SEM Guide
Web Site Content -a) Market Research:
A lot has been said about designing search engine friendly sites but your audience is people, not a search engine. This is why before you even begin to think about how to construct a web site or the copywriting for it you need to conduct market research.
Very few web sites cater for everyone. Most web sites have a specific target audience, usually made up of a large proportion of a single age group, gender, income bracket, etc. Of course, the target audience for your site may be considerably smaller, focusing on people working in a single industry, or it may be larger. The point is to establish the target market for your site before you begin working on the design or content.
You must also decide what your site is going to offer your target audience. Is your site informational in nature, are you going to offer online sales, is it primarily an online brochure, are you planning to use your online presence to boost offline sales, increase brand awareness or confidence in your company?
Combining what you consider to be your target market with what you hope to accomplish with your web site should give you a good idea of the type of copywriting, design style and navigation structure to employ. But if you are hoping to be found well on search engines and directories it is essential that you first conduct keyword research.
b)Keyword Research:
The keywords you are researching now will need to go into the web site's content. Keyword selection goes hand in hand with web site copywriting but, if possible, should be done first. It is important to remember that not everyone searches the web the same way. You have to take into consideration variations in terminology as determined by one's age, profession, what part of the world they are from, and so on. Remember that there are often several ways of saying the same thing.
NEVER try to target keywords that are not relevant to your site. You want qualified traffic from people who have spent time on a search engine or directory specifically to find the products and services you offer. The more qualified the traffic the more easily that traffic will translate into sales (assuming your site can sell itself once they get there).
First make a list of every phrase you can think of that people might use to find what your site is going to offer. Ask your friends and colleagues for input and try to find people that are within your site's target audience to get an idea of how they would search.
Once you have a good long list use search engine databases to refine it and see what people have actually searched for when looking for similar sites. If you have money to spend buy Wordtracker. Otherwise use Overture's free keyword suggestion tool or Google's tool. You can also check Google, AltaVista and FAST Alltheweb.com using a Boolean search to see how many other sites are listed when you type in your keywords. This will give you an idea of how many other sites are also using those terms.
Now, looking at your target audience you need to decide which terms THEY, not you or your marketing agency, are most likely to use. Bear in mind that most people do "natural language" searches. They do not use marketing terminology. Generally speaking, they use simple 2-4 word phrases. You may want your web site to say "marvellously wonderful widgets" but your target audience is most likely going to look for "blue widget" and so find your competitor who chose to stick with his keyword research despite what the marketing department said.
You will need to use common sense when compiling the information from friends, online search query databases and the amount of other sites using your terms. Bear in mind that your site's text and optimisation can be refined as you go along so you do not need to get it 100% perfect the first time around. You will most often find that even after exhaustive keyword research, the site will need to be tweaked in a year (or sooner) as your web site statistics will reveal that people are using other terms to search for you. The way people search does change according to industry trends, new products on the market, etc... And most likely your site will change as well.
Now that you have a good list of highly relevant phrases you can start working on your search engine friendly, keyword rich web site content.
c) Writing for Search Engines:
Before we go any further please note that we are talking about visible HTML text. Graphical text, flash movies, javascript mouseovers, etc... do not count because the search engines cannot read them. The same almost holds true for framed and dynamic sites. As with almost everything in life there are workarounds that can be employed and the correct use of these workarounds can lead to good listings. But the sites that consistently maintain high rankings usually have a good amount of keyword rich html text on static pages.
First of all decide on how many pages your site is going to be. Then assign a "theme" to each page (ie: about us, widgets, red widgets, international widgets). Now take your keyword research list and divide the phrases between the pages making sure they match the page theme. You should have 1-3 key phrases per page. Most likely there will be other secondary phrases that you can easily work into the copy as well. The more variations of the key phrases you can use the better but be sure you don't lose focus of the 1-3 main ones that you have chosen for that page. If a keyword/phrase applies to more than 1 page, all the better - especially if there are a number of variations for that phrase.
You should try to have between 200-500 words of copy per page. If possible the top line of text should read like a newspaper headline and contain that page's most important keyphrase. The first paragraph should ideally contain all of that page's main keyphrases and they should be repeated at least twice more in the text. But make sure the copy reads well. Do NOT use hidden text, hidden layers or any other spam tricks as the site will eventually be caught (or reported by your competitors) and penalised or banned. It simply isn't worth it and isn't necessary.
d)Online Sales Copy
As stated in the preceding page, search engines like lots of keyword rich html text. But marketing departments will tell you that your visitors want less. Actually, what humans want is to be able to read the text easily. Try using:
* Headline - Readers want to know what the page is about before going any further.
* Sub-headlines - Multiple, specific sub-headlines let the reader know what is coming next, keep their interest and let them skip parts of the page instead of the entire page.
* Short paragraphs - You may have lots of them but keep them short and to the point, don't use any words you don't have to. Break up long paragraphs with sub-headers and bullet points.
* Fonts - Choose one that is easy to read and use a large enough font size.
* Colour scheme - Make sure the text colour sits well on the background and is easy on the eyes.
The amount of text you use on your site will depend on the purpose of your site and your target audience. But even if you feel it's best to use short, snappy online sales copy you can still make it keyword rich. If you need to use short pages with sales copy and do not want every page to contain 200-500 of keyword rich text then make sure you also create product info sheets and FAQ pages for those visitors that do want more information. Ideally you should have one keyword rich page per product or service.
Eyetracking Study of Web Readers
2-Search Engine Friendly Design -
a)Web Site Architecture and Link Structure:
In order for the engines to be able to easily get around your site and index every page you will ideally have a text based navigation structure. Drop down menus, image maps and frameset menus are difficult, and in some cases impossible, for the search engine spiders to follow. So try to make it easy on them by either using a completely text based navigation system or providing text links throughout each page's copy.
If possible, all of the site's pages should reside in the root directory. Where there are too many pages for this to be feasible, try to keep the site architecture as simple and as close to the ground level as possible. Avoid having a url that looks like www.mysite.com/directories/level1/level2/page1.htm. The further from the root the page is, the less likely it is to be crawled.
The link structure should allow the user and spider to get to any page from any page. In very large sites this will translate to any directory main page from any page. The user should never be more than 1 or 2 clicks away from where he or she wants to go and the path to get there should be so clear that even a blind person can't miss it.
Since you've already researched and divided up your keywords for each page give each page the main keywords as a file name. If it's 2 words separate them with a dash. Same goes for directory names. So instead of having www.mysite.com/directory/page1.htm make it www.mysite.com/widgets/blue-widgets.htm. Your files and directory names will not make or break your listings but it can't hurt and every little bit extra may help (this is also true with domain names).
Do not obsess over it and register domains or make up directories and very long file names just to use keywords as that can make it very difficult for people to remember the url and increase the chances of it being mis-typed. As in everything to do with your site, your primary goal is not to be found but to sell. You have to balance every aspect of your site's design between what is good for search engine optimisation and what your target audience needs.
Search Engine Themes and Page Rank
b)Search Engine Friendly Design - Frames Based Sites:
Frames are often used to aid navigation. Sometimes they're used because the designer or site owner thinks it's the only way to get the desired look or functionality. In some cases, they may be correct, but not always.
Frames are not the best option when it comes to search engines but they are not the major stumbling block they were several years ago as long as certain considerations are made to ensure that framed sites are still accessible to both engines and disabled users. If you have to use frames the best way to ensure both engines and disabled users can still access the site is to create a text based non-frames version. If this isn't possible, at least ensure the following are taken into consideration for the frames site.
* If you have to use frames try to keep them as simple as possible. Engines will have a much easier time if they only have to get around 1 or 2 sets of frames as opposed to a complicated nested frameset structure.
* Ensure that each content page has a full set of navigation either as links throughout the body copy, a list of links at the bottom of every page or at the very least, a single link to the homepage. This aids search engines in indexing the rest of the pages of the site and it is vitally important for your potential customers as the engines may index any page of your site. If the page that shows up in search results is not within the frameset some other form of navigation is essential or that page becomes a dead end. If you do not want to add links you can use a bit of javascript that will restore the frameset. This is preferable for users but less preferable for engines and the disabled as it denies them the text links that make it easy for them to get around the site.
* Every main frames page (ie: not the menu frame) should have a page within the noframes tags with at least 3 paragraphs of keyword rich copy and links to the content pages that correspond to that copy. This should be a proper web page although you should opt to leave the graphics out. You should NOT use a list of keywords or any jibberish with keywords placed so as to make up a certain keyword density. This page is for both engines and the disabled. It should look like:
< noframes >
< body >
Keyword rich copy goes here compete with relevant text links to other content pages
< /body >
< /noframes >
* Every frames page, including the unimportant ones, should have a title and meta description tag. You may not want to promote these pages but some engines have been known to use the tags from them for other pages of the site so make sure they all have decent title and meta description tags instead of something like "page 3"
Search Engine Friendly Dynamic Sites
This page deals with typical dynamic sites or content such as asp pages which, although they may use a dynamic url, contain indexable content. There are other types of dynamic sites, such as those designed in Intershop or similar systems, that are completely un-indexable. If your site has been developed using such a system you will need to either design a second html based site or use the XML feeds that AltaVista and Inktomi offer on a PPC basis.
As optimising dynamic sites can be difficult I would recommend that you outsource the search engine promotion to a professional, ensuring that the SEO consultant you choose has a history of successfully promoting these types of sites.
A dynamic page contains content that is generated on the fly by taking results from a lookup table or database in order to satisfy a specified query. Dynamic sites are convenient for running shopping carts and quickly updating and customizing content, and while some sites make use of dynamic content for certain sections other sites are entirely designed within dynamic URLs.
You can usually tell if a page is dynamic by the "?" or other special characters located in the page's URL. Although all of the major engines can read pages using URLs that have non-alphanumeric characters in them (such as &, +, %, $, ?) they may not actively spider such sites, choosing rather to only spider the dynamic page that is directly submitted to them or directly linked to from a static page.
The reason the engines shy away from actively spidering dynamic sites is because they do not want to be caught in what is known as a "spider trap". Depending on how the site is coded, a single dynamic page can be generated hundreds of times - each with its own unique session id based url.
So If you want the search engines to spider your dynamic site you will need to either pay for inclusion (Inktomi, Lycos/Alltheweb and AltaVista offer this) and/or ensure that workarounds are put in place.
The best workaround for most dynamic sites is to get rid of any characters that are incompatible with search engine indexing. Most notably these include, ?, =, &. This can be done by creating scripts on the server that modify how it "serves up" dynamic pages. Even though the content is dynamic, the "normal" urls allow the site to be properly spidered.
If you have already built the site and you cannot change the url's using the present programming you will either have to pay to have the site redeveloped using technology that allows search engine friendly url's or you can opt to use other workarounds.
* Site Map - A good way to get the engines to index your dynamic pages is to create a search engine friendly site map. Use text links with descriptive (keyword rich) text and link to each of the important dynamic pages as well as any static pages that are on the site. Bear in mind that your human visitors will also be interested in this site map so make it user friendly. The site map should be visibly linked to from the homepage using an html link (not javascript or flash). Submit the site map directly to the engines.
* Static Site - If you cannot make your dynamic site search engine friendly then create a scaled down static version of it that links through to the dynamic site. Bear in mind that we are talking about a properly designed, full site, not a collection of doorway pages. Ideally this site should be purpose built to be search engine friendly and contain as much information as possible about the products/services being offered on the dynamic site. The links should ideally be to the relevant sections of the dynamic site so that the user lands exactly where they expect to without having to start their search all over again.
* Mini Sites - If the above is too costly another idea is to create 3 or 4 page mini sites targeting specific products or services offered on the dynamic site. The above criteria applies; search engine friendly, loads of information, relevant links to the dynamic content.
* Information Pages - Sometimes static information pages can be incorporated into a dynamic site such as About Us, Product Information or FAQ pages. Although on the dynamic site, these are static pages and as such are indexable.
* Doorway Pages - If you cannot create a full or even a mini static site another option is doorway pages. Please read the section on doorway pages very carefully in order to understand what I am talking about as there is a lot of misconception and dubious information and advice floating around regarding this type of workaround.
* Static Mirror Pages - One workaround that some use is to set up the server to generate one static page for every dynamic product page. The mistake I often see with this is the misconception that all that is necessary is a blank page with a title and meta tags. So the site ends up with dozens or even hundreds of what are effectively blank doorway pages with no body text and identical titles and meta tags. This is not a good idea and could harm a site's listings. If you are going to use static mirror pages make sure they are generated to include a product/service relevant title, meta tags and at least one paragraph of keyword rich content. Note that this is nowhere near as effective as a static site but if done correctly it can have a positive effect on the site's search engine listings.
Dynamic sites and search engines
Spider Food - Dynamic Page Optimization
ClickZ Solutions for Dynamic Page Registration
Search Engine Forums - Dynamic Pages
Webmaster Base - Search Engine Friendly URL's
Webmaster World Forum
ASP 101 - Extending Your Page Names
c)Search Engine Friendly Design - Flash:
Flash itself is not bad and for some target markets it can be a great feature to have as part of your site. Unfortunately, flash isn't the best format for high search engine placement. It also seems that a lot of designers do not know how to make the best use of flash.
Up until recently the most common use of flash seems to have been the flash movie on a splash page. Besides the fact that studies have shown that almost everyone presses the "skip intro" button meaning the flash intro is not an attention grabber or means of enhancing brand awareness, the flash splash page will kill your site's search engine listings - or ensure you never get any if it's a new site.
Flash text can only be read by FAST Alltheweb.com. None of the other engines can currently read flash text or follow flash links. Although FAST Alltheweb.com is now indexing flash this does not make flash search engine friendly. Flash MX is supposed to move flash design away from "useless" and "fancy" and into "content" and "usability". It is meant to go some way towards making flash more accessible to disabled users and possibly search engines, but the designer needs to know how to use it correctly in order for it to be effective in this way. It will be some time before flash can be considered either truely accessible or indexable.
So if flash itself horrid? No. The judicial and purposeful use of flash on websites whose target audience will appreciate it is a good thing and can help to increase the site's "stickiness". Games, quizzes, surveys, online forms, multi media streaming, and other interactive features are all good uses for flash. And since the rest of the site does not need to be designed in flash, using flash technology in these ways will enhance your web presence without taking anything away from the engines or disabled users who will still able to read and navigate the rest of your html site.
# But it goes without saying that sites composed entirely in flash are not going to achieve high search engine placement, even on FAST Alltheweb.com. The problem with flash and search engines is primarily with: Flash Based Sites: If the site is composed entirely in flash you will ideally design an accessible html site as well. If you do this, provide a link to the other option on each site rather than a splash page giving the options.
# Flash Navigation Systems: Flash navigation systems should be complemented by text links either throughout the body copy or as an alternative set of links at the bottom, top or left hand side of the pages.
# Flash Splash Pages Flash based splash pages are covered in the splash pages section.
Marketing Sherpa Article on Flash and Search Engines
Northern Webs Flash Design Notes
Macromedia Flash
d)Search Engine Friendly Design - The Splash Page
We have already discussed flash movie splash pages but they are not the only way splash pages are made. A splash page is typically the first page of the site that contains a logo sometimes accompained by an animated gif or flash movie along with (if you're lucky) the company name and a link to enter the actual site.
If you know anything about how search engines work you'll know they will hate splash pages because they want html text. If you know anything about the way web users think you'll know they hate splash pages because they want information NOW, not in 30 seconds after the splash page has finally loaded and they can finally click the "enter" or "skip intro" button to get into the site.
So why do site owners still use splash pages? Because a lot of them see their web site as an extension of their printed brochure and want it to have the same pretty cover. They simply miss the essential differences of offline vs. online - time, patience and choice:
* Time: Offline, time is not so much of an issue but online it is everything, especially for those not using unmetered or broadband access.
* Patience: No one online has any patience. No matter how long they will spend reading a book, catalogue or brochure offline, when they are online they want to get to the heart of the matter immediately.
* Choice: In the offline world, they may have 2 or 3 catalogues laying around to choose from but online there are millions. If yours doesn't give them what they want within seconds they'll be off to find another one that will. Why should they wait for your non-informative splash page to load when there are hundreds of other sites in the same industry willing to give them information immediately without making them pay for it in time and Internet call charges.
So KILL the splash page.
Now, for the sorry few who can't kill the splash page, there are ways to make it more search engine friendly. The best workaround is to add at least one paragraph of very keyword rich text with text links to the relevant inner pages of the site, saving the user at least one extra click and providing them and the engines with some information. Some is always better than none.
If the splash page is a flash movie the above won't be possible unless the designer has put the text inside a txt, html or xml file. Another option is to only use part of the page for the flash movie and have the rest of the page done in normal html with html text. Here's an example of a search engine friendly flash splash page.
If all else fails, put the splash page within a frameset and make full use of the noframes section by adding 3 or more paragraphs of keyword rich text. This will certainly help the engines index the site (although it's not as good as having the text on an actual visible page) but the human visitor will still have to deal with the splash page - poor things.
e)Search Engine Friendly Design - Tables
The way the engines view your page is different from the way it appears to the human viewer. If you go to a webpage and click on "View" in the top left hand corner of your browser and then click on "Source" you will be able to see the way the engines will see the page. Search engines read from the top of the page down in the HTML code. This means that the way they view the text in tables is very different than the way it is laid out to the human viewer on the screen.
To ensure that your most important keywords are placed prominently in the tables you will have to view the tables in the source code. You may find that the more important keywords, although appearing on the screen at the top of the tables are in fact way down the page in the source code, below less important text, graphics or navigation structure.
# To ensure that your most important text is the first thing the search engines see use the simple table trick found on the following sites:Search Engine Hints: Tables
# Tables Through the Eyes of a Spider
f)Search Engine Friendly Design - JavaScript
Javascript is one of the most common causes of "code bloat". Search engines usually only read so far down a webpage (remember, the source code, not the visible page) and if the first half of it is taken up by javascript they may give up and go away before getting to your keyword rich text.
To ensure this doesn't happen simply put all of that page's javascript in an external js file. Not only will this increase your page's search engine friendliness, it will also make it faster to load.
To create a js file use a text editor and put any javascript code that you would normally place in the section of your web page into a separate file. This file should only contain your JavaScript code, no html. Then on your actual page, you put this in the < head > section:
< Script language="JavaScript" src="filename.js" >
< /Script >
Another solution is to place the javascript at the end of the page (in the source code) below all of the text and links. But this can sometimes cause problems with rollover buttons, interactive date scripts, banners and the like. If it does, use the external js file instead, especially if you use the same javascript on more than one page as you can call the same js file for all of them making it easier for the designer and decreasing overall download time.
It should be noted that if all of your navigation is done using javascript the search engines will not be able to follow your links. To ensure your entire site can be spidered make sure you use a noscript tag.
g)Search Engine Friendly Design - Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS, is an HTML addition that allows the designer to control various web page design parameters by pre-defining them in the < head > tag either by referencing to an external CCS file or by placing the CCS information for that particular page directly in the < head > tag.
CSS massively decreases download time and can save design time as well if the same CSS file is used throughout the site. As far as search engines are concerned, using an external CSS file removes code bloat. You can also use CSS files to give the engines what they want such as the hefty and ugly < H1 > tags without having to compromise on the way the site appears to the human viewer. Using CSS to define margins, fonts, link appearance, colours, and placement means that you can feed the engines what would normally be a Big, Dumb and Ugly page without it appearing that way to humans.
Please note that we are not talking about spam here. All we are saying is that you can set the < H1 > tag in CSS to look like small, bold type while the engines will still treat it with all the respect that text in the (traditionally horrid looking) < H1 > tag deserves.
What you should NOT use CSS for is hidden layers in an effort to get more keywords in without having to have them in the visible text, otherwise known as spam. Even if the engines don't get you (and they eventually will) your competitors are keeping a sharp eye out and they (or their promotions company) will report it. Hidden layers are a big no-no so don't even think about it.
h)Search Engine Friendly Design - Server Side Includes
Server side includes are perfectly fine to use as long as the end result is search engine friendly. In other words, if the page that the viewer sees is search engine friendly (text links, html text, etc) then there is no problem. SSI is not considered spam and will not harm a site's rankings as long as the end result is a search engine friendly page.
i)Search Engine Friendly Design - Robots.txt
All major search engines support the robots.txt and it is the first file a spider will request when visiting a site. Therefore a robots.txt file should be part of every site. It should be used to exclude the robots from sensitive material that is not password protected, any under construction pages, test sections, js files, style sheets and the CGI-BIN.
Robots.txt files are not only for useful for stopping the engines from grabbing sensitive pages they also help to tell the engines where they should go instead. If you have a very large site the engines may spend so much time spidering your image directory, test directory or other non-essentials that they run out of time and go off to another site. This is not what you want. You want the engines to get to the important, keyword rich pages on your site. So use a robots.txt to keep them away from anything that isn't going to be beneficial to your search engine rankings.
As the robots.txt is explicit you should never “Allow” anything on the file unless that is the ONLY directory or page that you want the engines to index. As that would be a very rare occurrence it is best to primarily use the file to disallow what you don't want indexed instead. Run the robots.txt through a validator to ensure it's written correctly or it may end up doing more harm than good.
An example of a robots.txt
RobotsTxt.Org
Robots.tx Validator
j)Search Engine Friendly Design - Re-designing Sites
Sites change and it is important that they be redesigned from time to time to keep the content fresh and the design up to date. But if a site that is well listed on the engines and/or directories is going to be redesigned, or even just a single page deleted or file names changed, it is important to realise that it WILL impact on the site's rankings and traffic.
This does not mean that changes should not be made. It does however mean that special consideration has to be given to sites that are showing well before any changes are made. If you consult with the SEO expert up front you will be able to limit or avoid any negative impact the change may have had.
Not everything has to be complicated and there are most likely very simple ways of ensuring that any proposed changes do not harm the site's rankings. But the important point is to consult with the SEO expert BEFORE the changes are made to ensure any necessary workarounds are put in place and no rankings or traffic is lost.
Changing File Names - Search engines have the ability to index every page of a site they can find. They do not only index a homepage which means that a single site may have every one of its pages indexed, with some or all showing very well in search returns.
Links given by directory and site owners do not always resolve to the root domain. If the site has a page on a specific topic that is relevant to a site the site owner will often link to the individual page. Because of both of these reasons it is imperative if you have to change a file name you make sure that it doesn't create a loss of traffic.
There are several ways of doing this from the very simple: use the existing file name for the new page (which is fine if you're just changing content), to the very complicated workarounds for sites that are being completely redesigned on a new platform (ie: html to asp). The best workaround will depend on the type and extent of the change which means there needs to be communication between the designer and the SEO expert.
Deleting Pages - If the site is being promoted please DO NOT delete any files without checking with the SEO expert as this may seriously affect the site's traffic. It may be that a certain page has no keyword rankings and therefore it's fine to delete it but please check first.
Changing the Structure - Pretty much the same issue as changing the file names. If you are going to delete a directory in favour of moving the pages into the root directory it is going to upset the rankings as those pages are indexed on a specific url such as www.domain.com/directory1/page1.htm so moving them to www.domain.com/page1.htm means all search engine listings and inbound links for that page are now dead and no longer bringing traffic.
If you absolutely have to do this you will need to ensure that workarounds are put in place to minimise the negative impact. It would be best to talk to the SEO expert concerned to find the easiest and most effective workaround.
Framing/De-Framing - Don't change a non-framed site to a framed site unless you have to and if you do make sure that the special considerations that have to be taken into effect for high rankings are implemented.
If you are changing a previously optimised site from frames to non-frames you still need to keep the individual pages that are well indexed live (or at least the file names). You also need to be aware that the noframes section of the main frames page(s) will have been optimised by the SEO expert so changing this to a splash page, for example, is potential going to cost rankings rather than help them.
From Static to Dynamic - Does the entire site have to be changed to a dynamic format? In some cases you can just put a dynamic system behind the existing site. That is preferable as far as search engine promotion is concerned.
If a high ranking static site has to be completely changed to a dynamic format the client should be aware that the rankings will be affected unless the static site can be kept live and a second, dynamic site built to complement it.
Keeping the Optimisation Intact - Keep all existing html titles, meta tags, alt tags and noframes optimisation intact. Be sure to copy and paste your old optimisation into your new design. If the copy has been changed then the optimisation may need to be changed as well.
Planning a Site Redesign
WebReference Error 404
k)Designing Accessible Web Sites
The UK has passed, although not yet enforced, a law stating that web sites should be reasonably accessible to disabled users and in the States all government sites have to be accessible.
I am not an expert on designing accessible web sites but I feel it is an important issue and should be addressed. I personally feel that every design firm should either have an accessibility policy or make sure their designers are aware of accessiblity issues. Clients should be made aware of the fact that certain types of web design such as those that make heavy use of flash, complicated navigation systems, graphicical text or frames will most likely prevent disabled users from fully accessing the site.
One aspect of the accessibility issue that many overlook is that search engines and disabled users both require similar design considerations: html text as opposed to graphics or flash text, simple text based navigation, descriptive alt tags, etc... So if you make an effort to take accessiblity issues into account when designing sites your web site will be more search engine friendly than most and ready for optimisation.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
UK Disability Discrimination Act
Bobby Accessbility Web Site Checker
UseableNet Accessibility Test
Bunnyfoot - 10 Accessibility Misconceptions
Website Accessibility - Presentation by Terry Brainerd Chadwick to CHIFOO.
3)Web Site Optimisation -
a)Title and Meta Tags
Before we go any further let me reiterate that the most important element in optimising sites for high search engine listings is html body text. If the pages do not have keyword rich text, even the best titles and meta tags are not going to go very far toward good listings.
The titles and meta tags are supposed to highlight the most important keywords, as listed throughout the html body text on that web page as well as match the overall theme of the site. They are meant to be an addition to, not replacement for, keyword rich html copy.
After the body copy, the < title > < /title > tag is the most important element in search engine optimisation for a web page (please note that the theme, navigation, and inbound links are the most important elements for successful search engine placement for the site overall). The text in the title tag should be:
* limited to a total of 60-70 characters (spaces and punctuation should be counted as characters)
* include the most important 2-4 keywords/phrases that are in that page's body copy
* be well written, easy to read, and capitalised and punctuated as a book title would be
The < meta name="description" content=" " > tag is not an important element as far as search engine optimisation is concerned but it is important for your site's listings as a well worded description has often been the deciding factor in whether a searcher clicked on the first, second or third links, with many choosing the lower listing due to a better title and description. Please note that not all engines use the meta description tag when displaying results, some use the first few lines of text from your web page and some use text from anywhere in your web page providing it contains the terms that were used in the search. The meta description tag should be:
* one or two sentences describing the page as it relates to the site/company overall
* limited to a total of 160-200 characters (spaces and punctuation should be counted as characters)
Next comes the < meta name="keywords" content=" " > tag about which there are so many misconceptions. In short, if you don't have the time, forget this tag completely. I personally use it on almost every web page I optimise simply because I believe that every little bit might count but I never spend a lot of time on it. Simply choose the few main keywords that are being targeted on that particular webpage and add them to the meta keyword tag. Try not to repeat any single word if possible. In order to avoid repetition it's advisable to not use commas as this will allow you to string words together to make up several possible combinations without having to repeat any one of them.
The meta keywords tag should be:
* used to highlight that particular page's keywords/phrases
* limited to a total of 1000 characters (spaces and punctuation should be counted as characters) although in reality you should limit it to 10-30 words depending on how much text the page contains
* do not repeat words if possible
* do not use words that do not appear on the page unless they are synonyms or relate to the site's overall theme
* do not use another company's name, trademarks or product names unless you have a very good reason for doing so (one that will hold up in court)
There are a lot of other meta tags but none of them are currently useful for search engine optimisation. That doesn't mean they should not be used, just don't expect them to affect the site's rankings.
b)Web Site Optimisation - Alt Tags and Link Text
In This Section
Alt tags
Link text (anchor text)
Alt tag are not read by every search engine but some do take note of them. Accessibility equipment however needs alt tags to describe pictures, buttons and non-text links to the disabled user.
To make the alt tag useful for both accessibility and search engine optimisation it should be used wisely. The alt tag should describe the graphic while using a keyword that can sensibly be associated with it. Refrain from using large paragraphs or keyword stuffing as that can, and usually will, be considered spam.
Link text can be very important as search engines do take note of the words used in the anchor text to describe the page being linked to. As with the alt text (and every other aspect of professional search engine optimisation) link text should be used wisely and make sense to the viewer.
Using text for links instead of buttons, image maps or framed menus not only allow the engines easier access in spidering the site, it also makes it easier for the disabled.
c)Don't Do Spam
There are a lot of different definitions of spam from the very vague "anything that's bad" to a list of every technique that could possibly be considered to be spam. At the heart of the matter though is the engines themselves. Since they will be the ones to penalise or ban your site if what you do is what they define as spam then it stands to reason that the definition should come from them.
Unfortunately they are not completely clear on the issue either in regards to actual techniques. Probably because they feel if they spell it out exactly then the spammers will find some new way of doing it that isn't covered in the engines anti-spam list (which would probably happen).
Some people and some engines have defined spam as "anything you wouldn't do if the engines didn't exist". The problem with that definition is the conclusion that any method of trying to get good rankings, even as simple as writing keyword rich text, is spam. Try applying that logic to any other form of marketing and you'll find it just doesn't work as it rules everyone out as spammers.
But just because there isn't a list of exactly every type of spam or a clear definition of what all engines consider to be spam doesn't mean you're free to do things that have been labelled spam techniques. These include:
* Same or similar colour background/text (what some call "white text")
* Keywords on the page in a tiny font size so that it's barely readable, usually on a very similar colour background
* Stuffing the title and/or meta tags with tons of irrelevant or repeated keywords (or variations)
* Using hidden layers as a place to hide keywords
* Splash pages (ask Google - they said it, not me)
* Multiple, machine generated or very similar doorways, sometimes full of nonsensical jibberish with keywords scattered at "strategic" locations throughout to come up with a "perfect keyword density" for a particular engine
* Mirror domains and homepage (or whole sites)
* Pages that redirect a viewer to a page on a different topic (you search for and find what you think is a baby clothes site only to be redirected to one about motorcycles)
* Cloaking and IP delivery (a tailored page is served to and indexed by the spider but the viewer sees the real site)
Bear in mind that some of the above techniques are employed with no thought to search engine positioning. For example:
* IP delivery is used by some engines to redirect regional users to their regional databases
* A lot of companies are left with domains and sites after mergers that they mirror or redirect to their parent company's site
* Hundreds of sites have splash pages despite the fact that Google has publicly stated that they consider it to be a form of spam
* Some sites are simply badly designed and end up using tiny text or similar text/background colours
It does appear that the engines make exceptions in some cases but all of the above do raise "red flags" and may very well cause your site to be penalised or banned. Just because another site used it without any harm to their listings doesn't mean you will be able to. Life isn't always fair and the engines are not answerable to you. So to be safe avoid all appearance of evil and don't do spam.
d)Search Engine Optimsiation - International Issues
If you are targeting a specific geographical market you need to be sure your site will be accepted not only by the international engines but also their regional versions as well as the smaller regional-only engines and directories.
Most web users will use an international engine as well as a local one so do not discount the international engines and directories. But you will also need to be listed in the regional engines. To ensure the regional engines and directories will index your site you will need to make sure that the geographical focus is extremely clear by using a country specific domain, language (don't have a site in American English if you're targeting a French audience) and contact details.
If you have several sites targeting different geographical markets you should ideally have a unique site for each country complete with the correct domain suffix, language and local contact details. This is not only for the engines but for your prospective audience as well.
Find a local SEO expert and copywriter - straight translations will not work. Believe it or not you cannot simply translate your meta tags into Spanish and hope to be accepted by all the Spanish language engines. You need to outsource the optimisation to a native of the country you are targeting and the keyword research will need to be specific to that country, not just that language. French Canadians and European French use different terminology as do the Spanish and Mexicans and British and Americans.
How Search Engines Regionalise
Optimizing for International Search Engines
WebmasterWorld's European SEO strategy primer #3
Webmaster World UK and Ireland
Webmaster World European Search Engines Forum
Search Engine Forums: The UK and Beyond
Search Engine Forums: Non English Search Engines
e)Search Engine Friendly Workarounds - Optimising Static Sites
You may find, for a static non-frames site, that the following simple tips will suffice:
* Kill the splash page. I know I said you may not have to make major changes but splash pages have to go.
* Your homepage is the most important page of your site, both for search engines and potential customers. Your homepage must have the site's most important keywords worked into the text as well as used in the title tag. The homepage should also have links to all of the most important pages of the site.
* Make sure each page has text links to the other pages of the site. If your menu is an image map or uses javascript drop down boxes then simply make text links throughout the page's text. Or create a set of text links to go on the bottom of every page as an additional navigation set.
* Remove code bloat by using external js and CSS files.
* Tweak your existing html text to include more keywords.
* Design tailored title and meta tags for each page, highlighting that page's main keywords.
If your site is framed all of the above are still relevant but there are other issues to consider as well - see web site optimisation for frames based sites.
Suggestions for flash or primarily graphical sites can be found at search engine optimisation for flash sites.
Dynamic sites require more effort and unless you are able to spend some time and /or money you will not be able to achieve the best placement possible for all of your keywords. But even if you are not able to use the top suggestions found in search engine optimisation for dynamic sites you can still take note of the workarounds.
Although these will not achieve as good results as the more sophisticated suggestions they do work and are particularly useful if you already have a dynamic site that was not designed with search engines in mind and you do not have the budget and/or time to re-work the development.
4)Directory Submissions -
a)How to Submit to Yahoo
Free Submissions to Yahoo: Yahoo.com itself no longer offers a free submission option for commercial sites but some of the regional Yahoo's do. So if your site is non-commercial or if you qualify for a regional listing you may be able to obtain a Yahoo listing for free.
To qualify for a non-commercial listing in Yahoo.com your site has to be not-for-profit and there are only certain categories you can submit to. If you try to submit to a category and only the Business Express option appears then you know you'll either have to pay or choose a different category.
To qualify for a regional listing your business should ideally be based in or primarily focused on the region that the Yahoo you are submitting to covers. You should make sure that the site includes your physical address (if regionally based) and/or is very clear about the site's geographical target market.
If the site is listed in an English language regional Yahoo such as Yahoo UK or Yahoo Canada it will also appear in listings on all the other English language Yahoo's including Yahoo.com as all of the English language data is shared, although it is organised differently in each of the sites.
Yahoo Business Express: Yahoo.com now charges US$299 per annum for a guaranteed review. If your business is based in the US, Yahoo's paid submission option is the only way you are going to get a listing.
Yahoo UK charges a once off fee of £199 for a guaranteed review. Yahoo Canada and Yahoo Australia and New Zealand charge a recurring annual fee of US$299, but some still offer the free submission option as well. Not all regional Yahoo's have a paid submission option, and those that don't offer free submissions instead.
Regardless of which Yahoo you are submitting to, if you are paying for the submission you are guaranted that a Yahoo editor will review the site within 7 working days and give an answer as to whether or not it will be added. If they reject your site there is no refund but you can appeal within 30 days without having to pay again. See Yahoo's Business Express Submission FAQ for more information.
# How to Submit to Yahoo: Whether you are paying for the submission or trying to get in for free, the guidelines and rules are the same. Very simply these are: find the most appropriate category
# use your company name as the suggested title
# use a 15-20 word description that contains your 2 or 3 main keywords, accurately describes the business/site and makes sense
Read Yahoo's Suggest a Site Help section. Another good place to find real time help and information is the Yahoo forum on Search Engine Forums.
b)Directory Submissions - How to Submit to the Open Directory
What is the ODP?: The Open Directory is currently the largest online directory, surpassing Yahoo in size and distribution. As it is free both to submit to the ODP and to use the directory's data on your own site it has become very popular and widely used.
Google's directory is just the Open Directory with Google's label. AOL, Lycos.com and hundreds of other large, medium and small sites also use the Open Directory's data as their own directory, in their search results, or both. The ODP also has the widest global reach in that it has mini regional directories in over 60 languages besides English. This means that even though few people know of or use www.dmoz.org itself a large portion of the online community are accessing the ODP through its partner sites. So a listing is very, very important.
Submit Your Site: So how do you submit to the Open Directory? Submitting is free but that doesn't mean you're guaranteed a listing. Like Yahoo, the ODP is a human edited directory. Unlike Yahoo who has paid editors, the ODP editors are all volunteers who are responsible for certain categories and review sites in their spare time. This means that although the site may be reviewed right away, chances are you may have to wait some time (up to 6 months or longer).
Before submitting to the ODP make sure you read their submission guidelines very carefully and be precise when choosing a category. Use the same title and description rules you did for Yahoo: title = company/site name; description = 20-25 word acurate description of company/site with no marketing hype. If after three weeks your site hasn't appeared you can submit again. If another three weeks doesn't make it appear then you can email the category editor. If there isn't one go up the category tree until you find one. Be VERY polite when you email. Remember, they are volunteer editors and they don't have to list your site.
Become an ODP Editor: I edit the ODP and I think every serious SEO / SEM expert should join up - not to get their sites listed but to get an insider's view of how it works. You need not invest a huge amont of time, choose a small category and be pro-active about building it up, then get it checked. What you will learn about the ODP's guildelines when top editors review your category will be very helpful in future submissions to the ODP, Yahoo and any other directory. Or if you don't want to bother with the ODP, sign up to edit Zeal.
Danny Sullivan on submitting to directories
Open Directory Forum on SEForums
Open Directory Public Forum
c)Directory Submissions - How to Submit to LookSmart
LookSmart.com: Submitting to LookSmart.com used to be straight forward, if expensive. But now it's all changed. LookSmart.com is no longer a directory in the same way that Yahoo and the ODP are. It is now primarily a PPC directory. In other words, you no longer submit a site for free or fee, wait for an editor to review it and then have it accepted or rejected. Now you have to do all that and then start paying for each click (as reported by LookSmart.com) that you receive from listings on LookSmart.com and its partners.
There has been a lot said on the subject so instead of rehashing it all here I'll point you to a very good article by Danny Sullivan which gives a lot of detail as well as links to other articles on the subject: LookSmart Changes To Cost-Per-Click Listings.
Regional LookSmart's: The various regional LookSmarts are still offering paid directory reviews but due to the major changes at LookSmart.com I would be very cautious of dealing with any LookSmart at this time.
Zeal.com: Zeal is another human edited directory that uses volunteer editors. The difference with Zeal is that you cannot suggest a site unless you are an editor. Another major difference between Zeal and the Open Directory is that, since LookSmart purchased it, you can only submit non-commercial sites.
If you have a non-commercial site or your commercial site has a substantial amount of information (not just a page or two) that could be considered non-commercial you should consider signing up as an editor.
To become an editor you have to pass a rather long-winded test so be sure you have some time to spare. As with signing up for the Open Directory and getting your category checked, taking the Zeal test will help you gain a better understanding of what directories want in terms of titles, descriptions and content. So if you have time and a site that would fit their content guidelines take the Zealot test.
Wisenut.com: LookSmart.com now owns Wisenut, a newish search engine that makes heavy use of link analysis and themes, similar to Google and Teoma.
Shortly after LookSmart.com purchased Wisenut the add url page disappeared. They have not yet announced any plans for paid inclusion so we have to hope that they are actively crawling, as Teoma does, despite the lack of an add url facility.
NEXT Step: Submit Your Site to Regional and Industry Directories
Categories
Home Page
e)Regional and Industry Specific Directories
European Search Engines, Directories and Lists
SearchEngineWatch Regional Search Engines.
4)Search Engine Submissions -
How to Submit to AltaVista
Free Submission: AltaVista still offers a free submit option and the queue is currently 4-8 weeks (bear in mind that for no apparent reason some sites take longer, up to 6 months). You have to submit to AltaVista manually as their Add URL page requires that you type in a code for every 5 url's submitted. AltaVista Free Submissions
Regional AltaVista's: My current understanding is that all of the AltaVista sites share one big database. The web pages in the database are filtered to the regional AltaVista's based on their domain, language, content and where the inbound links are coming from. Therefore for free submissions you can simply submit your site to the main AltaVista.com OR the regional one. There is no need to submit to both. For tips and advice on being well indexed in regional engines visit the international issues section.
Paid Submission: Very similar to other paid inclusion programs except that prices are for 6 months rather than a year and the spidering is weekly. AltaVista has far fewer partners than Inktomi so you are primarily paying to be listed on AltaVista. Worth noting is the fact that the paid inclusion option for the AltaVista.com is separate from the regional AltaVista's. So if you want to be sure of being indexed in both AltaVista.com and AltaVista.co.uk, for example, you have to pay twice (per page).
If you pay for inclusion at any AltaVista you can choose additional features (at an additional cost) such as logos, icons, special tag lines and several text links going to deep pages. It is perfectly fine to submit the same site/pages to AltaVista via both its free and paid inclusion options although it is not necessary.
Cost: $39.00 for the 1st url and $29.00 for every page thereafter - prices for 6 months (per region)
AltaVista Express Inclusion Prices and Ordering
AltaVista Express Inclusion Information
Trusted Feed: AltaVista's Trusted Feed is an XML feed designed for large sites (over 500 pages) and is specifically useful for large, dynamically driven sites that are difficult for traditional crawlers to index. Trusted Feed is priced on a PPC model.
AltaVista Trusted Feed Information
Search Engine Submissions - How to Submit to Lycos / FAST Alltheweb
Free Submissions: FAST/Alltheweb is still actively spidering sites submitted via their free add url option with a lead time of 4-6 weeks for most sites, although some are spidered much quicker. The FAST/Alltheweb database is also used by Lycos.com, Lycos UK and HotBot UK.
FAST/Alltheweb Free Submission Page
Paid Submissions: Lycos InSite Select guarantees that a page will be added to the FAST web page index within 2 days, then updated every 2 days for a year. The FAST index provides the main results on the Lycos search results page, and the index is also used by all other FAST partners, as well as on AllTheWeb. Lycos UK will only add the paid for pages if they are on a .co.uk domain.
As is the same with all paid inclusion programs offered by other major crawlers, entering a URL through the program does not guarantee that it will rank well for any particular term nor give it a ranking boost. In order to show well, the pages paid for must be keyword rich and well optimised. You are allowed to submit the same page(s) via the free and paid add url options although it is not necessary.
Cost: $18.00 membership fee and $12.00 per page - annual fee
Information and Prices
Please note: You can now submit to both FAST Alltheweb.com and Inktomi using one form at PositionTech but the price for FAST Alltheweb.com is more than the price listed on Lycos.
Search Engine Submissions - How to Submit to Inktomi: MSN, HotBot and Other Partners
Free Submissions: Inktomi is a generic search engine which powers the search results (or some of them) at a number of major engines and directories including LookSmart, MSN, Hotbot and Overture. Inktomi still offers free submissions but the queue is long, currently 3 - 6 months for new sites or those without many inbound links.
If you do not want to pay for inclusion into the Inktomi database you will need to try to secure as many quality inbound links as possible, hoping that one of the pages linking to your site is in Inktomi's "free" database. Unless Inktomi finds at least one link to your site they will not spider the site for free. Use MSN's BCentral to submit to Inktomi for free. There is no guarantee it works so you should also consider paid inclusions and / or work on your link building campaign.
Paid Submissions: The SearchSubmit paid inclusion program, while not guaranteeing results in any way, does guarantee that the pages paid for will be spidered and indexed within 48 hours. And because they will be re-spidered every 2 days, any changes made will be indexed quickly.
The annual fee is per page and it is worth noting that ONLY the pages paid for will be spidered quickly, links are not followed. Not all web pages are created equal so be sure to submit the ones most likely to produce high rankings. As the paid and free submission pages are kept in separate indeces it is fine to submit the same pages to both if you want.
Cost: $39 for the fist url and $25 for each url thereafter (up to 1000) - annual fee.
Inktomi Paid Inclusion Prices and Ordering
Index Connect For sites that want to submit over 1000 pages Inktomi has set up the Index Connect service. Especially useful for dynamic sites or those that would normally not be considered search engine friendly, Index Connect allows you to submit the pages via an XML feed with payment on a PPC model.
Index Connect Information
Search Engine Submissions - How to Submit to Google:
How to submit to Google Really, really simple - go to the add url page and enter your url. You can just add the homepage but I would suggest that you submit the homepage and a few important pages over a few days (one page per day) just to be sure.
Google does not have a paid inclusion program so you have to get in the good old fashioned "wait and see" way. Google does have paid advertisement options in the form of their Premium Listings and AdWords services.
What is Google PageRank? Are you obsessed with your listings on Google? Well, join the crowd. Since Google introduced their toolbar everyone has been overly concerned with their PageRank. Google PageRank is a score that Google has assigned to a site based on the site's link popularity, relevancy and a lot of other factors. Some have gotten so obsessed that they are refusing to link to any site with a PageRank lower than 5 as they fear this will lower their own site's PageRank. The reality is that PageRank is not the be all and end all. New sites won't have any for a few months and even sites with poor PageRank can show very well in Google's search engine results if they are relevant for the search terms.
Google on submitting to Google
Add your URL to Google
Google Information for Webmasters
Google Spam Report Page
The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
Submitting to Google: links
Webmaster World Google Forum
Search Engine Forums Google
PageRank Explained
The Handy Dandy Google Page Rank Figurin' Guide
Other Engines Worth Submitting To
Although the smaller engines won't bring you masses of traffic they should not be completely ignored. If you have the time to find relevant engines to submit your site to then go for it. I would advise having a look through the following links to find small search engines, some of which are regionally or topically specific, and submit your site to the ones that are relevant to your site's content and target market.
What I would not advise is paying for a listing on any of them unless you are really sure that your target market will frequent that engine. The top referrers for most well optimised sites will be the major engines and directories so I would suggest concentrating your online budget there. If, however, you have some extra funds and you find a small search engine that seems to be a perfect fit you might want to try it out.
SearchEngineWatch: Search Engines Worldwide
SearchEngineWorld
About.com Regional Search Engines
Search Engine colossus
Search Engine Forums: Other Search Engines
What Comes After Submission? - Monitor Your Search Engine Rankings
Now that you have submitted your search engine friendly, optimised web site to the major engines and directories how do you find out and keep track of how it's doing?
First of all, don't even consider trying to check your site's ranking for at least three weeks after the initial submission unless you have paid for inclusion. If you have paid for inclusion you can start checking the relevant engines within one or two weeks.
In the first three months after you first optimise and submit your site it is important to monitor its progress to make sure that all of the important pages have been indexed as well as to see whether or not they're holding high positions for your keywords. During these three months you should be equally concerned about building up your link popularity as this can have a great impact on whether or not the pages are indexed, as well as influencing their rankings.
After the first three months you should continue to monitor the site's listings but how often you do this will depend on
* how important top search engine rankings are to you (are search engines your main referrer?)
* how competitive an industry you're in (online, not offline)
* how often you change the important pages of the site (even a slight change can influence the rankings)
If you've built up some good links and have optimised the site properly the rankings should remain steady after the first few months so you shouldn't have to check them more than once a month unless you have BOTH paid for inclusion and change the pages you have paid for regularly. For those in industries that are not extremeley competitive you probably only need to check your rankings every two to three months.
Search engine rankigns can be monitored manually (using good old fashioned searching) or you can use a program that will do it for you such as Agent WebRank, TopDog and WebPosition, all of which require payment. The other option is to outsource the rank monitoring to an SEO company that offers it either as a stand alone service or as part of an optimisation and submission package. Which option you choose will depend on the competitiveness of your industry, how many sites you need to monitor, how important search engine rankings are to you and how much you have to spend.
What Comes After Submission? - Monitor Your Search Engine Rankings
Now that you have submitted your search engine friendly, optimised web site to the major engines and directories how do you find out and keep track of how it's doing?
First of all, don't even consider trying to check your site's ranking for at least three weeks after the initial submission unless you have paid for inclusion. If you have paid for inclusion you can start checking the relevant engines within one or two weeks.
In the first three months after you first optimise and submit your site it is important to monitor its progress to make sure that all of the important pages have been indexed as well as to see whether or not they're holding high positions for your keywords. During these three months you should be equally concerned about building up your link popularity as this can have a great impact on whether or not the pages are indexed, as well as influencing their rankings.
After the first three months you should continue to monitor the site's listings but how often you do this will depend on
* how important top search engine rankings are to you (are search engines your main referrer?)
* how competitive an industry you're in (online, not offline)
* how often you change the important pages of the site (even a slight change can influence the rankings)
If you've built up some good links and have optimised the site properly the rankings should remain steady after the first few months so you shouldn't have to check them more than once a month unless you have BOTH paid for inclusion and change the pages you have paid for regularly. For those in industries that are not extremeley competitive you probably only need to check your rankings every two to three months.
Search engine rankigns can be monitored manually (using good old fashioned searching) or you can use a program that will do it for you such as Agent WebRank, TopDog and WebPosition, all of which require payment. The other option is to outsource the rank monitoring to an SEO company that offers it either as a stand alone service or as part of an optimisation and submission package. Which option you choose will depend on the competitiveness of your industry, how many sites you need to monitor, how important search engine rankings are to you and how much you have to spend.
5)Link Building Campaigns
An active link building campaign should be part of every site's SEO / SEM strategy. You don't have to continue looking for sites to request links from forever but you should spend some time on it as soon as the site is finished. It is just as important as submitting your site to the engines (maybe more as the engines will find you if you're well linked to but may reject your submission if you're not).
What is link popularity? Link popularity is a general term which means that the engines look at how many other sites are linking to yours, what content those sites contain, how many sites link to them (ie: their link popularity) and what the anchor text in their link to your site says. The engines then "score" your site based on this information. In reality it's a lot more complicated than that but the all important thing to remember is that it's not the quantity of inbound links but the quality of the sites linking to you (and how relevant they are to your site) that counts.
What is link spamming? It's bad, that's what it is. Seriously now: link spamming is when a you try to artificially inflate your link popularity. There are a variety of ways to do this from link farms where hundreds of sites have the same links page on which they all, regardless of their site's content, link to each other to weblogging to creating loads of mini sites just for the purpose of linking them to your main site.
Believe it or not search engines can and do find out about these sorts of things and have penalised or banned thousands of sites for them. Now forget the engines for a minute: if you secure inbound links on informative sites you are going to get qualified traffic from it whereas link farms or weblogging won't bring you any. Why waste all that time and effort on doing something that the engines will just penalise you for sooner or later when you could be building links to gain both higher rankings and a steady flow of interested visitors.
# How to find suitable sites The most common ways of finding good sites to request links from are: check out who's linking to your competitors - you might find sites that will link to you as well
# do a search for your keywords and see what sites are in the first few results - they might be good link partner candidates
# get links from Yahoo, the Open Directory, regional and industry specific directories and trade association sites
# find categories on Yahoo and the Open Directory covering relevant topics - go through all of the sites listed as at least a few will be good candidates for your link campaign
I highly recommend that you read, in full, the excellent Search Day article 131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies.
Eric Ward's Link Building Articles
Link Popularity Checker
Example Link Building Email
PPC Pay Per Click
PPC Pay Per Click
Paid Listings and Banner Advertising
Paid Listings and Banner Advertising.
JimWorld - banner exchange services and banner advertising
Online Marketing - Newsletters
If you are planning on starting your own ezine you might want to read Ezine Tips and Absolute Authority on Ezines.
Be sure to get your ezine listed on all of the appropriate ezine directories, most of which can be found at ODP: Ezine Directories which is also a good place to look if you are trying to find an ezine to advertise on.
Writing Articles for Online Publication
Another good way to market your site is by writing articles that will be published on others' ezines or sites.
These articles are not written primarily to focus on your company but are used to present yourself as an authority on a subject. If you do write articles make sure they contain a good signature file complete with your url and that they are submitted to online article banks.
Top 10 Article Banks on the Web
Email Marketing Campaigns
Email Marketing Reports
Clickz: Email Marketing
Online Affiliate Marketing
Affilate marketing schemes can be complete spam or they can be very useful ways of directing traffic and income to your site. There are a lot of schemes available so do some research before choosing one. Be sure you find the program that is right for you or you can opt to start your own.
Clickz - Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing Forum on GetHighTraffic
Affiliate Promote
Marketing Your Web Site Offline
Although it is not as much of a problem as it once was, it still amazes me how many companies spend thousands on print, TV or radio ads but fail to include their web site address.
Your web site will contain far more information and marketing material than an ad on any other media could possibly hope to. So why ignore it? If you catch someone's interest with your offline ad you should point them to your url.
Your web site address should be absolutely everywhere. Anywhere your company name goes your url should be right next to it in big, bold, shiny colours. If you write an article, speak at a business man's lunch or do any type of advertising or PR make sure your url gets in on the act.
