Search engine positioning - the first step, not the last step, in web site design.

• Web Site Design Check-Up
• Keyword Selection and Text
• Link Popularity
• Click Through Popularity
• Themed Pages

   

WEB SITE DESIGN CHECK-UP! Give your site a Check-Up at Hitbox Central

1. The content of your web site should be easy to read.
   Appropriate font and font size against a background that makes your site easy on the eyes.
   No grammatical or spelling errors are allowed.
2. Your site should be easy to navigate
   Navigation should be consistent throughout your site and complement the design of your site.
   Navigation titles should be clear rather than clever.
   Hyperlinks should be underlined or bolded to differentiate from the rest of the text on your site.
3. Site design should be consistent throughout - navigation, look, color, font etc.
4. Your site should load quickly - a rule of thumb is a home page under 40K and subpages under 30K.
5. There are no "dead" links on your site.
6. Your site is compatible with all browsers.
7. Your site must be Search Engine Ready Top

KEYWORDS and TEXT WordTracker, GoTo's Search Frequencies

1. Choose the right keywords / keyword phrases: All positioning strategies build on choosing the right keywords and keyword phrases. We will do the necessary keyword research to determine the best search engine and directory keyword phrases for your business.
2. Choose the most effective keyword phrase for your page! Ask your customers and others outside of your business what they would type in the search window.
3. Use singular and plurals forms of your words: Search engines spiders may truncate gifts, but won't add the 's' to gift.
4. Optimize each page separately. Create content-rich information pages that center on one or two keywords, keyword phrases. Don't try to optimize a single page for every keyword that's important to your business. Remember that different search engine spiders are looking for different combinations of keyword placement, tag usage, density, amount of text etc. You will need different informational pages for different engines.
5. Stay away from general keywords. i.e. "computers" the competition will be fierce. Searchers are realizing that they can fine-tune their searches. Ranking high for a general keyword may get you more traffic, but you won't necessarily get more sales. Identify niche of keywords/phrases that describe your business/product/service that few others are targeting.
6. Consider your individual goods or services. i.e. "technical writing", "resume writing", don't use trademarked terms.
7. General to the Specific: Start with a general keyword list and then add specific words to each one. For example, if you 're an musician, "music" add a specific word or two based on your business "music lessons for children" or "music for dinner theaters".
8. Consider regional keywords. Does your business cater to a particular region? If you have an automotive repair shop in particular city, your keyword or phrase should contain the name of the city. Yahoo encourages geographical listings.
9. Consider regional terminology? Do people from other regions use different terminology when searching for your keyword phrase? If so, utilize that terminology in your tags or on your page, or create a separate page. North: shopping cart, South: "buggies."
10. What keywords are your competitors using? Search for your competitors' sites and see what keywords they're using. Do NOT copy their tags or anything else. Just see if they might be using a keyword phrase that might be appropriate for your site as well.
11. Consider commonly misspelled words: What are the most likely misspellings of souvenir? Check how many times they were misspelled by using GoTo's Search Frequencies or WordTracker.
12. Evaluate your page: Web Position Gold - Page Critic, Submit Director - Analyze, Visibility to the Blind
    Different spiders like different keyword placement, density and page elements to contain keywords. Web Position's Page Critic will help you to decide how to best formulate your informational pages for each top search engine.
13. General Placement Guidelines: Place keywords / phrases toward the top of the page and in the beginning of your keyword-containing tags, and in the beginning of your body text. (Note: Many other factors come into play when determining relevancy, i.e. keyword weight of the page, how popular the web site is in terms of link popularity, how frequently the keywords are used etc.
14. Ranking Algorithms: Every engine has a different ranking algorithm -- consider different things important or not important when determining relevancy and ranking -- what works for one engine won' t necessarily work for another.
15. Don't use every technique on your page. Instead, start with a few, remembering that the tags toward the top of the page are most important. If you need boosts in relevancy, then add a few more tags to see how that helps.
16. Don't optimize for more than two keywords/phrases. Fine-tune each informational page for one or two keyword phrases only.
17. Most engines rank using these keyword/phrase factors: preeminence, frequency, weight, proximity, placement and off-page criteria (link popularity, term vectors, HTML construction)
18. Keyword Prominence: Early in head statement -- Title tag, Keyword and Description metatags. Early in headline tags. Early in body copy - 1st 25 words and in last 25 words on page. Early in 2nd and 3rd paragraphs.
19. Keyword Frequency, Weight, Proximity and Placement are used to a different degree by each search engine.
20. Term Vectoring is used by search engines to evaluate the relationship among keywords on your site.
21. Off Page Criteria also Play a Role also play a role...
22. Metatags Which Include Keywords: INeedHits Metatag Generator , !Register-It! Metatag Generator
    • Title Tag*
    • Comment Tag <!-- (Inktomi still uses the comment tag)
    • Description metatag*
    • Keyword metatag*
    • Author metatag

    
    *Most important
    
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LINK POPULARITY

Link popularity has become important factors in how your site is positioned for search engines and directories. As part of your positioning optimization strategy, you must develop a link building strategy. Quality of links is more important than quantity of links. Links that are considered most important are those come from sites that have high traffic themselves and have a theme which complements your site.

Check Your Link Popularity:

1. Web Position Gold - Link Popularity Check
2. INeedHits Link Checker
3. Additional Link Popularity Checking Pointers from Search Engine Watch

Tips to improve Link Popularity:

1. Sign guestbooks that are related to the theme of the web site you are promoting.
2. In Google search use + "keyword" + "add url" this will find all pages with your keyword plus the add url link so you can add your page to their links.
3. Ask owners of web sites to engage in reciprocal linking. A sample Link Request Letter.
4. Additional articles on link building strategies which appear on Clickz include: Links Cheaper and Better than Bananas, Building an Effective Linking Strategy, Link Popularity is Not Your Only Linking Goal.
5. Employ the services of a company that can help you build your link popularity. Visit LinkageXpress to learn what this type of service company offers. Link Strategies is one search in Google which returns additional services. Top

CLICK THROUGH POPULARITY

Obtaining links from other web sites is only the first step - people have to actually click on those links to your web site and browse your web site. AND they need to return to your web site when they see the quality content, products, and/or services that you offer, i.e. the usability of your web site. That is the definition of "popularity" according to the major search engines and directories. Other terms for it are "click" popularity or "click-through" popularity. Top

THEMED PAGES

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