Your site has launched and you’re ready to welcome throngs of visitors to your site. In your excitement, you type a few search terms into Google or Yahoo to see where your site comes up in the listings…
“WAIT A MINUTE! Where is my site?” you wonder. “Shouldn’t I at least be in the first page of results?”
Ideally, yes. Realistically, it’s not so easily achieved.
Search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, etc.) use complex algorithms to crawl the web and index websites. These algorithms are complex sets of instructions written as automated computer programs. The search engines constantly scour the internet via “bots” or “spiders” created by these algorithms, which in turn find websites and return the data to the search engine. The details of these algorithms are fiercely guarded by the search engine companies, and they change often. As a result, webmasters must constantly try to keep abreast of the changes to how sites are found and ranked.
When search engine optimization (SEO) first hit the scene, the most common practices were to boost your page rankings by:
- Using keywords in meta tags (code within your webpage, “behind the scenes”)
- Bold or emphasized text on the web page, such as headers
- Keyword repetition within the page
All of these factors, however, were completely reliant on the webmasters to provide the data. The search engine companies found that some webmasters were trying to pad their search rankings by creating pages loaded with search terms that had nothing to do with their actual site content, just to get the web surfer to their site. Think of it as a bait and switch. They also were spamming the search engines by overusing keywords in the page and in the meta tags. As a result, the search engines revamped their algorithms. According to Wikidpedia, “Today the only major search engine which says it considers meta keywords in its ranking algorithms is Yahoo, though most experts feel that even there the attention paid to meta keywords is minimal.”
Even with the constant changes and improvements, some unscrupulous webmasters have tried to circumvent the system by employing shady techniques to obtain higher listings. Be wary of any company that employs the following practices:
- Guarantees top listings in the search engines (NO ONE can guarantee this)
- Creates “doorway” pages on your site. These are pages created specifically for the search engine crawlers that the webmaster overloads with keywords that are supposedly relevant to the client’s site. Not only is this ineffective, but it can be construed as search engine spamming, thereby getting your site banned from the search engine listings. Also, the webmaster may put hidden links to other clients’ websites in these doorway pages to try to boost their page rankings. Not only does this drain the page ranking from your site, but you never know if some of those sites pertain to obscene or illicit activities.
- “Spams” the search engines by repeating keywords over and over and over on your site.
- Uses hidden text (e.g., making text the same color as the background) to add more keywords to your site.
- Refuses to divulge how they specifically plan to boost your rankings
Although not unethical, many companies employ the use of automated programs to submit your site to “hundreds” or “thousands” of search engines. These tactics are rarely helpful, and some search engines view such usage as a violation of their terms of use.
So how DOES a site improve their rankings? There are many, many factors that go into it (each search engine company usually has over 100 factors they take into account). A few of the widely recognized ones are:
- Keywords in the title tag (the title in the blue bar at the top of your browser window)
- Keywords in links pointing to a page (i.e., links within your site are descriptive, such as “welding supplies” as opposed to just “supplies”)
- Keywords appearing in visible text (that is, not in an image or other non-crawlable text)
- Link popularity – the likelihood that your site will be found randomly by a web surfer just by following links from other sites
An important thing to keep in mind is that even if you have carefully chosen and placed all of your keywords, you likely aren't the only other website on the internet in your industry. Think of how many real estate websites are out there. A condominim developer in Michigan has to compete with every website on the 'net that has "real estate" or "condominiums" as their primary keywords.
In a nutshell, search engine placement is never a guarantee. Frankly, even showing up within the first two pages of a search makes me happy. Just remember to write your content to appeal to your site visitors first, then go back and tweak it, if necessary, to make it search engine friendly. Just don’t go overboard by overusing your keywords. So use a lot of keywords, but don’t go so crazy with them that you drive your site visitors nuts and make the search engines ban you because you are keyword spamming. Are you sensing the delicate balance here?
Remember that it will take some time for the search engine spiders to find and index your site. It won’t happen overnight, but with patience and a little luck, you may find yourself in a great position.