HELPFUL HINTS   FOR WEBSITE OWNERS

- PART 3

Internet Tip of the Month

If your e-mail address is on your web site, you may find that you are receiving lots of SPAM. Even worse, someone may be sending SPAM with your e-mail address as the Sender.

It is possible to reduce SPAM and still allow visitors to see your e-mail address and send you e-mail.

First, use a graphics program to type out the e-mail address and save it as a graphic file (.gif). Then scramble the address, using this site: 

www.golivecentral.com/pages/txttut/scramble.shtml

Return to Website Design

What is a Search Engine?

A search engine periodically indexes all the words on the internet. When you enter a word(s) to initiate a search, the engine searches its index and lists all the pages that contain the word(s).

What is page ranking?

When the search engine lists all the pages with the chosen word(s), it uses a set of rules to rank the pages, i.e. to determine the order in which the pages are listed. The top ten pages in the list usually appear on the first page of the search results - the ideal location.

How do search engines rank pages?

There is no single answer to this question. Every search engine uses a different set of rules and the people who run the search engines change the rules quite frequently. 

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

In theory, it is possible to create a web site that always appears in the top ten of every search engine for a given word(s). This is what Search Engine Optimization is supposed to do. However, because the rules are complex and numerous, because they keep changing and because they differ from engine to engine, you can devote your life (if you do it yourself), or your life's savings (if you pay someone to do it for you), to stay in the top ten. 

How do I improve my search engine ranking?

There are some simple guidelines that will help get your site near the top of the list.

First, and most importantly, make a good web site (see Keeping in Touch issue 1). Design your web site for its visitors, not for search engines.

Then concentrate on Keywords and Links. In this issue we will discuss Keywords.

Keywords

When we speak of keywords, we mean the words or phrases that people enter into a search engine to initiate a search.

	Select your keywords and key phrases What is your site about? What is your service or product? What interest groups do you want to attract? If you wanted to find a site similar to yours, what words would you put into a search engine to find it? Those are your keywords or phrases. Use appropriate keywords for each page of your site.
	Put the most important keywords in the page title Every page on your site should have a title that contains the most important keywords for that particular page.
	Use the "keyword meta tag" A meta tag is part of the code that creates a web page. A person viewing the page does not see the code, but the search engine does. Some search engines look for the keyword meta tag and use that to index the page.
	Put the keywords in the "description meta tag" Include a description of your web site, incorporating the most important keywords. Keep the description to about 25 - 30 words and use full sentences. Some search engines include the text in the description meta tag in the list of sites.
	Use keywords near the top of the page Some search engines will rank a page higher the more frequently the keyword appears near the top of the page. Other search engines use the first paragraph of a page as the description in the list of sites. Since you want visitors to know what your site is about, make the first paragraph an 'executive summary' of the site and include the most important keywords.
	Avoid using only graphics on the Home page A picture may be worth a thousand words, but not where a search engine is concerned. If your Home page consists of a graphic, it won't use many keywords!
	Always add "Alt text" with graphics "Alt text" is what you may see before a graphic appears on the screen, or whenever the mouse goes over the graphic (depending on the browser). Use relevant keywords in the Alt text.
	Use text links rather than graphic links Search engines follow links. Some search engines can't read links embedded in images (called image maps), so make sure there are always text links on all the pages.
	Keep the page layout simple The more complex the page layout, the longer the code required to create it and the further down the page the keywords appear.

The importance of links will be discussed in the next issue.

Many of these guidelines apply to good web site design. If the site loads quickly and if the visitor can find what she or he needs in 10 seconds (on a dial-up connection!), then you probably have incorporated numbers 5, 6, 8 and 9 without even thinking about search engines!

We explain the role of links in search engine "optimization" and address the question: "How good a marketing tool is a search engine?"

Top of page | Return to Website Design