SEO Overview
The
Search Engines, and there are thousands of them, all have
algorithms they use to give a particular web page a value of
importance. This is called Page Rank (PR). The algorithms
are all different and the content of them are secret. Search
Engines use Robots, sometimes called Bots, Spiders or Web
Crawlers, and their only duty is to crawl all the sites on
the Internet and log information into a data base about each
website they visit.
The
information is gathered not only from the displayed website
pages, but also from the head section of the source code in
your website. The "head" section is not displayed on your
site's pages, but does contain information in the form of
"meta tags", about your website and its development. The
Search Engines then use their algorithms to give an
importance factor on the data gathered and the result is
your PR. To see an example of source code, right click on
the white border of this page and then click on "View
Source". You will notice that only the code after the "<body"
tag is visible on this page.
SEO
is a necessary subject of study in designing successful
websites. At this time, Google and their web crawler
(called GoogleBot) processes about 83% of the searches of
the billions of websites on the Internet, with all the other
engines no higher than about 7%. So, the question, "What
affects Google's opinion of a website?" is the basis of our
design tactics. Everyone is sure the following elements
are of importance in terms of high PR, not necessarily in
the order listed.
Website
Title
The web crawler's first
introduction to your identity. Make it good!
The
title of a website should be the first item in the head
section of your source code and accurately state the purpose
and represent the content of the website's pages. The title
should then be followed by text rich in keywords that you
use in your body copy that give more substance to the
title. For example: Tom Smith owns a shoe store.
The
store's name is Smith Shoes. Tom wants to use that
for his website title.
Following our own advice, we expand that to Smith Shoes -
All Types from Sneakers to Dress Shoes to Work Boots.
Or something similar in nature. But using this example, we
must be sure that keywords like Types, Sneakers, Dress
Shoes, Work Boots all show up in various places in the body
of text on the opening page. We describe the title then, as
being rich in keyword content.
Your
title tag is placed at the top of your source code and would
then look something like this:
<html>
<head>
<title>Smith Shoes - All Types from Sneakers to
Dress Shoes to Work Boots</title>
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Website
Description
Not only describing the site,
but assisting bots with rich keywords for successful
searches.
The Site
Description is the next item in your source code listing.
It is believed that GoogleBot gives a higher measure of
importance to what it perceives first. The same rules apply
for the description as it did for the title. You would want
to expand the description with rich key phrases also found
in abundance in the body text. So again we say, Smith
Shoes the store for hard to fit feet. We carry many styles
and colors in all sizes that are sure to fit your feet well. Or
something in this nature that would describe what you can
and will do.
Your source
code will now look like this:
<html>
<head>
<title>Smith Shoes - All Types from Sneakers to
Dress Shoes to Work Boots</title>
<meta name="description"
content="smith shoes the store for hard to fit
feet - we carry many styles and colors in all sizes
that are sure to fit your feet well">
<meta name="keywords"
content="....
Another issue
is how you write the text and at what level of understanding
is your audience supposed to have. Good newspaper journalism
says to write as if your audience is at a 7th grade
level. Do not use many esoteric words that confound a
viewers perception. This last sentence is a good example of
what not to do. Keep it simple. |
Keywords and
Key Phrases
These
play an important part in relaying information to a web
crawler.
Keywords and Key Phrases carry the same type of content and
we will lump them together in our SEO description. Both of
these items appear in "meta tags" like the description tag
listed below the title tag. All these tags in the head
section of your source code are invisible to the general
public but is very descriptive to the web crawlers searching
your site. In HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) code the
first thing that shows on your screen is what is inside the
"body" tag.
Your
keywords should reflect the one or two word combinations
that you feel people would use as a search item looking for
the product you have available and shown on your
website. Keywords are shown in your source code like this:
<meta name="keywords"
content="shoes, boots, shoe
sizes, shoe colors, work boots, etc..">
Key
phrases usually contain a complete phrase of words
describing a type of element of the body text. Key Phrases
look like this:
<meta name="key phrases"
content="shoes for hard to fit feet, shoe sizes
from 5 to 13 and widths to EE, etc..">
Some
people write a bunch of relevant keywords and then try and
compose the body copy text using as many as possible. I
personally believe you should write your text, first, saying
what you want to tell your target audience. This way, your
text should flow well and get your message across easily. If
done properly, you will have enough rich keywords and key
phrases to conduct good searches.
I
don't believe it is necessary to separate keywords and key
phrases, but some Search Engines may wish to see them as
separate items. And after all, it's only one more line of
code. |
Body Text
- Copywriting
The art of composing text that will give a clear and
concise understanding of your products.
Text on your home page plays a very important part in
holding the interest of your site visitors. The
structure of sentences should be geared towards the
visitor, not yourself. Try not to use words like I, me,
mine, etc. 'You' and 'yours' are good attention-getting
words. More text means higher page ranking from Search
Engines.
Bullets are another tool that play a very important part
in design content. Copywriters don't always realize
this. Bullets ( )
attract attention and if the bullet 'points' are brief,
they'll make excellent Meta Tag Key Phrases.
Another great word that viewers like is
FREE . Highlight the word so it
draws attention to itself. That word says, "No
obligation! Read some more!" Give away something that
will be of value to the reader. Trust me. You won't go
broke doing this. If you mention that the free item
changes periodically, there is an incentive for the
viewer to return. Repeated visits generate
customers. Try offering something that is of value, but
not related to the items you are trying to sell. A free
bonus item of some worth is invaluable as a sales tool.
Be brief. It is important that statements can be read
without having to scan several lines. Too much copy
says, "Time to go somewhere else" but remember that
descriptive phrases are what Search Engines show when
your Website is displayed on their page. This may sound
like a Catch-22, but make your statements as descriptive
and as brief as possible.
The level of language used should apply to the audience
you are trying to capture. Let a seventh grade reader
understand what you are saying. |
Design -
Layout
Use photos, graphics,
text, colors and positioning that pleasing to the eye
and attract attention.
When looking randomly at a page, the eye first travels
to the area that contrasts the most with the rest of the
page. For example; if everything is generally dark on a
page, the eye will immediately seek an area of
light. Other things being equal, points of interest are
usually in the center of one of the four quadrants in a
page. If you divide the page in half, both horizontally
and vertically, you will have four rectangles. Good
composition would place your key stuff in the center of
any of those rectangles.
Pictures of people and your business or office are
important to display on your entry page. Your site now
becomes more personal to visitors and will generate a
degree of trust that is instilled in them when they can
see your face or business. The use of graphics can play
a big part in creating an attractive web page, but there
is a downside to them.
First, they load slowly and if there are a large amount
of graphics, even small in size, it may take a long time
for the complete page to be displayed. With that in
mind, always save your files in the format that will
give you the smallest file size. Usually that is a .jpg
or .gif. Whenever possible, I would recommend using
photos in a 'thumbnail' size and let the viewer click on
the picture for a full size view.
Secondly, GoogleBot does not recognize any type or text
embedded in a graphic. So, if your logo, for example is
a .jpg you must complete the alt tag with a good
description of the graphic. Many viewers, especially
those on a dial-up connection will turn off graphics so
the pages will load faster. They read the alt tags for
the information needed.
Navigation is another issue. Your internal links to
other pages on your site should always be located in the
same physical space on each page. Usually at the top of
the page or along the left border of the page. Try to
make your links from text rather than graphics for the
reason explained above. Links commonly are colored in
blue. A mouse-over effect that changes the color is
alright to use. We do that on these pages.
When naming the various pages on your website, do not
run the words in the name together. Break up the words
with hyphens or underscores. Also add a brief
description to the page name. Ex: "portfolio-website-content.htm".
Bots will read those words and understand them. When
you run the words together, the Bot sees it as a new
word. The name then acts like a 'key phrase' and is
helpful in the Search Engine descriptions of your site. |
Link Exchange
Links may be the most
important item for good PR
We strongly recommend that every page of your website
should have links to all the other pages. GoogleBot
needs to be able to navigate and crawl your site
easily. Links to external sites, many times are embedded
in the text on the page. The color of the link (usually
blue) should be different than the normal text color, so
link identification is easy. Search Engines believe that
the quantity of websites on the Internet that link to
you is an indication of the importance of your
website. As a result of this, Link Exchange programs
were started where you can send a message to another
website that says you will publish their link if they
publish yours.
Links to other sites may raise your Page Ranking with
many Search Engines, however, the links should be useful
to you and your target audience. Don't publish a lot of
links just to improve your page ranking. Look for other
websites that might be of interest to your target
audience. And beware of 'Link Farms'. Your PR may
plummet to zero with the wrong links on your site. The
accepted practice is to only link with site that have a
Google PR greater than zero, or as high or higher than
you own PR. This means that you will probably have to
build a positive PR before attempting any link
exchanges. That means careful study using all the above
criteria as guidelines for your website development. |
Marketing Overview
There are many
ways to market a product. Websites, Phone book yellow
pages, Newspaper ads, Direct Mail pieces, E-mail and of
course Phone Calls are great ways to spread the word
about your business. The website and marketing hints
are the focus of our attention on this page. We will
discuss using other media with elements of your website
as a means of communication.
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