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Further Warning About Naming Pages
After several tests, we believe that Infoseek may have implemented a penalty to combat potential spam for pages that contain the name "index" after the root domain.
For instance:
http:// www. partyservice. com/ index-is-balloons. htm
http:// www. partyservice. com/ index-is-singingtelegram. htm
http:// www. partyservice. com/ index-is-magician. htm
In this example, the "is" stood for pages submitted to Infoseek and the next word was the keyword for which the pages were optimized.
After being in the index for two weeks, several pages that we created using this naming convention were dropped even though they contained nothing that would otherwise red flag them as being unacceptable. |
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Based on other feedback from readers of this report, we believe that Infoseek searched their database for pages that would likely qualify as spam as determined by repeated occurrences of the word "index," as the first part of the page name.
Prefix accepted into the database after several tries. Go figure.
It would seem that the unwritten rule is not entirely consistent, or perhaps Infoseek was just losing pages at random recently. If that's the case, make sure all you're pages are actually being added to the index and STAYING there! To be on the safe side, we suggest you avoid naming multiple pages with "index" as the prefix.
This penalty is probably in response to unethical marketers
who create dozens of duplicate pages targeting one or two
keywords. Some of these spammers are trying to get their pages
to occupy all of the first 20 to 30 matches returned for a
particular keyword search. This would almost ensure that someone
searching for that keyword would visit one of their sites
(or doorway pages to their one main site). However, this infuriates
searchers as well as competing Web site owners.
We recommend naming your pages after the keyword you are targeting,
such as "balloons. htm." If you create a page designed for
a specific engine, you might designate it "balloons-av. htm"
for AltaVista. However, avoid numbering pages such as "balloons1.
htm" and "balloons2. htm."
Even if the information on each page is unique, you might
draw attention to yourself by numbering pages. It is better
to choose safer file names for Web pages created for the different
engines. If you have any additional experiences related to
this subject, please drop us a line.
The Power of Natural-Sounding Paragraphs
Search engines continually create more sophisticated ways
of grading pages based on their content and often ignore pages
that try to list the same keyword over and over. Occasionally
this technique will still work. However, the technique of
listing keywords is prone to abuse, so engines are turning
to judging the content of the page, rather than what
keywords you list in your META tags or elsewhere on your Web
site.
Pages that naturally integrate keywords into the content of
the page often rank better in some search engines. These search
engines are probably employing a system where keywords are
given less weight or ignored if the keyword is found within
so many characters or words of that same keyword. Repeating
the keyword, but keeping it spaced apart may work better on
these
engines.
So, what does this mean? One successful technique is to create
a page that includes a normal sounding paragraph, in regular
sentence, but go out of your way to repeat certain keywords.
Unfortunately, the page might not have the most professional
writing style and may sound a bit awkward, but if you're having
trouble getting recognized by the engines, this technique
often works when others fail. Don't make your home page sound
silly by repeating the keywords over and over. You can, however,
create doorway pages that lead people into a very professional-looking
home page. You must remember that once you attract the visitor,
you have to grab the prospect's attention and inspire confidence
in your products or services before the prospect will buy
anything.
Another technique that often works well is to do the same
thing, but keep the page very small, to perhaps a few sentences
followed by a link to your main page. It is important to try
a variety of techniques since you cannot always anticipate
the search engines' next move. To succeed, you have to be
more clever than simply repeating keywords. As described earlier,
most search engines penalize you after you've repeated a keyword
more than seven times on a given page. Others now penalize
if a keyword is repeated more than three times.
Some search engines are now implementing sophisticated code
to try to detect flagrant attempts to influence their index.
It is believed they now check not only for word repetition
but also for sentence construction. This technology will not
affect you if you do not repeat keywords separated by commas,
but rather write normal sounding sentences that include your
keywords, scattered carefully throughout.
"Click Here" Is Important
Don't forget to tell visitors on your doorway page to "click here" to enter the site or to learn more. All the research
on banner advertising extols the virtue of asking the visitor
to take the specific action and to "click here." Don't question
this wisdom, just use it. Make the phrase "click here" a part
of your marketing practices. |
