SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION BEGINNER’S GUIDE
ABOUT THIS BOOK FOOLISH ASSUMPTIONS HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED PART I: SEARCH ENGINE BASICS PART II: BUILDING SEARCH-ENGINE-FRIENDLY SITES PART III: ADDING YOUR SITE TO THE INDEXES AND DIRECTORIES PART IV: AFTER YOU’VE SUBMITTED PART V: THE PART OF TENS PART VI: APPENDIX ICONS USED IN THIS BOOK WHAT ARE SEARCH ENGINES AND DIRECTORIES? KEEPING THE TERMS STRAIGHT WHY BOTHER WITH SEARCH ENGINES? WHERE DO PEOPLE SEARCH? AREN’T I MISSING SOME SITES? MULTIPLE FEEDS WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS — THE LIST EXPANDS REVIEWING THE FINAL LIST — SEARCH SYSTEMS YOU REALLY NEED DETERMINING YOUR PLAN OF ATTACK GATHERING YOUR TOOLS THE GOOGLE TOOLBAR THE ALEXA TOOLBAR UNDERSTANDING THE LIMITATIONS IS YOUR SITE INDEXED? GOOGLE YAHOO! THE OTHERS WHAT IF YOU’RE NOT LISTED? HOW TO TELL IF YOUR SITE IS INVISIBLE PICKING GOOD KEYWORDS EXAMINING YOUR PAGES ARE YOU USING FRAMES? LOOK AT THE TITLE TAGS EXAMINE THE DESCRIPTION TAG CAN THE SEARCH ENGINES GET THROUGH? DO THE PAGES HAVE ANYTHING FOR SEARCH ENGINES TO READ? GETTING YOUR SITE INDEXED THE SECRET BUT ESSENTIAL RULE OF WEB SUCCESS THE EVOLVING “SECRET” THE REAL SECRET IS A BIAS FOR CONTENT MAKING YOUR SITE WORK WELL LIMIT THE USE OF MULTIMEDIA USE TEXT, NOT GRAPHICS USE ALT TEXT DON’T BE TOO CLEVER DON’T BE CUTE AVOID FRAMES MAKE IT EASY TO MOVE AROUND PROVIDE DIFFERENT WAYS TO FIND THINGS USE LONG LINK TEXT DON’T KEEP RESTRUCTURING SPELL CHECK AND EDIT UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF KEYWORDS THINKING LIKE YOUR PREY STARTING YOUR KEYWORD ANALYSIS IDENTIFYING THE OBVIOUS KEYWORDS LOOKING AT YOUR WEB SITE’S ACCESS LOGS EXAMINING COMPETITORS’ KEYWORD TAGS BRAINSTORMING WITH COLLEAGUES LOOKING CLOSELY AT YOUR LIST USING A KEYWORD TOOL USING WORDTRACKER CREATING A WORDTRACKER PROJECT ADDING KEYWORDS TO YOUR INITIAL PROJECT LIST CLEANING UP THE LIST EXPORTING THE LIST COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS MORE WAYS TO FIND KEYWORDS CHOOSING YOUR KEYWORDS REMOVING AMBIGUOUS TERMS PICKING KEYWORD COMBINATIONS PREPARING YOUR SITE FINDING A HOSTING COMPANY PICKING A DOMAIN NAME UNDERSTANDING WHAT A SEARCH ENGINE SEES UNDERSTANDING KEYWORD CONCEPTS PICK ONE OR TWO PHRASES PER PAGE CHECK FOR KEYWORD PROMINENCE WATCH YOUR KEYWORD DENSITY PLACE KEYWORDS THROUGHOUT YOUR SITE CREATING YOUR WEB PAGES FILENAMES DIRECTORY STRUCTURE THE TITLE TAGS THE DESCRIPTION META TAG THE KEYWORDS META TAG OTHER META TAGS IMAGE ALT TEXT FLUSH THE FLASH ANIMATION DON’T EMBED TEXT IN IMAGES ADDING BODY TEXT CREATING HEADERS: CSS VS <H> TAGS TEXT FORMATTING CREATING LINKS USING OTHER COMPANY AND PRODUCT NAMES PREPARING FOR LOCAL SEARCH CREATING NAVIGATION STRUCTURES THAT SEARCH ENGINES CAN READ BLOCKING SEARCHBOTS DEALING WITH FRAMES THE HTML NITTY-GRITTY OF FRAMES PROVIDING SEARCH ENGINES WITH THE NECESSARY INFORMATION PROVIDING A NAVIGATION PATH OPENING PAGES IN A FRAMESET HANDLING IFRAMES FIXING INVISIBLE NAVIGATION SYSTEMS LOOKING AT THE SOURCE CODE TURNING OFF SCRIPTING AND JAVA FIXING THE PROBLEM REDUCING THE CLUTTER IN YOUR WEB PAGES USE EXTERNAL JAVASCRIPTS USE DOCUMENT WRITE TO REMOVE PROBLEM CODE USE EXTERNAL CSS FILES MOVE IMAGE MAPS TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE DON’T COPY AND PASTE FROM MS WORD MANAGING DYNAMIC WEB PAGES FINDING OUT IF YOUR DYNAMIC SITE IS SCARING OFF SEARCH ENGINES FIXING YOUR DYNAMIC WEB PAGE PROBLEM USING SESSION IDS IN URLS EXAMINING COOKIE-BASED NAVIGATION FIXING BITS AND PIECES FORWARDED PAGES IMAGE MAPS SPECIAL CHARACTERS UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TRICKING THE SEARCH ENGINES SHOULD YOU OR SHOULDN’T YOU? HOW ARE TRICKS DONE? DO THESE TRICKS WORK? CONCRETE SHOES, CYANIDE, TNT — AN ARSENAL FOR DIRTY DEEDS KEYWORD STACKING AND STUFFING HIDING (AND SHRINKING) KEYWORDS HIDING LINKS USING UNRELATED KEYWORDS DUPLICATING PAGES AND SITES PAGE SWAPPING AND PAGE JACKING DOORWAY AND INFORMATION PAGES USING REDIRECTS AND CLOAKING UNDERSTANDING REDIRECTS EXAMINING CLOAKING THE ULTIMATE PENALTY THREE METHODS FOR CREATING CONTENT WRITING YOUR OWN STUFF SUMMARIES OF ONLINE ARTICLES REVIEWS OF WEB SITES PRODUCT REVIEWS CONVINCING SOMEONE ELSE TO WRITE IT USING OPC — OTHER PEOPLE’S CONTENT UNDERSTANDING COPYRIGHT — IT’S NOT YOURS! HUNTING FOR OTHER PEOPLE’S CONTENT REMEMBER THE KEYWORDS! PRODUCT INFORMATION WEB SITES AND E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS GOVERNMENT SOURCES CONTENT SYNDICATION SITES TRADITIONAL SYNDICATION SERVICES RSS SYNDICATION FEEDS OPEN CONTENT AND COPYLEFT SEARCH PAGES PRESS RELEASES Q&A AREAS MESSAGE BOARDS BLOGS WHY WON’T THEY INDEX MY PAGES? LINKING YOUR SITE FOR INCLUSION SUBMITTING DIRECTLY TO THE MAJOR SYSTEMS ARE YOU SURE IT WON’T DO ANY HARM? SUBMITTING FOR FREE USING PAID INCLUSION DECIDING WHETHER TO USE PAID INCLUSION THE PAID-INCLUSION SYSTEMS USING TRUSTED FEEDS SUBMITTING TO THE SECONDARY SYSTEMS USING REGISTRATION SERVICES AND SOFTWARE PROGRAMS UNDERSTANDING SEARCH DIRECTORIES (VS SEARCH ENGINES) WHY ARE DIRECTORIES SO SIGNIFICANT? SUBMITTING TO THE SEARCH DIRECTORIES SUBMITTING TO YAHOO! DIRECTORY SUBMITTING TO THE OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT SUBMITTING TO SECOND-TIER DIRECTORIES FINDING SECOND-TIER DIRECTORIES DON’T PAY! MAYBE KEEPING A LANDSCAPE LOG FINDING THE SPECIALIZED DIRECTORIES MORE WAYS TO FIND DIRECTORIES LOCAL DIRECTORIES WHY BOTHER WITH DIRECTORIES? GETTING THE LINK WORKING WITH THE YELLOW PAGES GETTING INTO THE YELLOW PAGES WHY SEARCH ENGINES LIKE LINKS UNDERSTANDING PAGE VALUE AND PAGERANK PAGERANK — ONE PART OF THE EQUATION THE PAGERANK ALGORITHM HUGE SITES = GREATER PAGERANK MEASURING PAGERANK LEAKING PAGERANK PAGE RELEVANCE HUBS AND NEIGHBORHOODS AVOIDING LINKS WITH NO VALUE IDENTIFYING LINKS THAT AREN’T LINKS SOME LINKS ARE MORE VALUABLE THAN OTHERS INSERTING KEYWORDS INTO LINKS A FEW BASIC RULES ABOUT LINKS CONTROLLING YOUR LINKS GENERATING LINKS, STEP-BY-STEP REGISTER WITH SEARCH DIRECTORIES ASK FRIENDS AND FAMILY ASK EMPLOYEES CONTACT ASSOCIATION SITES CONTACT MANUFACTURERS’ WEB SITES CONTACT COMPANIES YOU DO BUSINESS WITH ASK TO BE A FEATURED CLIENT SUBMIT TO ANNOUNCEMENT SITES AND NEWSLETTERS SEND OUT PRESS RELEASES PROMOTE SOMETHING ON YOUR SITE FIND SITES LINKING TO YOUR COMPETITION ASK OTHER SITES FOR LINKS MAKE RECIPROCAL LINK REQUESTS RESPOND TO RECIPROCAL LINK REQUESTS SEARCH FOR KEYWORD ADD URL USE LINK-BUILDING SOFTWARE AND SERVICES CONTACT E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS CREATE A BLOG MENTION YOUR SITE IN DISCUSSION GROUPS PURSUE OFFLINE PR GIVE AWAY CONTENT APPLY FOR ONLINE AWARDS ADVERTISE USE A SERVICE OR BUY LINKS JUST WAIT FUGGETABOUTIT GOT CONTENT? SYNDICATE IT! FOUR WAYS TO SYNDICATE GETTING THE MOST OUT OF SYNDICATION GETTING THE WORD OUT SYNDICATING UTILITIES USING RSS WHO’S GOING TO DO ALL THIS WORK?! HOW LINKS BUILD LINKS FINDING THE SHOPPING DIRECTORIES GOOGLE CATALOGS FROOGLE YAHOO! SHOPPING SHOPPING COM PRICEGRABBER AND PRECIOMANIA BIZRATE NEXTAG PRICE WATCH PRICESCAN MORE SHOPPING SERVICES THIRD-PARTY MERCHANT SITES CREATING DATA FILES THE DATA YOU NEED FORMATTING GUIDELINES CREATING YOUR SPREADSHEET GETTING THOSE PRODUCT URLS CREATING INDIVIDUAL SHEETS CREATING AND UPLOADING YOUR DATA FILES DEFINING PPC THE TWO TYPES OF ADS PROS AND CONS THE THREE PPC TIERS WHERE DO THESE ADS GO? IT MAY NOT WORK! VALUING YOUR CLICKS THE VALUE OF THE ACTION YOUR ONLINE CONVERSION RATE FIGURING THE CLICK PRICE DIFFERENT CLICKS = DIFFERENT VALUES THEY WON’T TAKE MY AD! AUTOMATING THE TASK LET ME HELP SOME MORE CURRENT WISDOM THE SEARCH ENGINES THEMSELVES GOOGLE’S WEBMASTER PAGES INKTOMI’S FAQS ALLTHEWEB’S FAQS ALTAVISTA’S FAQ MSN’S SEO TIPS TEOMA/ASK JEEVES’ FAQ SEARCH ENGINE WATCH GOOGLE’S NEWSGROUPS WEBMASTER WORLD PANDIA IHELPYOUSERVICES COM HIGHRANKINGS COM THE YAHOO! SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION RESOURCES CATEGORY THE OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT SEARCH CATEGORIES MYTH: IT’S ALL ABOUT META TAGS AND SUBMISSIONS MYTH: WEB DESIGNERS AND DEVELOPERS UNDERSTAND SEARCH ENGINES MYTH: MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS IMPROVE YOUR SEARCH POSITION MISTAKE: YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR KEYWORDS MISTAKE: TOO MANY PAGES WITH DATABASE PARAMETERS AND SESSION IDS MISTAKE: BUILDING THE SITE AND THEN BRINGING IN THE SEO EXPERT MYTH: $25 CAN GET YOUR SITE A #1 POSITION MYTH: BAD LINKS TO YOUR SITE WILL HURT ITS POSITION MISTAKE: YOUR PAGES ARE “EMPTY” MYTH: PAY PER CLICK IS WHERE IT’S AT CHECKING YOUR SITE RANK CHECKING FOR BROKEN LINKS GOOGLE TOOLBAR GOOGLE ZEITGEIST ALEXA TOOLBAR FINDING LINKS SEEING WHAT THE SEARCH ENGINES SEE FINDING YOUR KEYWORD DENSITY ANALYZING YOUR SITE’S TRAFFIC MORE TOOLS DON’T FORGET THE SEARCH ENGINES