Search Engine Optimization / Search Engine Positioning
18 Suggestions for Improving Search Engine Position
Good quality, keyword rich content is the foundation of good search engine positioning. Period. What Google and the rest want is
to deliver relevant results and keep users happily clicking away on their search engines so they can sell their services. Their
code is designed simply to weed out junk and bring the best, most relevant websites to the top of the list so their customers will
be happy with what they find.
NOBODY who's not directly involved in writing the search engine's algorithms knows for sure what they contain. We, as SEO guys
can only use what they tell us along with experience to learn what works. We join SEO trade organizations, read the search
engine's patent applications and use other techniques to remain as informed as possible, but no SEO can guarantee you
a top position. Don't trust anyone who does.
Keyword spamming and hidden text won't work and can get your site removed from most search engine indexes.
INBOUND link popularity is one VERY important factor search engines use. Inbound links are viewed a little like votes from peers
who are presumably in the know on a given subject. This is where you can make big gains in search engine rankings if you are
willing to put in significant effort. * More on linking.
It sometimes takes longer, but you will usually gain a higher position if the search engine finds you through links rather than by
submission. Don't worry about how many times your SEO professional "submits" your site. It won't get your site ranked any higher
or sooner.
Some engines look at Meta tags, some don't. Always use them.
It is possible that some search engines use keywords contained in file names (and paths) to determine relevance. Less cryptic file
and directory names, though long, may be better. If nothing else, they make your site easier to maintain.
Some do the same with URLs. They're cheap. Reserve URLs that you feel might be useful down the road. Also, reserve them for at least
3 years. Those reserved for only one or two years are suspect, thanks to spammers.
ALWAYS USE ALT TAGS. Engineers and administrators use Lynx and other text browsers. Search engines may or may not count the
keywords in alt tags. But, they are a requirement of valid HTML and make your site accessible to more visitors
Bold, italic or otherwise highlighted text is viewed as more relevant to the page than plain text.
Always use the keywords you are trying to position in the search engine rankings in your page title.
Make sure those keywords are emphasized in some way and are the first words on the page. It doesn't hurt to simply repeat the title
in bold. Better, enclose them in heading tags.
Make sure those keywords appear throughout the document. This is called "keyword density" and is CRUCIAL to gaining a good position.
Once your site has been crawled, submitting it a hundred million times won't gain you a single spot in the rankings. Spend that time
building interesting page content.
You MUST monitor your progress in your access logs. The raw files and the "grep" command (on Unix/Linux servers) are among the best
tools available, even if it is tedious to pick through the data.
Visitors almost never enter your site from the index or top-level page. Make sure to provide them a path to what you want them to
see.
Image maps don't have keywords (except the alt tags). You should duplicate your navigation links in text somewhere else on the page.
Footers are a good place.
No dead links. It used to be that Yahoo! wouldn't index a site with any dead links. That no longer seems to be true, however, there are
still search engines that won't. There is evidence that dead links will hurt your rankings.
