1 IMPROVING WEB PAGE VISIBILITY TO AND RANKING BY SEARCH UTILITIES By Joey Comeaux

2 SOURCE OF INFORMATION Become a Search Engine Commando by Shari Thurow presented at CNET Builder.com

3 3 TYPE OF SEARCHES External searches by external search engines Internal searches by users already on our site Searches from the NCAR/UCAR web site

4 2 TYPES OF SEARCH UTILITIES 1.Search Engines –Have huge databases of web sites which users search –Databases created by sending out spiders to index web sites –You can optimize your web pages for these ex: google, AltaVista,Hotbot

5 2 TYPES OF SEARCH UTILITIES 2.Directories –Use human indexing-people review and index web sites –Generally smaller, cleaner databases/indexes –Mostly content based, so harder to optimize for… you can submit your site for consideration ex: Yahoo, MSN, LookSmart, GO

6 OPTIMIZING YOUR WEB SITE FOR SEARCH ENGINES All search engines have their own algorithms for indexing and ranking web sites 2 main areas for optimizing 1) Web pages – HTML characteristics found within your web pages 2) External processes – various tasks you can perform to improve your rankings

7 WEB PAGE RELATED FACTORS 7 Aspects to Optimize 1.Title 2.Text of Page 3.Meta Tags 4.ALT Tags 5.Comment Tags 6.Themes 7.Keywords in URL Names

8 WEB PAGE RELATED FACTORS Keywords – Set of words/phrases which accurately describe the purpose of your site –Probably the most important concept –Will be used by almost every technique used to optimize your site –Consider who will use your site, include variations of words, make them specific –WAG suggests using keywords from a ‘registered’ vocabulary

9 WEB PAGE RELATED FACTORS SPAM – invisible or tiny text, irrelevant keywords, excessive repetition of keywords, identical or nearly identical pages and overuse of mirror sites –Most search engines will ban sites containing spam or penalize them –avoid using spam in all optimizing techniques

10 1.TITLE Most important part of page First thing the spider sees EVERY search engine uses the title Always put after head tag Most likely to appear in search engine results Should be a sentence

11 1.TITLE Should contain plenty of keywords Put keywords at front of title and in order of importance Limit to about 75 characters Do not use all caps Do not use keywords more than twice Not used by Directories

12 2.TEXT ON PAGE Most engines index the full web page Use plenty of keywords, preferable at top of page (and the bottom) Try to have at least 100 keywords DIRECTORIES rank on content, so be sure pages are not just a list of keywords Try to place keywords close together

13 2.TEXT ON PAGE 3-7 keywords for every 100 regular words Try not to use same keywords more than 5 to 7 times NO SPAM

14 3.META TAG Not penalized for proper use of meta tags, so always use them Not all search engines use meta tags Yes : GO/InfoSeek, HotBot No : AltaVista, Excite, Google Some engines only use the description or keyword tag, so always use both

15 3.META TAG Description Tag –Used by some engines as summary on results page –Put keywords at beginning and close together –Use about characters –NO SPAM

16 3.META TAG Keyword Tag –No sentences needed –List your keywords in order of importance –Repeat keywords 3-7 times –Use about 1024 characters –NO SPAM

17 4.ALT TAGS Search engines do not index images Use ALT tags to describe your images All engines do not index ALT tags Not penalized for ALT tags, so always use them Limit images if possible. If not, maybe create an all text version (doorway pages) Use keywords in your descriptions NO SPAM

18 5.COMMENT TAGS Normal HTML comment tags Some search engines index comment tags (Inktomi) Put them in the part at top of your page, after meta tags Great way to increase keyword count Use each keyword about 3-7 times Not penalized, so always use them NO SPAM

19 6.THEMES Theme – A common topic throughout a web site Should contain your most important keywords Only used by some search engines Spiders index entire site, then analyze title, meta tags, headings, text and links for commonality

20 6.THEMES To develop a theme, use same keywords in title, meta tags, text, links and sites that your links lead to You can have more than 1 theme, but not more than 3 NO SPAM

21 7.KEYWORDS IN URL NAMES Easiest way to do this is by naming files using keywords This is a more recent practice

22 EXTERNAL PROCESSES 1.Link Popularity 2.Click popularity and Stickiness 3.Doorway Pages 4.WEB Site Submission

23 LINK POPULARITY 3 Aspects Determine Link Popularity 1.Number of Links – number of links/sites which point to your site 2.Relevance – are your pages linked to by similar (relevant) sites 3.Link Text – text used to describe your links (keywords always a good idea)

24 LINK POPULARITY Not all search engines use link popularity, but more and more will Search engine specific – to score high for a particular search engine, all sites linking to your site must be indexed by search engine

25 3 WAYS TO DEVELOP LINK POPULARITY 1.Free For All Sites (FFA) – sites which contain lists of links. –Normally use some registration tool which will register you with more than one FFA, thus increasing link popularity –Downside : FFA’s usually house your links temporarily…as other links are added, your links age off

26 3 WAYS TO DEVELOP LINK POPULARITY 2.Exchange Programs – groups of web masters who agree to link to your site and vice versa –many programs request links on your home page –Pick one that categorizes, the more specific and closest to your sites theme, the better

27 3 WAYS TO DEVELOP LINK POPULARITY 3.Non-Formal agreements – agreements with other web masters to link to each others pages - Contact web masters of similar sites -Use searches or link popularity.com to find similar sites

28 CLINK POPULARITY AND STICKINESS Click popularity – the number of clicks (hits) every site in the search engine results page receives Stickiness – time between clicks on the results page DirectHit – used by over 25 search engines (Lycos, InfoSeek, HotBot, MSN)

29 CLICK POPULARITY AND STICKINESS You cannot affect DirectHit directly.. You can only entice more people to click on your site and spend time looking around Suggestions : –Enticing Title – probably most important –Top of Page – DirectHit uses the top of the page as site description in their results, so make sure you have a good description at the top of your page –Good navigation

30 DOORWAY PAGES Pages optimized for one or more search engines and 1-3 keywords Important features of doorway pages –Keyword frequency – number of times a keyword is used –Keyword weight/density - % of keywords to other words –Keyword prominence – most important keywords should be at top of page in beginning of sentence - Title, text, meta tags, alt tags, comment tags …

31 DOORWAY PAGES Pick 1-3 top keywords and optimize pages for top 10 search engines If site contains dynamic content, frames, multimedia or large graphics, doorway pages are a must Do not overuse doorway pages Some search engines penalize for nearly identical pages, so vary content and length among your pages

32 DOOWAY PAGES Never use doorway pages for Directories NO SPAM Use table to determine what each search engine wants

33 WEB SITE SUBMISSION Process of suggesting your site to search engines and directories Necessary to improve your web site rankings Only submit AFTER optimizing your site Usually requires you to fill out a form for each search engine Probably should submit to each major search engine

34 WEB SITE SUBMISSION Submission form or link usually found on search engines home page Be sure correct URL will be spidered Record date/time submitted Resubmit after major changes

35 WEB PAGE SUBMISSION There are submission services, but it is best to submit manually –Some search engines will not allow automated submissions –Directories require manual submission If your site is large, use submission service for lower level pages, but submit home page and most important pages manually

36 WEB PAGE SUBMISSION Directories are harder/more time consuming to submit to –You have to write your own site description, find the appropriate section and provide URL address Your pages do not have to be optimized for directories, so submit to them first –You still need good content and page layout

37 WHAT TO AVOID 1.SPAM a.Invisible text or tiny text b.Meta refresh tags c.Irrelevant keywords in title or meta tags d.Excessive repetition of keywords e.Overuse of mirror sites f.Submitting to a site more than once in a day g.Identical or nearly identical pages h.Submitting to inappropriate categories (directories)

38 WHAT TO AVOID 2.Frames, Multimedia and Dynamic pages a)Not penalized, however Search Engines find these hard to index b)Search engines do NOT index : i.Text in graphic – use ALT tags ii.Pages that require registration or passwords iii.XML iv.Java applets v.Acrobat (PDF) files vi.Dynamic pages vii.Multimedia (Flash, ShockWave, Streaming Video)