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Search Engine
Optimisation: The Pitfalls
Search engine positioning is a competitive task, and there
are certain essential techniques that are required to achieve a good
listing. But some of these techniques cross the line between the search
engines' good practice guidelines
and unfair tricks. The search engines are under no obligation to reveal
their listing criteria, and in the main they maintain a significant
level of secrecy.
Why All the Secrecy?
The search engine companies play their cards very close
to their chests. They can't be blamed for this - they're trying to level
the playing field and give their customers the most relevant search results
they can.
To that end they need to protect themselves against "spammers"
- site operators who are looking for any hit, relevant or not. It has
to be said that the worst offenders here are still so-called adult sites.
Most sites containing potentially offensive material now act fairly responsibly,
but there are still a few who make everyone's life difficult.
If all you're trying to do is gain hits to which you're entitled this
can be immensely frustrating; it appears that you and the search engine
are on opposite sides of a chasm. The search engine operators know about
the techniques that are used to improve listings, and by and large they're
pretty understanding about the situation.
But there are certain tricks that won't be tolerated. Cross the line on
these and you'll find your site actively de-listed. The search engine
spiders are constantly updated to recognise the ways that people try to
fool them. Get caught and you'll disappear from the charts faster than
a one-hit wonder.
Excessive Repetition
Don't expect to get a high listing by simply repeating
your keywords. Most of the search engines operate a word counter that
calculates the weighting of certain words and phrases. The optimum is
a narrow band that differs from one engine to another. Once you exceed
the ideal weighting, repetition begins to work against you. As a rule
of thumb, if your text looks as if you're repeating yourself, that's
probably the way that the search engine spider will view it.
Phoney Pages
Because the requirements of search engine friendliness
and attractive presentation often pull in opposite directions, there's
a common trick that involves creating search-engine-friendly pages that
re-direct to the main site after a few seconds.
These gateway pages are strongly discouraged by the search
engines, whose spiders usually ignore any page that re-directs in anything
less than thirty seconds or so.
A well laid-out, coherent content page that stays on screen
long enough to be read won't cause you a problem, other than the fact
that you have to create a new content page for every key phrase. But
quick redirection equals ignored pages, so don't risk it.
Fake Keywords
Don't try to grab cheap hits by putting in irrelevant
keywords calculated to pull in hits for unrelated topics. This is the
essence of search engine spamming, and it won't be tolerated by any of
them. Be aware also that using a competitor's name to grab their traffic
may be illegal. There have been several successful lawsuits recently in
which this practice was exposed and prosecuted.
Please contact
us to discuss your organisation's exact needs.
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SEO Industry News
Best practice Search Engine Optimisation is continually changing.
Edited by Matt Paines the only
UK SEO invited by Microsoft to participate in MSN Search Champs.
Our dedicated SEO news site highlights the
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Invisible Text
One trick that was popular a few years ago was to place
keyword-rich text on a background of the same colour. Because
it couldn't be seen by the viewer, it didn't matter that
the sentences didn't make sense, and the search engine spiders
just loved it.
But search engine operators are smart people, and they soon
spotted the trick and adjusted their spiders to recognise it. Nowadays, put invisible
text on the page and you'll wonder where your listings went.
Over-Submission
It's pretty widely accepted that you have to submit a site
to search engines more than once to get it successfully
listed. But do it too often and you're once again guilty
of spamming, and on your way to de-listing. Many of the
automatic search engine submission programs submit far too
frequently. To be safe, don't submit more than twice a month
to any search engine.
Automated Submission
While we're on the subject of automated submission, beware
of any automatic program that handles your submissions for
you. The search engines frequently change their submission
procedures, so if your program is more than a month or so
old it's unlikely to achieve listings on anything like all
of its targets. Many directories - Yahoo in particular -
require you to make careful judgments about how and where
your listing will appear, and a computer program just can't
do that.
One argument against manual submission is the number
of search engines in operation. You've probably seen the offers to "submit
your site to 400 search engines" and so on. Beware them - they're inevitably
automatic programs, therefore of limited effectiveness - and they're submitting
to huge numbers of search engines that you could safely ignore. Remember that
the top half a dozen or so search engines handle over 90% of search traffic. And
most of the lesser engines take their results from the main players. |
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