Customizing Your Site for Search Engines

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Customizing Your Site for Search Engines
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Finding Your Site

• Domain Name
• Backlinks
• Search Engines
• Used by majority of people to find information
• 80 - 90 of web users find info theyre looking
  for by using search engines (Comp USA)

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Search Engines Types

• Active
• Spiders (server based software applications) are
  constantly roaming the web to look for new sites
  to add to their database.
• Contents are read and indexed according to
  keywords
• If you register your site, spiders will visit
  your site sooner

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Search Engines Types

• Passive
• Humans replace spiders.
• Sites are registered and categories suggested by
  site owners. Site is reviewed and assigned a
  main category by search engine staff.

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Search Engine Terms

• Query research topic (keyword) entered on a
  search engines homepage.
• Hit List a list of resources returned to you by
  search engines relative to a query.
• Relevancy Ranking order the hit list is
  displayed in, the most significant at the top.

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Search Engine Terms

• Keywords short terms or phrases used to
  describe your business.
• Doorway Passage created to improve ranking of a
  keyword(s)

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The Key to Success with Search Engines

• Placement of keywords
• throughout web page text and in the title.
• Repeat keywords
• several times on a web page, but relevant to the
  total number of words on that page (3 8).
• Become a source of information on at least one
  topic.

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How to Select Keywords

• Use specific words and phrases
• Think like your customers
• Misspell words
• Use distantly related words

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How to Select Keywords

• Synonyms
• Word stems
• View competitor sites
• Use specific keyword combinations
• META Tags on primary pages

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Critical HTML Tags

• TITLE Tag
• Appears in the title bar at the top of the web
  browser window, is the first tag on your web
  page. Contains keywords.
• META Tag
• Allows search engines to more easily find your
  site. Contains an overview of information about
  your site

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Types of META Tags

• META Description Tag a short description of
  what the page it appears on is about.
• META Keyword Tag includes keyword(s) and
  phrases describing your companys products or
  services.

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Submitting Your Site/Web Pages to Search Engines

• Submit a link generally your home page, to the
  Add Your Site section.
• Also submit each important page of your site
• Resubmit several search engines are known to
  score newly submitted pages slightly better.
• Use the basic submittal to avoid charges.

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Avoiding Search Engine Problems

• Refer to individual search engines to find out
  what helpful hints are provided relative to
  ranking and what they consider as spamming.

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Avoiding Search Engine Problems

• Circumstances to avoid (may be considered
  spamming)
• Do not repeatedly use a keyword or repeat it in
  small type at the bottom of a page.
• Do not use invisible text.
• Do not stuff your META tags with multiple
  occurrences of the same keywords.
• Avoid submitting too many pages at a time.

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Avoiding Search Engine Problems

• Avoid submitting the same page twice on the same
  day.
• Never use keywords in your META tags that do not
  apply to your sites contents.
• Be careful when using frames.
• When using doorway pages, keep each page focused
  on one keyword or keyword phrase.
• Monitor search engine policy changes.

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In conclusion..

• Monitor traffic logs they not only tell you the
  number of visitors to your site, but also what
  keywords were used and where the visitors came
  from.

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• Thank you for attending
• CUSTOMIZING YOUR SITE FOR SEARCH ENGINES