|  Author | Topic: Search Engine Tips (Read 2,286 times) |
stormdance
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|  | Search Engine Tips
« Thread Started on Jul 3, 2008, 11:01am » | |
Quick Tips
1. Give each page in your project a unique Title and brief Description before you publish. Make sure both reflect your page content accurately.
2. Check that your Title, Description and content contain words people are likely to enter into a search engine when looking for the sort of information your page provides. What would you type into a search engine?
3. Your Title and often Description are displayed in search engine listings - so form the first impression someone sees of your site.
4. It can take more than a month for search engines to discover new sites. The best way for a search engine such as Google to first discover your new site is via a link from another already established site.
5. Incoming links from other sites suggest you must have high quality content that is worth linking to. For modern search engines the number of genuine, relevent incoming links is a major factor in how well a web page is ranked in the search engine listings.
6. Do not try to trick a search engine. Search engines are good at spotting deception, and are improving all the time. If caught your site could be banned and permanently removed from the search engine index.
7. Google is known to factor in page filenames when indexing a page. If your web page filename contains more than one word, separate the words with a hyphen, rather than an underscore character. For example, Google will see my-page.htm as two words, 'my' and 'page'. However it will see my_page.htm as a single word 'my_page' only.
Overview
1. Search engines want to serve their visitors with the information they are actually looking for - and they are improving all the time. Search engines love web pages containing unique high quality focused content that people will want to read.
2. High quality. Modern search engines gauge quality by determining popularity, on the basis that high quality content will be popular. A web page that many other web sites in a related field link to is likely to contain valuable information, so will be ranked higher for that subject. Conversly a page with few other sites linking to it may not contain valuable content so will be ranked lower. If you want your web pages to rank highly you need content that will entice other sites to link to yours - thereby proving to the search engines that the material on your site is worthy of receiving links from others.
3. Content. Modern search engines determine the subject matter of your web pages by analysing the text content. Specifically they compare the page Title and Description with the main content. The text content (anchor text) of incoming links is also a factor. Each web page in your site therefore needs a unique Title and Description that reflects the actual content. Remember that your Title and Description (or a snippet of the main content) is what will likely appear in the search engine results listing itself.
4. Search engines have many millions of web pages and links to crawl through and tend to update their indexes every month or so. It can therefore take some time for a search engine to notice your site initially and add it to its index. Incoming links from existing sites directing visitors to your excellent content are the best way to get a new web site noticed by search engines - search engines will follow the incoming links and discover your new content.
5. Create your web page content for the benefit of your visitors, not for the search engines. At the same time be aware of how search engines rank and index sites so that your pages can accurately inform visiting search engines about the overall theme, subject matter and content.
(for specifics read on below...)
Cheers,
Stormdance
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Stormdance
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stormdance
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| | Re: Search Engine Tips
« Reply #1 on Jul 3, 2008, 11:59am » | |
Search Phrases
In Antenna, page Title and Description can be accessed by selecting the Page Properties layer in the Layers palette. The page properties then appear in the Properties palette.
When giving your page a Title and Description it can help to think about what search phrases people might type into a search engine when looking for the information that your web page provides. What would you type into a search engine to find such information? Search phrases are often very short, perhaps 2 to 4 words.
Check. Are words or synonyms from likely search phrases reflected in your page Title and Description and content? It is natural for search phrase, page title and description to be related - after all a visitor asking a search engine for information on a given subject would expect to be shown web pages about that subject. If this is not the case for your web page, your Title or Description may need a rethink.
Alternatives. If you anticipate a lot of competition for a search phrase, consider less popular search phrases. This can be especially important if you are just starting out and competing with other already well established sites in your field. Ranking well for a slightly less searched for phrase can be far better than fighting for a popular phrase and ending up on page 30 of the search results where no one will see you!
Unique. Each page in your web site needs to be unique. Don't try to target every desirable search phrase on your home page or on a single page. A search phrase needs to relate to the actual content of a given web page.
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