Making Your Site Search Engine Friendly

Many marketers submit their sites to the search engines carefully, only to find they didn't get listed in this search engine or that one. There's a lot you can do to enhance the odds of getting listed. The solution is to make your site a little more search engine friendly.

Up-to-date knowledge is key any time you're working with search engine registration or positioning. The following information on best practices for search engine friendly code tags will help improve your site's attractiveness to the engines. The more you understand how search engines work, the more effective you can be in getting the listings you want.

Registration Versus Positioning

Like the dual rails of a railroad track, there are two tracks in search engine work. One is registration and the other is positioning. These two processes work together in getting you listed and well positioned. Before registration, you should also ensure that your pages are optimized.

Consider that search engines read HTML program language. This makes it advantageous to optimize your home page and several sub-pages within your web site.

Optimizing an existing page is not the same as positioning it. Optimizing, when performed properly, installs several HTML code tags with relevant content. This makes your web site search engine friendly during the registration process, which provides you the best opportunity of getting listed and staying listed, month after month.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of web site owners are submitting poor HTML code and using sub-standard practices in attempting to register their sites. Because of this, we have congestion. Needless to say, you must work on both the optimization/registration and positioning process to get the high visibility and the quality traffic you want.

Search engine work is systematic and requires specific monthly maintenance, sustained month after month for at least six to nine months. If you stop your monthly maintenance, you risk losing all your past workmanship. Search engines are not like static print resources; they are dynamic and making adjustments daily and continuously.

Registering your URL in a search engine is like feeding the engine food. If the food tastes bad, the engine will spit it out. If it tastes good, the engine will eat, processing good data into ranked URLs. If the engine is a robot like AltaVista or HotBot, it may revisit that URL to look for more food later. When you've used due diligence in providing attractive HTML program language and content in your home page and sub-pages, you'll have much better results with the registration process.

Search Engine Friendly HTML Tags

Below are the primary HTML code tags commonly used. You will want to ensure you are using these codes correctly as you review your optimizing project. These are search engine friendly HTML code tags, and the content within the tags is very important. By the way, these codes tags comply with all search engine guidelines.

• Title Head Tag
  This is the HTML which identifies the page. It should be clear, concise, and relevant to the content on the page. Keep it simple, less than seven words, and always throw one keyword in your title, or make the title itself a keyword.
  
  
• Keyword Meta Tag
  Your keyword meta tag can include up to 1,000 characters including spaces and commas. However, you should avoid repeating any word more than two or three times.
  
  
• Description Meta Tag
  Your description meta tag should have a few of your key words integrated within the content of the description. Take the time to write clear, concise content for your description.
  
  
• Use the Comment Tag Properly
  Your comment tag should include a variation of similar keywords and a description similar to your meta description tag.
  
  
• Use Keywords in Your Image ALT Tags Properly
  Your image ALT tags should have a few key words in the Tag.
  
  
• Content in Your Noframes Tag
  If you use Frames, your noframes tag must include content similar to that used in your meta title, keyword and description tags.
  
  
• Awareness of Your Java Script or Image Maps
  If you use Java links, you must consider adding text links somewhere on the page. Search engines do not recognize Java links, and therefore will not see your sub-pages.
  
  
• Search Engine Compatibility With Dynamic Pages (cgi .asp .cf .php, etc.)
  If you serve dynamic web pages, you must consider hosting several optimized static HTML pages or hosting a separate environment for optimized static HTML web pages. This is a significant issue, easily resolved with proper IP address ethic.

Again, this is not positioning, but rather proper optimization/registration, and it works in tandem with your positioning campaign. We will get into positioning tactics and strategies next week.

The above are basic guidelines standardized by search engine optimization and positioning companies over the years. They remain stable and tested over time. Perhaps once a year, you should update yourself on current search engine practices and review any changes to your business model that might affect your search engine visibility. I'll be sure to notify you of any changes to search engine friendly HTML code tags when necessary.

Oops!

Last week, my description of Media Metrix's sampling methodology was not entirely accurate. Media Metrix uses a random-digit-dial methodology to conduct its enumeration study and to recruit its sample. The meter is used on the sample members' PCs to collect behavioral data. Media Metrix measures page by page, click by click, second by second what people are doing online. It distinguishes between email usage, search engines, or any other page level usage. This is clearly stated on their web site. Media Metrix has 70,000 users: 50,000 in the U.S. and 20,000 abroad; 10,000 are at-work users. My humble apology.