.: Search Engine Optimization’s Frequently Confused Concepts
By:Jason Bland
Category:Home / Internet Marketing / Search Engine Optimization
When I started working with the parent company of the search engine optimization company I currently manage, I spent a lot of time on the phone with prospects and clients. I was always amazed by misconceptions given to so many people about how to get a top listing in a search engine. Often times, I felt as though people were educating themselves with literature written in the early nineties.
Unfortunately, the penalty for some of these techniques is not just a bad ranking but rather permanent delisting or banning. Nobody wants to be banned! I have organized a list of concepts that people confuse or as I like to call them “Frequently Confused Concepts”.
The most frequently confused concept of search engine optimization is the value of meta tags. Way back before search engines were sophisticated enough to scan and save the content of your web site, they would simply review your meta tags. A meta tag gives the title of your site, a description of what you do, and a list of five to ten keyword and keyphrases that are relevant to your web site. The problem with relying on these tags is that many people caught on to the unfortunate truth that pornographic keywords would generate more traffic than the terms related to their web site. Now, this is not traffic you want since the person looking for his favorite centerfold does not want what you have to offer. Also, this makes the search engines quality of results very poor for the searching public.
All the major (and most minor) search engines index your entire site and use the meta tag as a minimally valuable map of what your web site has to offer. You content is the most important. If you have “dogs, girls, basketball, superbowl” in your keywords list in your meta tag and your web site pertains to “pet care” then you are spamming with your meta tags and they will not be positively received by the search engines robots. At the same time, piling a whole encyclopedia of keywords and keyphrases into your meta tag and not mentioning these words in your general wordage of your site will also not help you. Your meta tags should have descriptive, relevant, descriptions and keywords pertaining to your sites content.
This brings me to the second frequently confused concept of search engine optimization which is keyword lists. You have all of your literature and content in tacked on your web site. Then at the bottom of your web site, you put a long list of keywords such as:
Animal Care
Pet Care
Pet Medications
Pet Bathing
Cat Toys
Dog Toy
Dog Leashes
Since these words are not in anyway (other than a list) part of your wordage, the search engines will disregard this as low quality content. You do NOT want to have low quality content as it is high quality content the search engines are looking for. After all, you will be in much better shape if you are holding hands with Google and Yahoo as apposed to thumb wrestling them. So avoid long lists of keywords and use that time to include your keywords and keyphrases frequently in your wordage. For example:
“Animal care is the foremost part of our goal at XYZ Pet Company. We are here to help you with your pet care needs. Whether you are looking for pet medications or pet bathing products, we are your one stop shop. You can entertain your pets by checking out our Cat Toys (link to cat toys page) and Dog Toys (link to dog toys page) products. XYZ Pet Company currently has a sale on Dog Leashes (link to dog leashes page).”
The above paragraph will be welcomed as quality content whereas a list of unused words will simply look like garbage.
I have had the unfortunate task of waving warning flags at prospects that come to us after working with a black hat search engine optimization specialist or misguided web designer about hidden keywords. This is my next frequent confused concept. Hidden keywords are lists of keywords in the header or footer that are the same color as the background. This makes them only viewable to search engine spiders. Do not do this! This is an offense that is punishable by black listings, banning, and overall delisting of your web site. Once again, use this time to creatively mention your keywords in your wordage.
Now that you have a quality web site, you need a few relevant web sites to link to you. Not all links are created equal. A much used (and still very popular though useless) technique is submitting to free for all link pages. These are pages that accept links to everyone’s web site. The search engines hate these as they are just lists of links. Aside from that, these sites are NOT relevant to your web site so the link you wasting your time posting will not benefit you. The best way to add your link to other web sites is by searching for relevant directories and web sites then offering link exchanges. Our friends at XYZ Pet Company could add their link to pet related directories, forums, and blogs. Another valuable technique is simply writing informational articles and include your link in the footer of the article. Then submit these articles to places like ArticleCity.com who will post your article for others to use. They use your article with the understanding that your link and footer stay in their original context.
Last but not least in my list of frequently confused concepts of search engine optimization is “hocus pocus”. Yes, we still get calls from people that believe the key to optimization is by the use of magic tags and invisible mojo. The truth is, search engine optimization is based on the three pillars of Relevant Content, Fresh Content (update your information frequently), and Relevant Link Population. If all of your techniques are centered on ethically doing those three things, you will have a better ranking and sleep better knowing that the search engines will not kick your site off their index.
Article keywords: seo, search engine optimization
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Jason Bland is the Vice President of Adviatech Corporation (www.adviatech.com) and has recently taken over their resell search engine optimization department (www.resellseo.com) which enables web designers to offer search engine optimization services. Adviatech also manages search engine, SpivO Search (www.spivo.com).
.: New Search Engine Optimization Articles
1). How to Improve Search Engine Ranking
Powerful 4-step process to improve search engine ranking
2). How to Make Websites that Search Engines Love
How you can apply the fundamental basics to create a website that the search engines will love to spider.
3). Articles Are Seeds of Knowledge - A Biblical Look at Duplicate Content
Article Marketing compared to the successful distributon of the Christian Bible.
The Christian Bible is the Worlds most successful publication, with over 6 billion copies printed, similar to the total World Population.
4). Content Management Systems Equal Business Suicide!
One of the fastest way to minimise your chances of web business success is to use a Content Management System (CMS).
5). Importance of Search Engine Marketing Firms
Literally speaking, there is no business in todays world of World Wide Web, which doesnt have online business. To reach ever growing population of internet all across the world it is mandatory to have a good online presence for any business. Moreover, meeting customers online is the cheapest possible way.
6). Internet Search Engines, Important Details Everybody Should Know
Internet Search Engines see something totally different than what we see when we look at a webpage. It is all in the webpage code. Have you ever seen webpage code? Place one of your webpages into your browser.
7). Why Websites Get Banned From Search Engines
These are methods and techniques that end up getting websites banned from Google and other search engines.
.: Top Search Engine Optimization Articles
1). SEO Contests: Good or Bad?
As a webmaster you probably already know what a SEO Contest is or you surely came across some of them or even participated in. Some of the major SEO contests organized are the v7ndotcom elursrebmem (by v7n.com), Ambachdotcom, Carcasherdotcom, and more recently the Cpayscom2 Online Casino where the winner gets $10,000 for ranking number one on MSN. Now the big question is whether it is good or bad to organize SEO Contests.
2). High Paying Lateral Keywords
If you run AdSense on your site you know that some words pay more than others, much more in fact. More than likely you have also learned that terms like "structured settlements" and "mesothelioma" can produce incredibly high PPC revenue, if they show up on your site at all. Unfortunately hundreds of thousands of other webmasters are "on" to this practice judging by the number of sites created regularly to capitalize on the phenomenom.
3). Is Your Website Invisible? The Google Sandbox Solution
What is the Google Sandbox? How Do You Know if You’re Stuck in the Sandbox? Does the Sandbox Really Exist, or is it Just the Google Algorithm? Why Do You Get Sandboxed? Is There a Way to Trick the Sandbox Filter?
4). An SEO Glossary - Common SEO Terms Defined
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become an essential weapon in the arsenal of every online business. Unfortunately, for most business owners and marketing managers (and even many webmasters), it's also somewhat of an enigma. This is partly due to the fact that it's such a new and rapidly changing field, and partly due to the fact that SEO practitioners tend to speak in a language all of their own which, without translation, is virtually impenetrable to the layperson.
5). Creating Sitemaps For Google, MSN AND Yahoo! - The Easy Way
If you own or maintain a website or intend to own one, wouldn’t it be great if you get frequent visitors who find satisfaction in getting exactly the information they need from your page?
While that satisfaction largely depends on the contents of your website, how you get to be accessed by website users is the most critical factor of website development.
6). How to Make a Sitemap For Your Website In Five Steps.
A website's sitemap can be compared to the table of contents of a book. The sitemap is important because it guides visitors to the parts of the website in which they are interested. The sitemap allows surfers to reach their destination without wasting time.
Sitemaps are also important from the point of view of search engines. If the search engine finds a sitemap it is much more likely that your page will be fully visited (spidered) and indexed; allowing web surfers to find your pages in their searches.
7). 301 Redirect - The SEO way to rename or move files or folders
In this article I will discuss page redirection techniques, what works and what to avoid.
What is page redirection and why would you want to use it?
Let’s say you rename a page on your website, for whatever reason. Perhaps you decided to revamp your entire naming convention, perhaps you decided to restructure your site and need to move pages into different folders, or you just realized that you are missing valuable keywords.