Gain Search Engine Traffic Through FOCUS
Category: Search engines - Optimisation | Date: 2003-07-21 |
There is much to be gained by putting yourself in the other guys shoes. Imagine this for a moment:
YOU are a search engine robot, whose primary goal is to categorize each web site that you visit. You have to distinguish what each sites main goal is through a systematic evaluation of the textual content on the pages you find.
You evaluate the pages headlines, text links and content for repetitive words and phrases, with the assumption that the more times something is mentioned, the higher relevance it has to the site youre visiting.
You take note of the pages title tags, and description tags, for use in listing the site, as well as for any further repetitive phrases. You check alt tags for more repetition of the same phrases found throughout the rest of the page.
Then, you follow the links you find, performing the same evaluation on each page, all the while comparing the content you find to the repetitive phrases you found on the very first page of the site youre visiting.
You score each site according to how much content you find that matches the repetitive words and phrases on each page. You then score the site according to your findings. Those sites that seem to have repetitive phrases, with matching and related words throughout, receive a higher score.
(Yes, this is a VERY basic overview of what happens when your site is visited by a search engine robot, but I think you get the idea.)
Because of the way the search engine spiders evaluate your web site, it is important to keep your pages focused on the topic at hand. Sites that cover broad areas of interest risk overloading these robots with various key words that may not be your intended focus.
3 Ways To Ensure "Focus" On Your Web Site:
1) Evaluate your purpose. What is your MAIN goal? While it is possible to have multiple topics covered with your site, what is the overall idea under which they all fall? For example, although you may be dedicated to selling eBooks from your site, what is the main category your books fall under? While you may think that ebooks are your focus, perhaps a more focused view of your product line would reveal that all of your ebooks fall under one main category, such as marketing.
In this example, consider this; would you rather have surfers searching the term ebook visit your site, or would you sell more if you received visitors searching the term marketing?
Youll find that youll sell more to a tightly targeted group of surfers searching the term marketing, because ebooks is too broad a term that may bring people looking for fiction to your site. Changing the textual content of your site to provide repetitive terms dealing with marketing would therefor provide more relevant search results, targeting your visitors before they even see your site!
2) Write for the robots. While a copywriter may tell you that you have to write to your prospects needs, a search engine optimization specialist will tell you to write for the robots. I say, do both! In order to do so, you must evaluate first, what your prospects needs are, and how your site is going to provide for those needs.
After you have an idea of what needs your site is catering to, you must then present your information in a way that conveys that with repetitive phrases throughout your headlines, content, and textual links. These phrases should be the same terms that your prospects are most likely to enter into a search engine. To find out what the most popular search terms are, you can use tools such as:
WordTracker: http://www.wordtracker.com/
Lycos 50: http://50.lycos.com/
Yahoo Buzz Index: http://buzz.yahoo.com/
Google Zeitgeist: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool:
https://adwords.google.com/select/tools.html
Kanoodle Search Spy: http://www.kanoodle.com/spy/
Ask Jeeves: http://sp.ask.com/docs/about/jeevesiq.html
3) Dedicate a page to each sub-topic. One of the easiest ways to confuse your visitors, (including the search engine robots), is to provide TOO much information on one page. After youve evaluated your content, and have chosen your main focus, break down your remaining content into sub-topics.
Dedicate a separate page to each sub-topic, and provide repetitive phrases throughout these pages accordingly. Make sure that each of these sub-topic pages are linked TO from your main page, and youll have provided relevant FOCUSED pages for the robots to index.
(c) Ginger Geracitano, 2003
About the Author
Ginger Geracitano is a web designer, graphics artist and business coach. Shes accomplished top ranking in the search engines through research, trial and error. Stay informed of the latest Internet developments by subscribing to her biweekly ezine, The Portal To Success. To subscribe, visit: theportaltosuccess.com
webwench@webwenchdesign.com
http://theportaltosuccess.com
YOU are a search engine robot, whose primary goal is to categorize each web site that you visit. You have to distinguish what each sites main goal is through a systematic evaluation of the textual content on the pages you find.
You evaluate the pages headlines, text links and content for repetitive words and phrases, with the assumption that the more times something is mentioned, the higher relevance it has to the site youre visiting.
You take note of the pages title tags, and description tags, for use in listing the site, as well as for any further repetitive phrases. You check alt tags for more repetition of the same phrases found throughout the rest of the page.
Then, you follow the links you find, performing the same evaluation on each page, all the while comparing the content you find to the repetitive phrases you found on the very first page of the site youre visiting.
You score each site according to how much content you find that matches the repetitive words and phrases on each page. You then score the site according to your findings. Those sites that seem to have repetitive phrases, with matching and related words throughout, receive a higher score.
(Yes, this is a VERY basic overview of what happens when your site is visited by a search engine robot, but I think you get the idea.)
Because of the way the search engine spiders evaluate your web site, it is important to keep your pages focused on the topic at hand. Sites that cover broad areas of interest risk overloading these robots with various key words that may not be your intended focus.
3 Ways To Ensure "Focus" On Your Web Site:
1) Evaluate your purpose. What is your MAIN goal? While it is possible to have multiple topics covered with your site, what is the overall idea under which they all fall? For example, although you may be dedicated to selling eBooks from your site, what is the main category your books fall under? While you may think that ebooks are your focus, perhaps a more focused view of your product line would reveal that all of your ebooks fall under one main category, such as marketing.
In this example, consider this; would you rather have surfers searching the term ebook visit your site, or would you sell more if you received visitors searching the term marketing?
Youll find that youll sell more to a tightly targeted group of surfers searching the term marketing, because ebooks is too broad a term that may bring people looking for fiction to your site. Changing the textual content of your site to provide repetitive terms dealing with marketing would therefor provide more relevant search results, targeting your visitors before they even see your site!
2) Write for the robots. While a copywriter may tell you that you have to write to your prospects needs, a search engine optimization specialist will tell you to write for the robots. I say, do both! In order to do so, you must evaluate first, what your prospects needs are, and how your site is going to provide for those needs.
After you have an idea of what needs your site is catering to, you must then present your information in a way that conveys that with repetitive phrases throughout your headlines, content, and textual links. These phrases should be the same terms that your prospects are most likely to enter into a search engine. To find out what the most popular search terms are, you can use tools such as:
WordTracker: http://www.wordtracker.com/
Lycos 50: http://50.lycos.com/
Yahoo Buzz Index: http://buzz.yahoo.com/
Google Zeitgeist: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool:
https://adwords.google.com/select/tools.html
Kanoodle Search Spy: http://www.kanoodle.com/spy/
Ask Jeeves: http://sp.ask.com/docs/about/jeevesiq.html
3) Dedicate a page to each sub-topic. One of the easiest ways to confuse your visitors, (including the search engine robots), is to provide TOO much information on one page. After youve evaluated your content, and have chosen your main focus, break down your remaining content into sub-topics.
Dedicate a separate page to each sub-topic, and provide repetitive phrases throughout these pages accordingly. Make sure that each of these sub-topic pages are linked TO from your main page, and youll have provided relevant FOCUSED pages for the robots to index.
(c) Ginger Geracitano, 2003
About the Author
Ginger Geracitano is a web designer, graphics artist and business coach. Shes accomplished top ranking in the search engines through research, trial and error. Stay informed of the latest Internet developments by subscribing to her biweekly ezine, The Portal To Success. To subscribe, visit: theportaltosuccess.com
webwench@webwenchdesign.com
http://theportaltosuccess.com
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