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27 Quick
Tips To
Top Search
Engine
Rankings |
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Last
Update:
Friday,
October
31, 2003. |
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In this
article I
show you
how to
improve
your
search
engine
rankings
using 27
quick
search
engine
optimization
tips. |
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1.
Increase
your
site's
link
popularity
by
increasing
your
internal
and
incoming
links. |
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Internal
links
-
Cross
link
all
your
sites
and
important
pages
within
each
site.
This
will
maximize
the
PageRank
of all
your
pages
within
each
web
site. |
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Incoming
links
that
you
control
-
Create
several
small
web
sites
related
to
your
main
site.
Each
site
should
only
consist
of a
few
pages.
Then
cross
link
them
all
together
using
the
most
important
keywords.
Don't
forget
to
include
links
back
to the
main
site. |
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Incoming
links
that
you
don't
control: |
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› |
Ask
sites
that
link
to
your
competitors
to
link
to
your
site.
To
find
out
which
sites
are
linking
to
your
competitors,
visit
a
search
engine
and
enter,
"link:"
followed
by
the
competitors'
domain
name. |
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For
example: |
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link:www.yourcompetitor.com |
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› |
Exchange
links
with
sites
listed
in
the
same
category
as
yours
in
the
major
web
directories,
such
as
the
Yahoo!
Directory
and
the
Open
Directory. |
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› |
Find
sites
that
accept
site
submissions.
Visit
your
favorite
search
engine
and
search
for: |
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"add
url"
"your
keywords" |
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Also
try
searching
for
the
actual
submission
page
using
its
page
name. |
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For
example: |
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addurl.html,
addsite.html,
addlink.html,
etc. |
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2.
Include a
TITLE tag
as the
first META
tag,
directly
after the
HEAD tag. |
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For
example: |
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<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Mike's
Marketing
Software
Tools
Reviews</TITLE>
... |
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3. Try
to avoid
stop words
in your
TITLE tag.
Stop words
(a, an,
and, but,
he, her,
his, i,
in, it,
of, on,
or, she,
the, etc.)
are common
words and
characters
ignored by
some
search
engines to
enhance
the speed
and
relevancy
of their
search
results. |
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4.
Include a
META
DESCRIPTION
tag,
directly
after the
TITLE tag.
Include
the most
important
keyword
phrase for
the web
page as
close to
the
beginning
of the
description
as
possible. |
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For
example: |
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<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Mike's
Marketing
Software
Tools
Reviews</TITLE>
<META
NAME="description"
CONTENT="Mike's
Marketing
Tools
is the
leading
review
site
for
the
very
best
internet
marketing
tools
for
web
marketers
and
webmasters.">
... |
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5. If
you use a
META
REFRESH
tag, make
sure it is
set to
refresh
after 30
seconds. |
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<META
HTTP-EQUIV="refresh"
CONTENT="30;
URL=http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com"> |
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Some
search
engines
consider
pages
that
refreshes
under
30
seconds
as
spam.
I
recommend
using
a
JavaScript
redirect
tag,
if you
require
a
quicker
page
refresh. |
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For
example: |
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Step 1
-
Paste
this
code
into
the
HEAD
section
of
your
HTML
document.
Change
the
3000
to
whatever
number
you
like.
1000
represents
1
(one)
second. |
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<SCRIPT
LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!--
function
redirect
() {setTimeout("change()",3000);}
function
change
() {window.location.href="http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com";}
//--></SCRIPT> |
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Step 2
-
Insert
the
onLoad
event
handler
into
your
BODY
tag,
so
that
the
JavaScript
code
is
executed
when
the
page
loads.
<BODY
onLoad="redirect()"> |
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6.
Remove all
other meta
tags
(author,
date,
etc.),
unless
you're
sure they
are
absolutely
necessary.
The only
meta tags
I ever use
are the
META
DESCRIPTION
and
occasionally
the META
REFRESH
tag. |
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7.
Include a
site map
with links
to all
your
pages.
This will
help
search
engines
find and
index all
your
pages. |
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Limit
the
number
of
links
on a
web
page
to 50.
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If you
have
more
than
50
links,
limit
your
links
to
your
most
important
pages. |
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Include
text
on the
page
as
some
search
engines,
such
as
AltaVista,
have
been
known
to
kick
out
links
only
pages. |
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8. Use
one or
more
header
tags in
your main
page body
and
include
your most
important
keyword
phrase/s. |
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Use
large
header
tags,
such
as
<H1>
and
<H2>. |
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Use
Cascading
Style
Sheets
(CSS)
to
alter
the
appearance
of the
header
tags
to fit
the
look
and
feel
of
your
site.
For
more
information
read
this
CSS
tutorial. |
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9.
Check the
first
couple of
lines of
the first
paragraph
to see if
it's
appropriate
to be used
as a
description
of your
page. Many
search
engines
utilize
the first
couple of
sentences
of the
body text
as the
search
results
description,
instead of
the
contents
of the
META
DESCRIPTION
tag. |
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10. Try
to achieve
an overall
keyword
density of
1-2%. |
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11. Try
to achieve
a minimum
word count
of 300 and
a maximum
of 750
words on
each page. |
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12.
Register a
domain
name with
the exact
keyword
phrase you
wish to
target,
using
hyphens to
separate
the
keywords. |
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For
example,
if the
keyword
phrase
is
"search
engine
rankings,"
then
register: |
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search-engine-rankings.com |
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If the
domain
you
want
is
unavailable,
either
try a
different
extension,
such
as
.NET,
.INFO,
or
.US,
or add
a
keyword
to the
end
(preferential)
or
beginning
of the
domain. |
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13.
Name
directories
after your
keyword
phrases,
using
hyphens or
underscores
to
separate
the
keywords. |
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For
example,
if an
important
keyword
phrases
is,
"search
engine
rankings,"
name
your
directory: |
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www.yoursite.com/search-engine-rankings/
or...
www.yoursite.com/search_engine_rankings/ |
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14.
Name web
pages
after your
most
important
keyword
phrase.
Separate
the
keywords
using
hyphens or
underscores. |
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For
example,
if the
keyword
phrase
is
"search
engine
rankings,"
then
name
the
page: |
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search-engine-rankings.html
or...
search_engine_rankings.html |
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15.
Name your
graphic
files
after
keyword
phrases.
Again,
separate
the
keywords
using
hyphens or
underscores. |
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For
example: |
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<IMG
SRC="search-engines-rankings.gif"> |
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16.
Include an
ALT
(alternative
text)
atrribute
in image
tags.
Include
the most
important
keyword
phrases. |
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For
example: |
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<IMG
SRC="search-engines-rankings.gif"
ALT="search
engine
rankings."> |
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17. If
you use an
image map,
include
HTML
links, as
some
search
engines do
not follow
image map
links.
Plus image
maps do
not offer
search
engines
any link
text to
index. So,
try to
avoid the
use of
image maps
as they do
not help
with your
search
engine
optimization
efforts. |
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18. Use
the longer
or plural
version of
a keyword,
where
possible.
Word
stemming
is a
concept
used by
some
search
engines to
return
search
results
that
include
keywords
that
extend
beyond
what you
searched
for. |
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For
example,
a
search
with
the
keyword
"engine"
might
return
results
for,
"engines,"
"engineers,"
and
"engineering."
If
someone
searches
for
the
longer
version
of a
word
and
your
page
only
uses
the
short
version,
then
your
page
will
be
excluded
from
the
list
of
possible
results. |
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19.
Sprinkle a
few
uncommon
keywords
and
synonyms
in your
main body
text. Less
popular
keywords
have less
competition
in the
search
engines.
So your
web page
is has a
greater
chance of
being
listed
amongst
the top
results. |
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20. Do
not repeat
keywords
or keyword
phrases
over and
over again
on a web
page, as
this would
be
considered
as spam by
search
engines. |
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21.
Keep your
pages as
close to
the root
domain as
possible.
Do not set
up more
than 3
directory
levels. |
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For
example: |
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www.yoursite.com/index.html
(1st
level
-
excellent)
www.yoursite.com/html/index.html
(2nd
level
-
Good)
www.yoursite.com/html/marketing/index.html
(3rd
level
- OK)
www.yoursite.com/html/marketing/search/index.html
(Too
many
levels
down -
search
engines
will
find
it
difficult
to
find
and
index
pages
this
far
down) |
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22. If
you have a
persistent
(on most
or all of
your
pages)
navigation
bar at the
side of
each page,
your table
is almost
certainly
set up in
such a way
that it
pushes
your
page's
body text
down the
HTML
document.
Search
engines
give
prominence
to
keywords
nearer the
beginning
of a HTML
document.
So, design
your HTML
table so
that the
navigation
bar is
placed
after your
main body
text. |
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23.
Move
Javascript
code to a
separate
file, or
the end of
the HTML
document
after your
closing
BODY or
HTML tag.
Yes, this
technique
actually
works! |
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Follow
these
instructions
to
move
the
JavaScript
code
to a
separate
file
and
link
to the
file
from
the
HTML
document.
Then
place
the
following
code
in
between
the
HEAD
section: |
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<HEAD>
<SCRIPT
LANGUAGE="JavaScript"
SRC="file-name.js"></SCRIPT>
</HEAD> |
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This
procedure
also
reduces
your
file
size,
and
therefore
your
download
time.
In
addition,
it
allows
you to
reuse
the
code
on
other
pages
by
simply
link
to the
JavaScript
file.
Both
of
these
techniques
will
move
your
important
body
text
nearer
to the
top of
the
HTML
document. |
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24.
Although
not always
practical,
you may
like to
try naming
your
cascading
style
sheet tags
after
keywords. |
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For
example: |
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.search
{
color:
#ff0000;
} |
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25. Use
Robots.txt
files
instead of
Robots
meta tags,
as some
search
engine
robots do
not
recognize
the tag.
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26. Do
not use
font size
one (1)
text as
the
default
text size.
Many
search
engines
consider
tiny text
to be
spam. It's
OK to use
some font
size one
text. |
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27. Do
not
participate
in link
farms or
link
exchange
programs.
Search
engines
consider
link farms
and link
exchange
programs
as spam,
as they
have only
one
purpose -
to
artificially
inflate a
site's
link
popularity,
by
exchanging
links with
other
participants.
Do not
confuse
link farms
and link
exchange
programs
with
reciprocal
linking.
Reciprocal
linking is
the
exchange
of links
with
individual
sites, and
is
certainly
an
accepted
technique
for
improving
your
site's
link
popularity. |
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There you
have it.
My 27
quick
search
engine
optimization
tips to
improving
your
search
engine
rankings. |