Needless traffic may be important to websites that seek advertising revenue (well, they too need targeted traffic) but you need traffic that caters to your requirement. So for a successful website, both are important. Search engines send relevant visitors to your website and visitors do business with you. Both should be an important factor when you sit down and plan the architecture of your website. The misconception that lots of senseless traffic is good for business has been shattered.Your website should read convincing both to your target visitors, and the search engines. In fact, you should treat search engines too as your visitors because if you optimize for your visitors, you automatically optimize for the search engines. Once you follow the steps listed below, there is a big chance that youll create a website optimized both for the search engines and your visitors.Well-written contentBoth visitors and search engines like well-written content. In fact every one of us appreciates an interesting read. There used to be a time when lots of crap took place to please search engines. Lots of keywords and phrases were stuffed needlessly into the web pages to make them rank higher. Scores of "doorway" pages were created to lead visitors to websites. They made search engines happy but confused the visitors, nullifying the advantage and ultimately, forcing the search engine companies to alter their search algorithms.But what really matters is the quality content. If you have no content, or irrelevant content, whats the use of getting hundreds of visitors daily? You need to have website content that is user-focussed; you need a web copy that talks to the visitors. The copy on your website needs to supply the information your visitors need to arrive at some decision. The content should be written in an interesting manner, in an absorbing manner. All the information that your visitor should get, should be there on your website, in a straight, non-cryptic language.This re-affirms that professional content developers are as important as professional web developers, if not more. Badly written content can prove costlier than you can imagine. Well-connected pagesAll your pages should be accessible to both people and search engines. When the search engines visit your website, they should be able to jump from link to link. It should be like an inter-connected network where one can go anywhere from anywhere. Many web developers create a sitemap that contains links to all the pages on the website so that once the search engine finds that page it can go to all the links on the page.Anyway, irrelevant pages have no business being on your website and relevant pages should be within one or two clicks away from your visitors (unless they are password-protected).Less use of frillsFrills like Flash and DHTML look cool but if they dont solve any purpose other than let you show-off how you can make geometric figures dance around the screen, you should avoid using them. The search engine crawlers like the plain-vanilla text. Showcase frills only if youre selling them (if youre a Flash designer or a graphic artist). A company selling organic manure doesnt benefit much by having a Flash website that shows bags of manure appearing here and there like apparitions.Use keywords sparinglyThe search engine companies have finally realized that actual content is better than nonsensical repetition of keywords. Of course keywords are important, but not because they are "keywords", but because they are needed there. For instance, if you sell organic manure, you have this phrase on your website because you need to specify what you sell (unless you belong to some underground organization that uses coded language to communicate).There is no need for a keyword or a key-phrase to appear more than three or four times on your page. In fact on Google you spoil your ranking if you use keywords excessively. Let them appear at the top, somewhere in the middle, and then in the end. That does the trick. Weave around them a nice context. There are people who do this as a profession and it really pays in the long run to hire a content writer who can write optimized content for you.Update frequentlyBoth search engines and people like updated content. If your visitors expect to see new content on your website whenever they come, theyll come again and again, and theyll come with greater frequency. Search engines too want to show content that is rapidly updated so that they can display the latest information. Make it a routine to put something new every second or third day, even if it is one paragraph.Use clean HTMLClean code loads quicker and gets crawled (this sounds creepy!) by the search engines faster. If the success of your website really matters to you and if you want to create your own web pages instead of hiring a professional web developer, you should spend at least a few days learning HTML. A search-engine friendly website doesnt need much HTML to learn and it will show clean content to your visitors without unnecessarily increasing the load time. Avoid using graphical tools and use a text editor instead. It sounds daunting in the beginning but once your realize its benefit, youll be more than eager to write HTML rather than use a tool that produces lots of unnecessary junk code.The efforts mentioned above take time to show result, but they are long lasting and they fetch you the desired results. ...
Google Information for WebmastersSearch Engine Optimizers SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, there are a few unethical SEOs who have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.While Google does not have relationships with any SEOs and does not offer recommendations, we do have a few tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether.[list][*]Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue. [/list]Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:[i]"Dear Google.com,I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..." [/i]Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators. [list][*]No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. [/list]Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, or that claim a "special relationship" with Google, or that claim to have a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is by using the page at [url=http://www.Google.com/addurl.html]http://www.Google.com/addurl.html[/url]. You can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever. [list][*]Be careful if a company is secretive or wont clearly explain what they intend to do. [/list]Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Googles index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so its best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you. [list][*]You should never have to link to an SEO. [/list]Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that do not affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines. At least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive. [list][*]Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar. [/list]Most such proposals require users to install extra software, and very few users do so. Evaluate such proposals with extreme care and be skeptical about the self-reported number of users who have downloaded the required applications. [list][*]Choose wisely. [/list]While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: [url=http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/07/01/spyware_inc/index.html]http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/07/01/spyware_inc/index.html[/url] While Google does not comment on specific companies, we have encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful. [list][*]Be sure to understand where the money goes. [/list]While Google never sells better ranking in our search results themselves, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section of the engine rather than in search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam does not work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO youre considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising. [list][*]Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they would recommend the firm youre considering. [/list]References are a good start, but they dont tell the whole story. You should ask how long a company has been in business and how many full time staffers it employs. If you feel pressured or uneasy, go with your gut feeling and play it safe: hold off until you find a firm that you can trust. Ask your SEO firm if it reports every spam abuse that it finds to Google using our spam complaint form at [url=http://www.Google.com/contact/spamreport.html]http://www.Google.com/contact/spamreport.html[/url]. Ethical SEO firms report deceptive sites that violate Googles spam guidelines. [list][*]Make sure youre protected legally. [/list]For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee. Dont be afraid to request a refund if you are unsatisfied for any reason, or if your SEOs actions causes your domain to be removed from a search engines index. Make sure you have a contract in writing that includes pricing. The contract should also require the SEO to stay within the guidelines recommended by each search engine for site inclusion. What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter? One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a clients behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitors domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO. Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the clients site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEOs other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content. What are some other things to look out for?There are a few warning signs you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. Its far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:owns shadow domains [ol][*]puts links to their other clients on doorway pages [*]offers to sell keywords in the address bar [*]doesnt distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results [*]guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway [*]operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info [*]gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware [*]has had domains removed from Googles index or is not itself listed in Google [/ol]If you feel you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online", call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to: Federal Trade CommissionCRC-240Washington, D.C. 20580 If your complaint is against a company in another country, please file it at [url=http://www.econsumer.gov/]http://www.econsumer.gov/[/url]...