How to Avoid Trouble with the Engines

In past issues I've discussed a number of things you should do in order to get positioned higher in the search engines. Just as important as the DO'S, are the DON'TS:

1. Never use keywords in your meta tags that do not apply to your site's content.

Positive Tip: Let's say you have a travel service business. The single keyword "travel" will probably be very hard to be positioned well on. In order to attract the visitors you want, you may want to create good content related to your business. For example, if you sell vacation cruises to the Caribbean, make a page all about "Para-sailing in the Caribbean". Give them all the information they'd want to know about the sport, the pros and cons, then show them how to get there on one of your vacation plans! However, good content is the KEY. Your page must really get the prospect excited about going para-sailing before they're going to start thinking seriously about buying a ticket.

2. Be wary about repeating the same keyword in a row anywhere on your page or in your meta tags. Search engines are penalizing and even banning Websites for employing this technique.

3. Do not create "too many doorway pages (See September MarketPosition for discussion of "Doorway Pages"). It's good to create multiple doorway pages which each target different sets of keywords or topics related to your site but DO NOT BE EXCESSIVE! Search engines now watch for multiple submissions that appear the same or very similar. Try a couple variations, submit them, and wait and see how you rank.

TIP: It's important to review your Website and check your rankings/positions for many keywords that appear in the copy/text that makes up the different pages of your Website. Often you'll find that your Website did not rank well for one important keyword but it may rank very well on some other keyword or PHRASE found on the page!

The easiest way to get in trouble is to have 3, 4, or more of your pages all appear together in the matches for a single keyword search. One of your competitor's will likely report you which could get you banned from that search engine.

4. Avoid Submitting too many pages at once. I know that some engines such as Hotbot limit you to about 20 pages in one day (if I remember correctly). If you have 100 pages you need indexed, first review the rules of the particular search engine to make certain they will index that many. I suggest you play it safe and break up your submissions to submit no more than the maximum limit per day. You can also use the special feature in WebPosition Gold that limits the submissions to one URL per day (this way you avoid any "undocumented" limits a search engine may have where they simply ignore your pages after a certain number of submissions). Also be wary of site submission tools that submit too many pages simultaneously.

5. Avoid submitting the same page twice on the same day. Generally a second submission will simply be ignored by the engine.

Following up by checking your rank for many keywords in many search engines sounds like a lot of work. It is. Some people tell us they spend 30 hours a week checking their rank for their important keywords. And remember, that's why we designed WebPosition. It does all the "grunt" work for you by doing the searches in parallel and then putting together all the results in neat, concise reports.

After you've been in business awhile, you'll learn that to succeed, you need a competitive advantage. Use technology (and Knowledge) to do more in less time. This is how the smaller or newer companies can often compete against the big boys. However, don't sacrifice your ethics to achieve your goals. Using Princess Diana's name on your Website to bring traffic is patently offensive and despicable. It's deception in every application whether the keyword concerns a sensitive current event or simply a high-interest keyword. Most importantly, it won't translate into revenue, only aggravated visitors. And even if you make a buck or two, it will be on your conscience. Making money on the Web is not that hard. We made WebPosition to make it even easier. Now go make lots of money and report back to tell us on how you did it!

About Article

This article is copyrighted and has been reprinted with permission from FirstPlace Software, the makers of WebPosition Gold. FirstPlace Software helped define the SEO industry with the introduction of the first product to track your rankings on the major search engines and to help you improve those rankings. A free trial of WebPosition Gold is available from their Web site.

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