Things search engines look at

**janeth** · 10-28-2003, 06:35 AM

This is a short list. Please add to it.

Meta Tags

Title metatag - Use your best key worsd here, not the name of your web site. Use it for 6 to 12 key words. It should be the first thing in your <head>

Meta description tag - Most engines use this tag. It should go under the titile tag.

Keyword metatag - Some engines use them some just check them. If they do not match the content it could be considered spam.

Text

Key words and text - key words that are higher on a page are given more weight.

Headings - The seach engines also give more weight to <h> tags. <h1> having more weight then <h3>. So you should try and use these tags and use your best key words in them. It also helps if you use them in order <h1> then <h2>.

Bold - This is not as important as <h> tags but do help and taht is [b] tags.

Anchor Text - The links coming to your web site or to different pages on your site should use your key words in and around the link.

Alt tags - Use short sentences to describe what the picture is about.

Comment tags - Some engines use them.

Email addresses on every page - make sure it matches the domain name in the web site address.

Number of links pointing to your site plus how many links are one the page with the link pointing to your site.

Page Last Modified - A site that is updated often is looked at as a better site.

**rlrouse** · 10-28-2003, 12:47 PM

Link anchor text.

oops... missed that one above...

**voodooboy** · 10-28-2003, 01:01 PM

Here is an awesome app that was emailed to me yesterday by a company whose site I reviewed in one of the other forums.

http://www.instantposition.com/seo_doctor.cfm

Really opened my eyes to what I was missing on some of my sites.

**excell** · 10-28-2003, 01:34 PM

Meta Tags

Title metatag - Use your best key worsd here, not the name of your web site. Use it for 6 to 12 key words. It should be the first thing in your <head>

There is no such thing as a title metatag... The title tag in the head area is the title of the page and should be used to reflect the page.. it it the title of the page - think like a book chapter page :)

Meta description tag - Most engines use this tag. It should go under the titile tag.

The degree of the importance of the description meta tag is questionable... it is important to write a short description of the individual page here, no nonsense, this could well be read by people deciding where to click next.

Keyword metatag - Some engines use them some just check them. If they do not match the content it could be considered spam.

Again, reflecting the individual content of the page here is important, less is much more than more.

Text

Key words and text - key words that are higher on a page are given more weight.

Sensible information about your products and services that speaks first and foremost to your site visitor is more desirable than sliced bread, it's *good stuff*, so do it clearly, don't hide anything, communication is the key.

Headings - The seach engines also give more weight to <h> tags. <h1> having more weight then <h3>. So you should try and use these tags and use your best key words in them. It also helps if you use them in order <h1> then <h2>.

Hx tags should always be used according to the purpose for them,, i.e. heading, subheading, sub section heading etc. If you think that wrapping everything in Hx tags is going to work you thinking is not correct...think of page layout as if it was in print?? If everything was in a heading, would it be a heading any more?

Bold - This is not as important as <h> tags but do help and taht is [b] tags.

Who can tell< how do you know?
It is my opinion that a natural emphasis when communication to your audience will always win over try to stress out over enth degrees of what the search engines might make of it.. natural flow of marketing copy and emphasis is better.. in my opinion.

Anchor Text - The links coming to your web site or to different pages on your site should use your key words in and around the link.

This works well, but if it is abused today, it could be de-emphasised tomorrow.

Alt tags - Use short sentences to describe what the picture is about.
Think of alt attributes in the light of their purpose, that is as alternative text for those on browsers that do not read images.. the search engines do not read images and neither do blind folks.. so be sensitive here.. most search engines ignore these now due to abuse.. always include them for the benefit of those needing considerations of accessibility regardless of what the current search engine thing is.
Comment tags - Some engines use them.

Are they going to be editing your pages, do you think? If you are wise you would use comment tags in the light of there intended usage, not to try to trick search engines into believing your website is saying more to your audience than what it is. :)

Email addresses on every page - make sure it matches the domain name in the web site address.

Why?

Number of links pointing to your site plus how many links are one the page with the link pointing to your site.

Ermm anything about quality here and what the search engines themselves might have to say about this topic?

Page Last Modified - A site that is updated often is looked at as a better site.

I think it has nothing to do with a date on the page, I think it has a lot more to do with actual changes that the robots can detect for themselves, without being told.

Janeth,,, Please do not see this as any sort of attack on your post,, your post caught my eye and I have free flowed my thoughts and understanding on top of it.

It might be then possible for others to come and add things and correct you/me.. and then you would be left with a mighty fine list :)

**Black Knight** · 10-28-2003, 01:46 PM

It is said that Inktomi is still paying some attention to comment tags, but I'm not seeing it myself - at least, I'm not seeing it help more than using the words in the regular text instead.

In that light, its rather like the meta tags, which have less weighting in most engines than any area of the body text. Teoma and Altavista seem to pay more attention to meta description than other engines do, but that's still not saying much, and certainly doesn't seem to drive much actual traffic.

**excell** · 10-28-2003, 01:59 PM

All in all and come what may, what I am seeing is a tendancy for the search engines to pay attention to what is said in the content. (First make sure that your content is accessible)

Then the weight of the site & the weight of it's neighbours, in relation to the search term.

Then nitty gritty stuff..

And that is why it is all so simple.. it's just communication that is clear and accessible :)

If your game (and I speak to anyone) is to try to trick the search engines via methods old or new (included in their current guidelines or not) then you are playing a short-term game IMO. It is far better to work with your web site as a communication tool and speak to your target market through your pages .. doing this will help you with search engine positioning long term as well..

errm.. oops.. I think I had best tuck my soap box away here. </rant>

**Black Knight** · 10-28-2003, 02:08 PM

Quick update on the indexability of comments.

I tried a very simple method of checking, and got mixed results on just one of the engines I tried, which is indeed one powered by Inktomi.

I searched for #EndEditable which is the common Dreamweaver code embedded into a comment wherever templates are used. There are literally millions of such pages in existance I suspect.

MSN alone of all engines I tried this on gave some results for the query, but very few. Too few in fact to clearly say "Yes, it looks at comments" because it is far more likely that some of these pages had bad code (an improperly formed comment tag) at the time they were last spidered. There just are not enough results shown for this to be recognising content in properly formed comment tags.

**excell** · 10-28-2003, 02:24 PM

Agree.. way too few.. and to even consider using or abusing the tag is a little far fetched... It's purpose as far as I know is to leave notes for designers to get their bearings in the code and that's it.

There is no reason NOT to use the comment tag if you need to communicate to others working on the page or to leave sensisble notes or *comments* to yourself, but if anyone thinks it has anything to do with search engine positioning they may be living on the arc.

**Christian_SEO** · 10-28-2003, 02:29 PM

We have out own little list, and I did not see item #1 so far... Scored Keyword Research.

If you optimize your site with junk and best guesses; well, you should not start off building a house with poor grade materials... on a bad foundation.

To do the research, most professionals swear by WordTracker.com, but we use www.GoodKeywords.com's program and have great results. Try both and decide.

Thanks,
Christian[/b]

**le_gber** · 10-28-2003, 02:40 PM

Hi Janeth,

nice post, I'm just going to try to add my 2 cents to it.

on page optimisation

in the <head> tag:

the <title> tag is clearly still important to seo and should include your keyword.

the <meta> tags (keywords and description) although they haven't got great importance in the way SE rank sites, I believe that putting them in is still worth the time spent. I also believe that some directories and may be some SE won't include your site if it doesn't include them.

the <meta> tags (robots) is the only other meta tag I use when I don't want to include a file in the robots.txt

in the <body> tag

<h> tags : H1 should be the title of the page and I think that because of the way it has been abused it is best to keep only one H1 tag per page that reflects the <title> tag. H1 should also appear before any other H tag and preferably at the very top of the page (very close to the body tag).Use H2 and H3 to organize your page. If you validate your page and you have more than 1 H1 tag it gives you an error and I am sure that in the near future SE will not give importance to other H1 tags on the page, or give less importance to H1 with more than, say 10-15 words (which is already a lot).

keywords position and keyword density: keywords placed at the beginning of a paragraph (

tag) and at the top of a page will have more weight than those lost in the middle of a page. I also think that having them at the end of a paragraph could be beneficial. Keyword density is really up to you but I saw site with kwd density around 30-40% ranking really well.

bold and italic are there to emphasis and therefore gives importance to the emphasised word(s). But don't overdo it - not sure how css is handled for this.

Alt tags: as excell pointed out they have originally been created to replace an image for text only browser. Use them for al your images (usability) and if you designed your site thoughtfully you will end up putting keywords in them without noticing.

on page anchor text and links within your site: don't use 'click here' or other meaningless words like that us keywords. This doesn't only helps seo but blind persons have specific software that will display all the links at the top of the document - having 10's of click here link won't help them.

link's title attribute: again usability but also helps in SEO.

Off page optimisation:

links from other sites: ask for links/reciprocal if it really brings something to your site and use keywords in the link text (as Janeth pointed out). Don't go and hunt only high PR site but beware of site with PR0 and grey PR bars. Link to relevant/recognised sites (some believe that a very small leak of PR can come this way as well - not as important as the other way of course and not proven theory either)

robots.txt tell the robots from the start what to look at and what to ignore.

domain name: choose a relevant easy to remember domain - if keywords in it - might boost ranking a little

file size: keep the files small, put all javascript in a separate file and use Css

directory name and structure and file name: use relevant file name (not service1, service 2, services3) use relevant directory name as well and try to keep all files within 2 click form the homepage.

sitemap: use it for all your sites to keep pages within 2 clicks from index page.

host: choose your hosting company wisely - how much downtime do they have? Also very important: if you target the us or uk market find a host in these country or by a .co.uk domain - google filters on IP block.

update your pages regularly and add new pages. I believe that googlebot will like you a bit more if you use the server command to tell them wich files have changed since his/her last visit.

Finally: content is king. Design your website for your visitors not search engines. SE robots won't buy your products or make enquiries to your company. If your site provides good information other people will link to it, talk to others about it, which will bring more people to your site and more enquiry.

Well if anybody can think of anything else, please add to this thread.

Leo

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