Autumn 2003 ~ Internet Magazine ~ Mike Slocombe ~ p.1-7

"Boost your site's search engine ranking: raise the profile of your site by engineering your home page to come top."

-you must make sure your site appears in the top 30 results of search engine queries, most surfers won't click any further
-the key to getting to the top is a good homepage
-sloppy website with poor connections, hosted on a freebie web host doesn't have a chance
-to get to the top you have to produce a popular, well-built, search optimized site stuffed full of regularly- updated relevant content

-Most search engines work by dispatching automated software--"Bots"--also know as 'crawlers','spiders' or 'robots' onto the web
-they crawl the web following links and saving content and keywords to their databases
-when someone does a search for keywords, the databases are searched and an algorithm determines which sites are the most relevant
-different Bots like different parts of a homepage, some like the meta tags and some like the title tags
-all of them will want to look at your keywords which should be in the title, META tags, links, alt text and body copy

Devise a Master Plan

1. Specialize Content to Stand out from the Crowd
2. Check out the Competition - once you have decided on your theme, type keywords into a search engine and see what sites come up
3. Do your research - Learn from high-ranking competitors sites by viewing source code and examining meta tags

List Keywords

1. Put yourself in the mind of a surfer, and list which keywords you would type in to find your website…compile a long list of keywords and phrases by asking test subjects, friends, etc….find keywords and combinations at http://tinyurl.com/spl
2. Use Permutations, ask questions, include synonyms, word substitutes, metaphors, and common misspellings……see http://tinyurl.com/izzj and http://tinyurl.com/j1vy for more.
3. Add local and geographic info in your keywords

Create a Search Engine Optimized Page

1. Turbo Charge your title tag…search engines place a high degree of importance on your title tag…include one or two of your most important keyword phrases…most search engines will display your title tag in their search results, so make it look inviting
2. Include META tags, go here for more info: http://tinyurl.com/j1df or http://tinyurl.com/j1dd, death of metatag: http://tinyurl.com/izz3
3. Don't forget ALT Tags - include full alt tags with all of your images

Make Yourself Stand Out

1. Kill all Splash Screens
2. Tell Frames to Flip Off - see http://tinyurl.com/j22w and http://tinyurl.com/j231
3. Flash Your Kit - not all search engines can crawl through Flash sites, if you use flash, be sure to include text only versions of pages and links
4. Don't rely on Image Maps - you will need to add simple text navigation, see: http://tinyurl.com/j2ea
5. Don't rely on JavaScript or DHTML - be sure to include text link versions
6. Don't be too dynamic - if your page URLs incorporate ? & % + = $ or .cgi it's unlikely they'll get listed by the major search engines--unless you also submit static pages which include relevant keywords…see: http://tinyurl.com/j2kj and http://tinyurl.com/j2kh

Make the Most of Your Layout

1. Introduce your site - welcome search engines and humans to your homepage with a keyword loaded explanatory introduction placed high up on your page. Include as many two-word keyword phrases as possible…see www.bruceclay.com/web_rank.htm
2. Keep the Keywords Coming…search engines rank pages by the number of words on a page, how frequently the keyword appears on the page (keyword density) and how near the start of the page the keyword appears (keyword prominence)…search engines treat text in Header Tags as more important
3. Describe your links…don't put meaningless phrase like click here' in your hyperlinks, include full description of the target page
4. Include a site map and link to it from every page including the home page…keep it simple and fill it with keywords…use keyword phrases to describe sub sections
5. Build Up Your Subsections - each subsection index page should be treated as separate and should be optimized for the targeted keywords…submit these pages to the search engines
6. Encourage reciprocal links with similar well ranking sites…see www.seo-sitesubmissions.com/tips.html