A system for Search Engine Positioning

So you want to optimise a web site for search engines. Good move: even without paying a bean, you can increase your chances of high ranking in search results.

Even the smallest tweak of html tags can make some impact on a web site's ranking in search results.

But hey -- if you're serious about search engine positioning, you can do much better than that. You can satisfy the requirements of search engines, by approaching the task in a systematic way.

To keep this article short, I have written bossy, arbitrary instructions. We all know life is not that simple. Regardless, you may find this system is worth its weight in government bonds to you.

1. Start with design
Does the site consist of static pages in simple html?

As far as search engines are concerned, that's a great start. Limit the size and number of graphics, and make sure there is text on every page. Use a regular size font for the vast majority of text.

As you read the following instructions, please remember I'm not a designer. Regard this as an overview of design problems only.

Spiders tend not to index sites that use frames, dynamic content, Flash, and password protection.

If your site uses design features that search-engines don't like, the best solution is often to create some new static pages in html. Make sure they are rich in genuine, original content, have the same look as the other pages, and link to the home page at the very least.

For each design problem, there's a design solution.

For example, if your site uses dynamic content, create some html pages with links to the important dynamic pages. You can submit individual dynamic pages to Hotbot and Infoseek.

Find a workaround to get rid of the question marks in the URLs of dynamic pages.

Here are some solutions and useful web sites:

XQASP [www.xde.net]
ASPSpiderBait [www.webanalyst.com.au/Products/ASPSpiderBait.htm]
PortalPageFIlter: [www.alphasierrapapa.com/products/portalpagefilter/]
Apache [www.apache.org]
ColdFusion [forums.allaire.com/coldfusion/]
Netmechanic.com [www.netmechanic.com]

If you want to start with a splash page or otherwise use Flash... don't. Not on any page you want search engines to index, anyway.

2. Select pages to optimise
That's right: first focus on about four important static pages that you want search engines to find and people to visit. Best are pages at root level, meaning they are not in a separate directory, or one level down. They must be mainly text.

Typical URLs of spider-friendly pages:
www.yourwebsite.com/index.htm (your home page)
www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.htm (another good choice)
www.yourwebsite.com/faq.htm (FAQ page full of information)
www.yourwebsite.com/cameras/photography.htm (specific, focused information)

3. Research keyphrases
Use the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool and WordTracker to identify keyphrases that:

are frequently used by people using search engines
have comparatively little competition
accurately describe the content of the page.

URLs for those tools:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
WordTracker

Each page you optimise must have a unique list of keyphrases.

4. Edit the visible text of web pages
The visible text of every page you optimise must:

have between 250-600 words
start with a heading and some text that summarises that page
use the three most important keyphrases several times
use keyphrases legitimately in headings and link text
be accurate, correct and natural language.

5. Edit the tags of web pages
Use each page's three most important keyphrases in:

a unique html title tag
a unique description meta tag
a unique keyword meta tag.

Supply alt-text for every image, using keywords legitimately.

5. Edit link-text
On each page, check the links. Use keywords within or close to the link-text. (Link-text is the text you click on, often underlined and blue.)

6. Tune your pages for link analysis
Pick one of your optimised pages and request links to your chosen page from high quality, popular web sites. These may include Yahoo!, relevant portals, and web sites with content related to your own. Quality matters more than sheer numbers. Ask them all to link to a single URL (not just a single page). If there is a choice of URLs, choose the one used by the major directories.

Make sure your site includes a plain text site map, because some search engines give credit for links within a site. There are other benefits also.

7. Check the whole site one more time
Before you submit your optimised pages to search engines, make sure everything is working. Run more usability tests, check all links and all functionality.

8.Submit your optimised pages to search engines and directories
Decide what listings you will pay for, if any. At the time of writing, the following important search engines and directories were still indexing pages free. Payment might speed up your listing in some cases.

Open Directory
Google
Inktomi
AltaVista
Zeal

Then wait. It won't happen overnight.

9. Monitor optimised pages to search engines and directories
Track the traffic to your pages. Don't expect results in less than a month or two.

10. Repeat the process and update
When important new pages are uploaded, optimise them in the same way. Don't change any page that does well. But notice when traffic to optimised pages drops: they may need to be optimised all over again.

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