| Before you submit your site to search engines, you
should make sure that your site, pages and content will
be diplomatic and friendly to search engines. We have
prepared this page to help you to make the best of our
services. To save you time, the information on this page
has been written in point form.
Template
CSS
Meta Tags
Template
Many webmasters start building a site with the
template. When creating a template, it is necessary to
make sure that the use of images is kept to a bare
minimum. It is not a good idea to use images that span
the entire width of a page. It is best to use very small
images, and tile them across (or down) the page.
For example. Let's say that you want to make a
navigation bar. Instead of making one long image and
placing it into a table, you should use a smaller image
such as this:
which is 1
pixel x 20 pixels..
to make:
..simply by tiling the image across a table.
Templates that use this technique have a VERY high
change of getting listed well in search engines. Here is
the code which was used to make the example bar:
<table width="100%" height="20" cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr>
<td
background="img/tile.gif" align="center">Link | Link
| Link</td>
</tr></table>
The largest image on your template should be your
logo. It should not be too big. Its size should be kept
to a minimum, and it should be optimized. It is not a
good idea to use flashing gif logos, because 1 - They
get a bit annoying after a while, and 2 - they can
become quite large and reduce your chances of obtaining
high search engine rankings.
Basically, if you can center your template around CSS
and background colors while using as few images as
possible, you will be doing yourself a great favor.
Another great tip is to use as few graphics on a site
as possible. Don't make new images for every page
because when visitors view your page their browsers will
have to download template images over and over again.
However, if all of your pages use the same images, they
will be cached and once a site visitor has seen one
fully loaded page the rest will show up very quickly.
Even for visitors that have a dialup connection,
(providing that you have used small/optimized images in
the fist place).
CSS
CSS (cascading style sheets) are another great way to
help create top search engine rankings. Did you know
that many search engines will compare the amount of
code/html that you have on your pages and compare it
with the amount of viewable content? (viewable content
is the text that you can see and read on the website).
So, it is best to do away with as much code as
possible. (For this reason, it is also good to make
templates by hand. WYSIWYG editors really like to slap
the code on thick, which can reduce your chances for top
search engine results).
The most useful thing that you can do with css is to
remove the font tags. For example: Many website have
HEAPS of these:
<font face="verdana" size="2"
color="#000000">Content</font>
These font tags can add up to quite a mess, and there
is no need for them. ALL content text can be controlled
via CSS. Instead, put this in the head of your template:
<style type="text/css">
td
font-family:verdana; font-size:10pt;
</style>
The above CSS will make sure that everything in a TD
will be 10pt, and you will never have to worry about
font tags again. However, it is not likely that you will
only ever want to use that one font size/style. You will
also need headings, sub headings and footer texts. You
may want to change the color of your links and the color
they go when you hover over them with your mouse.
This page has not been written to show you how to
make a website. We are merely trying to provide you with
good tips and advice, for your consideration before you
submit your site to search engines. You should do some
research on CSS and implement it into your site and
template as much as possible. Look fort CSS methods that
reduce the need for manual font tags and other
non-necessary code within your web pages.
Meta Tags
Some people turn Meta Tag optimization into an art!
However, most of us don't have the time for that. The
countless hours that can be spent on adjusting and
re-adjusting Meta Tags could be better spent creating
new content. After all, it is the content that search
engines are "really" looking for. The Meta Tags just
help the search engines to find it.
So, the best thing that you can do is to create a
sensible set of Meta Tags which will be friendly to most
search engines. Then MOVE ON. However, Meta Tags are
quite important, so you should go about making them
properly, ONCE.
There is no such thing as a "magical" set of Meta
Tags that will instantly explode your web site
statistics and search engine rankings. For example, you
could go to a site that has a #1 raking for a great
search term and cut and paste the Meta Tags into your
site, but you will NOT get a #1 ranking out of it. Why?
..because there are many factors that determine search
rankings such as site popularity, page loading speed and
content. So, what you need is a set of Meta Tags that
will match your site PERFECTLY!
Here is a great method of creating Meta Tags. If you
use our Meta tag Generator
you can be sure that your Meta Tags will not be too
long, as the keyword, description and title characters
used by search engines do vary. It is BETTER to have too
few than too many. We'll explain that a little further
ahead.
Rule #1
If a keyword is not on your page, do NOT put it in
the title, description or keywords. Many, many people do
this, and it can be extremely damaging to your promotion
efforts. All it will do is water the theme of your page
down, and the search engines will be scratching their
heads (if they had one they would) wondering who to show
your page too.
If you do know a word or phrase that is very common,
and you want to use it, then you need to make sure that
it is in your title, description and keywords 'as well'
as on your page several times. Therefore you will most
likely need to re-edit your content as well, (not just
the Meta Tags).
Rule #2
Don't try and trick search engines. They're not as
silly as they once were and they're getting smarter
every day. Example: Don't repeat text hundreds of times,
making it the same color as the background. Search
engines woke up to this a long time ago. Basically, just
be honest. The time you waste trying to be "tricky"
would be better spent working on your site, content and
REAL promotion efforts. ie: Ones that actually work.
Rule #3
Keep your title, description, keywords and content
specific. Many people try to add too many words and
phrases all over the place. Imagine for a moment that
you are lost and you need to ask for directions. If you
were told to "drive under the bridge, past the green
house on the left, over the little bump, past the red
mail box, you'll see a house with a white gate and then
you'll need to pass a school crossing and then turn
left" would you look at the person with a blank face
(providing that you continued to listen to the person)?
Probably! However, if the person said: "Take your next
left" it would be much more helpful, yes? So, you need
to keep specific. Use as many informative words as you
can to keep a "theme". Don't go overboard.
Method
Creating a "functional" set of Meta Tags is actually
not all that hard. It's not "rocket science" as many
people would have you believe. You can of course do
HEAPS of research on keywords and spend hours on each
page, and get very good results, but if you have 3,000
pages and a business to run, it's not always practical.
So, that's what we mean by functional. A decent set of
Meta Tags that will do a great job, (possibly even
better than sitting for hours per page). If there was
anyone that KNEW how to get #1 every time, then they'd
be a very, very rich person. The truth is that it's just
not possible, so you need to keep realistic.
If possible take a look at the content, before you
make any Meta Tags at all. Is there a GREAT keyword that
could be repeated a few more times? Especially somewhere
within the first 255 characters on the page? You need to
put yourself in the web surfer chair for a moment. Ask
yourself: "If I were looking for the content that is
located on this page, what would I type into a search
engine?" Once you have thought of 3 good words/phrases,
add them to your content. Re-adjust the content so that
it still reads well. If the words that you thought of
were already in the content, good. Less work!
Now you need to make sure that the 3 keywords/phrases
are also in the title, description and keywords. This
can be slightly tricky at first, but once you have done
a few you will get really good at it. It may be a bit of
a bother if you do have 3,000 pages, but let a
lesson be learned. It is good to get in the habit of
using descriptive and informative words when writing
content. If you are not the content editor, then it
would be a good idea to explain this concept to the
person(s) that do write the content.
Here's an example:
You have a page about the benefits of vitamins for
you a cat. Obviously, if you were to have such a page,
you would of course be selling some form of cat/pet food
on your site. It is for this reason that you would want
people to visit your site, otherwise there would be no
real benefit.
You would think of words that people may type if they
were looking for products which would keep their cat
healthy. They might use "natural cat food", "natural pet
food" and "cat nutrition". So, you would make sure that
each of those phrases are in the page content several
times each. It would also be a good idea to use the
singular words many times too. ie: cat, nutrition and
other derivatives such as cat food, pet food, nutrition
for cats and nutrition for pets. Try to use plural and
non plural words as well.
Once you have done that, you should make a title,
which also uses the same words. ie:
<title>Cat Nutrition: Natural pet food for cats
food</title>
With the above title, your page will most likely be
found under:
Cat Nutrition: Natural pet food for cats (Cat
Nutrition)
Cat Nutrition: Natural pet
food for cats (Cat Food)
Cat Nutrition:
Natural pet food for cats (Natural pet food)
Cat Nutrition: Natural pet food for cats (Pet
food)
Cat Nutrition: Natural pet food for
cats (Nutrition for cats)
Cat
Nutrition: Natural pet food for cats (Pet
nutrition)
Such a title would do much better than something
like:
<title>Look after fluffy: He will love you
because he needs his vitamins</title>
..which would get you traffic that were searching for
things like:
Look after fluffy: He will love you because he
needs his vitamins (Love vitamins)
Look after
fluffy: He will love you because he needs his
vitamins (Look fluffy)
Look after fluffy: He will
love you because he needs his vitamins
(Needs love)
..the whole point here is that you need to be
specific, informative to search engines and have a
"theme" going.
Now you need to add a description. As mentioned
above, where it was stated that you should add your
keywords and phrases to the top of your page,
(especially within the first 255 characters) you will
have your description there. All you need to do is copy
the first paragraph of your page into your description.
Just like that.
Now the keywords. Try not to add single words. With
all the competition on line, there is not much chance
that single words will be of any use. Your best bet
would be to use key phrases of 2-3 words. ie:
cat food, nutritional cat food, cat nutrition
etc.. Don't bother adding extra words or phrases that
are not in your page. Doing so would be a waste of time.
| 
