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April 2006 |
Published by Dianna Huff |
Volume 6, Number 4 |
Five Reasons Your Site Isn't Showing Up in Google
I've been doing a great deal of search engine optimization (SEO) work of late, which gives me a good vantage point for seeing the mistakes companies make when designing sites. If I were to sum up effective search engine optimization in one sentence, it would be, "Build your site so a search engine spider can read it." (Notice I didn't say, "Build your site so you rank #1 in Google.") "Spiders" are automated "bots" the search engines (SE) send out to find the new content you've added to your site. They also look for the thousands of new sites generated each month. A spider can visit your site every day if you update frequently or it can come by once a month. Building a Website so a spider can read it is pretty easy, yet many of the sites I see have set up road blocks that make it difficult for the spider to crawl the site -- the result being a "no show" in Google, Yahoo, or MSN. What are the common errors? 1. Page copy is embedded in graphic files. In order to get your site indexed in the search engines for your particular search phrases, the spider has to be able to read text in your HTML source code. However, if your site is built entirely of Flash, of if your text is embedded in large graphic files (i.e. jpegs), the spider can't find it -- and hence, can't determine what your site is about. Thus, you may show up for your company name but not much else. 2. Home page is a form. If you require site visitors to click a form -- for example, choose a country or language -- before entering your site, you're effectively stopping SE spiders cold. Why? The spiders can't fill out forms. (A good work-around is to include text links on your page as well.) 3. Home page is a "splash page." Splash pages -- those fancy animated intros -- are also problematic for spiders and users. According to Shari Thurow, author of Search Engine Visibility, "most splash pages, contain a redirect after the Flash animation is complete. All search engines consider redirects to be spam. In fact, most search engines do not include splash pages in their indices because of the lack of content and the redirect." 4. Title tags are not optimized. Title tags, which are found in your HTML source code, are a key element in getting your site to rank well. Not only do the SE spiders read the title tag first when crawling a site, it's what also shows up in the SE listings when people do searches. Yet companies will often use the same title tag on each page of their site -- usually their company name and the name of the section, i.e.: "Widget Company Products." The problem? You're losing significant traffic and inquiries because you're not being found for your main keywords. 5. Content not built around search activity. It can be difficult to get a site to rank well if it consists of three to five pages of "brochure-ware" -- that is, content that simply sells a product or service. People are online all day looking for information. You can easily determine what they're looking for by using a tool like Trellian's Keyword Discovery Tool. If you spend some time at it, the results are fascinating. One, you learn that your main keywords are probably duds (meaning no one is using them in their searches or thousands of people are, hence they may be too competitive) and two, you learn for what types of information people are searching -- things like newsletters, articles, white papers, reports, case studies, blogs, online tools, and other resources. Ensuring your site is "spider-friendly" will go far in helping it to show up in the search engines. For additional tips and strategies, I recommend you read Google's Webmaster Guidelines. |
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The New Rules of PR by David Meerman ScottOne of my favorite people and all around good guy is David Meerman Scott. Not only is he brilliant, he's also willing to share his knowledge with the rest of the world. He recently published an e-book, "The New Rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly." David explains how the Web has changed the rules of PR and how you can use this new environment to drive traffic to your site, achieve high rankings in the search engines, and attract buyers looking for what you have to offer -- all through press releases written to appeal to your buyers, not journalists. |
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DH to Moderate Panel at NEDMA's "Brave New World" ConferenceOne conference I look forward to each year is the New England Direct Marketing Association's annual Spring Conference. Held this year at Bentley College in Massachusetts June 14 -- 15, and featuring speakers like MarketingSherpa's Anne Holland and B2B sales lead expert Mac McIntosh, the conference promises to live up to its well-earned reputation of delivering exciting, cutting-edge content. I'm also honored to have been asked to moderate the panel: "Direct Mail Strategies: What's Hot, What's Not in B2B, B2C and Not-for-Profit." I hope to see you there! |
By Dianna Huff|
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Worry-free MarCom You'll get someone who 1) understands how to write copy that generates leads; 2) delivers copy that needs little revision; and 3) won't miss your deadline. Ever. Dianna Huff--She makes you look good. |
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