Getting Honest With The Search Engine Marketing
By Daria Goetsch

I spend a lot of time reading newsletters and forum postings
about search engine marketing. More often than not, people
are asking about methods used to improve search engine
rankings: what works, what doesn't, and what will get you
in trouble.

Search Engine*:
A program that searches documents for specified keywords
and returns a list of the documents where the keywords
were found.

Algorithm*:
A formula or set of steps for solving a particular problem.

Frankly, no one can predict what will happen from day to
day with the search engines. Only the search engine
companies themselves know if the algorithms will change
from one day to the next. Even the search engine rules
change from month to month, sometimes daily. Think of
the changes that have happened since pay for inclusion
and pay-per-click have taken over the market for
search engine results.

It seems so simple to try and comply with the search
engine rules. Even though optimization adds to the
basic content of a site and source code, there are
ways to approach this without stepping over the line.

We personally do not use the methods mentioned below
(methods to avoid, methods to be wary of) in order to
play it the absolute safest way, using a long term plan
in providing you optimum ranking in the search engines.

Methods to avoid

* Keyword stuffing. "Stuffing" keywords into places where
keywords don't belong, such as comment tags, image ALT
tags where the keywords have nothing to do with the
specific image
* Invisible text. Text color the same as background color
* Automated submissions. Using automated tools to deliver
huge numbers of pages to submission pages of search
engines
* Submissions to "thousands" of search engines. A waste
of time, since the major search engines/directories
drive the majority of the traffic to websites
* FFA (free for all) links. Link popularity is good,
but only when the links are relevant; a link from a
page of random links is not worth nearly as much as a
link from a site that is relevant to your site
* Search engine marketing companies hosting your pages
on their server. The marketing company "owns" your pages,
and if you decide you want to move them, you may have a
hard time wresting them away. (This is not always the
case with marketing companies that also provide hosting,
but you need to carefully choose when using this option.)

Methods to be wary of

* Cloaking
* Doorway pages
* Maintenance programs

Cloaking*:
Also known as stealth, a technique used by some Web
sites to deliver one page to a search engine for
indexing while serving an entirely different page to
everyone else.

Cloaking is very difficult to do correctly, if you do
not have an expert providing this service you could well
be banned by the search engines. There are ways for this
to be done that are accepted by some search engines.
In general, cloaking is not always accepted by the search
engine rules and can be a gamble unless you are certain
your service provider knows what they are doing. Check
credentials and get referrals from people who have used
their services.

Doorway page**:
A page made specifically to rank well in search engines
for particular keywords, serving as an entry point
through which visitors pass to the main content.

Doorway pages are not accepted as they used to be by
the search engines. A carefully crafted doorway page
done by hand is entirely different from an automated
doorway page generated by software. A few well-designed
pages are a far cry from mass generated automated pages
sent in large numbers through the search engine
submission page, which are often considered as spam.
Again, check credentials and get referrals from people
who have used their services.

Maintenance programs
There are times when a page drops from the search engine
listings or you re-design the page which might give you
a reason to re-submit the page to the search engine.
Re-submitting your pages every month is not always
necessary. Having a log stats program in place will help
you see which pages are still listed, along with a
monthly ranking report. If you have these tools you
should be able to see if any of your pages have changed.
Be wary of people who consistently re-submit your pages,
since re-submission can sometimes cause your pages to
be dropped if they are already listed in the database.

My own experience with a very large website I did search
engine marketing for, showed that the older (longer)
the pages were in the search engine results, the better
for link popularity and ranking. Of course, paid inclusion
can give you more security in having your web pages
stabilized in the search engine results.

A good maintenance plan will include providing a ranking
report, tweaking keywords in your source code as needed
for a monthly/six month/yearly fee and may also include
log stats so you can see where your traffic is coming
from and what keywords your visitors are using to visit
your website.

Methods that work

Search Engine Marketing Now!

Good content
Content is one of the most important items you need for
your website. Once visitors arrive, you need to keep them
there. Adding keyword-rich text that makes sense and serves
the concept of the web page improves your ranking and keeps
your visitors interested. The more text, the better for
search engine spiders when they index a website.

Good navigation
There is nothing worse than arriving at a website and having
difficulty understanding where to go for the information
you are seeking. Have easy to use, clearly marked navigation
so your visitors click through instead of click-away in
frustration. Search engine spiders (robots) index text and
links; having good navigation is important to the indexing
of your web pages.

Title/META tags
Individualized Title and META tags for each of your
important web pages gives you the best chance for optimum
success in ranking. Title tags are necessary for search
engine ranking, in particular with Google's search engine.
META tags have decreased in importance, but are worth
using for clarity and search results. The META
description is still used by some search engines as the
default text indexed by search engine spiders for the
search results. The keyword tag is the least important
but is still used by some engines. My theory is, you
never know when the rules of the search engines will
change, or a new engine will want them, so take the
time to include these tags in all your web pages.

Link popularity
Links from other popular websites back to your website
are one way of increasing your site's popularity.
Finding websites with similar content (but not your
competitors) and high link popularity, then trading
links to be posted on each site, is one way of
increasing your site popularity. Good content is
vitally important because visitors who stay longer
while visiting a website help measure the popularity
of the site in the search engines.

Paid Inclusion
Paying a one-time fee or (as is most recently the case)
a yearly renewable subscription fee to be included in
the search engine results. Directories also use this style
of service to accept submissions. Paid inclusion does not
guarantee that you will be listed with the search engine
or directory, but gives a shorter time-line of acceptance
if they do.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
Overture is the most popular PPC engine. You bid an
amount per keyword phrase to get the highest ranking
in the Overture search results compared to your
competitors.

Google AdWords Select
Google AdWords is a program that uses your chosen keywords
in an ad in the Google search engine results in order to
promote click-throughs.

Log Stats programs
Having a log stats program is very helpful in tracking
your visitors, finding which keywords they are searching
on to enter your website, tracking which pages they leave
from and much more. Analog is a good free log stats program.
WebTrends is a popular paid logs program used by many
businesses.

Free submissions take patience
After paying for inclusion, try submitting to some of the
secondary search engines and directories. Long before Google
was a household word, I thought it might become popular and
submitted the company website. It certainly paid off a year
later when Google became the best of the upcoming search
engines.

Another avenue to venture down are specialty directories.
As the web grows larger over time, specialty directories
(also known as vertical portals or "vortals") focused on
your business area may help you get more link popularity
and your company name out to the public.

Stay Honest

Stay honest, create good content and do your homework when
hiring for services. Using affordable search engine
marketing services you will add to your audience exposure
on the web. In this way you will always be ahead of the
game and hopefully, ahead of your competitors.

Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing
Consultant for Search Innovation (www.searchinnovation.com),
a Search Engine Promotion company serving small businesses.
She has specialized in search engine optimization since 1998,
including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for
O'Reilly & Associates, a technical book publishing company.
Copyright c 2002 Search Innovation. All Rights Reserved.