Following on the six site design sins from Part 1, here is
the completion of the list of thirteen SEO Website / Search
Issues from 2K5.
7) Sites Designed Entirely in Flash
Flash is an incredibly cool design medium that enables
animations, sound, video and user interaction with websites. As
the web and the designers who work on it become more
sophisticated, Flash is being used more often. Unfortunately,
Flash files are often used without search engine spiders in
mind. While Micromedia did distribute a Search Development Kit
to help search engines decode information phrased in Flash
files, it is still very difficult to perform SEO services on a
site designed primarily in Flash.
Sites designed in a coding language search spiders can easily
read and understand tend to fare much better in organic
listings. The best advice for using Flash files is to embed them
in a page designed in a more standard format.
8) Use of MS Word HTML Generator
Did you know that a MSWord document can be saved as an HTML
document? If you didn't, I am sorry to report it is possible.
The problem is, MSWord documents saved as HTML documents have a
bazillion or so lines of extraneous code and tend to perform
quite poorly in search engine results. They are hard to work
with from an SEO perspective as well. Removing extraneous code
from a MSWord document can be difficult, even when using
Dreamweaver.
9) Poor Site Maintenance, Updates
Every town has a storefront that never changes and that store
never seems to be very prosperous. Websites need to be updated
and maintained, they are sort of like a storefront that way.
There are actually two issues being addressed under this
heading.
Maintenance: Many website owners do not properly maintain their
websites. Some sites look years out of date while others
continue to carry links to sites that no longer exist. We've
even come across some sites with product information for items
the business no longer carries. While operating a business in
the real world can take a lot of time, the Internet is an active
place of business. Spiders and live-visitors need to see a well
maintained website to take the business seriously.
Updates: We have been preaching the values of regular site
updates to clients for years. Adding fresh content to a site is
important on so many levels. Google, for example, uses the rate
at which new content is added to a site as a guideline when
judging the relative importance of that site. Fresh content also
increases the on-site inventory of documents that might achieve
search engine placements.
Live-users also appreciate new content as it adds value to their
experience at your site. As many online business owners
understand, Internet users are a lot like regular shoppers. They
follow patterns and purchase from places they are comfortable.
Giving visitors a reason to revisit your site is always good for
business.
10) Ignoring Emerging Technologies or Pre-Existing Payment Programs
This point follows the maintenance and update point for a good
reason. For some website owners, the Internet is their primary
place of business. Unlike brick and mortar operations, there is
no physical location to purchase items, all sales are made
online. That means the website is the store. Like their brink
and mortar equivalents, online stores need to use a variety of
tools to attract customers.
XML based sitemaps that feed information to the search engines
via RSS is an example of a beneficial emerging technology that
is being ignored by the majority of webmasters out there. Blogs,
podcasting, social or industrial networking and the purchase of
PPC advertising are others. By ignoring emerging technologies,
business owners can miss vast groups of potential clients.
Online business is dependent on the electronic transfer of
funds. For most that means using a credit card. Some people
don't use credit cards and others use them only for specific
purposes. There are several types of online payment systems that
are not dependent on credit cards, the most well known being
PayPal. Surprisingly, relatively few online businesses accept
PayPal as a payment option. How many brick and mortar businesses
still use an abacus and a cigar box as the cash till? Aside from
a few quaint grocers and herbalists in the older part of my
town, I don't know anyone else who even knows how to use an
abacus. That's the power of technology. There are still a few
brick and mortar stores who refuse to honour bank debit cards or
credit cards. By refusing to use newer technologies, their
businesses either stagnate in a previous century (which in some
cases is a welcome respite from the 21st century), or lose
customers like myself who rarely use coin or cash.
The last three frightening things for SEOs are not on-site
related but have an enormous sway on how our industry evolves
and the practices we employ.
11) Over-reliance on Google Results
Google remains the most important search engine in the world. A
strong placement on Google can make the difference between
success and failure for many online businesses. Over time,
Google has come to dominate the search sphere but as businesses
affected by the series of Jagger Updates this month are
learning, Google listings can be a very volatile place to do
business in.
That shouldn't be an issue for webmasters and online businesses
as there are literally dozens of other marketplaces aside from
Google. EBay is an example. There are other search engines as
well. Yahoo, MSN and ASK all offer excellent search results and
can collectively drive similar levels of traffic as Google. At
the end of the day however, it must be noted that Google offers
a heck of a lot of bang for the marketing buck and search users
continue to love using Google.
It is strongly recommended that webmasters concentrate on
getting strong organic and PPC placements at the other search
engines and work to cultivate that business. Learning about and
taking part in the Yahoo Publishing Network is a good
alternative for webmasters and bloggers who want to diversify
the advertising that appears on their documents. MSN is about to
introduce a series of webmaster and business development
features in their soon to be released paid advertising program.
12) Google's Use of DMOZ Information
Google is again reverting to DMOZ descriptions on some sites in
its listings. This means that Google is querying DMOZ for sites
to include in its general listings. This can be a potentially
damaging thing for a host of reasons.
First of all, it is not very easy to get a site listed in the
DMOZ directory. The backlog is huge and editors at DMOZ seem to
find reasons to not include sites they feel are designed for
marketing purposes only. Some website owners and SEOs have
waited for years without word on the status of their submission
to DMOZ.
DMOZ editors are better known for following the DMOZ system than
they are for accuracy or marketing acumen. If a mistake is made
in your description, it is often quite difficult to get it
corrected.
13) Misunderstanding the Role of the SEO Sector
SEOs are not miracle workers. SEO, as a profession is a
combination of good website designers and good online marketers.
We do not control or even directly manipulate search engine
rankings. For the most part, we don't even reverse engineer
algorithms any more. We are simply online marketers who have
learned a great deal about how search engines work and how they
rank websites. Our technical job is to make client sites as
friendly as possible for search engines. Our marketing job is to
make the site as friendly as possible for live-visitors, to
advise our clients about changes in the search sphere that might
affect them for good or for ill, and to take action on items
that might not be beneficial for clients.
We cannot make a site jump from number eight to number three, at
least not with any guarantee of success. What we can do is make
a website or document available to as many search engine spiders
and search engine users as possible. We can help select keyword
phrases and arrange them properly on the page. We can help with
site design and structure, and leave trails for spiders to
complete the submission phase. We can't however tell Yahoo,
Google, MSN, ASK or any other search engine to promote our
client's sites higher in the organic listings. If we could, we
would charge a heck of a lot more.
About The Author
Jim Hedger is a writer, speaker and search engine marketing expert based in Victoria BC. Jim writes and edits full-time for
StepForth and is also an editor for the Internet Search Engine Database. He has worked as an SEO for over 5 years and welcomes the
opportunity to share his experience through interviews, articles and speaking engagements. He can be reached at
jimhedger@stepforth.com.
