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7 Necessities To Do Well In Google
by Mark Daoust ©Copyright 2004

Search engine optimization is one of the most popular topics 
in Internet Marketing. The reasons are obvious. Search engines 
provide highly targeted traffic at a zero or very low cost. 
There are a lot of myths, debates, and disagreements over what 
is good Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We have decided to 
look at 7 principles that you should definitely follow when 
optimizing your site for search engines.

Use Meta Tags

You will certainly hear a large number of people tell you that 
meta tags are not important and are useless. There is some truth 
to this, however, it is largely untrue.

Meta tags were first included in web pages primarily for search 
engines and directories and used as summaries of what a website 
was about. Because they were good summaries and a logical way to 
identify and classify a website, search engines used meta tags 
in their ranking algorithms. This method was worked well in the 
early days of search engines and the Internet.

Unfortunately, everyone figured out that by "optimizing" meta 
tags, they could better their rankings. This optimization quickly 
turned into sp@m. Search engine technology evolved and soon most 
search engines were removing meta tags from their ranking 
algorithms.

However, meta tags are still extremely important in SEO. 
Meta tags are still used by spiders to make a quick assessment 
as to the nature of a website. Meta tags are also used to 
identify the author, the company name, to set various rules 
for a spider to follow and to provide a general rating for the 
spider. Examples of meta tags that you should use are listed 
below:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; 
charset=iso-8859-1">

This describes what language and format the site is in. This 
would be different for an XML document or other formats.

<META HTTP-EQUIV="EXPIRES" CONTENT="0">

Has this site been up for only a short time? If so, let the
engine know how long the information is good for.

<META NAME="DISTRIBUTION" CONTENT="GLOBAL">

Do you only have regional content, or should the whole world be 
opened up to see you?

<META NAME="AUTHOR" CONTENT="Web Design Company">

Who owns the site, or who designed the site. This WILL help
your rankings if someone does a direct search on your
company name.

<META NAME="COPYRIGHT" CONTENT="Copyright 2004 MySite.com">

Obvious important copyright information.

<META NAME="description" content="Make sure you always use
well formed sentences.">

Your description should be one or two sentences. Make them 
well-formed sentences...don't use sentence fragments. Use a few 
of your desired keywords, but do not keyword sp@m the sentences. 

<META NAME="keywords" content="keywords, my keyword, blah, 
blah, blah">

Use anywhere between 6-15 keywords or phrases in this section.

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, FOLLOW">

Tell the search engine robot to follow all of your pages. This 
doesn't mean that it will, it just gives crawlers permission.

<META NAME="REVISIT-AFTER" CONTENT="1 DAYS">

How often do you change your content? Once a day, once a month? 
Let the robot know this information, but be truthful!

<META NAME="RATING" CONTENT="GENERAL">

Do you have an adult website? Make sure you indicate that here. 
If it is for the general public, then let them know that as well.

Meta tags, although not crucial to your ranking, are helpful for 
search engines. For this reason alone it is good to employ them 
on your website.

Use Properly Structured HTML

One of the biggest mistakes people fall into is that they use 
improper HTML on their sites. HTML is relatively easy to code. 
Good HTML is structured clearly and neatly. Poorly structured 
HTML includes open tags, closing tags out of order, minimal 
information when forming your tags, and errors that may not show 
up in a browser.

When a search engine spider visits your website, its task is to 
ascertain the information on your website and give it a grade. 
If you have poorly formed HTML on your website, you are making 
the task of the spider more difficult. Additionally, if you have 
poorly formed HTML on your website, the search engine may not 
consider your website to be the best candidate for your desired 
keywords since poorly formed HTML indicates a lack of 
professionalism.

You should always follow a few rules when writing your HTML:

A. Close All of Your Tags

Every HTML tag has an open and a close tag, with the exception 
of a line break (<br>). Do not leave tags hanging. For example:

<p><i>This is my text</i>

The problem with this code is that there is no closing </p> tag. 
This means that it is still open.

B. Close Your Tags In Order

Although a minor issue, closing your tags in order means
better HTML. For example:

<p><i>This is my text</p></i>

These tags are closed out of order. You should always close
the last open tag first.

C. Use ALT Tags on Images

A search engine does not know what an image looks like. Most 
spiders can figure a few things out about an image by its file 
name, but an ALT tag should tell a spider everything about that 
image. For example:

<img src=http://www.example.com/image/image.gif
width="300" height="150" alt="Dogs at Poker">

Properly formed HTML will make it easier for search engines
to know what your site is about. The faster they can digest
your information, the more they will digest.

Avoid Excessive JavaScript

JavaScript is a great tool to have. It can make your site
interactive and provide a better, stronger interface for
your users. However, it should be avoided at all costs when
implementing content.

JavaScript is different than most every other technology on
the Internet because it is a client-side technology as opposed
to server-side. The difference is simple. When a person
views your webpage, if there is JavaScript, the JavaScript
will be downloaded to that person's computer and executed
on their computer. If JavaScript were server-side, then the
execution of the code would happen entirely on the server
where the website is located.

Because JavaScript is a client-side language, search engine
spiders are not able to read what they output. So, if you
are trying to update your content frequently using JavaScript, 
the search engine will never know the difference.

JavaScript is, however, still a great resource for forms, 
validation, and other parts of your page that are not crucial 
to the meaning of your page.

Avoid Dynamic URL's

A URL such as http://www.anydomain.com/program.php?id=456&p=4 
is not search engine friendly. Search engines have come a long
way in their ability to spider URL's such as the one above. In 
fact, you will probably be included in an index with that style 
of url, but it is not a friendly URL.

With the introduction of mod_rewrite, you can easily make 
dynamic URL's into search engine friendly URLs. Mod_rewrite
gives you the ability to make the above url into something 
that looks like this:

http://www.anydomain.com/program-456-4.html

Search engines are more inclined to index this type of URL.

Don't "Over-Optimize"

There really is no such thing as over-optimization.
Over-optimization is actually search engine sp@m. Search
engines hate it when they are keyword sp@mmed. If you build 
your webpage around a central topic, you should obtain the 
perfect balance of keyword density on that page. If you don't, 
then you should rethink what your website is really about.

Spending all of your time making sure every Alt tag has your 
targeted keyword in it, or finding a way to include very small, 
or close to, invisible text so that you can sp@m a certain 
keyword is a sure way to waste your time and ruin the 
appearance of your website.

Keep Content Fresh

Search engines LOVE fresh, new content. Constantly add current
news to your website, new information, and change your front 
page. You do not need to change the look of your website, just 
the content on the front page.

Search engines are always trying to provide searchers with the 
most relevant, up-to-date information possible. A page that 
hasn't changed since 2000 will not have as relevant content as 
a page recently published with updated information.

There is also an issue of pride with the search engines. Part 
of the search engine wars has been to see who can build the 
freshest index. As a result, search engines such as Google take 
note of sites that change frequently. The more frequently your 
site changes, the more frequently they will come back and 
re-index your site.

Don't Rely on SEO

This article has focused on some basics of SEO, but if there is 
one rule to follow in developing your website it is this: do not 
rely solely on search engines. There are many ways to develop a 
steady stream of traffic to your website outside of search 
engines. Link exchanges, purchasing links, advertising, and 
participating in online communities are great ways to build your 
traffic. Don't be afraid to purchase advertising. If you have a 
great website, people will refer others to your website. 

The lesson in all of this is that good search engine optimization 
stems from organized development, fresh content, and generally 
an attempt to develop a useful website for your visitors. If you 
do this, you will be surprised at how SEO really takes care of 
itself. Search engines are looking for well-developed, 
content-rich websites. Simply give them what they are looking 
for and let them worry about filtering out all the people who 
are attempting to "trick" them.

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Mark Daoust is the owner of Site-Reference.com and TowerSearch.com. 
Add your site to TowerSearch to receive a guaranteed #1 position 
for free!
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