Things Search Engines Look For

If you understand what the search
engine optimization process is, the next step is to
understand how many factors the search
engines actually do look at. Many search engines suggest in
their documentation and discussions that there are numerous factors
that various search engines look for, and can affect how a web
site ranks in their search engine. There are about 20
factors that are very obvious and others that are less obvious, and
much harder if not impossible to prove. Furthermore, each search
engine weights each of these factors differently, and places the
emphasis in different spots.

The List Of Some Things Search Engines Look For:

1. Title tag – You need a relevant title, not just “Home
   Page” Use it for 5 key words.
2. Headings – The search engines view < h> tags as
   being terms of emphasis – they give weight to the words within
   them. Put key terms in them.
3. Bold – Of lesser importance than < h> tags. the
   < b> tags still emphasize terms of importance.
4. Alt text – Use descriptive short sentences in your alt
   tags. If it’s a picture of a rose, and you’re a florist try “Red
   Rose – Available at ‘name’ Flower Shop”
5. Email addresses on page – if you put up an address,
   make sure the domain name in the address matches the web site
   domain. The search engines look at it as ‘cheesy’if you don’t.
6. Keyword metatags
   – Some engines use them directly, some check them as part of a
   validation process – “do they match the content” If they don’t
   then is this a spam site?
7. Meta description tag – Most engines look at this tag.
   Use distinct ones throughout your site, and distinct ones for each
   page. Make them particular to that page.
8. Key term placement – Terms that are higher up on a page
   are more heavily weighted.
9. Key term proximity – Terms that are close together are
   probably related, and thus the site will show up in searches for
   those terms.
10. Comment tags – Some engines use comment tags for
    content. Most engines look for them in graphic rich / text poor
    sites.
11. Page structure validation – proper coding is likely to
    be of better overall quality, and thus rewarded.
12. Traffic/Visitors – The search engines do keep track of
    how many people follow their links.
13. Link
    Popularity (PageRank in Google’s
    case).

• How may other web pages around the Internet point to your
  web site?
• Do these other pages relate?
• Are they considered valuable resources?
• Anchor Text of inbound links
  • Does the link to your web site have relevant keywords in it?
  • Do the keywords used match keywords in your content?
• Rating of pages linking to this page
  • Even if it is not directly relevant, a web page that is
    important that links to your site will still help your web site.
  • Having relevant links helps more with search engines like Teoma.
• Presence on marked authority pages. (DMOZ)
• Url quotation – i.e. when a page mentions the site by
  url but doesn’t link to it. This commonly occurs in news articles
  that mention web sites. While it doesn’t count as a link, it does
  count as a reference.
• Number of links on pages linking to this page. If the
  link to your web site is the only one from a page, it’s viewed as
  being more valuable than being one link among 100.
• Freshness of links on pages linking to your web site.
  While the engines will count all links, a link from a web site
  that has not been updated in a year or two will be less valuable
  than from one that is updated daily. It indicates activity /
  interest levels.
• Page Last Modified (Freshness)- just like the last
  point a page that is updated frequently is favoured.
• Reciprocal
  Links- Search engines like to see a closed loop – that a
  referring site as also used as a reference. So when you are giving
  away a link, ask for one back. It will help both websites.
• Keyword frequency across all pages. Does the content
  really talk to the subject which the page and the web site is
  supposed to be about?
• Keywords in the url
  • Using keywords in the url does have an effect for the search
    engine algorithms.
  • You can use keywords in the filename. For example if the
    page is about ford parts, then call it
    “http://www.sitename.com/ford-auto-parts.html”
  • use dashes “-” and not underscores “_” to separate words in
    filenames.
• Response Time – If your site is fast, it’s favored.
• Server Downtime – If the search engine robot comes by
  and frequently can’t connect sometimes, they penalize your site.
• Page Size – The engines tend to weigh content at the
  start of a document more than content further down. If a page is
  long, look at breaking it into sections. If a page is over 50k,
  then it’s too long.

Some Factors Which May Affect Search Engine Ranking

1. Domain Extension – New extensions are not always
   immediately recognized by the search engines. This was a problem
   for .cc and .biz sites in the early going.
2. Subdomains – If your web site is ‘mysite.network.com,
   and ‘network.com’ has engaged in any unsavoury search engine
   spamming, your site will be affected.
   • Always get your own domain, even if you use a subdomain
     for your shopping cart, etc…
3. IP Address/Range – This is a bit like the last point.
   If the search engines have had problems with many sites from one
   hosting company, they may degrade all the sites from that
   comapny’s IP range. It makes the hosting companies behave.
4. “Domain in use since” The longer it’s live the better
   it’s generally viewed. Kind of a respect thy elders
   thing…

Negatives That Affect Your Position Within The Search
Engines

1. Broken links – Internally and outgoing.
2. Spam – Read our section on search engine
   spam for details.
3. Metatag Stuffing.
4. Irrelevance – If you use irrelevant keywords,
   description, etc.
5. Tiny Text. – If you use text that is too small for the
   eye to see.
6. Invisible Text – Text the same color as the background.
7. Meta Refresh Tag
8. Redirects – Where when you try and get to one page, but
   the address changes to a different one.
9. Excessive Search Engine Submission – oversubmitting may
   get your site banned.
10. Frames – Be careful when you use them. You need to
    embed key terms in them, because generally, the search engines can
    only see the frame, and not the primary content that you see as
    visible.
11. Missing Alt Attributes – This is a mandatory code element for img tags and
    is viewed as bad coding.
12. Compounded Words in the content, or tags will not help
    the web site for individual terms – i.e – ‘hammersandnails’ as
    opposed to ‘hammers and nails’.
13. Excessive punctuation in the TITLE and description tags
    – wastes precious space, and some characters are ignored or may
    cause a problem with the spider (the pipe “|” is a great one that
    should be avoided).