What to Do to Boost Your Website Hits - Part 2 »
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Part two of a two-part series
Last month, part one of this article covered the basics of driving more traffic to a website through the use of domain names, directory listings, and better positioning in the major search engines. Part two delves deeper into search engine placement tactics. Top rankings in the top search engines are the goal.
The Internet's top engines and directories account for more than 95 percent of all search traffic. Yahoo! alone commands more than half the market, and a Compaq study found that 68 percent of 500 million users only looked at the first page of results. For a top 10 search results position, the focus must clearly be on the big players.
A company should start with its existing website. Each page should be optimized with its own five- to 13-word title tag, meta description (including the first several sentences of body copy), and meta keywords (specifically relevant to the page). Meta keywords needn't be capitalized, as searchers usually use lower case. Don't separate meta keywords with both commas and spaces--search engines typically limit the number of index characters in the meta keywords, so save space by using one or the other. Reduce or eliminate meta keyword repetition by combining phrases. "Vacation travel," "travel agency" and "Caribbean vacation," for example, can become "Caribbean vacation travel agency."
Never assume that keyword success is automatic. Once a website has been added to a search engine index, all keywords should be response-tested. The lower on a results list a website appears, the more experimentation with keywords is necessary.
Minimize the amount of code--Javascript, tables, imagemap definitions, etc.--above the body copy in the HTML source. Javascripts can be moved to the bottom of the page, or better yet, to separate .js files that search engines will skip. Also try to have at least one link to the optimized page from either the home page or another page close to the home page, and from other domains that the company owns. This will increase link popularity and help avoid being dropped from a search engine when it "re-crawls" (revisits) the site. Hyperlinked text on those pages should contain relevant keywords. Be careful about hiding these links, though--search engines may interpret the technique as spamdexing, and drop the site.
Further, avoid potential lawsuits by refraining from using competitors' trademarks or trade names in the meta tags.
As noted in part one, frames and dynamic pages can cause grief in many of the major search engines. Except for AltaVista, most of the major search engines are not frames-capable. If frames are a must though, include the noframes tag in the frameset pages. Nested within that should be body tags, links, and keyword-rich content. Some excellent examples of this can be found at Search Engine Watch (www.searchenginewatch.com) and Search Engine Showdown (www.notess.com/search).
Dynamic (database-driven) content is a bit more difficult to get around--the trick is to remove all question marks from the URLs without breaking anything. Fortunately, there is a way to rewrite URLs to make the pages appear static and without having to bother with any programming code. To do this, use the mod_rewrite Apache module (www.engelschall.com/pw/apache/rewriteguide/).
Besides HTML page content itself, a number of so-called "off the page" criteria affect search ranking. Search site Direct Hit (www.directhit.com), for example, determines site popularity by the number of clickthroughs from search results, and ranks sites accordingly. Inktomi (www.inktomi.com) considers link popularity (number of links from other sites) as a major determinant of search result placement. Google (www.google.com) takes this a step further by differentiating among referring sites, so that some referring sites carry more weight than others. Lycos takes user-submitted ratings into consideration, and GoTo.com has a pay-to-play model in which companies bid for top placement. Link popularity on AltaVista, InfoSeek, Lycos, and HotBot can be checked with a free service from MarketPosition.com (www.marketposition.com/linkpopularity.htm).
"Free for all" links pages yield substandard results. It's better for a company to establish reciprocal links with other sites, or to develop an affiliate program that features link-attributed revenue sharing among affiliated sites (pay-for-performance).
Once links and content are built, search engine-specific pages known as "doorway" or "bridge" pages can be created. They are designed for search engines, while home pages are designed for humans. It's important to balance form and function on doorway pages, since they provide first impression of a site, yet they must be designed to do well for the most popular and relevant keywords. Doorway pages are most effective if separate pages are created not only for each search term, but also for each search engine. These pages use the same techniques as those already described for meta tags, title tags, etc., but with an important difference--search engine optimization takes precedence over user interface.
Careful thought must be put into the URLs of doorway pages, which are often located apart from the main site, at other secondary- or tertiary-level domains. This is because some search engines start spidering exclusively at the main index pages, or give preference to index pages and pages found by the spider rather than by direct submission. Therefore, if doorway pages are placed on the main domain, they must be linked from the main site so that search engines will click through, but users will not.
With the above structure, unfortunately, a search engine cannot be kept exclusively to the doorway pages that were optimized for that engine. The solution is a "hallway page" (www.webposition.com/mp-0799.htm), which can serve as an index page linking a set of search engine-specific doorway pages and an index page. To avoid being flagged as potential spam, the hallway page should include relevant content in addition to the doorway page links. Multiple domains have the added benefit of improving visibility in AltaVista, since AltaVista displays only one domain name per search result. If any additional secondary domains are registered, they may now be up to 67 characters in length (up from the original 23), allowing many more options.
Doorway and hallway pages allow content to be tailored to a search engine's specific requirements. They should be built ethically and have "real" content. Trouble may follow if the pages are:
* Devoid of meaningful content
* Machine-generated
* Duplicated with minimal changes
* Stolen from other sites
* Targeted to obviously irrelevant keywords
* Overstuffed with keywords
* Filled with gibberish ("spamglish")
* Filled with invisible text and links the same color as the background
* Set up to automatically redirect the user or to send vastly different page content to search engines than to users ("bait-and-switch")
AltaVista has recently cracked down on such techniques, and other search engines are expected to follow suit. Play by the rules--spamdexers are inevitably found and banned from the search engines.
With doorway and hallway pages designed and uploaded, it's time to submit to the search engines. Submit hallway pages instead of the doorway pages, unless the company absolutely can't wait until the search engines spider the doorway pages on their own. Turnaround time varies from several days to several months, depending on the search engine. Yahoo! has a highly recommended priority submission service, Business Express, in which directory submissions are processed within two business days for $199.
If several months pass with no spidering by one of the search engines, resubmit. Each search engine has its own limits: To avoid spamdexing penalties, "deep submissions," or simultaneous submissions of multiple pages deep within the site should be done carefully, if at all.
Most webmasters choose to submit to the major search engines manually, although WebPosition Gold does have a submission component that impersonates a web browser to the search engines when submitting, and displays the search engine's results page. Also worth considering is registering one or more "Internet keywords" with RealNames (www.realnames.com), at $100 per year per keyword. RealNames is affiliated with search engines such as AltaVista, meta-search engines such as Go2Net's MetaCrawler, and even the popular web browsers.
After pages are submitted, monitor rankings periodically over time and make changes as needed. Online services such as PositionAgent.com and WebPosition Gold (www.webposition.com) offer position monitoring and reporting, page critiquing, submitting, doorway page creation, and more. Note the keywords people use in the search engines to reach the site. WebTrends and other log analysis software packages can provide this information.
Just as websites and search engine optimization are never finished, improving rankings in search engines is an ongoing process. A word of caution: don't obsess over creating the "perfect" page. Since search engines don't release information such as optimal keyword densities, it's all an educated guess based on empirical evidence, and those numbers can change as quickly as they are established. Concentrate on creating and refining great content, establishing more links to your pages, and ethically employing the above tactics, then watch the company's web traffic increase (standard disclaimers apply).
______________________________________
- Stephan Spencer is founder and Managing Director of web design company, Netconcepts Ltd, and a frequent speaker at internet conferences around the world. Stephan can be reached at www.netconcepts.com or email sspencer@netconcepts.com
by Stephan Spencer
Part two of a two-part series
Last month, part one of this article covered the basics of driving more traffic to a website through the use of domain names, directory listings, and better positioning in the major search engines. Part two delves deeper into search engine placement tactics. Top rankings in the top search engines are the goal.
The Internet's top engines and directories account for more than 95 percent of all search traffic. Yahoo! alone commands more than half the market, and a Compaq study found that 68 percent of 500 million users only looked at the first page of results. For a top 10 search results position, the focus must clearly be on the big players.
A company should start with its existing website. Each page should be optimized with its own five- to 13-word title tag, meta description (including the first several sentences of body copy), and meta keywords (specifically relevant to the page). Meta keywords needn't be capitalized, as searchers usually use lower case. Don't separate meta keywords with both commas and spaces--search engines typically limit the number of index characters in the meta keywords, so save space by using one or the other. Reduce or eliminate meta keyword repetition by combining phrases. "Vacation travel," "travel agency" and "Caribbean vacation," for example, can become "Caribbean vacation travel agency."
Never assume that keyword success is automatic. Once a website has been added to a search engine index, all keywords should be response-tested. The lower on a results list a website appears, the more experimentation with keywords is necessary.
Minimize the amount of code--Javascript, tables, imagemap definitions, etc.--above the body copy in the HTML source. Javascripts can be moved to the bottom of the page, or better yet, to separate .js files that search engines will skip. Also try to have at least one link to the optimized page from either the home page or another page close to the home page, and from other domains that the company owns. This will increase link popularity and help avoid being dropped from a search engine when it "re-crawls" (revisits) the site. Hyperlinked text on those pages should contain relevant keywords. Be careful about hiding these links, though--search engines may interpret the technique as spamdexing, and drop the site.
Further, avoid potential lawsuits by refraining from using competitors' trademarks or trade names in the meta tags.
As noted in part one, frames and dynamic pages can cause grief in many of the major search engines. Except for AltaVista, most of the major search engines are not frames-capable. If frames are a must though, include the noframes tag in the frameset pages. Nested within that should be body tags, links, and keyword-rich content. Some excellent examples of this can be found at Search Engine Watch (www.searchenginewatch.com) and Search Engine Showdown (www.notess.com/search).
Dynamic (database-driven) content is a bit more difficult to get around--the trick is to remove all question marks from the URLs without breaking anything. Fortunately, there is a way to rewrite URLs to make the pages appear static and without having to bother with any programming code. To do this, use the mod_rewrite Apache module (www.engelschall.com/pw/apache/rewriteguide/).
Besides HTML page content itself, a number of so-called "off the page" criteria affect search ranking. Search site Direct Hit (www.directhit.com), for example, determines site popularity by the number of clickthroughs from search results, and ranks sites accordingly. Inktomi (www.inktomi.com) considers link popularity (number of links from other sites) as a major determinant of search result placement. Google (www.google.com) takes this a step further by differentiating among referring sites, so that some referring sites carry more weight than others. Lycos takes user-submitted ratings into consideration, and GoTo.com has a pay-to-play model in which companies bid for top placement. Link popularity on AltaVista, InfoSeek, Lycos, and HotBot can be checked with a free service from MarketPosition.com (www.marketposition.com/linkpopularity.htm).
"Free for all" links pages yield substandard results. It's better for a company to establish reciprocal links with other sites, or to develop an affiliate program that features link-attributed revenue sharing among affiliated sites (pay-for-performance).
Once links and content are built, search engine-specific pages known as "doorway" or "bridge" pages can be created. They are designed for search engines, while home pages are designed for humans. It's important to balance form and function on doorway pages, since they provide first impression of a site, yet they must be designed to do well for the most popular and relevant keywords. Doorway pages are most effective if separate pages are created not only for each search term, but also for each search engine. These pages use the same techniques as those already described for meta tags, title tags, etc., but with an important difference--search engine optimization takes precedence over user interface.
Careful thought must be put into the URLs of doorway pages, which are often located apart from the main site, at other secondary- or tertiary-level domains. This is because some search engines start spidering exclusively at the main index pages, or give preference to index pages and pages found by the spider rather than by direct submission. Therefore, if doorway pages are placed on the main domain, they must be linked from the main site so that search engines will click through, but users will not.
With the above structure, unfortunately, a search engine cannot be kept exclusively to the doorway pages that were optimized for that engine. The solution is a "hallway page" (www.webposition.com/mp-0799.htm), which can serve as an index page linking a set of search engine-specific doorway pages and an index page. To avoid being flagged as potential spam, the hallway page should include relevant content in addition to the doorway page links. Multiple domains have the added benefit of improving visibility in AltaVista, since AltaVista displays only one domain name per search result. If any additional secondary domains are registered, they may now be up to 67 characters in length (up from the original 23), allowing many more options.
Doorway and hallway pages allow content to be tailored to a search engine's specific requirements. They should be built ethically and have "real" content. Trouble may follow if the pages are:
* Devoid of meaningful content
* Machine-generated
* Duplicated with minimal changes
* Stolen from other sites
* Targeted to obviously irrelevant keywords
* Overstuffed with keywords
* Filled with gibberish ("spamglish")
* Filled with invisible text and links the same color as the background
* Set up to automatically redirect the user or to send vastly different page content to search engines than to users ("bait-and-switch")
AltaVista has recently cracked down on such techniques, and other search engines are expected to follow suit. Play by the rules--spamdexers are inevitably found and banned from the search engines.
With doorway and hallway pages designed and uploaded, it's time to submit to the search engines. Submit hallway pages instead of the doorway pages, unless the company absolutely can't wait until the search engines spider the doorway pages on their own. Turnaround time varies from several days to several months, depending on the search engine. Yahoo! has a highly recommended priority submission service, Business Express, in which directory submissions are processed within two business days for $199.
If several months pass with no spidering by one of the search engines, resubmit. Each search engine has its own limits: To avoid spamdexing penalties, "deep submissions," or simultaneous submissions of multiple pages deep within the site should be done carefully, if at all.
Most webmasters choose to submit to the major search engines manually, although WebPosition Gold does have a submission component that impersonates a web browser to the search engines when submitting, and displays the search engine's results page. Also worth considering is registering one or more "Internet keywords" with RealNames (www.realnames.com), at $100 per year per keyword. RealNames is affiliated with search engines such as AltaVista, meta-search engines such as Go2Net's MetaCrawler, and even the popular web browsers.
After pages are submitted, monitor rankings periodically over time and make changes as needed. Online services such as PositionAgent.com and WebPosition Gold (www.webposition.com) offer position monitoring and reporting, page critiquing, submitting, doorway page creation, and more. Note the keywords people use in the search engines to reach the site. WebTrends and other log analysis software packages can provide this information.
Just as websites and search engine optimization are never finished, improving rankings in search engines is an ongoing process. A word of caution: don't obsess over creating the "perfect" page. Since search engines don't release information such as optimal keyword densities, it's all an educated guess based on empirical evidence, and those numbers can change as quickly as they are established. Concentrate on creating and refining great content, establishing more links to your pages, and ethically employing the above tactics, then watch the company's web traffic increase (standard disclaimers apply).
______________________________________
- Stephan Spencer is founder and Managing Director of web design company, Netconcepts Ltd, and a frequent speaker at internet conferences around the world. Stephan can be reached at www.netconcepts.com or email sspencer@netconcepts.com