Thoughts on Ranking

Submitting a site or page to the search engines does not automatically mean that they will be posted. There are things that need to be taken into consideration, mainly having to do with the pages themselves. Frames pages typically have a difficult time getting posted. Search engine spiders do not deal well with frames; they are simply too complicated. Pages with a lot of JavaScript can have difficulty getting posted for much the same reason; the spiders tend to ignore Java.

A page needs a good title, one that is very specific to the site. Meta tags, most notably for keywords and description, are important. A keyword tag of 10 to 20 keywords is considered more than sufficient. The number of keywords should not be excessive, as that can lead to being banned. Keywords should not be repeated over and over.

The description should be just that, a description of the site, what the site is about or its intended purpose; it should not read like a list of keywords.

One of the most important and overlooked aspects is the visible, readable content on a page. Many search engines these days focus on what can actually be seen on the page, and what is contained in that content. One should have the most important keywords in that content as well. Spiders like content; it gives them something to index, something by which to reference a page. Keep in mind that some engines won't even read the keywords tag.

The competition for ranking is intense these days. There are pages or sites that have been posted for quite a long time, and they can enjoy better rankings simply because they've been around longer and have accumulated more traffic than newer sites. There's paid placement and pay-per-click options now. Some people have certain pages optimized for particular engines. Depending on the nature of the site, there could literally be hundreds or even thousands of similar sites competing for rankings.

You might care to take a look at www.searchenginewatch.com and www.searchengineforums.com. There you ought to find some valuable information on how the engines operate and what they look for in web pages.

By Ken Foster
Cyberspace HQ