Q. Should I use a Site Map? and does anyone have an example of one?
A. Every site should have a sitemap of some sort. It provides a way for visitors
to navigate your site, as well as a shortcut for bots to crawl all your pages.
Google for "sitemap" and you'll find nice examples, although it would
be advisable to follow Google's official guidelines and keep the number of links
per page under 100.
Q. I am number 5 in Yahoo, but not in the top 1,000 in Google. Why?
A. Yahoo and Google use two different algorithms to come up with their SERPs - Yahoo
favors on-page optimization such as H1 tags, keyword density, etc while Google
favors off-page in bound links. If you have done more on-page then Yahoo
will rank higher and vice versa. As part of this, if you are now addressing your
off-page then you need more backlinks with anchor text and time for these links
to age.
Q. When I look up my site in Google, I am #23, but when my friend in California looks it up I am #31. Which one is right?
A. They both are! Actually, a more accurate explanation is that Google using
multiple datacenters that deliver the results you see. The datacenter that is
used depends on your geographical location. It is very common to see a small
difference in results depending where you are. Sometimes, results can differ
when you move just a few miles away!
A. Text that is visible to the search engine spiders but not to site visitors.
Hidden text is primarily used to add extra keywords in the page without actually
adding content to a site which may mostly consist of images. Most search engines
will penalize Web sites which use hidden text.
A. Determining which search engine spider is visiting a web page and then giving
each spider a page optimized for it's particular algorithm. This method of search
engine optimization can result in a website being removed from the major search
engines.
A. A method of search engine optimization considered to be SPAM. These are pages
created for nothing but the purpose of ranking first for a particular keyword
phrase. These pages usually lack any significant content and do not reflect
the tone of the rest of the website. If a search engine determines a website
has used this tactic then the website will be removed from the search engine
permanently.
A. The distribution of ads to a particular geographical area. For example, you
can use a place name in your keyword, such as "Texas Web Design".
Some search engines allow you to target specific countries – and languages
– without using keyword relevance.
A. Not directly. Googlebot does not (at the moment) read CSS-files. Using CSS
makes pages lighter, and page structure more organized. Thus using CSS could
lead to better rankings. When adding CSS styles to page, it is recommend to
put them to external file (using link-tag).
Q. Should I use submission software to make sure all the search engines have me included?
A. Most submission programs that promise to "Submit Your Site to 1000's
of Search Engines" are used to harvest your email address for spammers.
The truth is there are only a handful of Search Engines used by enough people
to justify a submission and these can all be submitted by hand. Even better
yet is to get other sites to link to you. Search Engine spiders follow these
links and you will be indexed naturally. Submission programs are unnecessary
and may actually hurt you.
Q. I submitted to DMOZ but didn't hear anything. Should I resubmit?
A. You should only submit once as resubmitting only deletes your original request
and lengthens your wait. Resubmitting too many times can have you classified
as SPAM and blocked. You can also submit to a "normal" category and
a "regional" one if it fits. You must be physically located somewhere
to be able to also submit to regional and read their guidelines as certain sites
like real estate are the exception. They have set up a forum as a way of letting
you know your status and this is a much under posted and under used area of
DMOZ - The address is http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/ .
Q. Why don't all my links show up when I use the link: command?
A. At this moment Google is only showing a sampling of the total links to you.
A few months ago it seemed as though they were only showing those backlinks which
were PR4 or higher. This has, however, changed and which links Google chooses
to show is now a topic of debate. As far as numbers, it is only important to remember
it is a sampling and to just continue your link building strategy.
Q. How come I get a different amount of links when I use www.example.com and example.com?
A. In the search engines eyes, these are two different domains and therefore have
different amounts of sites linking to them. It is best to be sure your link partners
are only linking to one of these as it would be considered extremely rare for
both "domains" to rank high at the same time.
A. A set of web pages that have been built for the sole purpose of increasing
the number of incoming links to a web site. This is done in order to increase
link popularity and search engine rankings. Link farms usually require a reciprocal
link from sites seeking listings. Link farms are a known spam tactic and sites
that participate in them are likely to be penalized or banned from the major search
engines.
The anchor text that you use, should reflect the keywords of which you are trying
to get a higher listing for. It should also accurately describe what information
will be found on the next page if you click on the link.