"Web
designers must design for search engines, not just for browsers.
But the absolute best way to be listed is to have really good content."
-- Danny Sullivan, editor, Search Engine Watch.
Search
engine optimization (SEO)
is an integral aspect of all sites that are designed by Rich's Web Design. As I tell all of my potential clients,"It is easy to create
a beautiful web site, but if no one can find it, it is almost useless."
I build sites so that they are accepted by the search engines and
are formatted so that they appear as high in the rankings as possible.
Notice how I worded that last phrase,"...so that they appear as
high in the rankings as possible." There are plenty of people out
there that promise you "Guaranteed Top 10 Placement for only $$$
a month." Believe these people and I have some oceanfront property
for-sale in Arizona.
http://www.seologic.com/search-engine-expert/ - Follow the links below to learn, Search Engines 101. Learn enough to get started with the major search engines and directories.
Seologic.com's analysis of each search engine includes a link to its free Website submission page.
Please contact us today to find out more about our
SEO strategy for small to mid-sized businesses and to
find out how to obtain your FREE ranking analysis report. Already we
have helped many businesses achieve success with this program. For several recent
success stories, please see our customer testimonials.
Our ENTRY LEVEL package costs just $100/month for 6 months, which includes
$75 of paid advertising and US$25 management fee. After six months, you can
choose to increase or reduce your monthly budget. We at Rich's Web Design understand
that you know your business better than we do! You determine your budget!
The
process begins by determining which keywords best describe
your site. Then I build the META Tags for the few search
engines that still use these. Next I do a keyword density analysis
and adjust the word density as needed. Once the site goes live,
it is hand submitted to the various search engines. Many
search engines will not accept mass submissions, for which other
companies will state,"Submit your site to 500 search engines for
only $$$". I verify the placements and maintain
these throughout the year whenever the search engines change their
specifications. Maintenance is an extremely important aspect of
a quality web site, not just for the benefit of search engines,
but for overall accuracy of your company's information.
Share Of Searches: May 2004 - The pie chart below shows the percentage of searches done by US web surfers in May 2004 that were performed at a particular web site or a network of web sites:
Search-Engine Optimization - Mr. Sullivan, the SearchEngineWatch.com editor, defines search-engine optimization as "the act of altering your site so that it may rank well for particular terms" used in Web searches. The ideal is to get your site to the top of the results of a Web search, or at least on the first page of results.
One relatively easy change to make is to use simple terms or words that everyone would understand to describe your products -- and therefore be more likely to use in a search -- instead of industry jargon. Experts suggest doing research on keyword use to find out what terms Internet users are searching for, and then altering the content of your site to make sure it appears as a match for more of those words.
Changes below the surface, in a Web site's software, also can help the site achieve a higher listing in search results.
...
One important advantage of this approach is that it allows companies to show up, and prominently, in Google's results. Since Google doesn't have a paid-inclusion program, the only options open to companies that want to ensure display in Google's search results are search-engine optimization or paid listings. A word of warning, though: Google will eliminate from its database companies that it believes are using unscrupulous methods to improve their rankings in search results. So familiarize yourself with Google's standards (spelled out at www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html) and be sure your strategy complies with them.
Search-engine optimization also has had to overcome some bad publicity from disgruntled customers who wondered what they got out of it. "It was thought of as more of a black art," acknowledges Jill Whalen, owner of HighRankings.
Search-engine optimizers and marketers advise merchants considering this option to take the same precautions they would with any service provider: Ask for references and interview them. Spend time interviewing the firm you want to hire, to understand what it offers and to communicate what your expectations are.
31 Steps to S.E.O.
(Search Engine Optimization) - From SitePoint.com!
*
= Yes, I do this!
** = As much as possible
1.
Enhance Link Popularity *
2. Create a Theme *
3. Use Title Tags *
4. Keyword Phrase as Title Tag *
5. Avoid Stop Words ... such as "a, an, and, but, he, her, his,
i, in, it, of, on, or, she, the,"**
6. Use Meta Descriptions *
7. Include Meta Keywords *
8. Use a 30 Second Meta Refresh
9. Navigation and Body Text - Place it strategically *
10. Unnecessary
Tags - Clean Design *
11. Header Tags *
12. Check Your Opening Sentences *
13. Keyword Density *
14. Watch Your Word Count **
15. Name The Page *
16. Naming Graphics Files *
17. Use Alt Tags *
18. Image Maps and HTML Links **
19. Keywords and Link Text *
20. Register a Keyphrase Domain Name **
21.
Plural Versions of Keywords *
22. Use Uncommon Keywords **
23. Avoid Repetition *
24. Stay Close to the Root Domain *
25. Naming Directories **
26. Move Your Javascript *
27. Naming CSS Tags *
28. Include a Site Map *
29. Use Robots.txt Files *
30. Avoid Tiny Text **
31. Beware Link Farms *
Here are some related articles on
the subject of SEO:
If your client wants high rankings,
search engine savvy experts, such as Danny Sullivan, Jill Whalen, Detlev
Johnson, Bruce Clay, and search engine content optimization expert Heather
Lloyd-Martin all state that for best results a site needs to be content
rich with carefully placed keyword phrases, especially the main page.
Search crawlers will follow
links. So if you have good internal links within your site, there's a
far greater chance that crawlers will follow the links. This is one way
of encouraging "deep crawling."
Framed websites are often
fraught with problems, with one of the negative aspects being complications
with search engines. Either the search engine indexes an orphan window
outside of the frameset, leaving the visitor stranded and unable to link
into your site, or the search engines won't even enter a site with frames
at all. Neither of these scenarios are very pretty, are they?! With a
few snippets of code and a little planning, that can be changed, however,
so that search engines can still index your site AND also not link to
dead end orphan windows.
There are still plenty of people
who think that meta tags are the one and only answer to achieving
high search engine rankings. The reality is that 1) not all the major
search engines read meta tags, and 2) they're important but they're not
the sole means of search engines and directories listing or indexing your
site.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
of your site for search engines enhances accessibility and improves usability,
but benefits go further than that. It's smart to ensure that your site
is viewable and navigable from a wide variety of Web clients and for people
accessing the Web from a variety of different environments.
Content optimization and accessibility
are complementary processes. When optimizing a site for search engines,
a good SEO provider will analyze the site's code, structure, and page
layout, looking for any elements that might prevent a robot from indexing
the site. Content optimization resulting in search engine friendliness
also helps accessibility.
For example, a Flash site
can benefit from creating a static mini-site of a few pages
with good text, providing links to the Flash site on each
page. The mini-site is accessed as a static page from the
main site. It may not be as visually engaging, but the text
is readable without Flash. Compensating for "bells and whistles"
makes the site crawlable by search engine robots and gives
users who can't view Flash the ability to access a low-bandwidth
alternative.
Just
for fun, I took the SEO Quiz at 