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Search
Engine Optimization Starter Strategies
By Merilee Kern, MBA
Ok, let's just get the requisite rhetorical questions out
of the way…
<<Said in an exaggerated infomercial-like tone of voice>>
Would YOU like to improve your ranking in the most popular
search engines and directories? Would YOU like to drive more
targeted traffic to your Web site? Would YOU like to make
simple improvements to your Web site and eliminate common
barriers in order to optimize your site for high search engine
rankings? Well, today is YOUR lucky day…
All kidding aside, search engine optimization (SEO) is serious
business though not necessarily complex. While there is an
endless array of tips and tricks one can employ to make a
site more attractive to search engine robots, spiders and
other creepy cyber-crawlers, this article serves to arm you
with the most basic strategies that will help ensure a successful
search engine optimization program. As with any project, it's
important to first establish your objectives toward which
all related tasks will be focused. Typical SEO objectives
are as follows:
- Identify and create a list of brand, product and/or service
specific keywords and descriptions
- Establish high rankings in top search engines and applicable
industry directories
- Drive targeted traffic to the site
Pretty cut and dry objectives - get ranked higher…increase
qualified site traffic. Short. Sweet. Here's how…
Navigation
Many Web sites employ graphical menus (image maps and the
like) to direct navigation through the site. These graphical
"primary" menus typically only include links to the main,
top-level sections of the site and require users to enter
one of the available top-level sections in order to access
related content contained therein. Not only would Web site
navigation be vastly improved by reducing the number of clicks
required to access relevant content via the home page, but
internal pages of the site would also become more accessible
to search engines if expanded "secondary" sub-navigation text
menus were instituted in addition to the primary menu. Typical
placement for a sub-navigation text menu of this nature is
at the bottom of each and every page of the site, and should
include text links to both the primary top-level pages as
well as the corresponding internal pages relative to each
section. For example, a primary page-oriented sub-navigation
text menu might read as follows:
Home | Products | News | About Us | Contact
Us
Once inside one of these primary sections such as "About
Us," all related main section links should also reflect in
this sub-navigation text menu as follows:
Home | Products | News | About Us |
Contact Us
Who We Are | What We Do | Press Room | Investor Relations
| Employment
Crawler Pages
Site maps, also known as crawler pages, which list and text
link every page within a given site should not only be established,
but also directly submitted to all search engines and directories
of interest. Submitting these actual crawler pages makes it
easier for spiders to find and index optimized pages on a
given site. In addition, some sites use an internal search
index function whose results are often hidden from the search
engines due to complex path algorithms and/or a series of
forms that spiders can't follow. In these instances, it's
imperative to ensure that static links to each of these databased
pages are included in the site map link list to facilitate
a spider's ability to index this presumably important content.
Content
Before we start our discussion about back-end META data and
code, it's important to first discuss front-end site content.
Where appropriate, each page of a Web site should contain
content - verbiage - that's relevant to the purpose of that
page and/or section, and should leverage as many "keywords"
as possible to ensure the page is appropriately delivered
when those words and/or phrases are queried in the engines.
This content relevancy is a critical factor toward optimizing
one's site for high ranking. In addition, this targeted content
will also be leveraged in the associated page title, META
data and Alt tags to further ensure the page is optimized
for delivery during applicable keyword/phrase searches.
To facilitate inclusion of your site in geographic-specific
search results, applicable geographic terms in both fully
spelled and abbreviated formats should also be integrated
throughout the Web site content and appropriate back end code.
A "Where We're Located" page could be used to even further
enhance such geographic search term opportunities.
Regarding Alt tags, eMarketers should ensure that each and
every image on their Web site uses an Alt tag that leverages
specific keywords relative to the image itself and the content
on the page where the image is located. Because spiders often
rank pages by the frequency of a given keyword on a given
page, the strategic use of Alt tags is yet another opportunity
to maximize high search positioning of your site's pages.
WARNING: There are many abuses of this keyword frequency
concept that spiders can easily discern, so don't try to "trick"
the spiders by placing a slew of non-relevant page content
or repeating the same keyword over and over and over again,
either on the back-end or on the front-end using a font that's
the same color as the background. The spiders will know…and
will penalize you greatly by completely banning your site
from inclusion in their index. The use of only "legitimate"
keyword strategies is advised.
Titles
This isn't rocket science, folks. A page title is exactly
that - the name of a given page of a site relative to its
content and/or purpose. Page titles provide site users with
quick visual checkpoint as to where they are in a given site,
as well as dictate how that page will be represented in a
bookmark or "favorites" list. They also provide the search
engines with a top-level index of that Web page's content.
Enhancing page titles with keywords reflecting the content
of each specific page is another way to legitimately optimize
a site for the search engines, and generally speaking should
not exceed 10 words in length.
META Description Tags
Because META tags alert search spiders of the content found
within a page, the tags are an important variable for obtaining
relevant and high search engine rankings. META descriptions
of between ten and thirty words should be used wherever possible,
and should directly correlate to the content of each specific
Web page - especially those pages to be pro-actively submitted
to the engines. While not viewable on the front-end, this
important descriptive copy also helps maximize your site's
ranking when keywords used in this description are searched
on the engines. Accordingly, the same or similar keywords
to those earmarked for page content and titles should be heavily
integrated into these descriptions.
META Keyword Tags
By now, the importance of identifying and building a list
of page-specific keywords for use in optimizing page content,
titles and META descriptions has been clearly established.
There's yet another search engine-friendly opportunity to
leverage these all-important keywords and phrases through
the use of META Keyword tags. Each page of a Web site should
have between ten and thirty META keywords, with no duplication
outside of plural and non-plural formats. Again, these keywords
should also be also be utilized within that page's content.
A site is simply not optimized if it employs the same generic
set of keywords (and other META data for that matter) throughout
all pages of the site - customization is key! Note that although
most searches are conducted using lower case font, one should
try to include different capitalization formats for those
keywords deemed necessary.
TIP: When developing your keyword lists, consider using information
gleaned from your back end site analysis software such as
WebTrends, and/or popular search queries on select search
engines and directories that publish this kind of information,
to discern what the most popular word and phrase searches
are relative to your business. You can then integrate this
language into your site's content.
Bridge Pages
Bridge pages, also known as mirror pages or information pages,
are Web pages designed to rank highly in the search engines
for keyword phrases. These pages are specifically engineered
to meet the criteria of the continually changing algorithms
that search engines use to determine rankings, and are generally
employed when there are obstacles, technological or otherwise,
to optimizing the "regular" pages of a Web site. Though largely
indistinguishable from the normal site pages, such bridge
pages are only intended to be a one-time "doorway" for visitors
who find a site via the search engines and are not accessible
to a user subsequent to their initial visit.
Obstacles
There are several technical obstacles one may face when trying
to optimize a site. Such obstacles will need to be eliminated
through special filters and/or workarounds before SEO can
be achieved. Some of these obstacles may include:
- Cold Fusion/Dynamic Page Generation - Many sites are dynamically
generated using Cold Fusion, as indicated by ".cfm" extensions
in the site paths. This software application creates unique
URLs that include symbols considered by several search engines
as "spider traps." To avoid spider traps, some search engines
avoid indexing URLs that that include the following problematic
symbols for fear of getting caught in a crawling loop: ?,
$, &, =
- JAVA Script - Many sites also use JAVA script. The complexity
of this type of code can distract a search engine spider
from indexing the site in appropriate categories.
- Frames - Some of the major search engines cannot follow
frame links. An alternative method for spiders to enter
and index the site, either through META tags or smart design,
will need to be established.
The good news is that there "are" workarounds for these varied
SEO roadblocks. Just ask your friendly neighborhood Webmaster
for details.
Link Popularity
The last strategy I would like to discuss is somewhat - ok,
completely - out of your control - links on OTHER external
Web sites that point to yours. Yes, I know that's the ultimate
objective of this search engine optimization initiative, but
many search engines first discern how your site is ranked
and/or listed on other Web sites and directories in deciding
how you should be ranked on theirs. The more links pointing
to your Web site that a search engine can verify, the higher
it will rank you on their list by virtue of presumed popularity
- it's as simple as that. Of course, this is somewhat of a
catch 22 in that to establish high rankings and listing frequency
on these engines and directories, the site in question must
first be optimized. Don't be discouraged, though. Simply institute
a concerted, ongoing grassroots search engine and directory
submission initiative in an effort to establish such links
wherever possible.
SEO Starter Wrap Up
As mentioned previously, there are endless strategies that
can be enlisted to improve a site's rank in the search engines.
To attest to this, there are numerous agencies that make their
living based solely on guerilla SEO methodologies. However,
even if you leverage the simple techniques described above
that are largely relative to content on your Web site, you
will vastly improve your positioning with the engines and
will undoubtedly realize increased traffic - qualified traffic
- at your site.
#
Merilee Kern has been marketing and publicizing multi-industry
B2B and B2C programs, products and services since 1994. Through
her boutique PR and MarComm Firm Kern Communications, Merilee
avails her industry-diverse clientele with a combination of
entrepreneurial creativity and a breadth of experience both
on and offline. She be reached through her Web site at www.kerncommunications.com.
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