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WebProNews September 15th, 2000 Issue
http://www.WebProNews.com
Be Found
You want your web site to be found? Here are some tips that
I've picked up during the last five years of designing web sites.
Most of these tips have never been mentioned previously, yet
they are *extremely important* to the success of your web site!
The more the better
You can have a single web page and fill it
with 300 key words and phrases but it probably won't get a high
ranking on any search engine because the actual "relevance" of each
individual key word is low. Far better to have 300 web pages on
your site, with a few key words repeated three times on each. That
way, the relevance of those particular key words is high for the
specific page on which they appear. Better still if a key word
appears in the page title, the meta key tags, the first heading
and as the first emboldened word. Each page should also contain
sentences which are relevant to its subject, amounting to at least
100 words, otherwise a search engine is likely to ignore it or
consider it to be "spam". This "rule" is especially applicable
to your Index page. If it contains only a heading and the words
"click picture to enter", for example, a search engine will not
give it a high ranking and may even ignore it completely!
One at a time
How can you create *three hundred* pages? Easy: one at a time.
You don't have to write them all at once; consider it an ongoing
project. One hundred words per page is sufficient. For example,
consider a site that sells Satellite Television accessories. There
are lots of key words that people might search for in order to
find such a site. You need to create a specific page for every one.
Here is a few:
Title: Satellite Television Accessories. Repeat this key phrase..
Title: Satellite Dishes. (dishes.htm)
Title: Television Aerials. (aerials.htm) etc.
Title: TV Distribution Amplifiers.
Title: Satellite Cable.
Title: Satellite Receivers.
Title: Remote Control Handsets.
Title: Satellite Decoders
.. and so on. Each page gives some information about the specific
item or subject and repeats the key word or phrase a number of
times. In addition, common misspellings of the word can be added to
the meta tags and put at the bottom of the page. Don't try to hide
them by making them the same colour as the background - some
search engines see this as "spamming". Put them in full view under
the title "Common misspellings" or "For the search engines". For
example: "Sattelite, satalite, satallite, statallite, antena,
arial, aeriel, ariel, reciever ..."
Adding misspelt words like this can often put your page at the top
of the "found" list when the person searching is not able to
spell. (Whether you want to attract illiterates is another
question! However, in my experience, such people are usually
rich brain surgeons and company directors who normally employ a
clerk to do their typing).
Foreign words
In Europe it is especially important to include non-English
words, too, since you don't want to exclude potential sales in
Germany,France, Spain....For example, the word for "Remote Control
Handset" in German is "Fernbedienung". If you want to sell to
countries whose first language is not English then it will be worth
your while to look up the most important words and add them to your
page. If you are in the USA or Canada, remember that not all
Hispanics and French Canadians are poor!
Contents Page Link
Every page should have a link back to the contents page. Imagine
searching for a subject and finding a page with a brief mention of
it. "This looks promising, but how do I find the home page or
contents page of this site?" Sometimes it's obvious but sometimes
it's impossible to find, particularty if the web site uses a "phantom
URL" or a redirect system. Be sure to put a "Back to Contents" link
on every page.
Pages within a frame can be especially problematic since the search
engine can link you direct to an inner page without the frame page
that contains the contents list! However, if the pages are within a
frame, make sure you add the "_parent" tag to the "Contents Page"
link, otherwise you could end up with a frame inside a frame - very
annoying for the visitor.
Some of your pages may be created *only* to attract search engines.
You may want the visitor to click on "Back to Contents" immediately.
You won't want a visible link from the Contents page to that page but
you must have some form of link, otherwise the search engine is
unlikely to find the page in the first place. For these pages, it's
usually best to have a single pixel image that matches the background
colour. Use this pixel image as the link. It doesn't matter if
somebody clicks on it but you don't want it to be an obvious link
that distracts the visitor from the main contents list. However, it's
better if every page contains really useful information in the form
of sentences, rather than a jumble of key words to attract the search
engines.
Search engines page
Another invisible link to a "search engines" page can be employed.
Create a page that lists every search engine that you can find, with
proper links to each. Put an invisible link to that page from your
contents page. In fact, you could make the link visible if you wish.
Many search engines like to find a link to themselves and such a link
will increase the ranking of your site. For a list of some search
engines, look at this page: http://www.satcure.co.uk/searchit.htm
Never delete a file
If a web page has been registered with a number of search engines,
you'd be crazy to erase it, wouldn't you? Well, there must be a lot
of crazy people out there! Every time I do a search I find at least
half a dozen links to files which "no longer exist".
If I decide that a page is no longer relevant, I remove links TO it
but I leave the page intact (apart from removing offers for sale,
prices or anything else that's out of date). I make sure there's a
"This page is no longer updated" (or similar) notice and a "Return to
Contents" link. This page continues to attract visitors to my web
site, even though it is no longer specifically relevant. NEVER
delete a file. Likewise, never delete a web site if you can
possibly avoid it. I have my own "personalised" URLs now but I still
maintain my original web site because its pages are registered with
hundreds of search engines.
Advertise in News Groups
Many search engines monitor the USENET News Groups. Most News Groups
do not permit advertising but there's nothing to stop you from
replying to somebody's posted question with a suggestion like: "I
had this problem, too, and I found the answer at
http://www.netcentral.co.uk/satcure". Having your web site URL
appear in a number of News Groups can increase its ranking with some
search engines.
Add it to your signature
Whenever you send an e-mail message, make sure your signature
includes your web site URL. This is advertising at its cheapest and,
often, most effective. Even if you are writing to an existing
customer, he/she may have mislaid your web site URL or may be
thinking about getting around to ordering something else, maybe,
sometime, if he/she can be bothered! With your URL in front of
them, all they have to do is click on it. Repeat business is the
easiest to get so make it easier still.
Put it on your stationery and vehicles
Print your web site URL in as many places as possible. It represents
FREE advertising. Put it on your company stationery, your
vehicles, free gifts, products, brochures and anything else that
people see. I am continually amazed to find companies that do not do
this!
Be Found Part 2
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Martin Pickering is a Technical Author and Mail Order Specialist, age
49. Based in the UK, he sells electronic parts, satellite TV
equipment and lots more, too.
http://www.netcentral.co.uk/satcure
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