously, a lot of it is anec-
dotal information, which should be taken with the proverbial
grain of salt. Watch for any postings by GoogleGuy, who
really is a Google engineer. It may be the closest you'll
come to any kind of 'official' information from Google
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/
* Google News on Webmaster World
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/
* Search Engine Watch - Danny Sullivan's website with infor-
mation and updated news concerning all the search engines.
- http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
* Jill Whalen's High Ranking Advisor - Jill has emerged as
a good source of information on search engine optimization
combined with good web design. Subscribe to her newsletter,
you'll be glad you did. Besides, it's free!
- http://www.highrankings.com/
=====================
Summary
=====================
The general consensus is to design for the visitor, use the tools
available to help if you feel you are backed into a corner.
1. Make good use of your Title and Alt tags - put them to work for
you.
2. Use good HTML and make your site user-friendly
3. Rich content. Content is still king, and it will enhance your
chances of getting listed in the major search engines, and good
content will make it easier to establish relevant links TO your site.
4. Don't participate in all those silly schemes others may tell you
will get you right up there at the top. You know, they actually *may*
get you there, for a while. But do you really want to risk getting
banned by the search engines?
5. Remember to include text links to your internal pages so the search
engines can find that content.
=============================
Submitting to Search Engines
=============================
After you have designed your site, and established some links from
relevant sites, you can submit to the important search engines and
directories.
Google recommends, " ... you may want to consider submitting your site
to either or both of these directories. You can submit to Yahoo! by
visiting http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/. You can submit your site
to Netscape's Open Directory Project (DMOZ) by visiting www.dmoz.org.
Once your site is included in either of these directories, Google will
often index your site within six to eight weeks."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html#B2
For DMOZ.org, you will want to dig down deep enough to get where you
more appropriately should be.
Some search engines gather their own listings for the main results
they display. For example, Google crawls the web itself for the main
results it shows.
Other search engines use third-party search providers for their
results. For instance, the main search results at AOL come from
Google's crawler-based listings, rather than from work inside AOL.
Below are the top search engines as determined by Nielsen Net Ratings:
- http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/
* Google -
- ://www.google.com/addurl.html
* DMOZ -
- http://www.dmoz.com/
* All The Web -
- http://www.alltheweb.com/help/webmaster/submit_site.html
* Hotbot & Lycos InSite (requires registration)
- http://insite.lycos.com/searchservices/
* Yahoo! -
- http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/
* Teoma -
- http://www.teoma.com/
MSN's search submit is located here:
- http://search.msn.com/
which takes you to LookSmart, a "for-pay" listing, and can be found
here:
- http://listings.looksmart.com/?synd=zdd&sid=prt100933&chan=zddresults
Just a logical observation: If you are listed on other important
engines, it is pretty certain you will also be listed on MSN.com, or
you can use the LookSmart submission.
An honest estimation of the time it will take to go through the
information and links I gave you is about two days. Don't try to
remember everything, but do make notes of those items which seem to be
significant to you.
If you use the wordtracker, you'll no doubt find that will take
another day's time. That is a fascinating tool, and I have been a bit
surprised on more than one occasion by the search terms which turn up.
It works, by the way, or at least it does when I have used it on
behalf of my own clients.
Again, I am impressed with your taking the time before you design your
site to find out what is important. Good luck with your planning,
design and search engine placement.
Regards,
Serenata
Google Answers Researcher |
