Search Engine Optimization: it's the little things that count
By Donald Nelson,
copyright 2003
Building a search engine
friendly site can seem like a daunting task, but there are
some parts of search engine optimization process that are
quite simple and quickly done. These seemingly simple tasks
can make a big difference in the results you get in your
efforts to attain top search engine positions. If you are
in the process of building a new site take a look at the
easily done optimization points explained below, and if you
already have a site, you can use this list as a way to check
your site.
1. Name your files
properly. Just as it is important to put keywords in
your metatags and in the copy of your site, it is also very
helpful to have keywords in the names of the files. If have
a website for the Electronic Widgets Company, your “About
Us” page could have the file name “aboutus.html” but then
you would not have any keywords in it. It would be better to
have “electronic-widgets-aboutus.html” or “about-electronic-widgets.html”.
If you make a sub-directory also make sure that its name
incorporates an important keyword. Never make a file such as
“page1.hml” or “page2.html”, you are throwing away an
opportunity to place your keyword.
Some people carry this point
to the nth degree and choose a long domain name with many
keywords put together. I don’t think you need to do this, as
these kinds of domain names are difficult to remember.
However if you are building a secondary domain, one that is
content-rich and designed to get traffic which is then
directed to another site, you can opt for a keyword-rich
domain name.
2. Put your keywords in
hyperlinks. Another important place for keywords is in
the hyperlinks which lead to other pages on your website. If
you have a navigation bar at the top or the left that is
made of gif or jpeg images, you can add a text navigation
bar at the bottom of the page and make sure that your
keywords are in these text links. So, instead of having a
text link that says “resources” it could better be written
as “electronic widget resources”. Similarly whenever you
find a place within the written text of the page where you
can highlight a keyword and link it to another part of the
site, take this opportunity. You can even make a hyperlink
that jumps to a bookmark on the same page.
3. Make sure you have your
own domain name. It is more difficult to promote an
interior portion of a site, than the main domain name. It
only costs from $8.00-15.00 to get a domain name, and your
own webspace can be obtained for as little as $100 per
year. So, if you already have a site, but want to start a
completely different product line, start a new site with a
new domain name rather than set up a subdirectory of an
existing site, or , worse, use a free site.
4. Check to see that your
are emphasizing the right keywords. While keyword
research is a large task, and maybe doesn't qualify as a
little thing, it will not take you very long to visit this
url (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion) and see if people are really searching for what you are
talking about. Take a look, and modify your web copy to
reflect the actual searches that people make for your
products.
5. Use the alt tag
for images. Here is another opportunity to place your
keywords. Search engines cannot “see pictures” or graphic
files. Whenever you have a graphic image you have the option
of adding alt text. This alt text will be visible when
surfers put their mouse over the images, but more
importantly it will be visible to search engines. So instead
of just having a photo of a widget, you can put a
description with your important keywords. If you have a
navigation bar with images, you can put descriptive text for
each navigation item.
6. Make sure that you have
a title tag for each page. This may seem like an obvious
point, but have you ever reached a web page which had a
title, visible in the blue strip at the top of the browser,
that said "new page" or "untitled page"? In this case the
person building the site forgot to put in the title tag.
These kinds of pages are usually found on the inner pages of
a web site, a place where many people, mistakenly, pay less
attention. So check all of your pages, make sure that there
is a title tag, and make sure that your keywords are in the
title tag.
Taking advantage of these
search engine optimization opportunities will not take you
much time or cost you much money, but your gain in a better
position in search engine results will be well worth your effort.
Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and
social worker. He has been working on the Internet since 1995, and is currently
the director of A1-Optimization (http://www.a1-optimization.com),
a firm providing low cost search engine optimization, submission and web promotion services.
