SEO F O R DUMMIES
Companion Web Site Has links to Registration Site and more
Peter Kent
E-commerce consultant
E-commerce consultant
 |
| Search Engine Optimization for Dummies |
Peter Kent is the author of numerous other books about the Internet, including
the best-selling Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Internet and the most widely
reviewed and praised title in computer-book history, Poor Richard’s Web Site:
Geek Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site. His work
has been praised by USA Today, BYTE, CNN.com, Windows Magazine,
Philadelphia Inquirer, and many others.
Peter has been online since 1984, doing business in cyberspace since 1991,
and writing about the Internet since 1993. Peter’s experience spans virtually
all areas of doing business online, from editing and publishing an e-mail
newsletter to creating e-commerce Web sites, from online marketing and PR
campaigns to running a Web-design and -hosting department for a large ISP.
Peter was the founder of an e-Business Service Provider funded by one of the
world’s largest VC firms, Softbank/Mobius. He was VP of Web Solutions for a
national ISP and VP of Marketing for a Web applications firm. He also founded
a computer-book publishing company launched through a concerted online
marketing campaign.
Peter now consults with businesses about their Internet strategies, helping
them to avoid the pitfalls and to leap the hurdles they’ll encounter online. He
also gives seminars and presentations on subjects related to online marketing
in general and search engine marketing in particular. He can be contacted
at consult@iChannelServices.com, and more information about his background
and experience is available at www.iChannelServices.com.
Author’s Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank a number of people for their help with this book. First, my
mentor, colleague, and Technical Editor, Micah Baldwin of Current Wisdom
(www.CurrentWisdom.com), who kept me focused and on target. I’d also like
to thank Acquisitions Editor Terri Varveris, whose assistance was critical in
getting my idea from proposal to contract, and Project Editor Paul Levesque,
who kept me on the straight and narrow. And, of course, the multitude of
Wiley staff involved in editing, proofreading, and laying out the book. Finally,
I’d also like to thank my friend and one-time boss Mike Higgins, who’s an
example to us all (though for exactly what I’m not sure).
Introduction
Welcome to Search Engine Optimization For Dummies. What on earth
would you want this book for? After all, can’t you just build a Web
site, and then pay someone $25 to register the site with thousands of search
engines? I’m sure you’ve seen the advertising: “We guarantee top-ten placement
in a gazillion search engines!” “We’ll register you in 5,000 search engines today!”
Well, unfortunately, it’s not that simple. (Okay, fortunately for me, because if it
were simple, Wiley Publishing wouldn’t pay me to write this book.) The fact is
that search engine optimization is a little complicated. Not brain surgery complicated,
but not as easy as “give us 50 bucks, and we’ll handle it for you.”
The vast majority of Web sites don’t have a chance in the search engines.
Why? Because of simple mistakes. Because the people creating the sites don’t
have a clue what they should do to make the site easy for search engines to
work with, because they don’t understand the role of links pointing to their
site, and because they’ve never thought about keywords. Because, because,
because. This book helps you deal with those becauses and gets you not just
one step, but dozens of steps ahead of the average Web site Joe.
About This Book
This book demystifies the world of search engines. You find out what you
need to do to give your site the best possible chance to rank well in the
search engines.
In this book, I show you how to
Make sure that you’re using the right keywords in your Web pages.
Create pages that search engines can read and will index in the way you want them to.
Avoid techniques that search engines hate — things that can get your
Web site penalized (knocked down low in search engine rankings).
Build pages that give your site greater visibility in search engines.
Get search engines and directories to include your site in their indexes and lists.
Encourage other Web sites to link to yours.
Keep track of how well your site is doing.
Use pay-per-click advertising and shopping directories.
And plenty more!
How This Book Is Organized
Like all good reference tools, this book is designed to be read “as needed.”
It’s divided into several parts: the basics, building search-engine-friendly Web
sites, getting your site into the search engines, what to do after your site is
indexed by the search engines, search engine advertising, and the Part of
Tens. So if you just want to know how to find sites that will link to your Web
site, read Chapter 13. If you need to understand the principles behind getting
links to your site, read Chapter 12. If all you need today is to figure out what
keywords are important to your site, Chapter 4 is for you.
However, search engine optimization is a pretty complex subject, and all the
topics covered in this book are interrelated. Sure, you can register your site
with the search engines, but if your pages aren’t optimized for the search
engines, you may be wasting your time! You can create pages the search
engines can read, but if you don’t pick the right keywords, it’s a total waste of
time. So I recommend that you read everything in this book; it will make a
huge difference in how well your pages are ranked in the search engines.
Part I: Search Engine Basics
In this part, I provide, yep, the basics — the foundation on which you can
build your search-engine-optimization skills. Which search engines are important,
for instance? In fact, what is a search engine? And what’s a search directory?
And why am I using the term search system? In this part, you find out the
basics of sensible site creation, discover how to pick the keywords that
people are using to find your business, and discover how to do a few quick fixes to your site.
Part II: Building Search-Engine-Friendly Sites
Do you have any idea how many sites are invisible to the search engines? Or
that, if they’re not invisible, are built in such a way that search engines won’t
see the information they need in order to index the site in the way the site owners would like?
Well, I don’t know an exact number, but I do know it’s most sites. If you read
Part II, you will be way ahead of the vast majority of site owners and managers.
You discover how to create techniques that search engines like and
avoid the ones they hate. You also find out about tricks that some people
use — and the dangers involved.
Part III: Adding Your Site to the Indexes and Directories
After you’ve created your Web site and ensured that the search engines can
read the pages, somehow you have to get the search systems — the engines
and directories — to include your site. That’s hard if you don’t know what
you’re doing. In this part, you find out which search systems are important,
how to register, and how to find other search engines and directories that are
important to your site. You also find out why registering sometimes doesn’t
work, and what to do about it.
Part IV: After You’ve Submitted
Your work isn’t over yet. In this part of the book, you find out why links to
your site are so important and how to get other sites to link to you. You discover
the shopping directories, such as Froogle and Shopping.com. I also
explain the multibillion-dollar search engine advertising business. You find
out how to work with the hugely popular Google AdWords and Overture payper-
click programs . . . and how to buy cheaper clicks. You also discover paid
placement and other forms of advertising.
Part V: The Part of Tens
All For Dummies books have the Part of Tens. In this part, you find ten really
powerful search engine strategies. You also find out about ten common mistakes
that make Web sites invisible to search engines, and ten services that
will be useful in your search engine campaign.
Part VI: Appendix
Don’t forget to check out the appendix, where you’ll find information on copyright laws.
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Product details
Price
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|---|---|
File Size
| 12,503 KB |
Pages
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387 p |
File Type
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PDF format |
ISBN
| 0-7645-6758-6 |
Copyright
| 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc |
Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................1
About This Book...............................................................................................1
Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2
How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................3
Part I: Search Engine Basics ..................................................................3
Part II: Building Search-Engine-Friendly Sites .....................................3
Part III: Adding Your Site to the Indexes and Directories..................4
Part IV: After You’ve Submitted ............................................................4
Part V: The Part of Tens.........................................................................4
Part VI: Appendix ...................................................................................4
Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................5
Part I: Search Engine Basics
Chapter 1: Surveying the Search Engine Landscape
What Are Search Engines and Directories?.................................................10
Keeping the terms straight..................................................................12
Why bother with search engines? ......................................................13
Where Do People Search? .............................................................................14
Aren’t I missing some sites?................................................................19
Multiple feeds .......................................................................................19
What the Future Holds — The List Expands ..............................................20
Reviewing the Final List — Search Systems You Really Need ..................22
Determining Your Plan of Attack..................................................................23
Gathering Your Tools .....................................................................................24
The Google Toolbar..............................................................................25
The Alexa Toolbar ................................................................................25
Understanding the Limitations.....................................................................26
Chapter 2: Your One-Hour Search-Engine-Friendly Web Site Makeover
Is Your Site Indexed?......................................................................................27
Google ....................................................................................................28
Yahoo! ....................................................................................................30
The others .............................................................................................30
What if you’re not listed? ....................................................................30
How to tell if your site is invisible......................................................31
Picking Good Keywords ................................................................................32
Examining Your Pages ...................................................................................34
Are you using frames?..........................................................................34
Look at the TITLE tags .........................................................................35
Examine the DESCRIPTION tag ...........................................................36
Can the search engines get through?.................................................37
Do the pages have anything for search engines to read?................38
Getting Your Site Indexed..............................................................................40
Chapter 3: Making Your Site Useful and Telling People about It
The Secret but Essential Rule of Web Success ...........................................44
The evolving “secret”...........................................................................45
The real secret is . . . ............................................................................45
A bias for content .................................................................................46
Making Your Site Work Well ..........................................................................47
Limit the use of multimedia ................................................................47
Use text, not graphics ..........................................................................48
Use ALT text ..........................................................................................49
Don’t be too clever...............................................................................49
Don’t be cute.........................................................................................49
Avoid frames .........................................................................................50
Make it easy to move around..............................................................50
Provide different ways to find things.................................................51
Use long link text ..................................................................................51
Don’t keep restructuring .....................................................................52
Spell check and edit .............................................................................52
Chapter 4: Picking Powerful Keywords
Understanding the Importance of Keywords .............................................54
Thinking like Your Prey .................................................................................55
Starting Your Keyword Analysis...................................................................56
Identifying the obvious keywords ......................................................56
Looking at your Web site’s access logs .............................................56
Examining competitors’ keyword tags ..............................................57
Brainstorming with colleagues ...........................................................57
Looking closely at your list .................................................................57
Using a keyword tool ...........................................................................60
Using Wordtracker .........................................................................................62
Creating a Wordtracker project ..........................................................64
Adding keywords to your initial project list .....................................66
Cleaning up the list ..............................................................................69
Exporting the list ..................................................................................70
Competitive analysis............................................................................70
More ways to find keywords ...............................................................73
Choosing Your Keywords ..............................................................................73
Removing ambiguous terms ...............................................................73
Picking keyword combinations...........................................................75
Part II: Building Search-Engine-Friendly Sites
Chapter 5: Creating Pages That Search Engines Love
Preparing Your Site ........................................................................................79
Finding a hosting company .................................................................80
Picking a domain name........................................................................80
Understanding What a Search Engine Sees ................................................82
Understanding Keyword Concepts ..............................................................84
Pick one or two phrases per page......................................................85
Check for keyword prominence .........................................................85
Watch your keyword density ..............................................................86
Place keywords throughout your site................................................86
Creating Your Web Pages ..............................................................................87
Filenames...............................................................................................87
Directory structure ..............................................................................87
The TITLE tags......................................................................................88
The DESCRIPTION meta tag ................................................................89
The KEYWORDS meta tag....................................................................91
Other meta tags ....................................................................................92
Image ALT Text......................................................................................93
Flush the Flash animation ...................................................................94
Don’t embed text in images ................................................................95
Adding body text ..................................................................................95
Creating headers: CSS vs. <H> tags ....................................................97
Text formatting .....................................................................................98
Creating links ........................................................................................99
Using other company and product names......................................100
Preparing for local search .................................................................101
Creating navigation structures that search engines can read ......103
Blocking searchbots...........................................................................103
Chapter 6: Avoiding Things That Search Engines Hate
Dealing with Frames ....................................................................................105
The HTML Nitty-Gritty of Frames...............................................................107
Providing search engines with the necessary information...........109
Providing a navigation path ..............................................................110
Opening pages in a frameset.............................................................112
Handling iframes ..........................................................................................113
Fixing Invisible Navigation Systems...........................................................114
Looking at the source code...............................................................114
Turning off scripting and Java ..........................................................116
Fixing the problem .............................................................................117
Reducing the Clutter in Your Web Pages...................................................119
Use external JavaScripts ...................................................................120
Use document.write to remove problem code ...............................120
Use external CSS files.........................................................................121
Move image maps to the bottom of the page .................................122
Don’t copy and paste from MS Word ...............................................122
Managing Dynamic Web Pages ...................................................................122
Finding out if your dynamic site is scaring off search engines ....124
Fixing your dynamic Web page problem .........................................125
Using Session IDs in URLs ...........................................................................126
Examining Cookie-Based Navigation .........................................................128
Fixing Bits and Pieces ..................................................................................131
Forwarded pages ................................................................................132
Image maps .........................................................................................132
Special characters ..............................................................................133
Chapter 7: Dirty Deeds — Facing the Consequences
Understanding the Basic Principles of Tricking the Search Engines.....136
Should you or shouldn’t you?...........................................................136
How are tricks done? .........................................................................137
Do these tricks work? ........................................................................138
Concrete Shoes, Cyanide, TNT — An Arsenal for Dirty Deeds ..............139
Keyword stacking and stuffing .........................................................139
Hiding (and shrinking) keywords .....................................................139
Hiding links..........................................................................................141
Using unrelated keywords.................................................................142
Duplicating pages and sites ..............................................................142
Page swapping and page jacking ......................................................142
Doorway and Information Pages ................................................................143
Using Redirects and Cloaking .....................................................................144
Understanding redirects....................................................................145
Examining cloaking ............................................................................146
The Ultimate Penalty ...................................................................................147
Chapter 8: Bulking Up Your Site — Complete with Content
Three Methods for Creating Content.........................................................150
Writing Your Own Stuff ................................................................................151
Summaries of online articles ............................................................151
Reviews of Web sites..........................................................................152
Product reviews..................................................................................152
Convincing Someone Else to Write It.........................................................152
Using OPC — Other People’s Content .......................................................153
Understanding Copyright — It’s Not Yours! .............................................154
Hunting for Other People’s Content ..........................................................156
Remember the keywords!..................................................................156
Product information...........................................................................157
Web sites and e-mail newsletters .....................................................157
Government sources..........................................................................159
Content syndication sites..................................................................160
Traditional syndication services......................................................163
RSS syndication feeds ........................................................................164
Open content and copyleft................................................................166
Search pages .......................................................................................167
Press releases .....................................................................................167
Q&A areas............................................................................................168
Message boards ..................................................................................169
Blogs.....................................................................................................169
Part III: Adding Your Site to the Indexes and Directories
Chapter 9: Getting Your Pages into the Search Engines
Why Won’t They Index My Pages? .............................................................173
Linking Your Site for Inclusion ...................................................................174
Submitting Directly to the Major Systems ................................................175
Are you sure it won’t do any harm? .................................................175
Submitting for free..............................................................................176
Using Paid Inclusion ....................................................................................177
Deciding whether to use paid inclusion ..........................................178
The paid-inclusion systems ..............................................................179
Using trusted feeds ............................................................................180
Submitting to the Secondary Systems.......................................................180
Using Registration Services and Software Programs ..............................182
Chapter 10: Submitting to the Directories
Understanding Search Directories (Vs. Search Engines) ........................185
Why Are Directories So Significant? ..........................................................188
Submitting to the Search Directories ........................................................188
Submitting to Yahoo! Directory ........................................................189
Submitting to the Open Directory Project ......................................191
Submitting to Second-Tier Directories ......................................................193
Finding second-tier directories ........................................................193
Don’t pay! . . . Maybe..........................................................................194
Chapter 11: Buried Treasure — More Great Places to Submit Your Site
Keeping a Landscape Log............................................................................195
Finding the Specialized Directories ...........................................................196
More ways to find directories...........................................................199
Local directories.................................................................................200
Why bother with directories? ...........................................................201
Getting the link ...................................................................................201
Working with the Yellow Pages...................................................................203
Getting into the Yellow Pages .....................................................................205
Part IV: After You’ve Submitted
Chapter 12: Using Link Popularity to Boost Your Position
Why Search Engines Like Links ..................................................................212
Understanding Page Value and PageRank.................................................213
PageRank — one part of the equation .............................................214
The PageRank algorithm ...................................................................215
Huge sites = greater PageRank..........................................................217
Measuring PageRank..........................................................................218
Leaking PageRank...............................................................................221
Page relevance ....................................................................................221
Hubs and Neighborhoods ...........................................................................223
Avoiding Links with No Value .....................................................................224
Identifying links that aren’t links ......................................................225
Some links are more valuable than others......................................226
Inserting Keywords into Links....................................................................227
A Few Basic Rules about Links ...................................................................228
Chapter 13: Finding Sites to Link to Yours
Controlling Your Links .................................................................................231
Generating Links, Step-by-Step...................................................................233
Register with search directories ......................................................235
Ask friends and family .......................................................................235
Ask employees ....................................................................................235
Contact association sites ..................................................................236
Contact manufacturers’ Web sites ...................................................236
Contact companies you do business with ......................................236
Ask to be a featured client.................................................................237
Submit to announcement sites and newsletters ............................237
Send out press releases .....................................................................238
Promote something on your site......................................................239
Find sites linking to your competition.............................................239
Ask other sites for links .....................................................................241
Make reciprocal link requests...........................................................241
Respond to reciprocal link requests ................................................246
Search for keyword add url...............................................................246
Use link-building software and services..........................................246
Contact e-mail newsletters................................................................248
Create a blog .......................................................................................248
Mention your site in discussion groups ..........................................249
Pursue offline PR ................................................................................249
Give away content ..............................................................................250
Apply for online awards ....................................................................250
Advertise .............................................................................................250
Use a service or buy links .................................................................251
Just wait...............................................................................................252
Fuggetaboutit ......................................................................................252
Got Content? Syndicate It!...........................................................................252
Four ways to syndicate......................................................................254
Getting the most out of syndication ................................................255
Getting the word out ..........................................................................256
Syndicating utilities............................................................................258
Using RSS .............................................................................................258
Who’s Going to Do All This Work?! ............................................................259
How Links Build Links .................................................................................260
Chapter 14: Using the Shopping Directories and Retailers
Finding the Shopping Directories ..............................................................263
Google Catalogs ..................................................................................265
Froogle .................................................................................................267
Yahoo! Shopping .................................................................................268
Shopping.com .....................................................................................271
PriceGrabber and PrecioMania ........................................................272
BizRate .................................................................................................272
NexTag .................................................................................................273
Price Watch .........................................................................................274
PriceSCAN ...........................................................................................275
More Shopping Services..............................................................................275
Third-Party Merchant Sites.........................................................................276
Creating Data Files .......................................................................................277
The data you need..............................................................................278
Formatting guidelines ........................................................................279
Creating your spreadsheet................................................................280
Getting those product URLs..............................................................281
Creating individual sheets.................................................................282
Creating and uploading your data files ...........................................285
Chapter 15: Pay Per Click — Overture, Google AdWords, and More
Defining PPC .................................................................................................287
The two types of ads..........................................................................291
Pros and cons .....................................................................................292
The three PPC tiers ............................................................................293
Where do these ads go?.....................................................................294
It may not work!..................................................................................295
Valuing Your Clicks ......................................................................................296
The value of the action ......................................................................296
Your online conversion rate..............................................................297
Figuring the click price ......................................................................298
Different clicks = different values .....................................................298
They Won’t Take My Ad!..............................................................................299
Automating the Task....................................................................................301
Part V: The Part of Tens
Chapter 16: Ten-Plus Ways to Keep Up-to-Date and Track Down the Details
Let Me Help Some More ..............................................................................305
Current Wisdom ...........................................................................................306
The Search Engines Themselves................................................................306
Google’s Webmaster Pages .........................................................................306
Inktomi’s FAQs ..............................................................................................307
AlltheWeb’s FAQs .........................................................................................307
AltaVista’s FAQ .............................................................................................307
MSN’s SEO Tips.............................................................................................307
Teoma/Ask Jeeves’ FAQ...............................................................................308
Search Engine Watch ...................................................................................308
Google’s Newsgroups ..................................................................................308
WebMaster World.........................................................................................309
Pandia ............................................................................................................309
IHelpYouServices.com.................................................................................309
HighRankings.com .......................................................................................309
The Yahoo! Search Engine Optimization Resources Category ...............310
The Open Directory Project Search Categories .......................................310
Chapter 17: Ten Myths and Mistakes
Myth: It’s All about Meta Tags and Submissions......................................311
Myth: Web Designers and Developers Understand Search Engines......312
Myth: Multiple Submissions Improve Your Search Position ..................312
Mistake: You Don’t Know Your Keywords.................................................313
Mistake: Too Many Pages with Database Parameters and
Session IDs ................................................................................................313
Mistake: Building the Site and Then Bringing in the SEO Expert...........313
Myth: $25 Can Get Your Site a #1 Position ................................................314
Myth: Bad Links to Your Site Will Hurt Its Position .................................314
Mistake: Your Pages Are “Empty” ..............................................................315
Myth: Pay per Click Is Where It’s At...........................................................315
Chapter 18: Ten-Plus Useful Tools for Search Engine Optimization
Checking Your Site Rank .............................................................................317
Checking for Broken Links ..........................................................................319
Google Toolbar .............................................................................................320
Google Zeitgeist............................................................................................321
Alexa Toolbar................................................................................................322
Finding Links.................................................................................................323
Seeing What the Search Engines See .........................................................324
Finding Your Keyword Density ...................................................................325
Analyzing Your Site’s Traffic .......................................................................326
More Tools ....................................................................................................327
Don’t Forget the Search Engines ................................................................327
Part VI: Appendix
Appendix: Staying Out of Copyright Jail
If It’s Really Old, You Can Use It .................................................................331
If the Guvmint Created It, You Can Use It..................................................333
If It’s “Donated,” You Can Use It .................................................................333
It’s Only Fair — Fair Use Explained............................................................334
Index ........................................................................335
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