| Let's begin by stating the obvious: To rank well in search engines, you first need to be listed with them. So be sure to submit your site's address to all the major search engines before wondering why you don't appear on the first page of results (getting listed in search engines, p. 311). To rise through the ranks, your best bet is to build your site with search engines in mind making sure that your page titles are meaningful, keywords are emphasized in the right places, and other sites link to yours. Also, make sure that your site design isn't sabotaging your efforts. But search engines are a tricky business. Each engine ranks sites differently: Some emphasize popularity; others stress keyword counts or placement. And each weighs the different factors using a slightly different formula. Don't obsess over these details! Just make sure you have your bases covered, and leave it at that. 1. focus on keywords The first step toward search engine success is to choose the keyword searches for which you want to rank well. Most of your energy will be focused around these keywords or phrases, so it's important to choose well. Target different keywords for different parts of your site. Search engines strive to match every query with the most relevant page not the most relevant site. So you should take the time to target keywords for each sub-topic on the individual pages of your site. If you have a gardening site, for instance, you should focus not only on how your site ranks overall (on searches like "gardening" or "container gardening") but also how your interior pages rank on searches for their specific topics (like "begonia" or "petunia"). Target the right keywords. You may optimize your site flawlessly, but if you're not optimizing it for the right keywords, you're efforts will be wasted. Be sure to choose: Keywords that are relevant to your site. This may sound obvious, but you'd be surprised by how many sites waste their time chasing a good rank on keywords that are perceived as valuable (like "sex") but have little to do with their site. Don't try to trick the engine! Just stick with keywords that apply to you. Keywords that are specific. Competition is fierce for generic words, like "car" or "design." You'll have better luck coming up with two- or three-word phrases that describe your site's content more specifically ("fuel-efficient car" or "user-centered design"). These phrases are searched less often, but have fewer sites competing for them. Keywords that people actually type. You may optimize your site perfectly for the words that perfectly describe your site. And you may skyrocket through the results for those searches. But if no one actually searches on those terms, you won't get much reward for your efforts.
2. integrate keywords Once you choose the keywords that are most relevant to your site and for which you would most like your site to rank well you need to integrate those words into your site, focusing on the places that search engines look. Note, however, that there's no technical trick to integrating keywords they're simply words that appear on your site, either in headlines, the text, or the page titles. (See how a top-ranked site got there, p. 316 for a visual explanation of a site that did it well.) URL (or web address). Although it's not always possible, it helps to have a URL that contains one or more of the important keywords. This helps both the search engine and users understand what your site is about. (See choosing a name, p. 31.) Page title. Often ignored because it doesn't actually appear within the web page the page title is an important indicator for search engines. Most sites use the same title for every page on the site. But it's smarter to customize each title to reflect the content of that particular page, incorporating the most important page-specific keywords or phrases. Page text. Page title, URL, and meta tags all matter, but the real proof is in the page text. If your targeted keywords don't actually appear on your pages, you'll have a hard time improving your rank.
Some keys to placing keywords in the page: Use keywords frequently Place keywords close to each other Place keywords near the top of the page Meta tags. Meta tags are pieces of information included with a web page that offer general (or "meta") information about the page, including the language in which it's written, the topics it covers, and a general description of its content. A few years ago, meta tags were the most important factor affecting a site's search ranking. This is no longer true: Search engines have developed new techniques and few use meta tags to determine a site's relevance for any particular keyword. But they're still important. The information in your site's meta tags is often used to describe your site in search engine listings. And this description will determine whether or not people follow your link.
3. get links from other sites This is the most important and most overlooked step in improving your search rank. You need other sites to link to yours, because links measure popularity. And most search engines now consider popularity the most important factor in determining a site's relevance. Popular sites the thinking goes are more likely to fill a visitor's needs. Otherwise, why would they be popular? So to rise through the ranks, you'll need to channel your inner Homecoming Queen and get other sites to link to you. Get links from as many sites as possible. To measure popularity, search engines look first at how many sites link to yours. So it's important to encourage other sites to link to you, whether by earning, buying, or bartering for the link. (Many sites follow an I'll-link-to-you-if-you'll-link-to-me philosophy.) Get links from bigger and better sites. Search engines look not only at the number of sites linking to you, but also the quality of the linking sites. Quality, here, is measured both by popularity and relevance. So a single link from a large, established site like Yahoo! may be worth a dozen links from smaller operations. And a link from a site that's relevant to your topic area (say, gardening) may be worth a dozen links from unrelated sites. But the exact weight of each factor will vary from search engine to search engine, each of which follows its own formula. The catch-22. The increasing emphasis on popularity creates a catch-22 for site owners. In order to attract visitors, you must rank well in search engines. But in order to rank well in search engines, you must have a lot of visitors. 4. modify site design In some cases, design issues may be standing between you and a higher ranking. Poor site design is always a problem, but some design errors can prevent search engines from understanding your site's focus, or even from indexing your site at all. It's important to address these issues before moving more deeply into search-engine optimization. If a search engine can't access or read your site, your efforts will be for naught. Search-specific design problems include: Dynamic pages. If the pages on your site are generated dynamically like those in many database-backed sites (stores, directories, news sites, etc.) search engines may not be able to index them. The problem is with the URLs, such as http://www.store.com/gift.jsp?nc=40384&BV, which contain suspicious characters, like "?" and "&." Humans can't read this gobbledy gook, and neither can most search engines. One solution is to create a set of static pages (with normal URLs) that parallels every unique page in your database. But that quickly becomes unwieldy. A better solution is to modify the way URLs appear on your site, making them both human- and search-engine readable. Flash. Search engines can't "read" or index the text that appears in Flash files on your site. To get around this problem, consider creating a non-Flash version of your site or limiting your use of Flash. Image maps. Search engines can't read the text that appears in images on your site. So if your site makes use of image maps or if you use images to replace important words like headlines you should always offer "alt" text, which translates the words in the pictures. JavaScript. The use of JavaScript won't prevent search engines from indexing your site, but it may hurt your ranking. To determine relevance, search engines look at where keywords appear on a page: The higher, the better. But bulky JavaScript programs, inserted at the top of the page, push the page content down in the eyes of the search engine. Frames. Most search engines can now index sites that are built in frames. But some of the smaller and older engines still have trouble, because the content stored within frames-based sites lacks individual URLs or page addresses.
5. don't try to trick the search engine Search engines are constantly tweaking their formulas to prevent sneaky sites from fooling (or "spamming") them. It's an elaborate cat-and-mouse game that's gone on for nearly a decade now: Search engines set rules; spammers get around them; search engines change the rules. For instance, search engines used to rate sites based on the number of times a keyword appeared. So spammers laid the keywords on thick. Search engines then ousted sites with too many keywords; spoofers figured out the ideal number. For every trick that tricksters try, search engines develop an antidote. Search engine teams are constantly developing new ways to sniff out and rebuff the sites that try to throw the rankings with deceptive methods. Unless you are very, very good at fooling software and have a lot of free time on your hands, search engine spoofing is not a game you should play. You will lose. Instead, focus your energies on (a) finding legitimate ways to better reflect your site's content through keywords; (b) attracting more links from other sites; and (c) improving your site, so you can attract more users, grow in popularity, and rise through the ranks that way. steal this idea: how a top-ranked site got there When it comes to search engines, it often helps to follow the leader. By examining the top-ranked sites on any particular search, you can get a sense for what the site's doing right and what you can do to follow in its footsteps. When you investigate, be sure to notice Where the keywords appear How often the keywords appear How many sites link to theirs
what this site does right Good site description. The description within the search engine lets users know what they'll find on the page and encourages this user to choose the second-listed site over the first. A search for the keywords "Indira Gandhi"  Good page title. The page title is short and concise, and it includes the specific phrase, "Indira Gandhi." This lets the search engine know that Indira Gandhi is the main subject of the page and not just a footnote. Headline includes the keyword phrase. This shows that "Indira Gandhi" is central to the content on the page. Keyword phrase is near the top of page. The keyword phrase, "Indira Gandhi" appears at the beginning of the first paragraph, which reinforces the idea that these words are important to the text. Keyword phrase reappears within text. The repetition of the words "Indira Gandhi" throughout the text further reinforces their importance (without overdoing it). Many other sites link to it. A search for links to this site turns up hundreds of referring sites. This shows that other sites consider it helpful. A top-ranked site for "Indira Gandhi"  A search for links to this top-ranked site 
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action section: how will you improve your search rank? There's no sure-fire way to improve your search ranking: Methods that work in one search engine fall flat in another. But that's no reason not to try. These common-sense approaches submitting your site, focusing on important keywords, improving site design, and getting links can only help your chances. And in some case, they'll help your business as well. get listed Submit your sites to search engines: search engine | submitted? | included? | rank on key search? |
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Alltheweb | 
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| _____ | AskJeeves |
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| _____ | Google |
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| _____ | Goto.com |
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| _____ | Inktomi |
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| _____ | Lycos |
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Submit your sites to directories: directory | submitted? | included? |
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LookSmart |
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| Open Directory |
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| Yahoo! |
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get links from other sites How many sites link to yours? Google says: HotBot says: Alltheweb says: Get other sites to link to you: site | link requested? | link listed? |
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modify site design task | done? |
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Provide "alt text" for headlines |
| Provide "alt text" for all navigation |
| Provide "alt text" for all images, Flash files |
| Create human-readable URLs to replace gobbledygook from dynamic pages |
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focus on keywords What keywords or phrases matter most to you? keyword | current top-ranked sites |
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__________________ | 1. __________________________ | | | 2. __________________________ | | | 3. __________________________ | | | 4. __________________________ | | | 5. __________________________ | __________________ | 1. __________________________ | | | 2. __________________________ | | | 3. __________________________ | | | 4. __________________________ | | | 5. __________________________ | __________________ | 1. __________________________ | | | 2. __________________________ | | | 3. __________________________ | | | 4. __________________________ | | | 5. __________________________ | __________________ | 1. __________________________ | | | 2. __________________________ | | | 3. __________________________ | | | 4. __________________________ | | | 5. __________________________ | __________________ | 1. __________________________ | | | 2. __________________________ | | | 3. __________________________ | | | 4. __________________________ | | | 5. __________________________ | __________________ | 1. __________________________ | | | 2. __________________________ | | | 3. __________________________ | | | 4. __________________________ | | | 5. __________________________ |
How do you rank on searches for important keywords? keyword | site | listed? | your rank? |
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_______________ | AOLsearch: |
| ______ | | | Alltheweb: |
| ______ | | | Google: |
| ______ | | | HotBot: |
| ______ | | | Lycos: |
| ______ | | | MSNsearch: |
| ______ | _______________ | AOLsearch: |
| ______ | | | Alltheweb: |
| ______ | | | Google: |
| ______ | | | HotBot: |
| ______ | | | Lycos: |
| ______ | | | MSNsearch: |
| ______ | _______________ | AOLsearch: |
| ______ | | | Alltheweb: |
| ______ | | | Google: |
| ______ | | | HotBot: |
| ______ | | | Lycos: |
| ______ | | | MSNsearch: |
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integrate keywords task | done? |
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Consider a new URL one that uses keywords |
| Target different keywords for different pages |
| Integrate keywords into page titles |
| Integrate keywords into headlines |
| Integrate keywords near top of page |
| Integrate keywords close together |
| Create metatags that are readable & concise |
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