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Guidelines to creating (or optimizing) web site pages - to get noticed (ie: get a good ranking with) the Search Engines:   If you are new to this and ready to spend a little time (15 minutes) to get a (good) understanding of this process, then you should (first) read two well written articles on this subject that are provided just below this description / outline.
  1. Make a list of all keywords that could possibly be associated with your business / web site - products and/or services. Rank these in the order in which you think most people would use them to search for what you have.


  2. Create your main - index page to look as good as possible, using all or most of your keywords - (not being too concerned of how you are using them in this page), but mainly trying to present a nice, attractive, clear / simple, intelligent looking page with any information, specials, references, etc., that you want to use to attract, inform and keep your visitors and sell your products and services.


  3. Plan to create various (maybe 5 - or as many as you like) pages (called "doorway" or "front door" pages) similar to (or different from) your main page, but now focusing on the use (and extra use) of a few (2 to 5) of your keywords. From the complete list of your keywords, group them together in groups of about 2 to 5, planning to create a page for each group - focusing on that group of words in its respective page - trying to use those keywords as much as possible (instead of the other keywords) in that page. Put those selected few keywords in your Meta Tags "Keywords" (possibly along with a couple of others that you are not focusing on in this particular page, though are found at least once in this page). Then use these selected keywords in your Meta Tags "Title" and "Description" and at the beginning / top of this page as much as possible, and then on down throughout the page (aiming for a frequency of somewhere between 2 and 8 percent - of the total words on the page). So in these front door pages you are focusing on optimizing them for search engine ranking (using selected keywords as much as possible) and not concerning yourself as much with the appearance of the page. Your visitors will still probably find your (better looking) main page once you get them to your site - as it is the one linked to, from every page on your site. You can also add keywords to the page (to increase the quantity & percentage), by placing comments or notes inside brackets like this: (!-- comments in here, such as a description of, or welcome to your site - making good use of your keywords --) where the brackets here surrounding the comments are NOT parenthesis brackets, but are angle (HTML) brackets (uppercase over the comma & period on your keyboard). This will NOT be displayed on the page but are still read and considered by the search engines. It would be best to place these comments at the top of the page and easily done in an HTML Block in the EZ Page Builder. After creating your main page or first front door page, you can easily duplicate it (in our EZ Page Builder - by simply "Save as" to a different name) and then just go through the page changing the keywords to those of another group to easily produce another Front Door page.


  4. You can also increase the quantity / percentage of the keywords on your site (totally on all pages) by using them in the alt tags for all of the images / graphics everywhere on your site and by giving your graphics names of your keywords (instead of the names of what the graphics are, or file numbers, etc.) as well as all of your front door and all individual pages. Also, you should try to use your keywords in the META TAGS (Keywords, Title, Description) of ALL of the pages of your site - even if some of the pages don't have much to do with those keywords - main products or services of your site. Although any word that you put in the "META Keywords Tag" on any given page should be found on that page at least one time.


  5. Then you submit each of the front door pages as well as your index page (only one per day) with at least the top 25 (or as many as possible) search engines. Then after about a month, monitor your results - check on your ranking (with at least some of the search engines) as well as with the number of hits you are getting (easily checked in the EZ Counter). If your pages are not doing too good, try to adjust them somehow - increase the frequency of the keywords and/or add or remove some of them and submit the page again to the search engines.

Outline / Short Description - of Guidelines for better Search Engine Rankings:
  1. Make a list of all keywords and put them in groups (of about 2 to 5) that could be related to each other - that you can design a (Front Door) page around.
  2. Create your main / index page trying to use (most of) your keywords and especially your most important ones as much as possible, but focusing mainly on creating a page that will look good, attract, inform and motivate visitors to act (to use your site / products, to buy or sign up, etc.).
  3. Create other "Front Door Pages" designing them around about 2 to 5 related keywords per page. If you are selling 50 different products, you could create 50 different Front Door pages - one designed around each product (or group of products) and submit each to the search engines.
  4. Use your keywords throughout your web site:
    1. In the file names of your different pages.
    2. In the names of your images, graphics, items, etc.
    3. In the ALT description tags of your images on your pages.
    4. In META Tags - Title, Description, Keywords - on all pages in your web site.
    5. At the top of the pages where they apply, (in BOLD) - in or as Titles of the pages and/or in text descriptions.
    6. In non displayed comments or notes (at the top of pages) inside brackets like this: (!-- comments in here, such as a description of, or welcome to your site --) where the brackets here surrounding the comments are NOT parenthesis brackets, but are angle (HTML) brackets like this < > (uppercase over the comma & period on your keyboard).
  5. Get your own domain name (URL) and (at least one) made of keywords from your site. This looks much more professional and helps the Search Engines find you. Now only $10/year, you could get one or more using different keywords and then one trying to make it short and easy to remember, incorporating your (or part of, or abbreviation of your) company name.
  6. Place links to the major Search Engines somewhere on your site. When they judge your site, some respect you more if you are linked to them.
  7. Continually work on arranging other sites to link to you - to increase your "popularity rating" with the Search Engines - which is part of what they use to rank your site.
________________________________________________________________

Here is a well written article on -
(November 2001)

Search Engine Optimization


There is more to search engine positioning than simply submitting to the various search engines. At a time when submission as a concept is dead, more importance is being placed on page design, link popularity and keyword prominence in search engine optimization..

Meta Tags

Title - the title of your page should be as keyword rich as possible. Use words that define your site and the types of services and products that you offer. Remember that this is the title that will appear on most links to your page from the search engines. You want the title to reflect exactly what the page is going to offer to the user that you hope will click the link and come to your site. Your page title is your first line of advertisement.

Description - Your description is the part of your meta tags that tells people about your site - what you offer, what they can expect etc. In a lot of search engines this is the text that appears underneath your title link to tell people about your page. Therefore it's important to make sure that this text is also keyword rich. Here is your chance to really say something about your site. Do you offer services that no one else has? Do you have the best product on the market? Are your prices lower than everyone else? Then say so.

Keywords - Your keyword choices are very important. You need to choose keywords that you think will be used by people looking for a site like yours. Consider your target market. Do you have a niche product that not many other people are offering? Do you have a service that is offered by a lot of other businesses like yours? Do you offer a service that is only aimed at a certain market i.e. engineering firms or lawyers or doctors only? These are the things that you need to think about when choosing your keywords. It's important to remember that more specific keywords are going to perform better for you than more broad or general terms. As an example, if you are a wholesale bakery that specializes in cakes for weddings and bar mitzvahs then your keywords should reflect that. "Specialty bakery" would be a better keyword than just "bakery" and "wedding cakes" would be a better keyword phrase than "cakes".

Overall Page Design


Page Content - Your page content should be reflective of your business and be keyword rich as well. Make sure that whatever keywords you have chosen appear throughout your page in context.. Your index page is the welcome mat to your website and the text on that page should reflect that. If someone is coming to your page for the first time and has never been exposed to your business, you will want to have something there that is going to explain what they are looking at to them.. Images are good, but too many images and not enough text can hurt you so much sure you include enough text to give people an idea of what's going on. Your links from page to page in your site are important as well.. Make sure that you try and use words that tell people where they are going in your link text. No one wants to click on a blind link. "ALT" tags can be very useful on your links as they allow you to be more descriptive about your links. "ALT" tags are also a good idea if you have a lot of images on your page. Some browsers are not as good as others and your images may not load for some people. Having tags there that explain what the picture is/was are very helpful for both the viewers of your site as well as the search engine spiders. Spiders can't see pictures, so they need that text to tell them exactly what it is they are seeing.

You must keep the focus of your site in mind at every turn. Maybe you are trying to sell something; maybe you're trying to get leads in business. You must be able to convert your web site traffic into some legitimate business purpose. At some point you must be able to say 1000 visitors yields x amount of profit. This conversion is what it is all about. A successful web site is and must be a profit-yielding tool.


Here is another well written article on web site design for better Search Engine placement:
March 2001

Creating Keyword Rich Pages For The Search Engines --------

Once you have established the keywords for which you should optimize your site for the search engines, it is time to figure out how you can get a high ranking in the search engines for those keywords. Should you create those everybody-hates-it-but- everybody-does-it doorway pages?

Well, yes and no. Doorway pages are great in theory but can be an administrative nightmare. Since each search engine uses a different algorithm to rank pages, you will need to create doorway pages for each keyword and for each search engine. Since the search engines frequently change their rankings, you'll need to constantly change those doorway pages in order to ensure that they continue to obtain top rankings. Furthermore, if you are targeting a reasonably high number of keywords, you can easily bank on creating hundreds of such doorway pages. Can you imagine the sheer administrative difficulty in keeping track of all these pages? You'll soon be spending more time on search engine optimization than on carrying on your normal business activities!

The method that I recommend is two-fold. Initially, don't worry about the differences in the algorithms between the search engines. Just assume that all the search engines use the same algorithm while determining the ranking of pages. At this stage, you should create what I prefer to call "Keyword Rich Pages" (KRPs). Each of these KRPs are optimized for one keyword and are intended to rank highly in all the search engines. Once you have created these KRPs, and once the search engines have spidered these pages, find out which (if any) of the search engines have not given a high rank to these KRPs. If you have created the KRPs properly, there shouldn't be too many such search engines. Once you have determined the search engines which have not ranked the KRPs properly, create doorway pages which are optimized for these individual search engines. This method allows you to get top rankings in all the search engines by minimizing the number of pages that you have to create.

This article is focused on how you should create these KRPs. I am assuming you have a working knowledge of the different HTML tags like the Title tag, the Meta Description tag, the Meta Keywords tag, the Heading tags, the Alt Tag etc. If you don't, just go to the following web site for a good introduction to such HTML tags:

http://wus0.com/c.go?bc=1182010&s=62

Now, let us assume that your company sells packaged tours to Australia, and that you are targeting the keyword: "travel to australia". Here's how you create the KRPs:

The Title Tag:

The first and most important tag to consider is the Title tag. You should always begin the Title tag with the keyword that you are targeting and should weave in the keyword one more time in the middle or the end of the Title tag. However, don't repeat the keyword more than two times in the Title tag and don't repeat the keywords together either - the search engines can penalize you for spamming if you do so. Also remember that the search engines are going to display the Title tag while they are displaying the results of a search. Hence, you need to make the Title tag attractive to humans as well.

Here is one Title tag that I may have used: "Travel to Australia - Discover how you can travel to Australia for only $x per day" where "x" is of course the money that a traveler would need to spend per day if they used your services. Have a look at the Title tag - it uses the keyword right at the beginning and also repeats it in the middle. Furthermore, it uses the word "Discover" - a word, which, according to most copy-writing experts, is enough to attract people to your site. Also, note how I mentioned the price that the person needs to pay. Assuming that you are selling a very reasonably priced item, it will create even more interest in your site. (Of course, if you are selling a premium product or service, then mentioning the price isn't too bright an idea).

Another point to note is how I used different cases for the word "travel". The first instance uses "T" in upper case while the second instance uses "t" in lower case. Now, when an user searches using all letters in lower case, the search engines generally become case-insensitive. However, if the user capitalizes even one letter, most search engines will become case sensitive. Hence, in the way I formed the Title tag, it takes care of three of the most likely ways in which someone can search - "travel to australia", "Travel to Australia" and "travel to Australia".

Of course, all Titles need not be like the one I used. The Title that you use depends on the subject matter of your site. For instance, you may not always want to mention the price if you feel that it will drive visitors off your site. Instead of mentioning the price, you can mention a key benefit that your product or service has. However, you should follow all the general rules that I have outlined here.

Meta Description Tag:

The Meta Description tag is used by many search engines to provide a short description of the page that is listed in the search results. Hence, like the Title tag, it is important that the Meta Description tag be keyword rich as well as attractive to humans.

The rules for the Meta Description is more or less the same as those for the Title tag. However, the contents of this tag will generally be longer than that of the Title. Here's what I may have had in the Meta Description tag:

"Travel to Australia - We take care of all the details of your trip so that you can travel to Australia with complete peace of mind."

Note how this description repeats the keywords and also the benefit that it stresses - it says that the customer will be able to travel without having to worry about the intricate details of the trip.

Meta Keywords Tag:

The Meta Keywords tag has become less and less important as far as search engine optimization is concerned. In fact, you can get top rankings without having anything in the Meta Keywords tag at all. However, just to be on the safe side, you would want to include some keywords in the Meta Keywords tag. You should also include some of the common upper/lower case variations of the keyword. The rules for the Meta Keywords tag are pretty simple - don't repeat any keyword in the Meta Keywords tag more than three times and don't repeat any keyword one after the other. Here's what I may have had in the Meta Keywords tag:

"Travel to Australia, tourism, travel to Australia, Down Under, TRAVEL TO AUSTRALIA"

Note how I have introduced "tourism" and "Down Under" just to separate the different instances of the keyword.

Body of the page:

Now we come to the actual body of the page. Begin by getting hold of a nice (but not too large) picture which is applicable for the page that you are creating. In the present case, I might include a picture of the lotus shaped Sydney Opera House. Place this picture at the top of the page. In the Alt tag for the picture, just mention your target keyword once, i.e. the Alt tag would be "Travel to Australia". You can include other words in the Alt tag, but it should start with the keyword you are targeting.

Once you've put up the picture, it is time to create a Heading for your page. Use the H1 tag to do so. Again, in the H1 tag, mention your target keyword once, i.e. like the Alt tag for the picture, the H1 tag could be "Travel to Australia". Again, like the Alt tag, you can include other words in the heading, but the heading should start with the keyword you are targeting.

Now it's time to create the actual text of the page. The way you create the text of your page would depend largely on what you want the visitor to do after reading this page. In some cases, you may simply want the visitor to go to a home page or another specific page in your site after reading this page. In this case, you should write the text in such a way that the visitor is attracted to the page that you are targeting. You would also want to provide links to the home page or the specific page that you are targeting at strategic places in the KRP. Or, you may want the visitor to click on the link to an affiliate program that you are a member of. In this case, you would stress the benefits that the visitor gets by purchasing the product or service that the affiliate program is selling. You would also want to provide links to the affiliate program at strategic places in the page and/or at the end of the page. Whatever it is that you want your page to do, there are some general rules to follow:

1) The first thing to remember is that some search engines don't recognize the Meta Description tag. These search engines will often simply take the first few lines of text in the body of your page and display that as the description. Hence, you must ensure that the first few lines of text in your page are attractive to human beings.

2) Ensure that each sentence or every other sentence that you use contains your target keyword once. The keyword shouldn't just be placed on an ad hoc basis - the way the keyword is placed in every sentence should actually make grammatical sense. This is not only important from the point of view of ensuring that your readers don't get a bad impression of your site, but also from the point of view of search engine optimization - the search engines may penalize your page for spamming if they find that you have randomly repeated the keyword throughout the page.

3) Make sure that your paragraphs are not too long - each paragraph should be no more than 3 or 4 sentences long. This is because people on the web simply don't have the time or the inclination to read long paragraphs.

4) Try to ensure that the page contains links to other pages with the keyword being present in the text under the link. This can often lead to a higher ranking for your page.

5) If possible, link to other pages which have the keyword in the file names. This can again lead to a higher ranking for your page.

6) There is no hard and fast rule regarding the total number of words that should be present in the KRPs. As a rule of thumb, try to ensure that there are between 500-600 words. However, if the number of words falls short of or exceeds this limit, don't worry too much - it's not that important.

Once you have created the page, ensure that the name of the file in which it is saved contains the keyword and that the individual words of the keyword are separated by hyphens. In this case, the name of the file would be travel-to- australia.html. This will get you a higher ranking in the few search engines (like Northern Light) which give a lot of emphasis on the keyword being present in the URL.

Now that you have created the KRPs, how do you ensure that they are spidered by the search engines? Do you simply upload the KRPs to your server and then submit each of the individual KRPs to the search engines? You can do that, but you may get a highe ranking if you allow the search engines to spider your pages by following links to them, rather than by submitting them manually. Furthermore, the search engines also take a rather dim view of pages which only contain outgoing links to other pages but do not contain any incoming links from other pages. The search engines will often recognize these pages as doorway pages and may penalize such pages.

What you should do is to provide a link to these KRPs from the home page of your site. Now, you don't want people who are seeing the home page to actually follow these links to the KRPs - you only want the search engines to follow these links. However, you can't create links with hidden text (i.e. text with the same color as the background color) in your page since the search engines will almost certainly penalize or even ban you for doing this.

What you should do is to create a small image which has the same background color as the home page. Then, name this image with the same file name as the name of the KRP you have created. Hence, in this case, you should name the image travel-to- australia.gif. Then, add this image to the end of the home page and have it link to the KRP. Also, in the Alt tag of this image, add the keyword that you are targeting once. Furthermore, you should explicitly set the border of the image to 0 (add border = "0" to the img tag of the image). Otherwise, when you get the image to link to the KRP, a border may be visible. In case you don't want to create your own image, I have created a sample image for you with a white background - you can get it from http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/download.htm

That's it! When you want to target another keyword, create another KRP for it, make a copy of the image that you created for the first keyword, rename it to the file name of the new KRP, add the image to the home page and then link it to the new KRP. Repeat this process for every keyword that you are targeting. Once you have created all the KRPs and once you have got the home page to link to each of them, submit your site to the search engines. Don't submit any of the individual pages in your site - submit only the URL for the home page of your site. While the search engines may take a long time to spider all the internal pages if you don't submit them individually, I would still recommend not submitting them individually as this may get your KRPs a higher ranking in the search engines.

Follow all the rules that I have outlined in this article and you can soon see your search engine blues disappear for ever!

---------- Article by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is a search engine positioning specialist. For free articles on search engine placement, go to http://wus0.com/c.go?bc=1182011&s=62

(Other) Factors That Can Hurt a Site's Search Engine Placement

Server Down:

Search engines don't notify you before they visit your site; they simply send the spider. If your server goes down or your web host is providing you with unreliable service this can have an impact on whether your site gets spidered or not. Imagine if the search engine spider came while you were experiencing downtime. Your web host should be able to provide you with information on their server downtime.

Dynamic Content:

A trend in e-commerce today is to use programs like Cold Fusion to generate dynamic pages. These pages are generated based on a database containing information pertinent to the visitor's particular interests. Webmasters love these types of pages because they don't have to maintain them. The pages appear only in the visitor's browser and then vanish when the visitor is done with them. Sounds nifty doesn't it? The catch is that most search engine robots can only index static pages. If you want to generate traffic for your site make sure you have pages the robots can read.

Spamming Web Hosts:

Another possible problem could be your IP address. You may share a web host and IP address with sites known for spamming. There are some search engines that block sites hosted by free website providers because of spam problems. If your web host also accepts adult-oriented web sites this can cause problems for you as well since Adult sites tend to be the worst spam offenders. If your web host provides hosting for adults sites their IP may be blocked, preventing your site from getting placement. Your web hosting company should be able to tell you if they host adult sites or not.

Splash Pages:

While splash pages can be very nice and aesthetically pleasing to the eye, they are not very helpful when trying to place your site with search engines. Because splash pages are heavy with graphics but light on content they are difficult for search engines to spider. Search engine spiders are looking for links and content to evaluate. If your homepage is a splash page with no content you are basically telling the search engines that there is nothing to see on your site.

Frames:

Search engines don't really know what to make of frames. If your site uses frames it is a likely cause of you not getting placed. Search engine spiders can only see top-level frame code. Unless you include links inside your NOFRAMES tag the spider will leave your site without indexing it.

Time:

You may have to wait months for a spider to visit your site. Additionally, just because you get spidered doesn't mean you get immediately listed. There is a holding period from a few days to several weeks before their database is updated. Keep in mind that in addition to the new sites being submitted and the old sites being resubmitted each day, there is also a huge backlog of sites waiting to be spidered as well

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