Optimizing your site for search engine ranking

Often the aim of a website is to promote something, such as a product, a service or research findings. Successfully advertising what you have to offer entails building the recognition of your website. There are several methods to do this, such as:

• making sure your website address is displayed on all stationery and promotional products your organization distributes, both internally and externally;
• having an easy recognisable web address - such as www.deakin.edu.au/webteam
• making sure your website is regularly maintained and error-free - nothing drives visitors away faster than out of date content or errors on a page
• Ensuring your site is listed on websites with a similar theme or focus - this is often referred to as 'link exchange'
• Ensuring your site is listed on major search engines when expected key search terms are used

This document deals only with the last of these items and provides a basic guide for web developers to help ensure that sites are indexed by search engines.

Different search engines rank sites on varying criteria

It is important to understand from the outset that different search engines use a variety of criteria to rank the sites they have indexed. Different search engines weight each criterion differently, so a technique that you use to get your site listed on one search engine is not likely to be fruitful for others. In search engine terminology, weighting is the importance that a particular search engine places on a page element, such as meta tags, title, file name, alt tags and so on.

Some of the criteria that search engines use to rank pages include:

• The title of the web page. In HTML code, this is the information that appears within the <TITLE> tag.
• Keyword and description information that is placed in META tags
• The substantive content of the page itself
• The filename of the page ie 'apples.html' or 'oranges.php'
• Text that is used for ALT tags with images
• The popularity of the link within the search engine (ie how many other people have visited your site from the search engine)

Keywords are a major element in optimization

Most search engines use keywords as a main criteria in their rankings. Where, and how these keywords appear in your web page have a strong influence on how your page is ranked. Therefore, it is important to select which keywords your page will be associated with before you start thinking about content.

Because there is so much competition among websites, it is best to avoid common or general keywords and phrases, and really focus on what differentiates your sites from similar ones. The table below provides a good example. For argument's sake, it is assumed that the site being optimized is a social sciences research website that has a focus on citizenship and globalisation.

When choosing keyword/keyphrases for your website, keep in mind the following pointers:

Consult other people for ideas on what users who need your information are likely to search on - be aware of cultural or lingual differences. For instance, if you are in the business of selling taps, then 'faucet' should also be in your keyphrase list as this is the American equivalent.

Be aware of synonyms for different keyword terms. For example, one person might search for scholarships, while another will search for bursaries. However, both users are looking for the same information. Also, be aware of alternate spelling such as neighbour and neighbor. While some search engines are able to compensate for slight spelling discrepancies, most are not.

Use only keyword phrases that are relevant to your site. An early practice amongst web developers was to pepper legitimate keywords in sites with high-impact keywords which had little to with the site - for instance a site promoting clothing might use the keyphrases "sex", "free software", "games", "warez", "downloads", "britney" etc to drive traffic to their site. Not only is this unethical, it is downright frustrating for the user and is guaranteed to drive visitors away.

Importance of keyword placement within a web page

Search engines also use the placement of keywords within a web page to determine their rankings. For example, keywords in a <H1> tag are likely to be given more weighting than the same keywords within a <P>

tag. Because of this fact, it is often better to use heading tags for headings rather than graphical elements. If you are concerned about the appearance of your web page, you are able to assign styles to headings using Cascading Style Sheets, so that the heading is aesthetically appealling or stands out. The added advantage of this technique is that your web page will download faster.

Give your page a <TITLE>

Another key factor influencing the ranking of your web page is the title given to the page. The title appears within the <TITLE> tag as follows:

This is an excellent TITLE tag, as it indicates exactly what the web page does. Even better, it contains several keywords that users are likely to search on.

Do not 'spam' the search engines

So why don't you use a TITLE that contains your major keyword 75 times? Good point. Most search engines are able to detect 'spamming' such as this, and will either downgrade the ranking of your webpage, or exclude the web page altogether from their listings. As a rule of thumb, include your keyword or keyphrase only once in the TITLE of the webpage.

The no-spamming principle also applies to keyphrases within the body text of your webpage. Do not list keyphrases in the same colour text as the background (ie make them invisible) as most search engines are now configured to detect this as spamming.

Meta data may be of benefit - but is not a panacea

Most search engines also provide weighting for keyword and description meta tags - but keep in mind that not all do.

Again, the no-spamming principle applies and you should list each keyword/keyphrase only once in your keywords meta tag. If you have a large list of keywords, it is also a good idea to list the most important ones first, as some search engines are configured to take into account only the first 10 or 20 keywords they come across. An example of appropriate meta tagging is shown below.

<meta name="keywords" content="corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility, company obligations">
<meta name="description"
content="Corporate Citizenship is a recognition that a business,
corporation or business-like organisation, has social, cultural and environmental
responsibilities to the community in which it seeks a licence to operate,
as well as economic and financial ones to its shareholders or immediate stakeholders.">
<meta name="Author" content="Faculty of Arts">
<meta name="Publisher" content="Deakin University">
<meta name="Date" content="2002">
<meta name="Location" content="http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts">

Give your images ALT tags

Apart from increasing the accessibility of your site, some search engines also give weight to keyword phrases used within the ALT text of images.

Need further assistance?

If you need further assistance, the Duty Web Programmer will be happy to assist you. Simple email webteam@deakin.edu.au, call (03) 5227 8977 or submit a help request via our online form.