If you want a high ranking in the search engines, don't
fall into the most obvious traps. There are ways to make sure
everyone finds - and browses - your website.
Here's a list of things you most definitely do not want to be
doing if you want a high ranking in the search engines. There are
five main things that literally hundreds of thousands of webmasters
err on regularly. However, with a few small changes, they could
make a big difference in their rankings.
Below are the five most common errors and their solutions - in
no particular order.
Keyword flooding
The error: Trying to optimise a home page for
all possible keywords. For example, you will often see
<Title> tags loaded with 12-plus keywords. Here a webmaster
is attempting to squeeze in all his or her keywords on the home
page. A classic example of a little know-how is a dangerous
thing!
What generally happens is not one of the 12-plus words ever
reach a high ranking because individually they can never get the
density or repetitions needed to rank highly. This is especially
the case for popular terms.
I laugh when I see spammers hiding loads of keywords in long
lists, knowing that rather than improving their ranking they just
make it worse! Less can mean a lot more when it comes to search
engine optimisation in this respect.
The solution: Use a maximum of three of your
top keywords on your home page. If you have a particularly
competitive field, then make that just one or two keywords.
Concentrate on just those keywords on your home page and, of
course, in your title tags.
On my home page, I concentrates on three keyword phrases that do
very well in German searches (where my business is based):
"Internet marketing," "Web promotion," and "Search engine
optimisation."
A newbie would have added more keywords to the title tag and
would have tried to optimise the home page for all the terms rather
than spreading them throughout the site as I have done.
Summary: Focus on your top three keywords
(hopefully researched properly) for your home page, keep them to a
maximum of three. If you are really in a niche market with little
competition, it is okay to go up to four or five. Try to keep your
title tag to less than seven words and make sure your text copy
uses the three terms at least three times each. Don't forget every
page is a potential entry page from search engines, so there is no
need to cram everything in on your home page.
Header area duplication
The error: It is human nature to be a bit lazy
when developing a website. One of the most common, yet devastating
for search engine traffic, mistakes is when a webmaster uses "save
as" to work on a new content page but forgets to change the
non-visible header area of a page in Dreamweaver or whatever
content management system being used.
I think we've all seen these sites - a whole site with something
like "widgets-for-sale.com" in the title on every page because the
meta tags are identical on every page. Only the visible content is
different.
Rarely, however, do separate pages have exactly the same theme
or content. Every page can be optimised for different keywords,
whether major or minor, and can be an entry point to your site from
a search engine. It is such a waste and almost makes me cry when I
see great sites using mydomain.com for a title on every page.
The solution: When developing a site, stick to
a pattern. I will normally do the content first but I always make
sure the last thing I do before moving on to a new content page is
to make sure I have not only the content optimised, but the area as
well.
You will not find an identical title tag on my whole website, or
meta description for that matter. Never forget that each page is an
entry page and optimise each one to the best of your ability.
Summary: Never repeat titles or meta
descriptions in a website. Treat each page as if it were the most
important and optimise it thoroughly. Don't be tempted to leave the
head area without optimisation.
Unnecessary framesets
The error: It is now rare that I will see a
framed website and believe that the use of frames in any way
enhances the site or that it is a practical necessity for a
webmaster. It isn't so much that framed sites generally rank lower,
it is that few webmasters know how to optimise them correctly.
Most of those 536,000 websites require search engine
optimisation. Not many of them are going to rank in the top 10 of
anywhere. Just to have "browser+does+not+support+frames" in your
noframe tag is a great way to never get your website found on a
search engine.
The solution: Treat the noframe tag content as
if it were a text version of your home page and optimise it as you
would a normal website. Link to your framed pages from your noframe
area.
For your framed pages, consider JavaScript that will call the
frame set should it be found orphaned in a search engine. Normally,
framed pages without the frameset mean no navigation and are not
displayed as was initially intended. The following code placed in
all framed pages is one solution and works on the majority of
browsers...
<BODY onLoad="if (parent.frames.length==0)
top.location='http://www.yoursite.com/frameset.html';" >
There are more complex and better solutions, which really wouldn't
fit in the space I have here. Try a web tool site such as
NetMechanic for a more complete solution.
You can achieve what a frameset does through the use of
cascading style sheets (CSS) layer positioning, iframes and other
methods. Only use frames if you really, really have to.
Summary: If you must use frames, make sure you
optimise them well. Use the noframe tag properly, and thoroughly
link to framed pages. On your framed pages, use JavaScript to
prevent them being called without the frameset.
Splash / Flash sites
The error: I often see poorly ranked sites that
visually contain a lot of text, but the text itself is not of the
font variety but graphic. Great eye candy, but forget a high
ranking and search engine traffic if that is the only text on a
page.
I would say at least half my clients used to suffer from
overdoing graphic text. The main webmaster culprits for this are
(surprise, surprise) adult sites, and also those targeting young
markets (games console websites, games software sites, etc.).
Of course, the worst of all has to be the Flash websites that
offer no pure html alternative.
The solution: Integrate normal text where you
can. You can make text and text links look great with a bit of CSS
formatting know-how. You do not need graphic text to make text look
attractive nowadays. At the very least, do not make your pages all
graphic text. Leave something for the search engine spiders to find
and index.
This also applies to Flash sites. Rarely does everything have to
be a Flash object. You can quite often have text surrounding a
Flash object without any negative effects.
Summary: Web pages without no normal text, or
very little text, simply will not rank highly unless there is a
very strong link campaign running. Mix graphics and objects with
text. It is really this simple. Remember: No text = No ranking.
Keywords not researched
The error: Unfortunately, too many webmasters
do not really bother using any of several keyword research tools -
there are about four or five of them. Most, like the Overture
keyword research tool, are free.
Many webmasters don't think they need to use them as they know
what their site is about and don't need to research the top
keywords. This is a big mistake.
Another big mistake is either optimising for too niche or too
obscure a search term, or going the other way and going for a very
broad term. You either get too little traffic because you optimised
for terms that are rarely searched for, or you go for the terms
with millions of competing pages but you don't yet have the
experience or incoming links (one element of off-site optimisation)
to be able to compete.
The solution: The balance is normally achieved
through two- or three-word phrases in competitive areas. These are
best found by cross-referencing the several keyword research
databases to be found on my online tools page and through a fair
bit of lateral thinking.
Summary: Don't guess your best keywords. Know
them through taking the time to use the free tools out there.
Alan Webb writes for Darwin