Preparing Your Website For Theme-Based Search Engines

During the past year, major search engines such as Google, Altavista, Hotbot and others have changed the way that they rank web pages. Instead of ranking pages based on such factors as keyword density and page size, they now categorize and rank entire sites by "theme."

With this many major search engines now using themes, one thing is clear. If youre not optimizing your site for themes, youre losing out on a lot of traffic!

Now, the good news: themes actually make it easier for the operator of a small-to-medium site to achieve good rankings and receive their share of search engine referrals.

All of the search engines handle themes a little bit differently, but in general, the "theme" of your site is a combination of three factors:

1. The content and structure of your site. Your site is now being evaluated as a single entity, instead of as individual pages.

2. The context and quantity of incoming links. Links from related sites are good, links from other sites dont help like they used to.

3. The character of any outbound links. If you have a links page on your site, links to unrelated sites will hurt your ranking.

Now that you know whats going on, what can you do about it? I use a four-step process to prepare my sites:

1. Evaluate your keyword selection and set priorities. Most sites can only focus on with 5-7 keywords, and these should all relate to a common theme. If your site is about baking, a good keyword list might be "baking, cake, pie, muffin, bread".

2. Redesign your sites structure and navigation. Your homepage has to become more like a site map, with hallway pages for your major keywords, leading to doorway pages that reinforce the theme.

3. Optimize your pages based on your new theme-based design. This is a lot easier than it used to be, just put the right keywords in the usual places and youre all set. Page titles, headings, etc. are where your keywords should be.

4. Improve your "off-the-page" factors. Register a good domain name (or names) that fits your theme. Improve your sites Link Popularity and Relevance, and end unproductive link swaps. Stay away from "links programs" - the search engines are on to that trick.

Of course its a little more complicated than that, but the intent of this article is to start your education on theme-based search engine positioning.

About the Author

Dan Thies is the author of "Search Engine Fast Start!", a concise guide to positioning your site with the new breed of search engines. Visit cannedbooks.com

dan@cannedhelp.com
http://www.cannedbooks.com