"How to Design Site to be Search Friendly?" by Dipen

The exclusive information this article contains is,

• Methodology to Make Your Site Search Engine Friendly
  

• Understanding Search Engines

• Decide Which Search Engines Are Important

• Learn the Search Engine Ranking Criteria

• Keywords Are Critical

• Brainstorming, Surveying, and Reviewing Promotional Material 

• Review Competing and Industry-Leading Web Sites

• Assess Your Web Site Traffic Logs 

• Keyword Suggestion and Evaluation Tools

• Fine-Tuning Your Keyword Phrases

• Assign Specific Keywords to Specific Pages

• Title Tags—Use Descriptive Page Titles

• Keywords Meta-Tag

• Description Meta-Tag

• Alt Tags

• Hypertext Links 

• Domain Name and File Names

• Body Text—Header Tags and Page Copy

• Headings—<H1>Header Tags</H1>

• Page Copy

• Quality Guidelines—Basic Principles

• Quality Guidelines—Specific Recommendations 

• Other Important Design Factors

• Frames 

• Robots.txt, Meta-Robots Tag 

• Clean Code Is King 

• Navigation Techniques

• Revisit Meta-Tag

• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

• Dynamic Pages and Special Characters 

• Splash Pages and the Use of Rich Media

• Use of Tables

• Custom Error Pages 

• Image Maps 

• Optimization for Search Localization 

• Monitoring Results 

                    When Internet users are looking for a particular product, service, subject, or information pertaining to an area of interest to them, how do they do it? The most common research tool used is the search engine—85 percent of people doing research online use search engines to find what they are looking for. Because search engines can bring significant volumes of traffic to your site, you must understand how the major search engines work and how the design of your site can influence the indexing of your site by the search engines. You must also know about the elements that are included in the search engines’ algorithms, or formulas, that are outside your Web site and what you can do to ensure that you earn maximum points for those things you can influence.

                   When people conduct Internet searches, they rarely go beyond the first couple pages of results. If you want to be noticed, you need to appear in the top 10 or 15 search results—ideally, you want to appear on the top half of the front page of search results. But before you submit to the search engines, you have to be sure your site has been designed to be search engine friendly. In this article, we cover:

• • The methodology to make your site search engine friendly

• • The key elements of Web site design to accommodate search engines

• • The all-important content

• • The importance of keywords in all aspects of your Web site

• • The elements that are in the search engine algorithms or formulas that are outside     your Web site

• • The importance of link popularity and link relevancy to your search engine                  placement. 

Methodology to Make Your Site Search Engine Friendly

          To make your site search engine friendly, you have to:

• • Decide which search engines are critical for your success.

• • Learn as much as you can about their ranking criteria and the weighting given to         each criterion in their algorithm. It is also important to know which databases they       are using.Then you must:

• • Determine the keywords that your target market is using in the search engines to find what you have to offer,

• • Assign those keywords to specific pages throughout your site, and then

• • Populate the pages with the assigned keywords in the appropriate places given the     ranking criteria for your targeted search engines.

         The remainder of this article walks you step-by-step through this process.

Understanding Search Engines

         Search engines use programs or intelligent agents, called bots, to actually search the Internet for pages that they index using specific parameters as they read the content. The agent reads the information on every page of your site and then follows the links. For example, Google’s spiders continually crawl the Web looking for sites to index and, of course, index sites upon their submission. Google is obviously very important in the search engine community, so be sure your site is easily accessible to its spider. A detailed discussion on submissions to search engines and directories can be found in the next articles.                                                                                                                                     Registering with search engines is fairly simple. In most cases, you simply have to submit your URL or Internet address on their submission form. Even if your URL is not registered with search engines, a number of the major search engines will eventually find you, as their bots are continually roaming the Internet looking for new sites to index. Your odds of being indexed increase significantly if you have a well-developed links strategy. There are millions of sites out there, so I suggest that you be proactive and register your site to ensure a speedier listing. Once you are registered, some of the bots will periodically visit your site looking for changes and updates.

             A common problem faced by Internet marketers is how to influence search engines to index their site appropriately and how to ensure that their site appears when people use relevant search criteria. Many of the interesting and creative sites on the Internet are impossible to find because they are not indexed with the major search engines. The majority (85 percent) of Internet users employ search engines or directories to find what they are looking for on the Web. They do this by typing in a keyword or phrase that represents what they are looking for. Usually people use a two- or three-keyword phrase. The following sections explore how to make your Web site more search engine friendly.

            Many search engines and directories either partner with or license the use of the search technology of another search engine or directory. If you submit your site to a search engine that uses Google’s index, then the design of your site influences how you’re indexed in all search engines that rely on Google for their search results. For example, Google’s results can be found on AOL, Netscape, HotBot, Lycos, and more. Google’s paid advertising results appear on many other sites as well.

            In a similar fashion, you often find other search engine and directory data intermixed or included in some form with the data of another search engine or directory. To take this example further, some search engines are built on the premise of pooling the search results of many search providers and presenting the results to the end user—they do not maintain their own index, but rather manipulate the results of many other search engines in hopes of providing a better search experience. This type of search tool is called a meta-search engine. Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com) is an example of a meta-search engine.

           When designing your site, you must always keep the search engines in mind. Something as simple as a DHTML drop-down menu on your site or a Flash intro can cause problems with the search engines and the indexing of your site if implemented incorrectly. You want to do everything you can to ensure that your site is designed to meet the needs of your target audience while remaining completely search engine friendly. Search engines can produce a significant amount of traffic to your site if you can manage to be placed in the top search results. 

Decide Which Search Engines Are Important

          To start this process, you want to decide which search engines you are going to be concerned about when taking steps necessary to rank high in their search results. For this section we are talking about organic listings rather than payper-click or sponsored listings.

          Organic listings are the search results that are displayed to the left of the page and below the sponsored listings. Organic listings are free listings and are gained by how your site is ranked based on a unique formula, or algorithm, for each search engine. Pay-per-click or sponsored listings, on the other hand, are listings that are paid for and gained through a bidding process. Sponsored listings are always displayed at the top of the results and down the right-hand side of the page. Ranking high in the pay-to-play search engines is discussed more in the next articles.

         You want to select a number of the most popular search engines for your concentration. You also want to be indexed in topic-specific search engines for your industry. You can find the most popular search engines by doing your research online through sites. You can keep up with what’s happening in the search engines by joining one of the many discussion lists on the topic. As it stands at the time of this writing, the major players in the search engine industry are:

• • Google (http://www.google.com)

• • Yahoo! (http://www.search.yahoo.com)

• • MSN Search (http://search.msn.com)

• • AOL (http://www.aol.com)

• • Ask (http://www.ask.com).

Learn the Search Engine Ranking Criteria

            Each search engine has its own unique ranking criteria and its own unique algorithm, or formula, giving different weighting to each of the criteria in its formula. For the search engines that you have decided to focus on, you have to learn as much as you can about their ranking criteria and relative weighting.The site with the highest score appears at the top of the results and the rest appear in descending order of their score.

How The Search Engines Rank Sites

Keyword Phrase Placement Points

+

Link Popularity/Link Relevancy Points

+

Miscellaneous Points

=

Total Score 

(Formula for how the search engines rank Web sites)

         The search engines are all fighting for market share. The more market share a search engine has, the more valuable the company is. To gain market share,a search engine has to provide better results than its competition. It is for this reason that the search engines are changing and improving their formulas on an ongoing basis. You have to keep up with changes in these formulas, tweak your site accordingly, and resubmit when necessary. The search engines use different databases for their search results. They

have different algorithms or formulas for their ranking. They have different weighting for the various elements within their formula. They change their formulas over time and they change their ranking over time. Sound complicated?

        Things have changed quite a bit from the early days. Elements that used to have significant weighting may now have very little weight. You have to remember that it is the highest total score you are looking for, so even if an element has reduced weighting, if the element has any points at all you want to incorporate that element to maximize your total score. Sometimes the top sites are within a small number of points of each other.

        It is not as daunting as it might sound, because the major search engines tend to look at similar information but weight the relevancy for particular items differently in their algorithms. That having been said, here are the most important areas on a Web page that you must address when performing organic search engine optimization:

• • Title tags (page titles)

• • Keyword meta-tags

• • Description meta-tags

• • Alt tags

• • Hypertext links (e.g., anchor text)

• • Domain names and file names

• • Body text (beginning, middle, and end of page copy)

• • Headers

• • Between the “NOFRAMES” tag of framed Web sites.

          Page titles and text-based page content are the most important of the noted placement areas. Keyword meta-tags are not as critical as they once were, but are still applicable for some engines. Remember—it is the absolute highest score you are looking for; if there are any points available, you want to design your site to take advantage of them.

          Because Google is the favorite search engine for the time being, let’s take a closer look at how it ranks pages. Google uses its internal index for its primary search listings. Google has many other features as well, some of which include:

• An images search

• Usenet news database

• A news search feature

• Froogle (a shopping search tool)

• A local search

• A blog search

• A video search

• A product search

• A directory search

• A catalog search

• Advertising services through the Google AdWords programs.

         The ranking formula for Google’s main search function looks for the keywords in the visible body text, header tags, title tags, hypertext links, and Alt tags. Google gives a very heavy weighting to the link popularity, with extra points for quality of links and relevancy of text around the links. Google also has miscellaneous points available for such things as:

• Age of domain/site—The longer your domain name has been registered, the more likely you are serious about being online for the long term.

• File size—Try not to exceed 100k. A recent study found that the body section of your site ranks best between 50 and 70k in size. More than 100k in size might not be cached unless it is considered exceptional content.

• Freshness of content—Google is always looking for sites that are updated on a regular basis. The more frequent you update your site, the more frequent Google’s spiders will visit your site.

• Links from directories—Google awards points if directories such as Yahoo!,             Looksmart, DMOZ, and About provide a link to your site.

       Most of the search engines are giving heavy weighting to link popularity— that is, the number of links to your site from other sites on the Internet. The search engines are getting very sophisticated in the weighting of link popularity, with the search engines giving extra points for link relevancy—that is, how high the site with the link to your site would rank for the same keyword. Other points are awarded based on the keywords in the text around the link pointing to your Web site. For strategies on generating significant links to your site, see in the next articles.

Keywords Are Critical

         Keywords are the terms and phrases that your target market uses when searching the major search engines and directories for the products and services you sell. Your keywords are used in everything you do and are the key determining factor in how you rank in the search results among many of the major search engines.

         A critical step in natural search engine optimization is to select the right keywords for your business, products, or services (including descriptive words), and your target market. Understand whom you are targeting and build your search engine optimization efforts around your audience.

         You need to choose keyword phrases that are going to bring sustainable targeted traffic consisting of potential customers—not just anything and everything. What you may think is the perfect keyword phrase may not be used at all by your target market in their search queries, which is why it is so critical to research and validate your keywords.

        Ideally, each page of your Web site is going to focus on a different set of keywords that are specific to the content at hand. If you were to focus on the same set of keywords on every page, then you would hit only one small portion of your market potential because you are only going to hit those same keywords over and over again—it is self-defeating.

        First, you want to gather a master list of all possible keyword phrases. To make the data easier to manage, you can create different keyword list profiles that represent individual topics as opposed to trying to cover all topics in a giant master list. For example, if you have two product lines, you can create a keyword list for each. Naturally, some keywords are shared across the lists, but it is important to understand that the people looking for one topic (for instance, “jobs”) are not necessarily the same people looking for another topic (let’s say, “trucks”), and as such they are going to use different keyword combinations in their searches.

          How do you create your master keyword list? Here are four solid techniques for generating a list of potential keyword phrases:

• 1. Brainstorm, survey, and review promotional material.

• 2. Review competing and industry-leading Web sites.

• 3. Assess your Web site traffic logs.

• 4. Use keyword suggestion and evaluation tools.

            Be sure to record the keywords you gather in a text document in your wordprocessing program or in a spreadsheet. Including them in a spreadsheet or

database makes them much easier to sort when it comes time to prioritize the

keywords and weed out the junk.

            As you work your way through the list of techniques, you want to cycle back to some of the techniques because you will come across search terms that can expand the scope of your original efforts and open the door to new, more targeted phrases that you might have missed the first time around.

Brainstorming, Surveying, and Reviewing Promotional Material
            At this stage, the idea is to gather all the keyword phrases you can, within reason. Sit down with a pen and paper and jot down all keywords that come to mind. Bring other members of your team in on this process to fuel ideas. There is nothing scientific or technical to be concerned with here—the sky’s the limit, but try to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Try to think as your target market would if they were to do a search for information on a topic contained within your site. Do not just think about what

people would do to find your site, but what they would do if they didn’t know your business existed and were looking for the types of products and services you sell.

            Here are several questions to help you with your brainstorming process:

• 1. What business are you in (for instance, automobile parts or construction)?

• 2. What is the focus of your Web site (is it a resource, a guide, a store)? What would people search for if they were looking for a Web site like yours?

• 3. If your customer were to take a guess at your Web address, what would it be? Remember, they do not know who you are, but they know what kind of products or services they are looking for.

• 4. What products and services do you sell? What are some of the descriptive words or benefits of your products and services that might be familiar to your target market? For example, if your site offers information on resort spas, then one descriptive keyword you might choose could be massage.Also, include words that describe the benefits of these services or the service in more detail, such as massage therapy and full-body massage. 

        Your current corporate materials, brochures, and other marketing collateral can be a valuable source of keyword phrases. Begin by indiscriminately highlighting any words that people might search for if they are looking for products or services your company has to offer.
        To assist you in developing your keyword list, consider asking your customers

for their input. Ask what keywords they might use to find a site like yours.

You can always turn to a thesaurus for additional ideas if you get stumped.

Review Competing and Industry-Leading Web Sites

        Check out your online competition. The term competition is referenced quite

loosely in that industry leaders with whom you may not directly compete are

also included here. Look at the sites for which you have a record and look for

sites in the major search engines using some of the keyword phrases you have

gathered so far.

       You want to see what sites are in the top 10 positions and understand them.

By reviewing top-ranking Web sites, you can look for themes and patterns in

the sites that give you a good indication of what they are going after and how

they are doing it. You can then turn around and apply this newfound knowledge

to your own Web site.

       When reviewing competing Web sites, you should look at the same general

areas you would optimize on your own Web site. As mentioned earlier, the most

critical keyword placement areas include:

• • Title tags (page titles)

• • Keyword meta-tags

• • Description meta-tags

• • Alt tags

• • Hypertext links (e.g., anchor text)

• • Domain names and file names

• • Body text (beginning, middle, and end of page copy)

• • Headers

• • Between the “NOFRAMES” tag of framed Web sites.

          By searching for your most important keywords and observing what the top-ranking sites are using with respect to their page content, title tags, description meta-tags, keyword meta-tags, and so on, you can formulate a good plan of attack. Remember that if you don’t appear in the first two or three pages of search results, it is unlikely that prospective visitors will access your site through the search engine.

         Check to see what meta-tags your competitors have. Not only can you learn from the sites that catch your eye, you can also learn from your competitors’ mistakes. After you have done a thorough job of this market research, you are in a good position to develop a description that is catchy and adequately describes your site.

         To check your competition’s meta-tags in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you simply go to their site, then click “View” on your menu bar, and select “Source” from the drop-down menu. This brings up the source code for that page in whatever your default text browser is. Pay special attention to the title tag of the top-ranked Web sites. To get a little more specific, you can narrow your search to keywords in a title tag. The reason for doing this is that optimizing a title tag is a given when it comes to search engine optimization, so it only makes sense to look at who else is doing it as well. On Google you can enter “allintitle: keyword phrase,” without the quotes, to search for all pages with the noted keywords in their title tag. This approach is a little more focused than simply looking for all pages with a certain set of keywords because the keywords might just be there in passing, as a part of an article, and not something the site is intentionally trying to target. If the keywords are found in the title tag, there is a better chance their reason for being there is intentional.

As noted earlier, you can learn not only from the sites that catch your eye, but also from your competitors’ mistakes.

Assess Your Web Site Traffic Logs

        Your Web site traffic logs can be a source of pertinent keyword information. You can view your traffic logs to see what search terms and search engines people are using to locate your Web site and to help you fine-tune future search engine optimization efforts.

        If you are not sure whether you have access to a Web site traffic analysis program, check with your current Web site host to see if they provide one to you. If not, there are plenty of tools available to you.
        Understand that the search terms displayed may not be the most relevant; they just happen to be the search terms people are executing to find your site during the selected time frame. Applying new search engine optimization techniques with relevant keywords changes how people find your Web site. The Web site traffic analysis package you use gives you the power to measure the impact of your optimization efforts.

      Your traffic logs can be a source of inspiration for generating your master keyword list. Note the search terms people are currently using and add them to your list. For a more complete look at the search phrases reported on your Web site, expand the date range to cover a larger spread—say, over the period of a year.
      When your site is optimized, your Web traffic analysis tool will become your best friend in monitoring your success.

Keyword Suggestion and Evaluation Tools
      There are a number of services available that can help you with selecting the most appropriate keywords for your site. These services base their suggestions on results from actual search queries. Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) is an example of such a service.

         Keyword research tools can help meet your current needs, whether you’re looking for a place to start, are plum out of ideas, or simply feel like you’re missing something.

Fine-Tuning Your Keyword Phrases

        Now that you have your master keyword list, probably with a few hundred keyword phrases, you have to drill down and figure out which keywords you are going to target for each page of your Web site that you want to optimize. Keep in mind that each page you optimize should lean toward a different set of keywords. Why? What good is buying 100 lottery tickets for the next drawing if they all have the same number? It is the same idea here.
        Your efforts should focus around those keyword phrases that bring in a fair volume of traffic and that are highly targeted. The return on investment for such keywords will be much higher. When reviewing your keyword list, you need to consider:

• • Which keywords are vital to your objectives

• • Which keywords are popular enough to generate reasonable, sustainable traffic

• • Which keywords do not have so much competition that it would be  counterproductive considering the time and effort necessary to target them.

         For a car dealership to have the keyword car stand alone on the dealership’s Web site would prove a waste of effort. Car is a vastly popular keyword, which is good, but it is too generic and too competitive to be worthwhile. You have to make judgment calls from time to time. In some cases a word is relevant and popular, but also competitive to the point of being intimidating. If this word is essential to your business, however, then go for it. 

      Organize your keywords according to their level of importance. When completed, you will have a refined master keyword list that you can refer to when optimizing your Web site. Also, different directories allow different numbers of keywords to be submitted. Because you have organized the list with the most important words first, you can simply include as many of your keywords as the directory allows.

          You can begin editing the list by deleting words that either are too generic (for example, business) or are not appropriate for keyword purposes. Review each word and ask yourself, “Would people search using this word if they were looking for the products and services available through my Web site?”

          For each page that you are optimizing, take a copy of the comprehensive master list and delete words that are not appropriate for that particular page. Reprioritize the remaining keywords based on the content of the page you are indexing. Now take the keyword phrase you have assigned to this page and put it at the top of the list. This is the keyword list for that particular page. Repeat this procedure for every page you are optimizing. This is also a great procedure when you are developing the keyword meta-tag for each page of your site.

        What I just covered is a very basic approach to organizing keywords. If you are up to the challenge, you can take it further by adding weights and multipliers to your keyword list to further refine it. You can choose to keep it basic while you are learning the ropes, but as

you become more familiar you might want to be more critical in selecting your keywords, to boost your performance in the search engines. The more knowledge you are armed with, the better prepared you are to optimize your Web site. Here are some additional tips to keep in mind when refining your keywords master list:

• • Plural and singular keywords—There is some debate about whether it is better to use only the plural version of a keyword or whether it is best to use both the plural and singular forms. Is your target market looking for both? As an example, some people might search for picture frame, and others might search for picture frames. Google matches exactly what the user searches for, so it is important to use both where possible.
• • Using the names of your competitors—There is often the question as to whether to include your competitor’s name in your keywords. The idea here is that if someone looks for your competitor, they are going to find you as well. Never include a competitor’s name in your keywords. Because several search engines read only a small amount of content for keywords, you lose valuable page real estate to irrelevant keywords when you use your competitor’s name. In addition, there have been recent legal battles regarding the use of competitors’ names within one’s keywords.

• • Common misspellings of words—There are many words that people misspell on a frequent basis. The question here is, do you include those misspelled keywords in your site or not? My stance is “No.” Although people use them in their searches, it hurts your credibility in that you come off as a company incapable of correctly spelling its own products and services. There are exceptions to every rule. Canadian sites often have U.S. customers as their target market and U.S. sites often have Canadian customers as their target market. There are a number of words that are spelled differently by these countries—theatre in Canada is theater in the United States, centre in Canada is center in the United States, colour in Canada is color in the United States, for example. If you are caught with one of your important keywords spelled differently by your target market, you might want to optimize a page of your site to accommodate this. Perhaps you might offer a page that is designed for Our Canadian Friends or for Our American Friends.

• • Case sensitivity—Some search engines are not case-sensitive and others are. Regardless, most people search in lowercase, so to keep the process simple; for now you should record your original keyword master list using lowercase. Once you begin finalizing your keyword list, you might notice that people are actually searching for the proper spelling of a word, in which case you would reflect the changes in your keyword list.

• • Modifiers—A modifier is a keyword you add to your primary keyword phrase to give it a boost. Who simply searches for a hotel at random? It doesn’t make sense. You look for a hotel in combination with a destination. In this case, the destination is the modifier. As a side note, local search is becoming increasingly popular, so if the local market plays a significant role in the success of your business, be sure to use geographic modifiers accordingly.

• • Multiple-word keyword phrases—Two- or three-keyword phrases perform better than single keywords. According to OneStat.com (http://www.onestat.com), people tend to use two- and three-word phrases when performing a search online. Here is a list of the most popular number of words used in a search phrase:

• – Two words—28.38 percent

• – Three words—27.15 percent

• – Four words—16.42 percent

• – One word—13.48 percent

• – Five words—8.03 percent

• – Six words—3.67 percent

• – Seven words—1.36 percent

• – Eight words—0.73 percent

• – Nine words—0.34 percent

• – Ten words—0.16 percent.

           Not only are multiple-keyword phrases used more often by searchers, but using them also enables you to be more descriptive in the modifiers to your keyword phrases.

Assign Specific Keywords to Specific Pages

           The next step is to allocate specific keywords to specific pages of your site for

search engine optimization. You then populate each page in the appropriate places with the assigned keyword. You do this because you want to ensure that no matter which keyword or keyword phrase your target market decides to search on, one of the pages on your site is likely to rank in the first couple of pages of search results.

           Many sites populate all their pages with the same keywords in the hopes that one of their pages will rank high in the search results. They use the same meta-tags for every page on their site. Again, this is the same as buying 100 tickets on the lottery but selecting the same numbers for every single ticket.
          Some search engines rank sites by how early the keyword appears on the site. The earlier a keyword is mentioned on your site, the more points earned and the higher your site may be positioned in search results. And remember what was stressed earlier: Though you don’t want to repeat a keyword hundreds of times (some search engines are on to this), you do want to repeat the keywords assigned to that particular page a number of times on that page of your site.

          When you have allocated your keywords to the various pages on your site, you will populate or include the keyword phrases assigned in the appropriate places for that particular page. Let’s take a closer look at all those appropriate places.

Title Tags—Use Descriptive Page Titles

         It is extremely important that all Web pages have titles. Title tags are viewed as one of the most important elements of search engine optimization when it comes to keyword placement. Each of the pages on your Web site should be given a title.

        The title is inserted between the title tags in the header of an HTML document. <HEAD> indicates the beginning of the header, and the ending of the header is marked by </HEAD>. A simplified version might look like:

• • <HTML>

• • <HEAD>

• • <TITLE>Document Title Here</TITLE>

• • <META-NAME=“keywords” CONTENT=“keyword1, keyword2, keyword3”>

• • <META-NAME=“description” CONTENT=“200-character site description goes here”>

• • <META-NAME=“robots” CONTENT=“index, follow”>

• • <!—Comments tag, repeat description here>

• • </HEAD>

          Title tag information identifies and describes your pages. Titles tell readers where the information contained on a page originated. Most Web browsers display a document’s title in the top line of the screen. When users print a page from your Web site, the title usually appears at the top of the page at the left. When someone bookmarks your site or adds it to their “Favorites,” the title appears as the description in his or her bookmark file. These are all reasons that it is important that a page’s title reflect an accurate description of the page. More importantly, the title tag is typically what the target market sees in search

results in some of the major search engines. In Figure 2.3 you can see that a typical search result consists of the title tag as the link to the Web site, a brief description of the Web site, and the URL.

              Every page of your Web site should have a unique title tag and each title tag should accurately describe the page content. Your target market should be able to read the title tag and understand what the page they are about to view contains. Keep your title tags brief—in the realm of five to ten words. The longer your title tag is, the more diluted your keywords become and the more likely your title tag is to be truncated by a search engine. Google displays a maximum of 66 characters. Yahoo!Search, on the other hand, permits up to 120 characters for a title tag. Presently Google and Yahoo!Search are the two most important search engines; use their requirements as an approximation when designing

your title tag
           My advice is to include your most important keyword phrases first, within Google’s 66-character range. Overspill, or less important keywords, can run into the excess space that Yahoo!Search allows. By including your most important keywords first, you secure their position for use by the search engines and for browser bookmarks.

          The shorter and more accurate the title tag is, the higher the keyword density and relevancy for that title tag. Try to keep your use of a keyword phrase to a single instance if possible, unless the title tag truly warrants duplication. In the case of a hotel, the word hotel might appear twice in a title—once for the hotel’s proper company name and once in a descriptive term such as a targeted geographic area.

           Match the keywords you use in your meta-tags with the words you use in your page titles. Search engines check page titles, meta-tags, and page content for keywords. For certain keywords, your pages will be more relevant and, therefore, will place higher in the search engines if these keywords appear in each of these three sections. Position your keywords near the beginning of your page titles to increase your keyword relevancy.

          Some of the search engines retrieve your page, look at your title, and then look at the rest of your page for keywords that match those found in the title. Many search engines use title tags as one of the elements in their algorithm to determine search engine ranking. Pages that have keywords in the title are seen as more relevant than similar pages on the same subject that don’t, and may thus be ranked in a higher position by the search engines. However, don’t make your title a string of keywords because this is often  considered spam by the search engines and you end up worse off in the rankings or removed altogether. Also keep in mind that people will see that title in the search results, and they’re more likely to click on a site that has a title that flows and is descriptive—not a list.

Keywords Meta-Tag

           As we noted earlier in this article, a common problem faced by Internet marketers is how to influence search engines to index their site appropriately and how to ensure that their site appears when people use relevant search criteria.

           Retaining a certain measure of control over how search engines deal with your Web site is a major concern. Often Web sites do not take advantage of the techniques available to them to influence search engine listings. Most search engines evaluate the HTML meta-tags in conjunction with other variables to decide where to index Web pages based on particular keyword queries.
           Although in recent years fewer points have been allocated to content in the keywords meta-tags, it is important to keep your eyes on the total score—if there are any points at all allocated to this element, you want them all. As we’ve already mentioned, the site with the highest total score appears at the top of the search results, so you are going after every point you can get.

          The Web Developer’s Virtual Library defines an HTML meta-tag as follows:

The META element is used within the HEAD element to

embed document meta-information not defined by other HTML

elements. The META element can be used to identify properties of

a document (e.g., author, expiration date, a list of keywords, etc.)

and assign values to those properties.

An HTML tag is used in the HEAD area of a document to

specify further information about the document, either for the

local server or for a remote browser. The meta-element is used

within the HEAD element to embed document meta-information

not defined by other HTML elements. Such information can be

extracted by servers/clients for use in identifying, indexing, and

cataloging specialized document meta-information. In addition,

HTTP servers can read the contents of the document HEAD to

generate response headers corresponding to any elements defining

a value for the attribute HTTP-EQUIV. This provides document

authors with a mechanism for identifying information that should

be included in the response headers of an HTTP request.

          To summarize this lengthy definition, meta-information can be used in identifying,

indexing, and cataloging. This means you can use these tags to guide the

search engines in displaying your site as the result of a query. There are many

meta-tags, including:

• • Abstract

• • Author

• • Copyright

• • Description

• • Expires

• • Keywords

• • Language

• • Refresh

• • Revisit

• • Robots.

         Most of these meta-tags are not useful for optimization purposes. The most recognized meta-tag is the keywords meta-tag. <META-NAME=“keywords” CONTENT=“…”> tells search engines under which keywords to index your site. When a user types one of the words you listed here, your site should be displayed as a result. A space or comma can be used to separate the words. Do not repeat the keyword frequently; rather, repeat the keyword about five times in different phrases. You do have the option of using more than 1,000 characters in your keywords meta-tag, but be wary of keyword dilution. You should create a unique keywords tag for each page of your site that lists the appropriate keywords for that particular page.

Description Meta-Tag

           <META-NAME=“description” CONTENT=“…”> should be included on every page of your Web site. The description meta-tag is used to supply an accurate overview of the page to which it is attached. The description meta-tags can influence the description in the search engines that support them. It is best to keep the description meta-tag to somewhere between 200 to 250 characters in total. Be sure to use the same keywords applied elsewhere on the page being optimized in the description meta-tag for consistency and relevancy; however, do not duplicate your title tag in your description meta-tag, or you may run the risk of being accused of keyword stacking. Also, it helps to include a call to action encouraging the target market to visit your Web site or take some other action.

Alt Tags

          Some search engines use the information within Alt tags when forming a description

and determining the ranking for your site. Alt tags are used to display a description of the graphic they are associated with if the graphic cannot be displayed, such as in text-only browsers. Alt tags appear after an image tag and contain a phrase that is associated with the image.

          Ensure that your Alt tags contain the keywords assigned to the particular page wherever you can. This gives your page a better chance of being ranked higher in the search engines. For example: <image src=“images/logo.gif” height=“50” width =“50”

alt=“Best Western Hotel Orlando”>

          You do not want your Alt tags to look something like “Best Western” or “Company Logo” because this does not include any keywords. Be sure you apply proper Alt tags to all images on your site to achieve best results. Keep in mind that users who browse with graphics disabled must be able to navigate your site, and proper use of Alt tags assists them in doing so.

Hypertext Links

          A hypertext link consists of the description of a link placed between anchor tags. Here is an example of an absolute link, where the link includes the total path to where the document can be found:
<a href=“http://www.DomainName.com/HotelOrlando”>. This is the anchor text for the sample link</A>.

         The text inside a hyperlink, or anchor text, is increasingly important for search engine optimization. The major search engines have points available for including the keyword phrase being searched on in the text around the link pointing to your Web site. There is a strong relevancy pattern.
        Good places to use links include the primary and subnavigation aspects of a Web site, as well as links to external resources from within the page copy. Likewise, if links on other Web sites pointing to your Web site include the same string of keywords, your site’s relevancy gets a boost. When you encourage other Web sites to link to yours, be sure to provide them with the link text they should use, and make sure you get the keyword phrase you have assigned to that particular page in the text around the link. Similarly, when you submit your Web site to directories and other link sources, provide the comparable link

or title text.

Domain Name and File Names

         Use of keywords within your domain name and file names can help with search engine positioning. Some professionals argue that including dashes to separate keywords makes it easier for search engines to distinguish keywords, which can help boost your rankings. Personal experience leads me to believe that if it actually does make a difference, the difference is so small that you are better off spending your time optimizing your Web site in areas that really count. This also applies to file names.

         Examples of domain names are:

1. www.thisisadomainname.com

2. www.this-is-also-a-domain-name.com.

Examples of file names are:

1. www.thisisadomainname.com/samplepage.html

2. www.thisisadomainname.com/sample-page.html.

       It does not take much effort to give your images and file names meaningful names—names that include the keyword phrase you have assigned to that page— so take the time to do it. For example, instead of a car dealership, say Chrysler, using http://www.chrysler.com/index.html for a page that is focusing on their trucks, it would be much better to use http://www.chrysler.com/trucks.

Body Text—Header Tags and Page Copy

      The body text of a Web page consists of all the visible text between the <body>

and </body> tag, such as headings and the page copy encased in paragraphs.

Along with page titles, body text is the next important area on which to focus

your search engine optimization efforts. Body text is where you want to spend

the bulk of your time.

Headings—<H1>Header Tags</H1>

         Use your HTML <H1> header tags effectively to indicate the subject and content

of a particular page. Most people use them only as a method of creating

large fonts. Some search engines, including Google, use the content included

within the header text in their relevancy scoring. The H1 tag is the most important,

followed by H2. Include your most important keywords in your header

tags. If you can, work a couple of H2 tags into your page and get the keyword

phrase you’ve assigned to that page within the header tag.

Page Copy

          You want to ensure that the keyword you have assigned to a specific page appears

as close to the beginning of that page as possible, and certainly within the first 200 characters. The higher up on a page, the greater the keyword prominence. Search engines tend to lend more weight to page content above the fold. The fold is where your browser window ends and where vertical scrolling begins, if necessary.

           The assigned keyword should appear at the beginning of the text on the page, in the middle, and again at the end. You want to build a theme on your page, and to do so you have to spread your keywords throughout the page, not just focus on the first paragraph.

           Always have a descriptive paragraph at the top of your Web page that describes what can be found on the page for your target market and for the major search engines. Search engines use this as their source for a site description and keywords on your site. In addition, search engines use the content found within the opening paragraph in influencing the ranking of your site among search results. Again, be sure to use the most important keywords first, preferably within the first two or three sentences. This is enormously important. Make sure that the keywords you use flow naturally within the content of the opening paragraph and relate to the content and purpose of your site. You don’t want

the search engines to think you’re trying to cram in words where they don’t fit.

          As you can tell, textual HTML content is extremely important to the search engines, which brings me to my next point. Never create a page with excessive graphics as content. For example, don’t display information as a graphic file that should be displayed in text. I’ve seen this done numerous times. A site may have the best opening statement in the world, but the search engines can’t use it because the information is presented in the form of a graphic. No matter how great it looks, the search engines can’t read text embedded in your graphics for content. Very often I see a site that has the company name used every time in a graphic logo. If someone were to do a search on the company name, they may

not earn enough points to score on the first page of results.

           Do not make your home page excessively lengthy. The longer your page is,the less relevant the information on the page becomes to the search engines. I recommend that you keep your home page short and to the point. A page consisting of between 250 and 800 words provides the major search engines with the information they need.

           Little things such as how often you update your site can have an effect on how well your site places in search engine results. Spiders can determine how often a page is updated and will revisit your site accordingly. This may lead to higher rankings in some of the major search engines. Fresh content is good for your target market and for search engine rankings. After all, who wants to view stale content?

            As a final note, before you submit your site, be sure the content on the page you are submitting is complete. Some of the major search engines will ignore your submission if you have an “under construction” or similar sign on your page.

           Do not get too muddled down in the science of search engine optimization. No two search engines’ formulas or algorithms are identical, so if you spend all of your time tailoring your site for just one engine, you may have many missed opportunities on your hands. You generally will do just fine if your application of relevant keywords is related to your page at hand, is tied together with the different optimization elements that make up a Web page, and is used consistently and creatively enough to build a theme. A tool such as Web Position (http://www.webposition.com) can assist you in analyzing your pages for keyword density and relevancy.
            Keyword density is the number of times a keyword, or keyword phrase, is used on a Web page, divided by the total number of words on that particular page. Your keyword density should be between 3 percent and 11 percent. If

your keyword density is below 3 percent, it is not there often enough to count.

If your keyword density is above 11 percent, it may appear as if you are attempting

to manipulate the search engines.

Quality Guidelines—Basic Principles

• • Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don’t deceive your users, or present different content to search engines than you display to users.

• • Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a Web site that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”

• • Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to Web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the Web as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

• • Don’t use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our terms of service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold that send automatic or programmatic queries or submissions to Google. WebPosition is a great software program to monitor your positioning and has great tools to tweak your search engine optimization; just don’t use these types of tools for submission. Both Yahoo! and Google have implemented dynamic characters that must be replicated in the submission form. These dynamic characters are embedded in a graphic, and software programs such as WebPosition are unable to read the text and input the code.  

Quality Guidelines—Specific Recommendations

• • Avoid hidden text or hidden links.

• • Don’t employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.

• • Don’t send automated queries to Google.

• • Don’t load pages with irrelevant words.

• • Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

• • Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

        These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative

behavior, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (for example, tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known Web sites). It’s not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn’t included on this page, Google approves of it. Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles listed above will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes

they can exploit.

        If your Web site is mistakenly penalized for spam, your best course of action is to contact the search engine and discuss remedies. If you are applying a technique that is considered spam, get rid of it. Know what is considered search engine spam and avoid it before it ever becomes a problem for you.

Other Important Design Factors

It is not always possible to have a Web site that meets all requirements of a search engine and your target market. Perhaps you are coming in on the tail end of a Web development project or simply want to make your Web site as search engine friendly as possible, without having to do a significant redesign. Here are some common issues and how you deal with them to improve the search engine friendliness of your Web site, whether you are building a new site or are improving your current one:

• • Frames

• • Robots.txt, meta-robots tag

• • Clean code is king

• • Navigation techniques

• • Revisit meta-tag

• • Cascading style sheets

• • Dynamic pages and special characters

• • Splash pages and the use of rich media

• • Use of tables

• • Custom error pages

• • Image maps

• • Optimization for search localization.

Frames

          From a marketing perspective, you should avoid building a Web site entirely based on frames when you develop your Web site. This is probably the most recognized hurdle when it comes to search engine optimization.
          Frames may result in some search engines being unable to index pages within your site, or they can result in improper pages being indexed. Also, many people simply prefer sites that do not use frames. Frames also cause problems when someone wants to bookmark or add to their favorites a particular page within a framed site. Usually only the home page address is shown.

         What I mean by “improper pages being indexed” is that content pages will be indexed, and when the search engines direct users to these content pages, they will likely not be able to navigate your site because the navigation frame probably will not be visible. To prevent this technique from being used, you can insert a robots meta-tag in the header section of your HTML that does not allow bots to proceed beyond your home page. As a result, you can really submit only your home page, which means you have less of a chance of receiving the high rankings you need on the major search engines. Alternatively,

you should include textual links to all major sections within your site to accommodate those users who enter your site on a page other than a home page, and to assist the search engines with indexing your site.
         Some search engines can read only information between the <NOFRAMES> tags within your master frame. The master frame identifies the other frames. All too often the individuals who apply frames ignore the <NOFRAMES> tags, which is a big no-no. If you do not have any text between the <NOFRAMES> tags, then the search engines that reference your site for information have nothing to look at. This results in your site being listed with little or no information in the indexes, or you are listed so far down in the

rankings that no one will ever find you anyway. To remedy this situation, insert textual information containing your most important descriptive keywords between the <NOFRAMES> tags. This gives the search engines something they can see, and it also helps those users who are using browsers that are not frame-compatible.

            Now that the search engines have found you, you still have a problem. They can’t go anywhere. Create a link within your <NOFRAMES> tags to allow search engines and users with browsers that aren’t frame-compatible to get into your site. Frames are a headache when you are designing your site to be search engine friendly. To make your life easier and from a marketing perspective, it’s better to avoid them altogether.

Robots.txt, Meta-Robots Tag

         <META-NAME=“robots” CONTENT=“ ”> tells certain bots to follow or not follow hypertext links. The W3 Consortium white paper on spidering (spiders are defined below) offers the following definition and discussion:

• • <META-NAME=“ROBOTS” CONTENT=“ALL | NONE | NOINDEX| NOFOLLOW”>

• • default = empty = “ALL” “NONE” = “NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”

• • The filler is a comma-separated list of terms:– ALL, NONE, INDEX, NOINDEX, FOLLOW, NOFOLLOW.

Note: This tag is for users who cannot control the robots.txt file at their sites. It provides a last chance to keep their content out of search services. It was decided not to add syntax, to allow robot-specific permissions within the meta-tag. INDEX means that robots are welcome to include this page in search services.

            FOLLOW means that robots are welcome to follow links from this page to find other pages. A value of NOFOLLOW allows the page to be indexed, but no links from the page are explored. (This may be useful if the page is a free entry point into pay-per-view content, for example.) A value of NONE tells the robot to ignore the page.

            The values of INDEX and FOLLOW should be added to every page unless there is a specific reason that you do not want your page to be indexed. This may be the case if the page is only temporary.

Clean Code Is King

            Clean code is essential to search engine success. You want to ensure that you do

not have stray tags, HTML errors, or bloated code. Problematic code is bad for the user experience and bad for search engine placement.

Navigation Techniques

           JavaScript embedded in anchor tags, drop-down menus, and pull-down menus can cause many headaches for a Web site looking to be indexed by the major search engines. The rollover effect on navigation links is quite common and can add visual appeal to a Web site. A problem arises when JavaScript is encased within the anchor tag, which can cause problems for the search engines.
            The rollovers look good, so odds are that if your site is using them, you are not going to want to get rid of them. A quick and simple solution to ensure that your site is indexed is to include text-based navigation along the bottom of your Web page as supportive navigation. This approach also gives you the opportunity to get in your keywords twice—once in the Alt tag for your main navigation and the second time around the anchor tag for the supportive text links. In addition, it is to your benefit to include all your JavaScript material in external files to keep the Web site code as clean as possible.

           Drop-down menus (DHTML, for example) and pull-down menus pose similar concerns because of the coding script necessary for them to execute. If you choose to use them, be sure to have an alternative means of navigation available.

Revisit Meta-Tag

         You cannot tell a search engine when to visit your Web site, though the theory behind the revisit meta-tag is that you can define how often you want a search engine to come back to your Web site. Use the revisit meta-tag if you like, but it is not needed.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

        CSS is common practice in the Web development world. It gives developers more control over how they want their Web page to be laid out, plus it requires less coding. Less coding means less room for error and better site performance. Like JavaScript, CCS benefits from being stored in external files as opposed to being embedded in each page’s individual source code.

Dynamic Pages and Special Characters

       Dynamic content historically has caused many problems for search engines because they do not like to be fed duplicate content and the query strings can cause spiders confusion. Times are getting better, but these elements can still cause some difficulties.

       Dynamically driven content typically has a query string in the URL such as question marks (?), an ampersand (&), or the percent sign (%). The lengthy URL contains a number of calls to database information and to a template to put together the Web page you see in your browsers. Search engines struggle to figure out what exactly they are supposed to index because they have difficulty understanding what information is actually meaningful and how to present it.

       There is no question that dynamically driven sites are common. Your challenge is to work around the needs of the search engines and include pure HTMLbased information pages that the search engines can index as a standard part of your Web site. Likewise, there are methods of reducing the complexity of URLs into a form the search engines can process—Amazon.com has been very successful at this. Amazon.com has eliminated all stop symbols from its page URLs. Depending on the technology used to create your Web site (such as ASP, CFP, or PHP), tools exist to help you rewrite your URLs at the server level to make them friendlier for search engine indexing. This is the same logic applied behind services such as http://www.tinyurl.com.

Splash Pages and the Use of Rich Media

        A splash page is basically an opening page that leads into a site. Often splash pages consist of a Java or a Macromedia Flash intro that can be slow to load for some users and contain little meaningful content for search engines.
       Some Web sites use splash screens that consist of an eye-pleasing image and an invitation to enter the site. Many splash pages implement techniques that automatically send you to the home page once you’ve seen the splash page, and others invite you to “Click here to enter” in some form or another. Why do people use splash pages on their sites? For one, they usually look nice. Another reason is to provide the user with something to look at while images or content for the home page loads in the background. Individuals also use splash pages as a means of advertising. Splash pages are usually very attractive in appearance, but they often lack content relevant to search engines.

        If you do use a splash page on your site, be sure you include the proper meta-tags within your HTML header. This is necessary for search engines that use meta-tags to access this information. This ultimately affects your ranking and how your site is displayed to users in the search results.
        Include a paragraph or statement on your splash page that pertains to your site’s content. This can help boost your rankings on some of the major search engines that both do and do not use meta-tags. Some search engines will review your opening paragraph and use this information when developing a description for your site that is presented in their search results.

        Last, include a link into your Web site for the target market and the search engines. Many splash pages implement the refresh meta-tag, and this should be avoided.

Use of Tables

         Tables can pose indexing problems with some of the search engines. Tables are

a common feature found on many Web sites to display information and position content, but if implemented incorrectly, they can cause the search engines some confusion. Also, by using tables close to the top of a page, you are potentially forcing the content you want

search engines to see farther down on your page. Because some search engines look only so far, you might be hurting your chances of receiving a high ranking. If you are using tables, place any important information pertaining to the page content above the table, if possible, to help prevent any potential problems.

         Here’s an interesting problem with some search engines. Assume you have a Web site where the main color of the background is white, and you have a table on the page with a dark background. If you were to use white text in the table, some of the major search engines would pick this up as your using text that is the same color as the background and would ignore your site’s submission because it is considered spam to search engines. Using tables is okay; many people do it—just be careful with your choice of colors.

Custom Error Pages

         A custom 404 error (page not found) page should be created for your Web site. This page is displayed when a user attempts to access a page that does not exist. The custom error page should contain your company’s branding and contain links to all major pages of your Web site, similar to the site map.

        If you redesign or rework your Web site, then odds are that pages are going to get moved or will no longer exist. It is possible that people have pages of the old Web site bookmarked and those pages may no longer be a part of the new Web site. Also, search engines index select pages of the current Web site, and those pages may also no longer exist under the new design. The custom error page allows people and search engines to easily make updates to their references.

Image Maps

        Image maps are single graphics that are split into “hot spots” or sensitive areas that, when clicked on, lead you to different pages or resources within the Web site. The problem with image maps is they basically lock search engines out and prevent them from indexing your Web site properly.

        If you do decide to implement image maps, always include text hyperlinks  so that the search engines trying to give you a more accurate index can use them. Another option is to include a site map, which is basically the entire layout of your Web site in the form of hypertext links. Submitting your site map to the search engines is also a good idea as it can assist the search engine in making sure it indexes all the pages within your Web site.

Optimization for Search Localization

          A recent study by comScore Networks (http://www.comscore.com) discovered that 60 percent of consumers search for local content. Much of the local searches surround such topics as restaurants, travel, hotels, and car rentals. With the introduction of Google Local, optimizing your site for local searches has become important.

        Search localization is simply when searchers put in their keyword phrase and hit the Local tab while searching on Google, or when they simply add a geographic modifier to their query in any search engine in order to get more accurate results from a search engine. If you want to go out to dinner, then odds are you’re going to want to go someplace in your area. Common modifiers include:

• • ZIP or postal code

• • Street

• • City or town, along with descriptive words such as “Northern,” “Central,” “East,” “West,” and “Southern”

• • State or province, entirely spelled out as well as the abbreviation

• • Country, entirely spelled out as well as the abbreviation

• • Area code and phone number

• • Recognizable landmarks and destinations (such as, right next door to . . .).

          Search localization presents a good opportunity for companies optimizing their Web site. Naturally, any company looking to speak to a local market should be considering search localization when optimizing its Web site.

            Optimizing your Web site to speak to the local market is no different from regular search optimization; it just requires a bit of creativity. The same optimization areas, such as page titles, page copy, and meta-tags, are relevant to search localization. Here are some examples to get you started:

• • Include geographic keywords in page headers and footers. For example,you can insert a copyright notice at the bottom of each page of your Web site that includes your location: “© 2008, Prince Hotel, a Centennial Hotels Property. 1725 Market Street in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3R9. Hotel Reservations 1-800-565-1567 • tel 902-425-1986 • fax 902-429-6048.”

• • Include geographic-related keywords in your page titles. Instead of “Fine Italian Dining—il Mercato Restaurant,” you could have “Fine Italian Dining in Downtown Halifax—il Mercato Restaurant.”

• • Include geographic-related keywords in your page copy. For example, a paragraph can include a statement such as “Come visit us on the Halifax waterfront, right next door to Historic Properties” to capture high-profile local destinations. You could also have “Just south of Halifax in Peggy’s Cove” or “Ten minutes from Halifax.” In this case you are adding a modifier to include a nearby city to capitalize on a market that might not think to look for your exact location.

• • Include comprehensive geographic-related information throughout your Web site, on your contact page, maps and directions page, and in your Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

• • Pay-to-play (or PPC) is covered in another article, but you can use the same geographic modifiers in your paid search placement campaigns to zero in on local markets and increase your return on investment. Yahoo!, Google, SuperPages.com, Findwhat.com, and Ask.com are all examples of search providers that offer some means of search localization.

• • Add your GPS coordinates to your site as well. With more and more mobile devices equipped with GPS as well as the likelihood that the search engines will include this information in their search query, this will become standard practice. I know that we at Verb Interactive are incorporating this information in most of our client sites these days.

Monitoring Results

        As with any business endeavor, you want to know how successful you are. There are a number of ways to measure your search engine placement success.

       Web site traffic analysis—You can check the effectiveness of your keyword placement and utilization by using Web traffic analysis reports. This is discussed fully in the next articles. You can use Web traffic analysis reports to determine what sites are referring people to you and how often the search engine spiders are visiting your Web site looking for new content. You can strip down this information further to view only search engine referrals. By looking at this information, you can also see exactly what keywords people are using to find you and you can alter the keywords used based on this information. Refining

your keywords is one of the key elements to success—you’re letting the search engines tell you what you’re doing right and what you could be doing better. 

       Early in the article we looked at how Web traffic analysis can contribute to your master keyword list. The amount of targeted traffic and the return on investment (ROI) achieved through your optimization efforts are the true measures of success. How much business you generate online ultimately depends on how well constructed your Web site is. Just because you perform well in the search rankings does not mean the target market automatically does business with you. Once the target market reaches your Web site, it is up to your Web site to sell your business. Also look at entry pages and paths through your Web site. Because you optimized specific pages for specific keywords, people should be entering your Web site on those pages. If the page is designed to meet the needs of your target market, it should push them deeper into the Web site or to a point where a

transaction takes place, which you can monitor by looking at paths through your Web site and entry pages. For example, say you created a Web page to address a particular special at a hotel with a goal of having the target market fill out a reservation request form. If the specials page is performing well in the engines, but people are staying on the page only a few seconds and are then leaving the Web site, you know it is the page itself that is not performing. Odds are the copy and images do not have the right appeal to the target market, so you can tweak it. The page may not require a complete redesign—it could be

that the call to action to fill out the reservation form is not obvious, so make minor changes and monitor performance.

Search engine rankings—You can check the performance of your Web site for a particular keyword phrase by hand or through the use of an application such as WebPosition (http://www.webposition.com). If you are checking your results by hand, then you simply need to go to the search engine in which you’re interested, enter your keyword phrases, and observe where your Web site ranks. You can hire someone to do this for you as well. Using an application to check your rankings allows you to check more rankings, faster, by automating the process. Search engines tend to frown on this because of the added stress it puts on their system when you have many people using these automated packages to

run many searches.

         Checking your search rankings tells you how well your Web site is ranking for particular keyword phrases. You can use this information to keep your rankings current and target your optimization efforts toward gaining increased ratings on any particular engines you wish.

Paid inclusion accounts—The search engines that have paid inclusion features usually give the customer the means to track some search information. This includes basic information such as the keywords searched for and the number of referrals the search engine sent through to the destination Web site.

Pay-to-play accounts—At the heart of all pay-to-play campaigns (PPC) is the tracking functionality. You are paying for each and every click, so it is important to know which search terms are working and which are not. One of the

most well known pay-to-play providers is Yahoo! Search Marketing. When you sign up with Yahoo! Search Marketing, you can track all aspects of your campaign, including conversion rates, click-throughs, and revenue generated.