- Keyword Placement
- Page Titles
- Meta tags and Descriptions
- Choosing the Right Keywords
- Search Engine Spamming
- General Keywords v. Specific Keywords
- Effective Link Programs
1. Keyword Placement
Though not all the search engine spiders are the same, they do tend to look in some similar places for keywords. Therefore the following is an abbreviated checklist that begins the process of better search result placement.
2. Page Titles
Not only do search engines use page title keywords as a point of search relevancy, they also will most often use your page title as the displayed title for your Web site in search results. Make sure that you have page titles for each page you send to SMART Submit and that your titles accurately reflect the content of your Web pages.
3. Meta tags and Descriptions
Meta tags, specifically Meta keywords and Meta descriptions are used by search engines to determine relevancy of keyword searches to the content of your Web site. Picking keywords that are relevant to your sites’ content and purpose is crucial.
4. Choosing the Right Keywords
The number one rule to selecting keywords: Keywords should be relevant to the content of the page in which they are found.
Example: If you have a real estate Web site and you include the keyword “manhattan apartment,” the page should have content relevant to Manhattan apartments. It is that simple.
Choosing keywords that are relevant to the content of your site has a twofold purpose:
- Relevant keywords will help your site get ranked higher in search listings when indexed.
- It ensures that when people click-thru to your site from search engines, they find what they are searching for.
The number one rule to selecting keywords: Keywords should be relevant to the content of the page in which they are found.
Please note that your META data directly affects how your site is eventually ranked by search engines so please take care to properly structure your META tags.
Malformed Meta Data
In order to maximize results from using SMART Submit, please review your Meta data found in your Web site’s HTML code.
Example of Properly Formatted HTML Meta Data
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Page Title Here</TITLE>
<META name="keywords" content="your keywords here">
<META name="description" content="Your Web site description here.">
</HEAD>
Please note that your META data directly affects how your site is eventually ranked by search engines so please take care to properly structure your META tags as soon as possible.
Page Text
Several search engine spiders will crawl your SMART Submit pages to check for density and frequency of keywords on your submitted pages. It is important that at least some of your more important keywords appear prominently and frequently in the visible text on your Web pages for better search rankings. But be forewarned, any overt spamming techniques employed will actually hurt your Web site from being indexed.
5. Search Engine Spamming
A search engine may reject your submission if you have ever used questionable techniques that could be considered spamming. These include high repetition of keywords, use of irrelevant keywords, invisible text (text the same color as a page's background color), tiny text, multiple URLs for the same page, etc. Make sure your site is spam-free prior to using the SMART Submit service for faster results.
ALT Tags Alt tags are the captions added to pictures and images on your Web site. This does not include text embedded in pictures, images, or video. Search engine spiders will often use alt tags as another point of relevancy when determining your overall relevancy score and search result ranking for particular keywords.
6. General Keywords v. Specific Keywords
General keywords have the 'potential' to drive more traffic then specific keywords, but also tend to be more competitive making it hard to get ranked highly in search results.
Example: A potential general keyword for a Web site selling used-cars in Bishop, CA could be 'used car'. Though the keyword is relevant to the content of the page, the Bishop, CA used-car dealer under this keyword will compete for top ranking against websites such as kbb.com (Kelly Blue Book), autotrader.com, edmunds.com, cars.com and autobytel.com.
On the flipside specific keywords tend to drive less traffic to websites but result in more qualified traffic (i.e.) end-users looking for something specific that you provide on your site. Good specific keyword choices for the above example might be, 'bishop used cars', 'bishop pre-owned cars', 'central california used cars', etc.
In essence, if you don't believe that you can compete against some of the larger websites, in top listings for general keywords it would be better to pick more specific keywords and only a few general keywords.
7. Effective Link Programs
Some search engines may refuse to index websites that have no other sites linking to them. To remedy this problem you simply need to establish some external links. Once you have links to your Web site, it becomes easier to get your pages indexed with search engines requiring links for search results.
The key to an effective link program is to exchange links with websites that share a common customer base with your Web site but in which you do not compete.
For a simple example, if you are a music Web site that sells CDs, exchanging links with another Web site that sells audio equipment would work well for you. In this example not only would you be able to gain possible traffic from the audio equipment Web site, but you would also help your ranking in search results.
See our SMART FAQ for answers to your questions of SMART Submit.
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