Website Creation and the Eye of the Spider

Picture, if you will, a Rocky-style montage. A team is involved in website creation from the ground up. A driving, inspirational song begins. The first scene is a highly contentious meeting, with a sweating and nervous marketing executive frantically drawing away at a whiteboard in front of a hostile audience.

Flash to copywriters, fingers cracked and bleeding, churning away at their keyboards. Jump to web designers, sporting blurred eyes rimmed with dark circles, peering into their monitors in obvious discomfort. Finally, we see signs of it all coming together. A beautiful home page briefly appears. The music ends. A bell rings. And… Nothing happens.

The website would seem to have tripped over its own shoelaces and fallen right through the canvas, disappearing into cyberspace. The credits roll, to the eternal shame of those whose names appear. What went wrong? The team engaged in website creation without any regard for the role of the search engine spider.

You see, there is quite a difference in what is seen by humans on a website and what is seen by a search engine “spider” (a program that routinely combs the Internet indexing websites). There are an untold numbers of expensive websites out there that are beautiful to behold from a human perspective, yet all but invisible to search engine spiders (and thus searchers), just as there are untold numbers of expensive, beautiful yachts silently and pointlessly resting on the ocean bottom in the Bermuda Triangle. What follows is a small list of common website elements, broken into two categories: what search engines can see, and what they can not.

Three Things a Search Engine Spider Can’t See

Graphic text - Most professionals involved in website creation take great pride in their work, which is obviously a desired trait. Occasionally, however, this can present problems. When a web designer decides to use text in a graphic form (meaning that the text is actually an image), the search engine spider can not read what that text says.

A common reason for a designer to use text in a graphic is because he or she wants to use a rare font that most visitors won’t have on their machines. Another reason is that the designer wants to have absolute control over how the website text renders. When faced with the choice over which kind of text to use, it is important to weigh the aesthetic choice against the potential loss of search engine visibility.

Images - As touched upon above, a search engine spider is not yet able to look at images or pictures and determine what they are (although you can and should attach a tag to them which the spider can read - commonly referred to as an “alt” tag). A spider will skip directly over your logo and masthead, any pictures, and most other graphical elements.

Flash - Search engine spiders will not read through the text in any Flash animation on your site (or any other animation). This does not mean that using Flash elements will render your site invisible; it merely means that you should not count on the text that appears in any Flash animation on your website to be indexed. If the team responsible for your website creation decides to build the entire site in Flash, however, you will encounter unique problems.

While some search engines are getting better at trying to index websites built entirely on this platform, it is still an overall rankings killer. If you must have a website created entirely in Flash, it is wise to also have an alternate HTML version for search engines and people who prefer HTML sites.

Three Things a Search Engine Spider Can See

HTML text - A search engine spider relies heavily on HTML text to determine what a web page is about. Spiders, therefore, index HTML text and will even make distinctions between differences in how the text is presented. For example, text that is in a headline or is bolded is assumed to be slightly more important than regular text.

Links - Outgoing links on your pages are easily understood by the spider, especially if they are text links. The wording of these links (or the alt tags attached to them) can, like HTML text, give the spider an idea of what your page is about. However, there are certain types of links that are not easily indexed. If your website creation team embedded your links in a pull-down menu that utilizes JavaScript or other scripting language, most search engine spiders will not see them.

Tags - There are many kinds of tags, but not all are important for search engine optimization. Meta tags include the “keywords” tag, which should list keyphrases that describe the page. Another meta tag is the “description” tag, which should be one or two brief sentences that describe the page. Another tag, which is not actually a meta tag, but which has significant importance to search engine rankings, is the “title” tag. This tag contains the words that you will see in the blue bar at the top of your web page.

This list is by no means comprehensive - there are many other attributes that aren’t mentioned in this article. The primary message here is that companies should do their homework before engaging in website creation. There are thousands of resources available on the Internet that can answer your questions about any element you are considering adding before you build (or redesign) your site.

Take the time to study each so that you can be sure you aren’t sacrificing your search engine rankings for the sake of something largely unnecessary. As for the downtrodden website creation team mentioned earlier in the article, let’s remember that Rocky has been known to get beat down in the first fight but then to pull himself up from the floor and triumph in the end. The team will go back into training and eventually understand the Eye of the Spider. Cue the music…

About the Author
Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue (www.mediumblue.com), a search engine optimization company. Scott has contributed content to many publications including Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), ZDNet, WebProNews, Lockergnome, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide.

Junior :: Oct.19.2007 :: Articles :: No Comments »

1. Multiply your marketing and advertising efforts
on the Internet. You can accomplish this by starting
an affiliate program or using viral marketing.

2. Increase your ratio of visitors that purchase your
product(s). You could change your headline, offer a
stronger guarantee, add testimonials, etc.

3. Find out who are your strongest leads for buying
your product by offering a free ezine. The visitors
that are very interested will subscribe to it.

4. Team up with your competition by starting an
association for your specific industry. It could lead
to a profitable partnership with them.

5. Publish an e-zine for your employees. This could
motivate them to do a better job or fill them in on
were your business is headed

6. Search for your business’ name in newsgroups
and discussion boards. Some of the comments you
find could help you improve your business

7. Attract people to link to your web site. You could
offer them a discount on the products you sell or
give them free stuff for linking.

8. Develop your own opt in email list by giving your
visitors a reason to give you their e-mail address.
Allow them sign up to free stuff and contests.

9. Create a “PR” web page for your business. List
information that could be considered newsworthy
for e-zines, newspapers, magazines, etc.

10. Give your business and products credibility by
linking to web sites that have written positive stories
about your business.

Quote of the Day:

“…if the next generation is to face the future with zest
and self-confidence, we must educate them to be original as
well as competent.” — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Junior :: Oct.19.2007 :: Articles :: No Comments »

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1. Use a “P.S.” at the end of your ad copy. This
is were you either want to repeat a strong benefit
or use a strong close like a free bonus.

2. Publish a free ebook and give it away from your
web site or in your e-zine. This will increase your
traffic, sales and e-zine subscribers.

3. Create multiple streams of income with your web
site. You could sell your own products, join affiliate
programs, sell advertising space, etc.

4. Give your visitors compliments in your ad copy.
This can earn their trust and put them in a good
mood, in return they will be easier to sell too.

5. Create new products or services only if there is
a strong need for them. You won’t have anyone to
sell them to if you don’t have a market.

6. Sell your backend products to your customers
right after they order. Take them to a “Thank You”
web page that includes other products you sell.

7. Sell a few products on your web site instead of
selling a large amount of products. To many choices
can overwhelm your visitors and they won’t buy.

8. Include content and free stuff on your web site
that promote the products you’re selling. If they
don’t read your ads, they may read your offerings.

9. Remind your visitors that you’re human not just
a web site. You could publish information on your
family life, a picture of yourself , a profile, etc.

10. Provide a “Contact Page” on your web site.
Give your visitors as many options to contact you
as possible. This’ll add credibility to your business.

Quote of the Day:

“Let us be about setting high standards for life, love,
creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas
are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting
high standards makes every day and every decade worth
looking forward to.” — Greg Anderson

Junior :: Oct.17.2007 :: Articles :: No Comments »

1. You’ll brand your web site, business and yourself
by submitting articles to e-zines. You could include
your name, business name, your credentials, web site
address and e-mail address in your resource box.

2. You will become known as an expert on the topics
you write about. This will give you and your business
extra credibility which will help you compete against
your competition.

3. Your article might also be placed on the publisher’s
home page. If they publish each issue on their home
page this will give you some extra exposure.

4. You might get extra exposure if the e-zine publisher
archives their e-zine on their site. People might want
to read the back issues before they make the decision
to subscribe.

5. You will get free advertising. This will allow you to
spend your profits on other forms of advertising. You
could buy advertisements in other e-zines that don’t
publish your articles.

6. You might get extra income from people wanting to
hire you to write other articles, books, or even ask to
speak at seminars. This is a great way to multiply your
income.

7. You could allow e-zine publishers to publish your
articles in their free e-books. Since people give them
away, your advertising could multiply all over the
internet.

8. You will get your article published all over the web
when you submit it to an e-zine publisher that has a
free content directory on their web site. They’ll allow
their visitors to republish your article.

9. You’ll gain people’s trust. If they read your article
and like it, they won’t be as hesitant to buy your
product or service. You will then be able to increase
your profits.

10. You could get your article guaranteed to run in
an e-zine. You could agree to run one of their articles
in your e-zine if, in exchange, they run yours in their
e-zine. It’s a win/win situation.

Quote of the Day:

“…even without success, creative persons find joy in a
job well done. Learning for its own sake is rewarding…”
– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Junior :: Oct.16.2007 :: Articles, Miscellaneous :: No Comments »

1. Create a free ebook directory on a specific topic
at your web site. People will visit your web site to
read the free ebooks and may see your product ad.

2. Turn part of your web site into a members only
web site. Instead of charging for access, use it as
a free bonus for one of your products.

3. Add a free classified ad section to your web site.
You could then trade banner ads with other web
sites that have free classified ad sections.

4. Create two versions of your e-zine so people
can choose if they want ads included with it or not.
This’ll attract the people who hate ads to subscribe.

5. Publish your e-zine only on your web site. Have
people subscribe to a “new issue” e-mail reminder.
This could really increase your traffic and sales.

6. Sell advertising space in your product package.
You could sell inserts, flyers, brochures, booklets,
and digital ads for electronic products.

7. Offer daily or weekly visitor bonuses. This will
increase your repeat traffic and sales because your
visitors will visit regularly to get the visitor bonuses.

8. Allow people to download software or e-books
from your web site at no cost. Just ask your visitors
in return if they’ll refer their friends to your web site.

9. Build up the number of people that join your free
affiliate program quickly by temporally offering your
product for free to the people that sign up.

10. Negotiate with e-zine publishers to get free or
discounted ads by letting them join your affiliate
program and earn commissions on the ad you run.

Quote of the Day:

“Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.” –
Horace

Junior :: Oct.15.2007 :: Articles, Miscellaneous :: No Comments »