One means of making sure your site receives maximum visibility
is search engine optimization (S.E.O.). You must think in terms
of search engine optimization from the earliest stages of
planning and design if you want to receive heavy traffic from
the major search engines. In order to optimize your site, you
need to understand how search engines work, how web surfers
search, and what elements of your site contribute to successful
search placement. While much information (and misinformation)
exists about search engine optimization, experts agree that the
elements you must focus on are keywords, meta tags and links
from other sites.
How Search Engines Work
Before delving into specific elements, it’s necessary to
understand how search engines work. True search engines (as
opposed to directories like Yahoo!) use a program called a
“robot” or “spider” to “crawl” the web while gathering and
indexing the information they find. A searcher receives the
results of these crawls when s/he conducts a search. Sounds
simple, right? Unfortunately, every search engine (and literally
thousands of engines exist) has its own criteria for indexing
sites, and further criteria for determining the ranking of
sites. It’s easy to see why S.E.O. consultants can make a
handsome living – it’s virtually impossible for a single
webmaster to know all of the various rules that will optimize
his/her site for every engine.
Feeling Overwhelmed Yet?
While a search engine optimization consultant can provide a
greater amount of detailed knowledge for an individual web
master, experts tend to agree that there are a few rules that
almost anyone can apply to optimize his/her site.
First, while thousands of search engines exist, most surfers do
their searching on a handful of sites. Yahoo! generally accounts
for half of all web searches. While they charge a fee for simply
considering a business listing in their directory (currently
$299), many business people may find that a reasonable
investment, considering the popularity of this portal. Among
true search engines, the most popular by far are Google and
Overture. It’s important to know that many search engines
actually get there results from these giants, so applying the
rules that work for these two can help get your site listed in
many engines.
Optimizing You Site
In order to make sure your site is listed in searches that
directly apply to your type of business, it’s essential to use
the best keywords and phrases. Keywords are the words that
searchers use to find web sites that will give them the
information they want. In order to take advantage of the power
of keywords, you must find out what keywords and key phrases are
most popular among the searchers you want to attract to your
site, so you may want to consider using a service like
Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) to find out the words
and phrases that searchers are using. Once you’ve determined
this, you want to place those words and phrases at the points in
your page most likely to be noticed by search engines. Experts
tend to agree that the best places to use keywords are in your
page title, your page’s copy, and in the site’s meta tags.
The page title is likely the most important place to use the
proper keywords, as all search engine spiders tend to look at
it. Precision is key – use the keywords that are most likely to
bring the right visitors to that particular page. While some
consultants suggest using many key words, or many slight
variations of key words, or repeated key words, search engines
have caught on to these strategies and may actually penalize
your site for using such tactics. According to Webmonkey.com’s
Paul Boutin, it’s best not to include extra words, such as a
company name; using only the keywords as site title will
generally bring the best results.
It’s also important to use those keywords and phrases in the
copy of the page, as spiders do look at this also. Note, for
instance, how often I use phrases like “search engine
opitimization” and “search engine” in this article. That’s
deliberate. Keep in mind, though, that search engines have
caught on to the practice of loading down copy with keywords to
achieve higher rankings, and certain high ratios of keywords to
overall copy may actually hurt your placement.
The third place to use keywords is in the site’s meta tags,
which are part of the coding for the page. Again, it’s best to
use only the words that will bring the best results – repetition
or overuse of variations can hurt your optimization.
Finally, some consultants will suggest that regardless of your
site’s content, you always include the most popular overall
keywords in your title and meta tags. While this may bring more
initial traffic to your site, you have to consider whether
attracting searches on “Eminem” or “Spiderman” will benefit you
in any way. Generally, it’s best to optimize your site so that
you attract those searchers that would actually be interested in
what you have to offer.
Link popularity
Another criteria that many search engines use for ranking is
link popularity. Essentially, is your site linked from other
sites, and are those sites ranked well in their engines? This
can be a time consuming process for a webmaster, as getting
links on other pages generally involves contacting the owner of
that page and asking for a listing or agreeing to a “link swap”:
you put a link on your page to their site, and they do the same
for you. Again, don’t believe that you can fool the search
engines through short-cut methods such as FFA pages, as the
engine administrators have caught on to these, also. Also keep
in mind that links on other reputable pages account for a high
percentage of traffic – you really can’t lose by having your
site listed on other site’s “Links” pages.
Some Final Thoughts
When optimizing your site for the search engines, it’s also
important to remember that a high ranking in a search doesn’t
necessarily mean more qualified traffic. As in many aspects of
life, presentation is everything. If the listing on the search
engine appears clear and professional, you’re more likely to
receive more of the traffic that will benefit you. Boutin notes
that the meta name field in the coding is important in this
regard, as some engines use the information in this field for
their site description. While you want to use keywords and
phrases in this field, do so in a manner that still will make
sense to a surfer looking for a site like yours.
Ultimately, search engine optimization involves using tried and
true methods of design and writing to make your site
user-friendly.
More information:
Boutin, Paul. “Search Engine Optimization FREE”
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/01/23/index1a.html
About the author:
Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, Ph.D., is an English professor and
freelance business writer. You may contact Jeff at
mcintirj@lincolnu.edu
