How do you optimize for search engines?
"If you build it, they will come," may have
worked in Field of Dreams. It doesn't just happen on the
Internet much anymore. A website that finds favor with today's
commercial search engine (who derive their income from paid
advertisements or "sponsored result") has to play by the
search engine's rules to get to page one without paying.
The lead players
in the search engine game are MSN, Yahoo, and Google. They deliver the
majority of web traffic. They are the Internet superhighways; the
others are country roads. Websites designed to be search friendly for
Google, Yahoo, and MSN will also do well on other search engines.
So, the first, and essential, step in optimizing a
website so that search engines can find it is reading each of the
three big major players tips to webmasters. Here is the link to
Microsoft's tips on improving search ranking here. Yahoo and Google have guidelines as well.
Since it is similar to the advice of the other search
engines, and the majority of internet surfer will be using Microsoft's
browser, take a look at Microsoft's MSN advice to webmasters, paying
particular attention to the DO NOT list. Microsoft's DO NOT
list include the simple common sense things:
-
Do not do anything to trick the search engines...
If what you are doing isn't listed as a search
engine tip the search engines will likely view it as spam and
penalize you.
-
Do not list keywords anywhere except in your
keywords meta tag.
-
Do not use the same color text on your page as the
page's background color.
-
Do not use multiple instances of the same tag.
-
Do not submit identical pages.
-
Do not submit the same page to any engine more
than once within 24hrs.
-
Do not use any keywords in your keywords meta tag
that do not directly relate to the content of your page.
Microsoft also has a list of "POTENTIAL
PROBLEMS" that could keep your website in the bottom of search
engine rankings. They include:
If you don't know what any of the above mean, read Microsoft's explanation pages. If you're
curious as to why you shouldn't use Flash or Java, read the discussion
of Flash
and Java
in the FAQs
section of our website.
Lastly, you may have read about the importance of
Google's site map program in getting index in their search engine. If
not, we have, and we build a sitemap.xml file to Google's
specifications for each website we design, update, or redesign. The
key to having a fully functional website is playing by the rules, and
we do.
We only provide search optimization for the websites
we design or maintain, and we do that without any additional charge
when we're performing a content update, but we try to stay abreast of
search engine guideline and prevailing webmaster wisdom so that when
we design or update a website it is search engine friendly. If you
want to know more about any of our services, email info@oakridgewebdesigns.com.
Search engine
optimization