|
Spiders are software robot
'agents' that automatically examine
your website for relevant content.
There are several different types of
spiders (such as crawlers, wanderers
and ants), depending on the various
different search engines, but they
all do essentially the same thing:
examine the content and structure of
your site in order to determine how
it is going to be indexed in the
search engine - the 'ranking
relevancy'.
This article will deal with
some important points about content
with regards to search engine
ranking; we'll leave the visual
design component up to
you.
If you feel you need
professional hosting for your site,
please contact us
and inquire about our hosting
services. If
you are just starting out on the 'net
and need to register a domain, check
out our easy domain
name registration
system.
You should choose your
hosting service carefully, looking
for high performance and server
stability (nobody will find your site
if your server is down).
DO NOT use a free 'tag-on'
(e.g.
http://someserver.com/users/yoursite)
website service. Get your own domain
name (e.g. http://yourname.com) right
from the start as it will be very
difficult to undo your tag-on
listings later and your exposure in
the search engines will be very
limited. It says a great deal about
your commitment to your products and
services and if you can't afford the
minimal cost of doing this, you
probably shouldn't be marketing
anything on the 'net in the first
place.
Once your site is up and
running and submitted to the search
engines, you'll need a statistics
system to monitor the performance of
such criteria as:
-Where your visitors are
from
-How they found your site
and what they typed into the search
engine
-How long they stayed and
what they looked at
-Where they exited the
site
For a live demonstration of
such a system, visit our site at
http://aero-host.net/
(use the 'BACK' button on your browser to
come back here)
Once you have your system up
and running, it is quite a chore to
check your positioning in the various
search engines with each different
'targeted' search phrase you can
think of. The folks at WebPosition
have created some affordable software
that automates this task.
To learn more about WebPosition, Click
Here. This is simply the BEST SOFTWARE
IN ITS CLASS, and we have tried most of
them!
Home Page Construction
Techniques
Effective site design for
achieving top ranking begins with
careful planning and strategy, long
before page construction begins. Here
are the 4 most important
components:
1. Keyword
List:
You need to sit down and
write out a long list of 'keywords'
that are relevant to your site
content (most important words first).
Utilizing a word processor that has a
'character count' (and spell
checking) feature will make your job
a lot easier. These keywords will be
in a 'META' tag embedded in the HTML
code of your home page.
The META tag is invisible to
the visitor, but very 'visible' to
the search engine robots that will
'spider' your site for indexing
information.
We'll use an imaginary
property and real estate company in
Montana as an example.
It is important to
understand that many search engines
will penalize your listing if you try
to 'rig' your submission with
repeated 'keyword stuffing'; some
important tips are:
-get as close to 1,000
characters as you can, but DO NOT
EXCEED
-spaces and commas are
included in the character count, so
use commas instead of spaces, except
between two word phrases
-repeat primary keywords
sparingly, NO MORE THAN 3
TIMES
-separate repeated
words
-use two word phrases when
appropriate, but watch out for
repeats (note 'real estate' and 'for
sale' below)
Here's the sample list of
suitable keywords:
montana,land,real
estate,property,acreage,properties,
retirement,recreational,wyoming,for
sale,
realtors,brokers,realty,company,yellowstone,waterton,park,holiday,
vacation,log,homes,retire,horse,horses,
ranch,ranches,raw,open,wilderness,rural,columbia,flathead,lake,lakes,
lakefront,waterfront,national,forest,timber,wooded,prospecting,scenic,
recreation,vistas,view,views,river,boat,boating,stream,creek,golf,fish,
fly,fishing,cabin,camping,panhandle,moose,deer,elk,trout,
bear,fish,hunt,camp,hike,rodeo,cowboy,western,rocky,mountain,rockies,
cross,country,downhill,ski,skiing,snowboarding,billings,bitterroot,
valley,whitefish,kalispell,missoula,coeur
d'alene,cda,idaho,yaak,
kootenai,sandpoint,post,great,falls,butte,helena,anaconda,hamilton,
florence,stevensville,lincoln,sanders,ravalli,granite,mineral,
beaverhead,lodge,jefferson,roosevelt,madison,teton,pondera,glacier,
cascade,lewis,clark,county,landco.com
The strategy used here was
to list property related terms,
recreational terms, names of major
parks, cities, counties, etc. You can
devise your own strategy - the more
thought you put into it, the better
the result will be. Note the
inclusion of the domain name at the
end; this makes it easier to search
and verify site
registration.
2. Site
Description:
You should create a succinct
core description of your site. It
should contain most of your primary
keywords and will be the content of
another important "META' tag. Use as
close to 150 characters as you can,
but do not exceed.
Here's the example
description:
For sale: land, property
and acreage in Montana. Montana
Property Co. is the #1 real estate
broker for homestead, recreational
and retirement
properties
3. Site
Title:
Your site title META tag is
the text that appears in a list when
your site is 'bookmarked' by a
visitor. It is also what most search
engines display as summary text
during a search. Use as close to 60
characters as you can, but do not
exceed.
Here's the example; note how
the primary keywords appear in the
text:
Montana Property Co -
Property and Acreage For Sale in
Montana
4. Opening Text of
Page Content:
The very first visible
element in your page should be text
(contained in a header tag) that
relates to the first three items -
not large graphics, tables, or
anything else. Do not use frames on
your home page as some major search
engines will not index your page
properly.
Here's the
example:
WELCOME! Looking for
land, property or acreage in Montana?
The Montana Property Co. is your #1
real estate source for homestead,
retirement and recreational
properties ...
Be sure to incorporate your
keywords in the remainder of the text
as well.
Finally, make sure your html
code structure is correct. Many
people get this wrong and the search
engines will not index your site
properly. The META tags MUST be
between the HEAD tags. Also, make
sure there are no carriage returns in
your META text. Here is the complete
example (between the double
lines):
===========================================================
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Montana Property Co -
Property and Acreage For Sale in
Montana</TITLE>
<META NAME="description"
CONTENT="For
sale: land, property and acreage in
Montana. Montana Property Co. is the
#1 real estate broker for homestead,
recreational and retirement
properties">
<META NAME="keywords"
CONTENT="montana,land,real
estate,property,acreage,properties,
retirement,recreational,Montana
Property Co.,wyoming,for sale,
realtors,brokers,realty,company,yellowstone,waterton,park,holiday,
vacation,log,homes,home,north,west,MONTANA,LAND,investment,
PROPERTY,taxes,relocate,REAL
ESTATE,retire,horse,horses,
ranch,ranches,raw,open,wilderness,rural,columbia,flathead,lake,lakes,
lakefront,waterfront,national,forest,timber,wooded,prospecting,scenic,
recreation,vistas,view,views,river,boat,boating,stream,creek,golf,fish,
fly,fishing,cabin,camping,panhandle,musselshell,moose,deer,elk,trout,
bear,fish,hunt,camp,hike,rodeo,cowboy,western,rocky,mountain,rockies,
cross,country,downhill,ski,skiing,snowboarding,billings,bitterroot,
valley,whitefish,kalispell,missoula,coeur
d'alene,cda,idaho,yaak,
kootenai,sandpoint,post,great,falls,butte,helena,anaconda,hamilton,
florence,stevensville,lincoln,sanders,ravalli,granite,mineral,
beaverhead,lodge,jefferson,roosevelt,madison,teton,pondera,glacier,
cascade,lewis,clark,county,landco.com">
<META
NAME="Classification" CONTENT="Real
Estate"> (optional)
</HEAD>
<BODY>
... start of visible page
content ...
<H3>
WELCOME! Looking for
land, property or acreage in Montana? The
Montana Property Co. is your #1 real estate
source for homestead, retirement and
recreational properties ...
</H3>
….
Rest of visible page content
….
</BODY>
</HTML>
===========================================================
Tips for search engine
submission:
-submit it only once at
first; keep a record of what you
did
-submit sub-pages as separate URL's with at
least a 24 hr. delay
-monitor your progress for a month and
re-submit if some engines missed your
site
-it takes from six minutes to six months to
be indexed, depending on the engine
-Infoseek and Alta Vista are fastest; Yahoo
is slowest
Once your site is up and
running, take some time to look at
other sites on the Internet. Have a
look at what you find annoying (slow
loading, flaming logos, gaudy colors,
3 day email response time, etc.) and
then make sure you don't repeat the
same mistakes.
Bonne Chance!
Adrian Biffen
Systems Administrator
AeroHOST Web Systems
admin@aerohost.com
http://aero-host.net/
|
