Some web sites receive hundreds or thousands of unique visitors a day, whilst others only get a handful or none. The reason is often because the web designers or Webmaster has built the site in one ‘really bad way’ or other. This can end up hindering the potential success of the web site. If you want to make sure your site is not a ‘traffic flop’ then here are some simple rules to follow.

Bad Move 1: Build the site using a frameset.

Framesets may save designers time but are bad news for search engines. They can struggle to follow links into the web site or read text on the page unless you use a no frames tag effectively. In addition to this, if an engine does keep a cache of a site with frames it will often pick up the individual frames/ pages and not the complete frameset. The downside of this is that you may lose your navigation for many of your pages, which is likely to turn visitors off. Whilst one or two partial fixes to framesets are out there, it’s still no wonder that many web site promoters still cry “Please No Frames”. For more information on why framesets can cause problems visit http://www.html-faq.com/htmlframes/

Bad Move 2: Build the site purely in flash.

Flash intros and web sites can be visually stunning, but at the same time they can be rather limiting when it comes to search engines. If your main site is all one flash site it will typically play in just one html page. Some search engines simply can’t read Flash and so your web site to them is just one relatively empty HTML page. If your competitors web site has 15 or 20 pages in HTML talking about their good sand services then they will have a big advantage on you. If you must have a Flash site for graphical reasons then it would be wise to budget for a separate HTML web site to have along side the Flash so your site content can be read and indexed by search engines.

Bad Move 3: Decide that graphics are more important than words

Be careful. As great as some images can be, try not to let designers convince you that you don’t need copy on your web site or that a few lines is enough. Only very occasionally is there ever an excuse to fill your web site with graphics at the expense of text. If the graphics look great, then match them with great copy. Sales copy is important to tell your audience why your goods and services are important. Search engines also like to index plenty of useful copy too. 250-500 words is a sensible starting guide for most pages or of the amount you would place in a brochure. Text copy is important and will always be so make sure web site has some!

Bad Move 4: Leaving out the Meta tags

This is a bad move as Meta Tags are important to search engines. Clear and concise title tags should be written for every page reflecting what it contains. Avoid writing things like ‘Home’ or ‘welcome’ as it’s fairly meaningless. If you page is selling blue widgets then get ‘blue widgets’ in the title and keep the title to 10 words or less.

In addition to this create a well-written objective Meta description for each page, and list your Meta Keywords. These keywords should also reflect the content on your web page. Leaving these 3 things out, or doing them badly can be disastrous. The impact of Meta tags on rankings may vary from engine to engine, but without them your pages could be ignored. Most HTML editors allow you to easily insert Meta Tags into your web page and it only takes a few moments to add to a page. So there are no excuses. Make sure you have good Title tags, Meta Description and Meta Keyword tags on your pages today!

Bad Move 5: Use lots of JavaScript

Search engines have a few problems understanding JavaScript in pages. At the best of time they struggle with it, at worst they may even ignore it. On its own, it can be an unreliable way to make web site navigation. If you must use JavaScript for your navigation make sure you have some alternative ways to get to pages by using HTML text links at the bottom of the page. If you have a large amount of JavaScript think about linking to it as a separate JavaScript file.

Bad Move 6: Don’t have sites linking to yours

Unless you want your web site hidden from the outside world you want to be found right? Well search engines ideally find a new web site by following a link from another site. This happens when people link to you and this kind of underpins the Internet. By having sites link to you search engine crawlers will find your web site and you never need to submit your web site to the likes of Google. It is still the case that web sites that rank highly on Google and Yahoo for relatively competitive key phrases often have scores if not hundreds of web sites linking to them Google help to explain the importance of linking here http://www.google.com/technology/. So “think links” and be sure to get your site listed in some quality web directories as part of the process.

Bad Move 7: Focus on submitting your web site to thousands of search engines and forget the ones that matter

Now and then you will see some companies attempting to promote this idea - often by using Bad Move 8! It is true that there are thousands of search engines but the highest volume of traffic comes from less than 10 major search engines. The logic of “If I get one hit a day off each of the 1000 mini search engines I’ll get a 1000 visitors a day” unfortunately in practice does not ring true. It is a fact that a huge volume of search engine traffic comes from a small handful of search engine: most notably the Google, Yahoo and Msn.

Bad Move 8: Using unsolicited/ Spam email

This may seem obvious that this is not the best way to promote your business but is always worth stating. If you’re in any doubt simply ask yourself: “Do I like getting Spam emails?” It’s common sense to avoid using techniques that annoy people or damage your brand. Using unsolicited email campaigns could result in complaints and at worst your ISP could ban you. If you want a successful email campaign it is advisable to target genuine opted in newsletter subscribers and to always offer an opt-out button in every email.

Written by Gareth Davies 2005. You are free to reprint this article with both disclaimer and copyright notice in tact. Gareth Davies is a web promotion consultant working for GSINC Ltd based in North London, UK. For feedback on how to build better sites for search engines email Gareth via garethskettyATyahoo.co.uk or visit http://www.garethsketty.com

One of the most fundamental aspects of any web marketing strategy is how do I deliver the goods in the search engines like Google. How do I have my site to rank better in Google, Microsoft’s Live or Yahoo?

One of the most significant aspects in doing substantially better in the search engines (forgetting the basics like brilliant content are taken care of) is getting links for your business. You can produce this a couple of different ways, some viewed positively by the engines and some not so happily.

One of the true ways, that the serps think is very well is link building with articles.

Fundamentally this requires composing a fresh article, rather around something from your industry, and then sending it to a free article directory.

You really cannot afford to underrate the crucial nature of link building. If there is one point that takes precedence to the search engines, in general, it is links. Sure, there are truck loads of other signals, such as the domain name, but you are misguided if you reckon you are going to be listed well, and easily noticed, if you do not expect any links.

Building links with articles is easy. It is something the search engines say is okay. And, it adds value to the web, by providing valuable content that might be interesting or useful to users. The real question is what are you waiting for?

Search engine optimization is one of most popular online marketing tool for any website. With more websites coming online every day the competition gets larger, so you have to make sure you can out SEO them before they out do you. In this article I will tell how to increase your ranking and how to out do your competition.

Search engines change their algorithms often and it’s hard to keep up for anyone, so if you don’t know much about SEO don’t worry, I will get you up to speed. First make sure YOUR site is robot FRIENDLY by using HTML instead of flash and use more text than images or flash.

Page size can help you rank better in search engines, by keeping your page size low you will help robot(s) get more out of your web page. You should Keep it under 100k, but it’s best to keep it around 25k or lower. Content is a key because search engines like Google love theme sites. Build three pages of content per week with at least 200 words.

One thing that every one that owns a site should have heard about by now is link popularity. Link building is very important because not only will search engines find your site faster, but it will help you rank higher for the keywords you used in the links. Try to trade links with websites which have high Google PageRank of at least 4, the more the better, but don’t trade links just for PageRank, look at Traffic more. Below is a link to a link exchange that will help you build you link popularity and traffic.

http://www.linkexchangeit.com

Density and position play a big part in your ranking for your keywords. You should use your keyword once in the title, once in the description meta tag, once the in the heading, once the in the URL, once in bold text. Try to get a density between 5% and 20% and you should do good.

Submit your home page and maybe a few other pages in your site to the search engines, than wait for them to come to your web site. The waiting part is the harder part after you submit to the search engine. You can see the main search engines that you should submit to below.

Google - http://www.google.com/addurl.html

Yahoo - http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request

Teoma/Ask Jeeves - You will need to email Teoma to get in at this time.

Meta tags are not that important as they once were, but some search still consider them and this could help you rank higher in some search engines. Use the keyword meta tag and description meta tag, the rest don’t do nothing nor help!

After the robots start coming to your site watch the logs (If you have logs) very closely and keep up with what pages they index and how often they come. Also make sure robots are crawling the full site and not just some pages.

About The Author

Matt Colyer is a php, cgi developer and part time SEO. He also owns the www.marhen.com Network.

Search engine optimization is best left in the mystical land of the Intenet Marketing Guru right? Good Search engine rankings are tough to achieve. Understanding search engine marketing takes years of studying and only people with true insider knowledge and secret tools rank well in Google right? WRONG. Pure crap as a matter of fact.

Ranking well in the search engines is not difficult. In fact search engine optimization is relatively easy. What stops most people from ranking well in search engines is misinformation. Every week there’s yet another quick fix to ranking well in search engines and people jump from one quick fix to the next hoping for that Top 10 position in Google and never achieving it.

There are 6 key areas of search engine optimization that you need to know about. These are the basics. Getting these right will help you achieve the Google rankings that you’ve always wanted.

Domain Name - The jury is still out on the how relevant a keyword rich domain name is. What I mean by keyword rich domain name is say for example your site was going to be about money making ideas then an idea domain name could be either www.moneymakingideas.com or www.money-making-ideas.com. My own personal preference is with the hyphenated approach e.g. www.money-making-ideas.com simply because I believe that search engines can read it more easily. To registed your domain name I would suggest using either 000Domains.com or GoDaddy.com

Content - Useful content. Not keyword stuffed, spammy pages. Write something useful for your visitors. If you can’t write then you’ll need to learn. Turn Words Into Traffic is a great resource for learning how to write content and is a resource that I use personally. Turn Words Into Traffic gives you an A-Z on article writing - from a writers perspective. If you don’t want to learn how to write content then you could always use Create Website Content Fast to help you speed the process up.

Keywords - Keywords are the words or phrases that you expect people to search for your site/service/content with. There are two distinct factors to consider when choosing keywords for your site.

1. You need to target specific keywords. For example if you have a website about dating then you’ll probably find it quite difficult to achieve high search engine rankings initially with that single term. However if you were to refine an area of your site to target say Gay & Lesbian Dating that’s more specific. You could also regionalize your keywords or key phrases e.g. Gay & Lesbian dating in Toronto. This refining process is often referred to as niche (pronounced neech) marketing.

2. You need to choose the keywords that you want people to find your site with. Put yourself in your visitors shoes - think about what they might use to find you in the search engines. What keywords or key phrases would you type into a search engine to find your site? What keywords or key phrases would your potential visitor use to search for you? Always, always think like a typical websurfer.

If you’re interested in seeing what people are searching for on the web and how profitable that might be for you I would recommened that you check out Good Keywords. It’s free and does a wonderful job of helping you find good keywords

I would also suggest that you try Wordtracker also. It’s a brilliant service for tracking down specific, popular keywords.

Keyword density - This is how often your keyword is used on the the page itself. For example if you have 100 words of text on a single page and you mention your keyword 5 times then you have 5% keyword density.

Opinions vary on this but anywhere from 1% - 7% is considered ideal. If this doesn’t make sense to you then it’s ok. The simple rule is this: less is more. Do not alter the text on your webpages to include your keyword over and over again because………well…. it looks stupid, won’t instill any confidence in your prospective customer and might also get you penalized or removed from the search engines.

Page title - Your tag is critical to your page being ranked well. Stuffing your tag with keywords in the hope of ranking well is pointless. Your tag, once constructed properly, will see you moving up the search engine rankings quickly. Bear this simple fact in mind when building your websites and it will serve you well.

Links - Having good links pointing to your site and good links within your site (an often overlooked aspect of search engine optimization) is pretty important as far as search engine ranking goes. Having other sites linking to yours proves the importance of your site to the search engines i.e. if the content on your site is so valuable that other site owners want to link to it then it must be important.

META Tags - Meta tags are dead baby. Well not quite dead but they are only used as a point of reference for search engines. It’s a shame to see websites that have their META tags still stuffed with keywords. It’s pointless. Put your primary keywords in the Meta Keyword part of your webpage but apart from that don’t lose any sleep or waste any energy on them.

There’s not enough space in this article to explain all of the above in the detail that I’d love to. Also I’m not a search engine expert so some of the explanation is best left to those that I learned from (Sean Burns and Jay Stockwell take a bow please

Having learned the basics of search engine optimization and submission I have achieved Top 10 Rankings for all of my websites. It’s not hard to do this. It just takes work, a little patience and a little common sense.

Recommended reading:

Rankings Revealed

Microsite Miracles

This article was provided courtesy of Search Engine Fuel where you’ll find tons of information on getting higher search engine ranks and reviews of SEO ebooks and software.