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Title - Many search engines weigh
the data in your title more heavily than other data in
your page. Make sure that your title has keywords
that represent your site effectively. For the most part the
title should be short but always include your
keyword(s).
- Meta
tags - Use the meta-tag description
and meta-tag keywords attribute on every page of your site that
you want the search engines to index. If you don't want a page
indexed, then try the robots exclusion tag. The robots.txt
exclusion protocol has more support with
spiders.
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Content - Write great
content using your most important keywords prominently throughout
your web site. Visitors who read great content will link to your
web site and recommend it to others.
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Keyword planning -
Always do keyword planning on both the search engines and
directories to determine the best set of keywords and keyword
phrases your target audience is using. Look for "related searches"
in search results for ideas.
- Alternative text
- Put alternative text in your graphic images that clearly
describe the graphic image and using your keywords whenever
possible. Do not put text in a graphic image that has nothing to
do with your web page.
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Frame Pages - Most search engines simply can
not index a frames page. They get to your site and can't
go anywhere. Consider frames like a big 'GO AWAY' sign.
If your site does use frames, doorway pages are ideal for better
rankings.
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Don't try to fool the search
engines. This is probably the biggest trap people fall
into. People come up with ways to 'fool' search engines, and they
work for a little while...sometimes. But then the
search engines catch on and write routines that penalize sites
that use this practice. Examples of this include, but are
not limited to: repeating keywords over and over; using
invisible text (white text on white background); using very
small text to jam the keywords in a small area.
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Don't stuff
the top of your pages with data the engines can't read. As
with the last example, something higher up in your page can
be more important that something further down.
Therefore, HTML formatting, images, scripts, etc.
toward the top of your page can result in lower
ratings.
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Keep the
important content near the top of your pages. The actual text
on your website is very important. Search engines (spiders)
read this to determine rankings. Some
engines will place a higher rating of importance based
on where they find the text in your page. Closer to the
top is usually better. But having keywords throughout your
page develops a "theme" and that too is
important.
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Website Content should be your #1 priority.
Your quest for high placement must start with a good
website. It is important to have a lot of text
describing what you do. Use your keywords in the
content, but don't repeat them over and over. Many search
engines rate sites based on 'keyword
density'. This is usually a formula that looks at META
Keywords, words in your TITLE, words in paragraph text, words in
links to other pages, and even words in the 'ALT' text on
your images. They will even look at different forms
of your keywords. For example, if an important keyword
for you is 'CLOTH', the word 'CLOTHING' in the body of your
document will raise the confidence in the word 'CLOTH' on
some engines
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Keep
your site updated. Make sure that your site is up to date. No
one likes to go to a page that never changes or that is very
out of date. Make sure that the data in your page portrays
the message that you want to send. Check the links on your
site every now and again. Make sure the links are still
active. Dead links are not only an inconvenience for the
visitor, but can also negatively influence your
rankings.
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Don't go
image crazy. We have all seen pages that are almost all
images. Usually they are the most beautiful sites.
After all, your artist can make beautiful screens that
display your content in the most eye-pleasing way. However,
the search engines don't have eyes. They don't see the
beautifully formatted text in your image. All they see is
'yourimage.jpg', and 'yourimage.jpg' doesn't go far in terms of
content and relevancy.
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Links to
Other Pages. We can't emphasize enough the importance of
links. Both from your page to other pages, and from other
pages to yours.
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First
consider links on your pages. When many search engines see
them, they consider your site more 'real'. It also give the
search engine spiders a place to go. Make your links
meaningful. Make sure they relate to what you do (and
keywords that are important to you). You can't have too many links
on your pages.
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Links
from others websites. Some search engines place a very heavy
rating of importance on how many other sites in their index
have links to your website. Think of it for a second.
If you knew that a company was only linked to by one website,
versus a company that was linked to by a thousand websites,
which one would you consider more important? If you
were a search engine, you would surely try to link the more
important ones first.
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This is
where patience comes in again. It can take some time to
get a ton of links to your website. We help
quite a bit here, the fact that we submit to so many sites
will help you get a great head start in this
area!
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Consider
Banner Ads. These are a very popular method of promoting your
Web site. They are the little rectangular graphics that
you see near the top or bottom of some popular Web
pages. If you click on them, they transport you to
another Web site. You can make your own banners using one of
the many "banner creating" websites. Most offer free banner
making.
