LinkExchange Digest
September 26, 1997 Digest #175
From: Shari Thurow <shari@aisnetwork.net>
Subject: Web Site Design and Search
Engine Ranking
Hi all!
Wow! I got such an incredible response from my last post
to the LE Digest. Thank you to all of you who contacted
me and asked for help.
Most of the requests for information sent to me all had a
common theme -- web site submission services and page
layout. I replied to all of you who e-mailed me
personally; however, I thought the information I sent to
all of you should be shared with the rest of the LE
Digest subscribers.
In terms of layout, most web sites are not designed for
optimum search engine placement. Most people or companies
are so "into" their products and services that
they forget to design their web sites for their potential
customers and for indexing on search engines. BIG
mistake. You can lose thousands of customers through
search engine ignorance.
Every search engine is different. How and where you place
your keywords, both in the copy your visitors see and in
the tags visitors do not see, will affect your ranking
differently in every search engine. Keywords need to
placed strategically throughout your web pages (but not
too much or you will be penalized for spamming/word
stacking). Very, very few web sites can get in the Top 10
of all the 7 major search engines (AltaVista, Excite,
HotBot, Infoseek, Lycos, Open Text, WebCrawler) without
spamming.
Of primary importance is selecting the correct keywords
for your industry. This requires research. Go to the
search engines. Type in the keywords you want to use.
Study the source code of the web sites that appeared in
the top 20. Learn from those sites.
Of equal importance is keyword placement on individual
pages. Take your Title-tag for instance. Did you name
your site "My Company Home Page"? Who is going
to type in the words "home" and
"page" as search words to find your product or
service? Probably no one. The words in your Title-tag are
probably the most important element for ranking in search
engines and directories. Your titles should be
descriptive, using the words and lingo in your industry.
(Hint: change the words in your Title-tags every 3-4
months and resubmit. Search engines will treat your page
as a new site.)
Of secondary importance is keyword frequency. Designing
and coding your site with keywords in the right place and
the right frequency is an art form. Keywords need to
appear frequently on your web pages, but if they appear
too frequently, your site will be penalized for word
stacking or could be removed permanently from the index.
(I have seen this happen.) For optimum search engine
ranking, your keywords need to appear at the top of your
web pages. Thus, before you design your web page, ask
yourself if you (or your web designer) have placed your
keywords at the top of your pages in various places. If
not, you will need to rethink your site design.
Also, some search engines (Excite, AOL's NetFind) ignore
meta-tags. Thus, if you have included your keywords in
your meta-tags but have not placed them elsewhere, you
have missed a huge target audience, namely AOL users.
Sites with frames and meta-tags have this problem because
there is little opportunity otherwise to include
additional text with keywords.
Sites with embedded tables also have this problem.
(Embedded tables give the appearance of a site using
frames). If your site is designed with embedded tables,
make sure that you have your logo at the top of the table
with good alternative text in it. (If you don't
understand what this means, please visit http://www.impaired-risk.com
and view their source code.) If you start your embedded
table with navigational buttons and no logo, you have
missed an opportunity to list your keywords at the top of
your page.
I cannot emphasize this enough: if you hire anyone (a
submission service, an individual, a marketer, etc.) to
do the services I described, they need to have both HTML
and design experience, marketing, and excellent
copywriting skills. You do not want your web site to be
permanently banned from a search engine or directory.
Furthermore, submission services usually do just that:
submit. Many do not perform keyword research, the HTML
coding, and copywriting necessary to get a site optimally
placed within the search engines. Ask questions before
handing over any $.
The links I gave in the previous post provide the best
information about search engines and how they index web
sites (http://www.searchenginewatch.com
and http://www.calafia.com).
Also, one web site that is listed extremely well in all
of the major search engines is US Wings (http://www.uswings.com).
The site has great meta-tags, great titles, great
graphics with alternative text, great layout, outstanding
copywriting. Unbelievably, this site comes up #1 in all
of the search engines, including AOL's NetFind. View
their source code as well to learn how to optimize your
site for search engines.
I'm out of breath now, but I hope I have helped.
Again, thank you for all of your messages.
Shari Thurow
847/882-0493 X-126
http://www.aisnetwork.net
Looking to create a dynamic web site ?
For Web Commerce visit http://www.worldcommerce.net
For Web Communities visit http://www.webcommunities.net
LinkExchange Digest
September 24, 1997 Digest #173
From: Shari Thurow <shari@aisnetwork.net>
Mr. O'Sullivan--
Hi, my name is Shari and I am in charge of the Traffic
Builder Plus Program here at AIS. I am not trying to sell
you my services; I just want to help.
Please visit our site at http://www.aisnetwork.net
and click on Traffic Builder Plus Site Marketing for a
summary of services that Submit-It, WebPromote.com, etc.
should do for you.
If you have the time to submit your own site, I highly
recommend it. That way, you will understand the
submission process and gain an overall understanding of
search engines and directories. When you resubmit
individual pages every 3 months or so (when your content
is updated and to keep your site listed toward the top),
you will not have to fork out $ every time you have to
update a site.
What I have done is bookmark all the important site
submission pages in my browser and just go down the list.
Because I have done this so often, I can submit a site in
about 45 minutes. I cut and paste my descriptions (of
varying lengths -- search engines and directories vary in
the number of words they allow in a description), titles,
and URLs. The best search engines (Infoseek, AltaVista,
Excite, HotBot, WebCrawler, Lycos) only require a URL and
e-mail. Thus, their submission take seconds.
If you do not have the time to do all of this, then
hiring a submission service is worth the price. I
recommend http://www.mmgco.com.
They are incredible (they run this discussion list) at
what they do. I have used them for years. Also, they have
links to the Top 100 if you want to submit your site
yourself.
Lastly, you should bookmark
http://www.searchenginewatch.com and
http://www.calafia.com. Danny Sullivan keeps people
updated on the major search engines and directories (lead
times, alliances, etc.).
As for which search engines and directories to focus on,
after your site has been up for a few months, review your
server logs and find out where the majority of your
traffic comes from. Then focus your advertising efforts
on those directories and engines. You get better sales
from targeted marketing than from spreading your net too
wide.
I hope I helped. Best of luck to you!
Shari Thurow
Looking to create a dynamic web site ?
For Web Commerce visit http://www.worldcommerce.net
For Web Communities visit http://www.webcommunities.net
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