Links are what seem to make the internet go ‘round and they certainly make it quick and easy to get from one page to another, or follow up on some background information on offer. However, when it comes to optimising your website and ranking well with major search engines like Google you will benefit from knowing as much as possible about the different links you can incorporate into your website’s design, and what each one can achieve.

The two main types of links your website should have to ensure its search engine optimisation, are one way links and reciprocal links.

One way links are exactly what they sound like, a link which is only a one way street, but the direction of that linking street is what is important to your website’s optimisation success, when all roads lead to your site. While one way links seem to be going against the grain of the interconnected nature of the internet, this sort of link building can actually be highly beneficial if you can achieve it in the first place.

However, the reason why one way links are so beneficial is actually the same reason they can be so hard to secure – having one way links, coming into your website means that your site is somewhere worth being, and therefore somewhere worth linking to. This is what search engines like to see as they only want to rank sites well which will be helpful to their searchers and if numerous other web users have deemed your site useful enough to link to, then the search engine gives this a lot of weight when determining your ranking.

To achieve one way links to your website though, you have to put in the hard work as there are no shortcuts to make users think your website is useful and informative when it isn’t. But it’s not impossible, as a dedicated SEO expert should be able to help your website reap the benefits of one way links.

Reciprocal links to your website however, are those which you actively seek from other websites, in return for your site linking back to theirs too. In reciprocating links to and from your own website, you are actively choosing to be associated with these other sites. This is why reciprocal links can actually sometimes do more harm than good to your site, because quality – as always – is more important than quantity.

This means that the websites you reciprocate links with must be relevant to your own website, company, business and online presence as while linking between sites is seen as a good thing by most search engines, this is only true if it is helpful to your website visitors. Reciprocating links with websites similar to your own will mean that the sites you link to will be just as helpful and relevant to your visitors as your own site, therefore in recommending your site to search engine users by awarding it a high ranking, the search engine knows there is plenty of useful, helpful and relevant information there for its searchers.

Building links into, and into and out of your website can help you move steadily up the most popular search engine rankings for your keywords. However, if overused or used incorrectly, link building can actually have the opposite effect, so now that you know the benefits of increasing your link popularity, seek out expert SEO advice on how to make links work for your site.

Search Engine Optimisation is a UK based company dedicated to getting your business into the top results on all the major search engines and keeping you there. At Search Engine Optimisation we can work with you to improve and optimise your existing website design, or offer you a leasing package on one of our established websites, already fully optimised and continually updated with new content and fresh designs. Regardless of your industry, the size or nature of your business or where you operate Search Engine Optimisation is committed to building and maintaining your online presence.



By: search engine

About the Author:

 

Search Engine optimisation can change your business forever. It can mean the difference between having a website and having a successful website. A good search engine optimisation plan can bring your website some much needed life into it.

A website that has used search engine optimisation properly will not only be much easier to find but it will also make your website faster as well as smarter and to top it off a lot more profitable than before. You need a search engine optimisation plan that focuses on certain keywords within your website and makes your website easier to see for the search engines.

Making your site better with search engine optimisation has a huge wealth of all kinds of advantages. To start with and the most important factor is that it increases your visibility within then search engines; this then in turn makes your website more accessible to clients and relevant traffic.

The term search engine optimisation is the sometimes complicated but if done right simple process of making your website search engine friendly. It does this is two ways; in a technical manner and in a content manner as well.

Usually making your website more search engine friendly includes a few things that need to be done. A search engine optimisation plan would have to include the changing of your title tags and Meta tags within the website. Also the template of your website can have a factor on your search engine optimisation plan and so can the navigation.

Where your titles are concerned within your website they can be very effective within your search engine optimisation plan. Your title tag only needs to have your main keyword within it. This will make it more effective within the search engines. Every page on your website can have a title tag; make them as relevant to that particular page as you can. You are trying to optimise your website and make it fit entirely within your niche. Do not be tempted to put catchy phrases or gimmicks within the title tag. Make it as clean as possible and make it relevant, doing this properly will ensure that your search engine optimisation plan is going to succeed in the long run.

Moving on from the title tags and onto keywords; you have to have relevant and useful keywords for your website. Think about it logically; what would you search for in a search engine if you were looking for similar services or products? Instead of just having keywords, try using key phrases as well. This will benefit your search engine optimisation plan hugely.

When you have decided on your keywords then you need to incorporate them into your text. The text on your website should be relevant to the products or the services that you are going to offer and make sure you fit plenty of keywords into the text you write. Search engine optimisation plans that are successful are more or less purely based on keywords and key phrases; this is why they are so important to get right.

You should always add new information onto your website on a regular basis; not only will this help your search engine optimisation plan but it will also keep your clients and customers happy and informed of new products and services etc.

Try to just have your website associated around one particular theme; if you have too many different things on your website it makes it difficult for the search engines to read and then sort according to your keywords and key phrases.

Search engine optimisation is not a quick process, but done right it can make the world of difference!



By: Sarah Folgea

About the Author:

Search engine optimisation as an industry is expanding at a rate of knots, as companies realise that for effective online business it is a necessary course of action to follow. The reason it is so important is because the majority of internet users utilise search engines when they are searching for products, information or services. Embarking on the search engine optimisation journey however can be fraught with danger; there are number of methods that will in effect harm rankings rather than improve them. In general terms these two ways of approaching optimisation are labelled as white and black hat; fundamentally it is black hat methods that may result in misfortune for websites.

Hopefully the following information will give readers an idea of what is considered black hat, and hence give the knowledge of which SEO methods should be avoided. Basically the search engines will always consider content that is hidden as a bad thing. When designing a website it is worth remembering that if information is presented purely for the search engine spiders and hidden from human users, then the powers that be will likely have something to say about it. Clarity is key when achieving rankings.

One of the main reasons these black hat methods are frowned upon is due to the fact that it reduces the user experience. For instance, a page of hidden text will not be preferable as it holds no actual use for humans.

The lines between white and black hat can however be seen as blurred, many may even bandy about the term grey hat to describe methods that lay in the proverbial no mans land. This is because in some cases the methods that were once considered white are now in fact black, with constant changes to search engine algorithms it is unsurprising that the boundaries of ethical behaviour change. That said, there are still operators out there who solely use back hat methods, this is because even though they are frowned upon they still achieve results. These results however are only ever short term; it does not take a great deal of time for authorities and competitors to pick up on unscrupulous methods.

One of the ways in which optimisation is carried out unethically is through the use of spam. This is not the use of a well known meat product but instead is a process of cramming websites with certain keywords in the belief that search engine algorithms will see them as more relevant and will hence rank them higher. This however is a fallacy, while it is clear that a certain amount of keywords will improve rankings, too many will look overly ’spammy’ and subsequently be open to punishment and penalty.

The excessive use of keywords is one of the major mistakes in a search engine optimisation campaign. The misconception that it will improve rankings is common, relevancy will not be improved and a better course of action is simply to write quality content; ultimately it will be more worthwhile.

Invisible text is also a big mistake; some operators fill boxes full of keywords and then make them invisible to the human user, this causes disparity between the view of automated and human users and hence will result in penalties.

Doorway pages are a method of attracting visitors by getting a single page ranked highly and then linking it to another so that the visitor is automatically transferred to the linked page. This acts to hoodwink both humans and algorithms and is likely to bring punishments from authorities.

The punishments incurred from the use of black hat tactics can be anything from a drop of a couple of places to complete delisting from the search engines. Understandably this is not preferable as being removed from the rankings will in effect totally ruin online business opportunities. Ethical or white hat methods of optimisation are always more advisable, they may take a little longer to achieve success, but that success will be more worthwhile and long lasting.



By: Thomas Pretty

About the Author:

As part of a comprehensive Internet marketing strategy, a company providing Search Engine Optimisation can be an important advantage. These companies are expert in improving your search engine positions, consistently supervising those positions and fine-tuning their approach should they have month with unfavourable outcomes.

Search Engine Optimisation Companies invest a vast amount of time and energy and employ specialized knowledge, so it may be of more benefit to outsource their skills than attempt to sustain elevated search engine positions independently.

In business there are great companies and then there are also the rotten apples!

In order to select an inexpensive, efficient search engine optimisation company, it is important to be aware of the correct questions to pose and to know what decisive factors to look for.

Whilst reviewing your options of search engine optimisation companies, start by taking into consideration how they intend to elevate your search engine status.

Companies making use of cloaked, doorway or bridge pages to improve your position should be crossed off your list. Methods such as these contravene almost all search engine policies and at the least your website will be harshly castigated, and even worse, it may be completely removed from the index of the search engine.

A page, which is cloaked, is designed not to be seen by the website’s frequent visitors – it is invisible. A cloaked page is specifically coded for identifying a search engine spider and redirecting them to this particular page, which is created to enhance your search engine rating falsely.

A similar concept is made use of for doorway or bridge pages, although these are frequently located on an alternate server. Should they become aware of the fact that your website contains cloaked pages, Google – one of the Internet’s principal and significant search engines, will eliminate your website from their index.

Don’t ever contract any business to companies that use this modus operandi!

An additional vital consideration is to ensure that there is no conflict of interest with the company you contract, in them working for your competition whilst they are in your employ. Guarantee this in a written document and make certain that it is legally binding. One can understand that a conflict of interest could critically compromise the success of a search engine optimisation strategy. It is important to keep in mind that there are those companies that will market their services to other players in your field based on their success with your website.

A company’s history of results is a crucial feature you may wish to follow up on. But don’t take their word for it!

Their results may be embellished so as to contract your business. Dig a little deeper into their assertion of success by posing a couple of relevant questions and confirming their responses.

Possible questions to pose:

1. Enquire as to which engines they have realized their top results on. You would want to see the best results on the most popular engines. Search engine popularity can alter as the whole Internet changes, so go to the Nielsen Netratings page for a Search Engine Watch. This can be viewed at http://www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2156451.

2. Uncover their keywords and phrases which they maintain are receiving excellent results. Unpopular words are likely to produce high rankings. As an example, few people will search for the keyword “cat leashes” which will result in a high popularity ranking. Ideally you want excellent results with popular keywords. Have a look at www.wordtracker.com, for Wordtracker software. Subscriptions are available from 1 day through to a year, or else make use of their free trial. The Wordtracker software measures how popular certain keywords and phrases are by making use of authentic search engine statistics.

3. Check out a site that the company declares to have had success with, keeping an eye open for good results. What you want to find for the whole site is a variety of different ratings on a good number of separate search engines making use of different keywords and phrases. You are entitled to ask for a report on clients the company asserts it has done well for. The report should reflect good ratings on a lot of the more popular search engines for a multiplicity of different, popular phrases and keywords.

4. Ensure the search engine optimisation company you are investigating has in fact completed the work they allege to have done. There are companies who are eager to contract your business and use other company’s successes as their own. It is best to contact the business they are claiming the results for, and enquire as to who their search engine optimisation company is. The recipe for a successful search engine optimisation drive is to have the maximum exposure over a broad assortment of popular search engines by making use of a diversity of phrases and keywords. It’s a great marketing tool to support success!

5. Remember to ask your potential search engine optimisation company to provide you with a report that illustrates rankings across many popular search engines for a time frame of a minimum of 6 months. It is important to contract a company that recognizes that search engine marketing is a continuous practice and which also continually monitors your search engine ratings. Should your search engine ratings drop, that company must also modify its tactics to maintain high rankings.

6. Another report you may feel is of benefit to request is a sample monthly report which demonstrates the constant examination of the positions. It is imperative that the rankings are extracted from the more popular search engines. It is relatively effortless to obtain fabulous results for a small amount of minor search engines – these are not impressive results. Also ensure that the results they present are actually for the current popular search engines as well as configured for straightforward comprehension. For instance, it is possible to be presented as a chart over a time period of a minimum of 6 months showing either the following data:

- A monthly analysis of the top 50 positions.

- Each month’s top 5 pages.

Determine whether this potential company keeps monthly tabs on these positions or pages, as well as whether this sample report incorporates findings and suggestions for the particular site. By following up on these factors, it makes certain that the company will not only gather your statistical positions but also vigorously monitor and amend their strategies.

You don’t simply need a company that collects information for you. What you require is a company that is a key contributor to your search engine marketing campaign.

Financial constraints may impact on your particular choice of company, however a search engine optimisation company is essential to a successful marketing campaign. It plays a vital role and is simply not a ‘nice to have’.

It is in your best interests to employ a company that will do a scrupulous and consistent job for your website and may suit you to rather pay more for an impeccable job. The alternative is to source a relatively new company. They are generally capable of providing quality and dependable work. Keep in mind that you are risking the money in your pocket on a company without a reliable history!

Before going that route, ask the company to provide you with a number of references.

References are a good indicator of a reliable company. Its best not to employ a company that won’t supply you any references, and don’t take ‘confidentiality’ as an excuse! Even doctors provide references when asked! Insist on at least two references – a current one and one from a while back.

Make preparations before following up on these references so that you don’t waste unnecessary time. Be concise and to the point with your questioning.

Enquire as to how they experienced the company, in particular reference to:

- the company’s accessibility in responding to questions,

- ability to provide solutions to problems,

- capability in meeting deadlines.

Ask them for a general performance rating of the company.

Establish whether the company asked the reference to alter their website in any noteworthy way that affected the traffic to their site. Ideally you would like a search engine optimisation company that finds the middle ground between the needs of the search engines and the requirements of the site visitors.

The most important question to ask the reference is if the company received greater profits by employing the search engine company. It makes no difference whether you are positioned at the top of the list or the bottom if you haven’t improved your profits!



By: Gary Terrazas

About the Author:

Modern advancement in science and technology has driven man into greater heights by making communication world wide easier and faster. The advent of the Internet has closed all possible boundaries which divide mankind and has revealed and made the exploration of the whole world and even the universe, within the frame of a desktop monitor, through a single mouse click.

People are constantly searching for things, places, images and information through search engines, which is the universal storage for all possible information that might be needed by the search engine user. The keywords used to search information in these store engines are of great interest as these words open up a whole arena of possible sites where the user can look up for whatever he searches for.

Including the possible keywords might optimise the web sites creditability to be viewed world wide through the browsers. The basic necessity for an effective search engine optimising techniques includes the knowledge of the browser. How does the browser work? As it involves the promotion of the web site, basic technical knowledge and familiarity with HTML is an added advantage to help optimise a web site.

After the right knowledge on the working of the search engine and other technical stuff, its time to do some research on the keywords to be used as they are the building blocks on which a web site’s success story will be inscribed. The keywords can be single or two to three keyword strings placed together. The placement of these words in the right place like the title of file, URL’s (website addresses), headings etc will enable a better result. Keyword density is the key factor in SEO, as more and more keywords placed in a document will reveal the best result in the search engine.

Now that the search engine optimising is effectively included in the site, the next great job is to promote the URL. Including the URL in web directories and search engines and regular upgrading and checkup of the URL is needed as many search engines and directories delete the URL when there is no follow on or feedback. Whatever be the marketing technique your search engine optimised web site should be one among the top ranked sites in Google or Yahoo, or most probably other search engine providers.

It is not necessary that only words be used for search engine optimising. Graphics, images and videos can also be provided.

Another wonderful way to promote the web site traffic is to opt for paid ads. Try including your company URL as ads in popular web sites and get noticed. There are also specialised search engines other than Google, MSN and Yahoo. These specific search engines are used for specific or for business purposes. Site promotion is such a hard- re job that can make or mar a company’s reputation. Thus several factors go into a making of an highly productive search engine optimised web site top ranked in the search engine to get the much needed attention of the user, who might search for a word only to be elevated to the position of a client or customer.



By: RagguuTecer

About the Author:

When a search is performed on a Search Engine, the resulting Search Engine Results Pages are decided depending on the criteria set down by that particular Search Engine. Factors include the placement and density of the chosen keywords within the website, external link popularity, and the structure of the web page to name but a few. Not only does each Search Engine use a different set of criteria for ranking websites, but they constantly change their criteria as they refine their results. UK Internet Marketing specialises in Search Engine Optimisation and the related technologies such as web design, link building, website copywriting and content creation.

There are two main goals when designing and optimising websites. It needs to be pleasing for the customer and pleasing for the Search Engines. Because your website is often the first introduction to your business it must be visually appealing whilst providing visitors with easy access to the information or product they are looking for. The last thing you want to see is visitors pressing the BACK button as soon as they arrive on your site. To ensure the pages on your website are properly indexed with all the Search Engines, it is important to avoid broken links, automatic redirects and all-flash or all-image pages, every page should contain unique and informative text.

Writing quality content that contains the necessary keywords whilst being easy to read can take up a lot of time. UK Internet Marketing have dedicated website content writers that are able to write interesting content whilst including all the factors that the main Search Engines look for. Websites that include engaging content are more likely to produce a constant flow of targeted traffic to your business.

Many of the major Search Engines assign great importance to a Natural Link Profile when indexing a website. Emphasis should be placed on factors such as who you are linking to. Avoiding link farms and concentrating on linking to and from respected and authoritative web sites, will put your site on its way to being successfully optimised.

Search Engine Optimisation is an ongoing project. You’re not going to be at the top of the big Search Engines overnight so it is important to review your rankings once a month and also to compare your website against your competition. Not only do new websites appear all the time, but Search Engines are continually changing their ranking criteria. It is necessary for a website to grow, both in size and content which is why UKIM’s goal is to provide a quality service using industry standard, principled techniques at affordable prices to maximise the return on investment for our clients.



By: David Gabbitas – UKIM

About the Author:

Welcome to the world of internet marketing. A world of dreams dealing with reality. A world where you can take dip inside and come up with great rewards for you. But if you are a beginner in the world of search engine optimisation, then there are many fake companies who make false promises and deliver nothing. So if you are thinking of search engine optimisation for your site then choose the company with professional and process based approach. Search engine optimisation firms who can make you understand what services they will be providing and what are the techniques they will be using to rank your site higher on the search engines. Who can make you understand what actually a search engine optimisation means?

Search engine optimisation doesn’t mean targeting keywords and making up your site rank. Search engine optimisation means making your site more relevant to your industry and domain. The kind of services you are providing and basically connecting to the users about what they are searching and looking for. IF you are really interested in going for search engine optimisation for your site there are some basic question need to ask before finalizing the things:

1. Do you use any hidden techniques on site which users can’t see?

2. Do you build pages which are not connected to my site but help in ranking and are spam?

3. What kind of link popularity strategy do you follow?

4. Do you use hidden text or hidden links?

5. Have you ever got any client site penalized? if so do you know the reasons?

So basically you need to be clear on these points from your search engine optimization company. If company is saying that they give you guarantee on rankings then definitely they are fake. No one can give guarantee for rankings. Always Deal with your search engine optimization Delhi, India in terms of traffic. Never go for rankings. If they are able to generate traffic rankings will automatically come. SO if you are smart enough to understand these basic points you will make the right choice for your search engine optimisation.



By: Ashish Goyal

About the Author:

Search engine optimisation generally aims to improve your website’s search engine rankings. If you want to make sales, you have to drive great traffic to the site. And in order to achieve that you need to conduct a search engine optimisation campaign.

Where Does Search Engine Optimisation Begin?

Search engine optimisation or SEO generally begins with an assessment of the website. You should know the current search engine ranking of your website. If you are hiring SEO firm, they would do the same too. This will give you and the SEO company an idea what the reasonable objectives will be. The company would then tailor the appropriate SEO strategies.

Since searches are done through keywords, the work would start by choosing the keywords to optimize. There could be numerous popular keywords. But one cannot really target the top keywords because of budget constraints. If you bid for them in pay per click campaigns, they generally cost higher.

At times your business may also not need the most top rated keyword. For instance, if your business is vacation house rental in California you don’t have to target more general keywords such as “vacation house”or “vacation house rental.”You could choose to optimize “vacation house in California”or “valifornia vacation house rental”instead. It could be cheaper and more effective for you.

Search Engine Optimisation: Updating Website Content and Link Development

After choosing the keywords, you or the SEO company would have to update the website content. The titles, headings and meta tags need to be in congruence with the said keywords. At times, more web pages may be needed. The actual main web content would also need to have the keywords repeated or spread in appropriate number.

The website also needs to have the right structure. This will not only facilitate better search engine indexing. It will also help give visitors and buyers a better shopping experience.

Once the website is ready, link development is done. The website would need incoming links. The more quality links the site has the higher search engine ranking it will have.

This means that the links should not come from link farms. The links should count as a vote to your website. What you can do is write articles for free article sites. Since there usually are links at the bottom of the articles, they help too. You can participate in forums and have a link to your website as a signature.  These are legitimate means of growing your incoming links.

You will probably have to wait and see how the changes resulted. If you have chosen the right keywords, traffic will surely improve. You will also get more sales so your search engine optimisation would be a success. 



By: Adrian McLean

About the Author:

Search engine optimisation is the process of increasing visitors to your website. More traffic to your website will result in increased leads and sales. The main purpose of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to increase website hits by ranking high in the results of searches performed on major search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

Search engine optimisation is a highly specialised field that requires experience and knowledge of different search engine optimisation techniques that can help increase the rank of a website on search engines like Google. Competition to appear on the first page of search engine is tough as there are more than 40 million websites in the world and only a handful can appear on the first few pages.

Keywords are search phrases that users type in search engines to find websites. Identifying a list of appropriate keyword phrases for your website is one of the first steps in the search engine optimisation process. Using tools a search engine marketing consultant can assist you with identifying the most appropriate keywords that could drive traffic to your website with a view to increase sales for your business.

Identifying keywords and submitting your website to search engine such as Google is only a small step in the Search engine optimisation process and by no means sufficient to get your website listed on the first few pages. Getting your website to appear on the first page of Google and generating sufficient traffic to be able to drive sales for your business is quite a lengthy process and would in most cases require up to a year of search engine optimisation campaign conducted by a specialist in the field.

In spite of the difficulties and time involved, search engine optimisation is by far the most cost effective and wide reaching form of advertising available today. Although there are many search engine optimisation companies that claim to achieve quick results within weeks, such claims are often misleading. It is important for businesses to focus on long term campaign for 6 months to a year at the least. It is only then can a business truly benefit from increased leads and sales via the increased traffic to the website generated as a direct result of search engine optimisation.

There are no Search Engine Optimization secrets – just SEO tasks and methodologies applied professionally on an ongoing basis in order to beat your competition in obtaining a high ranking for desired search keywords.



By: Kronik Media

About the Author:

What actually is search engine optimisation? There is confusion in the minds of many, as evidenced by the varied approaches seen within any cross-section of web sites. A lack of understanding is apparent on the part of many web designers whose design techniques ensure that search engines cannot penetrate to any internal content!

SEO is the art of clarification, with a clear emphasis on the principle that “form follows function.” Thus, it is semantic, pedantic, and language-orientated rather than a marvel of technical wizardry. The bottom line is that it does not matter how good your site looks, if no one can find it. Many designers obsess on form, building sites that serve as monuments to their creative genius. In an ideal world a site would be designed to fulfil its “function” of attracting clients and making sales, and its “form” would be a supporting element in an overall strategy aimed at achieving a “return on investment” for their clients. SEO is a Moving Target In the past 2 years the major search engines have developed a habit of revising their relevancy ranking algorithms, amending listing options, changing alliances, altering customer base, changing names and content sources, not to mention buying and selling each other.

There are several immutable laws that, if adhered to, will ensure your site prospers, and delivers the elusive ROI. The goal is generation of “qualified traffic” – defined as those who come to you because they want what you offer, and not by accident.

The Two Approaches to Traffic Generation The two approaches to raising the profile of a web site, SEO and PPC, are quite complimentary. Because it is difficult to optimise a site for a very wide range of keyword phrases, PPC marketing can greatly extend your reach. Optimise your site for the major keyword terms, and use PPC to target less obvious, lower volume keyword search terms.

Site Optimisation First and foremost in generating traffic is site optimisation which, after the initial outlay, generates “free” traffic from search engines based on your ranking for particular search terms. This is the “Content is King” approach, and requires us to persuade the search engine that we have the content most relevant to the search. Volume and organisation is important, and we must ensure that search engines can index all supporting content. Pay-Per-Click This may approach may be chosen when you are quite prepared to pay to ensure people find your site, sometimes because its cheaper than rebuilding it! You “bid” for sponsored listing placement, and pay each time a visitor clicks on a “sponsored link” on a search engine and goes through to view your site. PPC allows you to generate traffic even if your site is poorly optimised, but is the most expensive long term option.

An advantage is that PPC campaign setup can allow the viewer to go direct to the page with the content most relevant for the term being used, e.g. by-passing splash pages.

The two PPC heavyweights are Google’s Adwords, and Yahoo Search Marketing. Each has a slightly different approach, but both are affordable and have easy set-up processes for establishing advertising campaigns. Copywriting is the key, as limited title and description space will have you sweating as you try to squeeze a sales pitch into a 35-40 character title! Search Engines There have been huge changes in the search engine scene in recent times, from the spectacular rise of Google to the demise of Northern Light as a public search facility. Overture purchased AllTheWeb and AltaVista, and in turn was purchased by Yahoo. Google now supplies search results to almost half the lesser search engines – Anzwers, AOL, Netscape, ICQ Search, IWON etc.

From an SEO perspective the changes are more fundamental than that, and relate more to directory vs spider-based indexing. For a long period of time, an accurate listing in both the human-edited Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory were crucial to search engine traffic. Back then, even the spider-based engines such as Google placed great emphasis on directory categories, and if you were not listed in Open Directory, Google might not index you at all!

Both those directories seem now to have passed their “use-by date” in terms of delivering direct traffic but Google and Yahoo still place great emphasis on their links. Listings in the DMOZ and Yahoo directories are of tremendous credibility value to your site, and are the best links of all to have!

Between them, Google, Yahoo and MSN, account for almost 90% of all searches performed on the web, and all three of these search engines now derive their bulk content from spider-based indexing processes. Therefore, it is more crucial than ever before that your site is optimised to allow your content to be indexed by search engine spiders!

Some Immutable Laws There are some rules to be followed for success to occur…

Form Follows Function Decide what role your web site should fulfil in your business plan. Build and maintain it to meet the defined functions. Keep it simple, make it fast and clean and above all, avoid any technology which impedes functionality. This includes unnecessary animations or graphics which slow page load times, encouraging visitors to move on to more responsive sites.

Databases can be a serious impediment to indexing of internal content and in many cases are total overkill, especially for smaller sites. Usually, they defeat the goal of creating multiple unique pages by serving generic Title, Description and Keyword meta-tags. They also generate complex URL’s which search engines cannot always penetrate, and even the creation of Site Map pages is rendered overly complex. Any URL with an “&” or a ‘?” in it has the potential to at best impede or at worst block a search engine spider’s access.

In many cases the use of databases is gratuitous and unnecessary, a fast-fix solution to the designer’s goal of churning out a site at the least possible cost and the greatest possible profit. In many cases an HTML template approach would have been better.

Templates, if thoughtlessly implemented, may create equally serious impediments to unique page content. I.e. many template implementations do not provide for unique, page specific meta-tags. Having one generic Title, Description and Keyword meta-tag on every page of the site is a truly appalling, but common, design “feature.”

You Never Get a 2nd Chance to Make a 1st Impression Splash pages annoy people! This is a serious tactical mistake when you are trying to convert window-shoppers into clients. Attention spans on the Internet are short, and there are plenty of “good” sites to choose from. Eliminate every impediment and impel your visitors directly into the “guts” of your site.

The dreadful “Click to Enter Site” splash page with no content expels potential clients into cyberspace, looking for a “better” site that delivers immediate gratification to their quest.

Worse, the search engines place primary emphasis on the entry or Home page. If this page has no content, you can guess where your rankings are going to be! Nowhere, because the search engine cannot find enough content to even categorise the site, let alone establish its relevancy to a query.



By: Ben Kemp

About the Author: