Search Engine Optimization
Driving Traffic to Your Site
There is no "magic" to search engine optimization
and there are no "tricks" to fool the search
engines — at least none that won't get you banned.
Are the search engines being nasty and just out to ban
Web sites? Of course not. The objective of every search
engine is to produce the most relevant results when someone
conducts a search. It is to this end that Web-Kare tries
to comply with each and every search engine, following
their guidelines and obeying their rules. For us to comply
it means that we only accept Web sites that we deem to
be of value to the Internet searcher — no gambling
sites, no adult rated sites, no sites that may be offering
fraudulent items or services.
Having done Site Optimization since 1998, we
have seen many a search engine come and go and many
"techniques" get overused and banned. We have
also run into many people who have heard from someone
about "tricks" that will drive traffic to
their site and raise their Web site to the top of the
search engine results. So, we'd like to use this page
to dispel many of these myths.
Myth #1: I only have
to optimize my home page
A search engine indexes your entire site, not just your
home page. Search engines would prefer to send a searcher
to the exact page that has the content that matches
the search query. In order for them to do that, every
page of your site should be optimized.
Myth #2:
I just have to add keywords into my META tags
Back in 1998 this may have been true but, today, hardly
any search engine even reads the keywords META tag and
those that do don't give them much ranking weight. Why
not? Because this technique was so abused it was thwarting
the efforts of the search engines to produce relevant
data.
Myth #3: I can use keyword
phrases as invisible text
Anytime you are producing keyword content that is visible
only to a search engine spider, you risk getting your
site banned. If your site is about widgets, you should
have no problem with the term "widgets" appearing
within your body copy, so why hide it? That's how search
engines think, and rightfully so. This same myth can
be applied to comment tags, alternate text for graphics
if they don't explain exactly what the graphic is, and
very tiny text appearing at the bottom of the page.
Myth #4: I can use doorway
pages to drive traffic to my site
This technique came and went in less than a year. At
first every SEO professional was working on doorway
pages to drive traffic to their clients' sites, then
Google put the kibosh on that when they declared they
did not like doorway pages designed only to redirect
traffic.
Myth #5: My
site only needs to be optimized once
Well, unfortunately, like every good marketing technique
it takes testing, testing, testing, to determine if
something is working. Site optimization is an art, not
a science, so sometimes sites need to be "tweaked"
after the initial optimization. Some sites many never
need to be optimized again, most will need some adjustments
as search engine algorithms change.
Can I do it myself?
Of course you can. You can do your own taxes, too. If
you're in business to make money, however, wouldn't
your time be better spent running your business? If
you're a do-it-yourselfer, you can certainly spend time
researching optimization techniques, subscribe to the
many online newsletters about SEO, and apply what you've
learned to your site. Site optimization is only one
step in getting top search engine rankings however,
it is not the ONLY step.
Web-Kare will not sell search engine optimization
programs as a stand alone program. Our SEO program includes
webmaster services and/or sponsored placement.
Business owners and professionals, please feel free
to ask for our free site
evaluation (for qualifying companies only) to determine what it will take to get
your site to the top of the search engines.
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