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- The place I’m at has requested that I do whatever possible (and free) to improve their search engine result rankings, and also investigate what’s possible for a fee. What the boss says is, they’re bummed that when one enters “manufacturing distribution software” in Google, that their business doesn’t come up #1-- or even on the first page. The pages have already been hit and indexed by all the major engines, but you don’t get them unless you enter the company’s name and city/location.
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- So I’ve run across a couple things to add: an extra title beneath the head section in the body, and keyword text underneath the big graphics at the top of the page. The pages already had eyword metatags for whatever that’s worth… I have read various news stories about how the search engine sites keep their criteria secret just to make it difficult to do this, and how they will change it if they find a major bug in their listing algorithm. I can’t help but wonder though, what do all these pay sites do? Anybody here have any direct experience with this?
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Not my area of expertise, but I recall reading that Google uses the number of links to a site as a major criterion. How to take advantage of that knowledge, I haven’t a clue.
Basically, each search engine uses its own formula for determining the relevancy of a search phrase to a page. (and it’s important to remember that, it’s not trying to match a whole site to a phrase, but a page). There are any number of criteria that the search engines use, but the most common are:
Title tags
Text relevancy to title
keyword meta tag
Link popularity
Click popularity (not too familiar with this one, but I believe Direct Hit uses this, and I think it refers to how often a link in its listings get clicked on)
A simple explanation of what a search engine looks for is this - compare it to searching for a library book. The title of the library book = the title of the page. The chapter headings in a book = text relevancy to title. An index/glossary of a book = keyword meta tags.
A search engine sends out a ‘spider’ or ‘bot’ that gathers all this information (title/text/keywords/links). This information is then ‘indexed’ back at the search engine. When you then type in a search phrase at the search engine, it accesses its index to pull all listings and uses its algorithm to rank them.
Back to the library metaphor. Let’s say you’re in your local library looking for books on Software Manufacturing. Well, any book that has a title including the words ‘Software’ and ‘Manufacturing’ are likely choices. What you’d probably do next is check the chapters. If one book has chapters like ‘What is software anyway’ and ‘My Dog Fritz’, you’d probably not want it. You may even go to the glossary to check if it contains the exact type of info you want.
So when making a web page, most important thing to include is a title tag. Then, make sure the text in your copy on that page uses that phrase/those words a few times. Lastly, put the same words and variants thereof in your keyword meta tags. You should also include the words in your image alt tags.
One thing important to remember - the spider wants to see as many words in the text as soon as possible, but it reads ALL HTML as text. Therefore, if you have lots of javascript or table HTML or even image HTML, that gets in the way. Always put this code below the actual user text if possible.
Lastly - make sure the spider can access your whole site through regular href tags ( Do NOT put your site in frames). Some search engines use the size of the site as relevant info, others will rank your site higher for a certain keyword phrase if it encounters that phrase elsewhere in your site. If the spider can’t get to your other pages, you lose out.
This is your basic search engine optimization.
As far as paying for listings, that is nothing more than an advertisement. Does it work? That depends. Many surfers are now aware that the top listings are advertisements so ignore them. What you need to do is to ask the search engine rep to give you their average click-throughs on a given listing. You will either pay CPM (per search) or CPC (each time someone clicks through). If at all possible go the CPC route.
There are other search engines now where you ‘bid’ for your listing. This can be very good, but requires quite a bit of attention if you want to maximize your ROI.
Lastly - well done SEO (search engine optimization) will almost always be cheaper in the long run then buying placements.
Hope this helps, good luck
I should add a couple things.
If you absolutely positively want to be #1 for a search phrase, buy the placement. Search engines can be fickle, so SEO works to generally put your site higher in the rankings, but getting #1 (or even top 10) is REALLY DIFFICULT. There are so many pages out there…there are bound to be some that just happen to fit the search engine’s algorithm better.
Do not confuse directories with search engines either. Directories work in a different manner, though many of them now are very similar to search engines. For instance, Yahoo is a directory, so the top set of listings you get is based on their internal search of keywords you associated with your listing when you applied to be included. Yahoo also searches the web (I think they use Google as their web searcher) but those listings come below the directory listings.
Um…I haven’t worked in this field for over a year, so my info may be outdated somewhat. Probably the best place to get info is at www.searchenginewatch.com
Googlebombing (the practice of gaining higher rankings in Google through unorthodox and underhanded means) is nefarious to say the least, and possibly illegal (you are, after all, stealing something Google has not decided to sell). If Google decides to change their algorithm to take care of your shenanagins, you’re left paddling upstream against Niagra Falls, so to speak. Don’t come whining to us if your ploys don’t work.
You cannot buy placement in Google search results. Google sells clearly-marked ads. That’s it, bucko. They expect you to earn a rank.
Google ignores meta-tags (and most other simple keyword matching) in PageRank because of other geniuses doing what you’ve described. Google is smarter than that precisely because it doesn’t want people spamming it. Get the picture?
Google is at liberty to delist your sorry ass. I don’t know if it has done it yet, but who wants to run the risk?
Google is a valuable tool used by thousands worldwide to find useful information untainted by spammers and other businesses. While I doubt your employer cares much about that, plenty of other people do, including Google. Expect them to react as such.
Google’s popular simply because it aims to base rankings on relevant popularity. That is, it rates how many people link to you and whether they’re relevant and similarly high-rated sites. Getting 1,000 mates to set up web pages to link to you won’t work since they’re not popular sites in the same field; getting (say) Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and IBM to link to your software company website would count a lot more.
I believe that meta tags are still only used by one or two search engine algorithms, but I can’t remember where I read that - probably at http://www.searchenginewatch.com (which, as mentioned above, is the best starting point you’ll find for more information).
All I can recommend to you, if you want to be noticable on Google, is to pay for a marked spot. Yes, surfers will know these are paid spots, like ads in the yellow pages. Beats nothing though innit?
Derleth - is this was not directed at me, then I apologize in advance. but if it was…
Then you can take your self-righteousness and fuck yourself with it. When did I ever say that I did anything unorthodox and underhanded? The company I worked for never did anything unethical at all - we specifically followed guidelines and recommendations set at the national search engine conferences (and we were always speakers there as well). We talked on a periodic basis with all the search engines themselves.
We never used: invisible text/1pt. text; meta redirects/doorway/gateway pages; keyword or text overload; spam submission; etc. We frequently had to talk clients out of doorway pages, and we reported doorway pages we found to the search engines themselves for removal from their index.
How close to the search engines were we? We were one of only 3 companies allowed to use/sell the Inktomi paid-submission tool (developed by another company we had close ties to).
Get the picture? In case you didn’t notice, search engine optimization is an accepted industry. The search engines themselves do want, under terms they accept, pages that help them figure out what’s on a page.
I’m shocked you actually work for Google (or so you imply) and don’t realize this. Oh, and next time before you spout off try and make sure you understand why you’re doing it. You obviously weren’t clear on this one.
I should add that when i mentioned for the OP to ‘buy’ the #1 placement that it specifically referred to my previous post where I called purchase placements exactly what they are - advertisements. I know at Google etc you can’t buy the #1 listing, but the ad does appear at the top and to many surfers may mean the #1 listing.
Search engine ‘optimization’ as you euphemistically call it (actually de-optimizing a previously working search engine by feeding it crap) tends to bring out people who disagree with it, as it breaks valuable tools the people who do it don’t think they’re doing anything wrong.
This thread should be closed. Asked and answered. Like most of the Napster threads.
On rereading (I had things to do when I jotted out my first reply, rexnervous), where did I imply I worked for Google? I ask merely for information, as I do not like giving out incorrect impressions.
I am very clear on the fact that Googlebombing, what is being discussed here, is amoral at best and is not done under the auspices of Google. If your company can work out a rank-buying deal with another search engine, well and good. That means zip when it comes to Google.
Don’t whine sue like searchking is doing.
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/print.php/1486741
http://www.pandia.com/searchworld/
Sorry, I took the ‘us’ in ‘don’t come whining to us’ statement as you working for Google.
But Derleth, again, you seem not to understand what we’re talking about here. Googlebombing refers to the practice of setting up many links external to your site that point to yours so that your Google ranking is higher. And that’s it. Where in any of my posts did I say to do that?
I am talking about search engine optimization, a practice accepted and encouraged by the search engines as long as it is done ethically, which if you had bothered to read my post you’d see that we did. You seem to be seriously confusing accepted efforts to maximize identifying what the page is about with Googlebombing (and there are many many other nefarious methods of short-circuiting accepted practices).
As far as buying ranks, I explained earlier (sigh, this is becoming an echo) that what you are purchasing are in essence advertisements. You may appear “#1” to a casual surfer because your site comes up first on the page, even though it’s not actually a ranking. And, by the way, Google does sell this.
Hate to be rude, but you seemed to have discovered a controversial phrase in “Googlebombing” and are bandying it about like a kid with a new Christmas toy, without really understanding the search engine industry.
Search engine optimization done ethically can in no way, shape or form guarantee top rankings. And that was a helluva hard sell to clients, but it’s one we stuck to. It just increases the way, in a general sense, a search engine may rank that page.