Getting the best from your website.
You know your own business better than anyone else does so you should understand all
the special jargon and phraseology that goes with your particular business. The words and
phrases that you use and hear daily work for you in Search Engine alley. They are the
keywords by which your website will be found. Don't leave it all to your webmaster at
maintenance time! Make sure you both have a list of words and descriptions that are being
used to sell your site on the Internet and review it from time to time. Are they all
there? Are they in order of importance? Are the descriptions right? Do page titles contain
keywords? Do you have a brief sentence or heading in emboldened words on each page
containing keywords.
Here are a few tips on Search Engine optimisation that you might like to consider for
your next SE promotion.
One web page filled with keywords and phrases may not get you a good Search Engine
ranking for your site because of lack of relevance. One hundred pages with a few keywords
relevant to the content repeated 2 or 3 times on each page will improve your ranking
dramatically. Results will be even better if keywords appear in the page title, meta tags,
first heading and first emboldened words.
Pages should contain sentences that are subject relevant and amounting to at least 100
words so that the search engines don't ignore or ban them as "spam". This is
particularly important for the Index or Home page. "Click here to enter" after
the heading is a sure way of being ignored.
Creating 100 pages
Consider your website an ongoing project. Just a hundred or so words per page is enough
giving some information about one specific item or subject on every page. Repeat the key
word or phrases up to three times. Add common misspellings of words to the meta tags. Even
add a section at the bottom of pages titled "Common misspellings of terms".
Foreign words
Don't exclude potential business in Europe or South America. If you wish to sell to
countries whose first language is not English it will be worth your while to look up
foreign key words and add them to your page. Simply use a translator. Click on the link
http://babel.altavista.com/translate.dyn and give a translator a test drive.
Linking back
Every page should have a link back to the "Contents" page. Occasionally,
using a Search Engine, you find a web page with some useful material but need to locate
the home page for further information. Unless there is a link it's impossible to find,
particularly if the website uses a "phantom URL" or a redirect system. Make sure
you have a "Home" or "Contents" link on every page.
Framed pages can be really awkward since the Search Engine can link you directly to an
inner page without the frame that contains the "contents" list! Make sure that
the "_parent" tag is added to the parent page; otherwise you could end up with
frames within frames within frames ___ a common disaster and very annoying to the visitor.
The single pixel link trick
Sometimes it is necessary to create "hook" or "doorway" pages just
to attract Search Engines. You may want the visitor to click on a "Contents"
page immediately. However, you won't want a visible link from the Contents page to that
page but a link you must have so that the Search Engine can find the page in the first
place. In this instance we can use a single pixel image as a link that matches the
background colour.
Search engines love links to themselves
If a Search Engine finds a link back to itself it increases the ranking of your site.
Sites with good ranking appear higher on a search list than low ranking sites. Low ranking
sites are often "dumped" by Search Engines after a few months. If you have a lot
of general content on your website you could possibly have a Search Engine link page
listing all the Search Engines you could find. However, if your site doesn't lend itself
to a Search Engine links page another option is to have an invisible (invisible to
visitors that is!) Search Engine links page that is invisibly linked to your
"contents" page.
Click here to check your ranking http://www.websmostlinked.com/?wmlm203s. Enter your
competitors' websites as well and see how they rank against you.
Don't delete web pages
Have you ever done a search and found pages which "no longer exist"?
Instead of deleting pages which are no longer relevant rather leave the page there with
a "No Longer Updated" message and a "Return to Home Page" link. That
way you won't lose potential clients and the page will still continue to attract visitors.
Use your web address
Print it everywhere: business cards, products, yellow pages, leaflets, brochures,
vehicles even sign-write it on your business premises. Cheap effective advertising can be
had by including your e-mail and your website addresses on all stationery and e-mails.
Customers are more likely to approach you with repeat business if contacting you is just a
click away.
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Copyright 2001 Bill Young --- **Reprinting of this article is welcome!**
You may freely reproduce this article provided that you leave this section intact with
my contact details.
Bill Young
http://webwest.com.au
bill.young@webwest.com.au
Phone: 08 9307 5436
Mobile: 0419 937 011
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posted by Bill Young 11:43 AM
