.: By Waqas Nasir ( SEO Guru / Expert Pakistan)
Contact : waqas@xebtech.com
0092-333-3256882
Things to Avoid in SEO , SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
There are two kinds of page:
1. The world of spider-friendly pages that score well on the engines.
2. The world of user-friendly pages that site visitors like and respond to.
The spider-friendly pages are dumb, ugly, and full of text and no graphics.
The user-friendly pages are appealing, with graphic aids and a great deal of
design and interactivity (flash, shockwave, java, etc.), resulting in a site which
is impossible to index by the search engines.
As a result Search Engine Optimizer (SEOs) have always struggled to create
pages that deal with both issues.
The goal has been to create text that Search Engines can see and index but
are, somehow, invisible to human users. Nonetheless, as we will see later,
Search Engines are cracking down on these kinds of techniques (called
spam) with great severity.
The balance is to walk the fine line between what you can get away with and
what the engines consider to be spamming.
Keyword Spamming, Stuffing And Spamdexing
This is one of the oldest tricks Search Engine Optimizers have ever used and
Search Engines detest it. As such, it has been banned.
It consists of repeating keywords over and over again, strategically at the top
and/or bottom of the page in a very small letter. E.g. <font size=1> or headline
<H6>
E.g.
<H6> Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile Phone Mobile
Phone</H6>
Invisible Or “Semi-Visible” Text
This trick consists of setting the text font colour the same or almost the same
colour as the background of the page.
It is important to mention that this technique has been used to carry out
‘Keyword Spamming, Stuffing And Spamdexing’. For this reason many search
engines consider this technique to be unacceptable, no matter whether used
genuinely or not. Therefore SEOs resort to using semi-invisible text instead.
For instance, if the background of the page is white, this is
<BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF>, the text colour could be slightly off-white. This is <font
color=#FFFFee>.
This produces text invisible to the site visitors and text that appears just like
any other text for the search engines’ spam filters. This is because it is
‘technically’ a different colour.
A different and, to some extent safer way to accomplish the same result, is to
use a 1x1 coloured pixel image for the background
<background=”white_dot_image.gif”>.
If the background image was solid white and the text was also white, the search engine would not be able to
detect the similarity while the text would pass unnoticed for human users.
Doorway, Hallway, Pointer And Information Pages
These are all names for the same strategy. However, it is recommended that
they are called information pages. This is because although the search
engines dislike this technique extremely, they seem to have a tougher time
towards anything called ‘Information’.
Having said that, here is the definition:
“Any page that is strategically optimized to score well on one or more search
engines for specific keywords or phrases and is linked (points) to one of the
main pages within your website.” (Planet Ocean Communications 2002: 21)
Here is a simple yet illustrative example of an information page:
• HTML Code:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Mobile Phone Shop</TITLE>
</HEAD><BR>
<body text=#000088 link=#3366ff vlink=#663399 BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF <font
size=2>
<CENTER><A HREF=”index.html”><IMG SRC=” mobile_phone_logo.gif”
border=0></a><CENTER><BR><BR>
<CENTER><a href=”index.html”><IMG SRC=”phones.jpg><BR></CENTER>
<CENTER><H1><A HREF=”index.html”>Accessories
Shop</H1></a><CENTER><BR>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Notice that this page contains only two viewable words, ‘Accessories’ and
‘Shop’. This results in a high keyword density (50% each word). There are
also two graphics ‘mobile_phone_logo.gif’ and ‘phones.jpg’. These images
have been strategically named with relevant keywords as well. Although
search engines cannot understand images, they can read their names and
still index them.
The main idea behind information pages is to create several different
entrances to a single website with pages that have been specifically optimised
with different keywords and/or different search engines.
E.g.
http://www.mysite.com/entrance1.html
http://www.mysite.com/entrance2.html
http://www.mysite.com/entrance3.html
…and so on.
Redirect Pages – Meta Refresh And JavaScript Pages
If you ever clicked on a link and noticed a page loading that loads another
page, without any action required from you, you have encountered a ‘redirect
page’. This usually occurs in a question of seconds – you only see the URL
address bar of your browser changing to a different location and the mouse
click sound on your speakers.
This practice is frequently used to guide visitor to the most recent sections of
a web site and keep them away from old pages or broken links.
Nevertheless, highly optimised pages can be submitted to search engines in
order to score high on the rankings and act as a doorway for customers into
the main area of a web site.
Here there is an example of a Meta refresh tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV=”refresh” content=”1;URL=index.html”>
This tag causes the page that contains it to immediately load index.html.
Another way of redirecting or refreshing a page is by using JavaScript.
Here is
an example:
<SCRIPTS language=”JavaScript1.1”>
<!-- document.location=’http://www.domain.com’//-->
</SCRIPT>
As mentioned, redirects do have some appropriate uses. It is the manipulation
factor that search engines tend to object to. Therefore, most search engines
will not accept web pages that contain a redirect. They will either ignore them
or index the pages they point to.
Keywords – Singulars And Plurals
Wherever keywords are used it is always advisable to use the plural version
of them. In other words, it is always better to use the word ‘Phones’ than
‘Phone’.
This is because a page with the keyword ‘Phones’ will be found for both
‘Phone’ and ‘Phones’.
When searching, some people will use the plural while others will use the
singular form of a word. In either case, the page will qualify to be found by the
search engines if the plural form is used.
Using The Comment Line
When a web site is created the author/s leave hidden messages for the rest of
the authors in order to help each other with the programming. This helps with
tracing variables, troubleshooting code errors, etc. These hidden messages or
comments are not visible for the site visitors and take the form of <!---your
comment here-->
Search engine optimizers have been known to place extra keywords within
this tag. This technique has worked in the past; however experiments have
demonstrated that it does not currently work on most search engines.
ASCII, Numerical, And Alphabetical Text Order
Search engines, and particularly directories, sometimes favour alphabetically
optimized listings.
Yahoo!, for instance, uses several different criteria to draw its listings.
Nonetheless, when all criteria are equal, it is the alphabetical order that
usually becomes the decisive aspect.
In fact, it is usually a high positioning ASCII alphanumeric dictionary that gives
the additional boost.
Here is the list of ASCII alphanumeric characters in the order they are
favoured:
! “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J
K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ` a b c d e f g h I j . . . etc.
For example, a name like !!#1-A will be listed before any name starting with A
However, it is important to remember that we are trying to appeal to human
users (potential customers) and the given example doesn’t particularly attract
any customer.
As a result, it would be better to come to an intelligent deal in deciding the
most appropriated balance between both human and search engine world.
E.g. “A-1” Hot Phones
This title could be very effective since “ (Quotation mark) is second to !
(Exclamation mark) in the ASCII dictionary.
Images – Converting Weaknesses Into Strengths
As mentioned in ‘Images And The Search Engines’ on page 18, images are
not indexed by search engines at all and they should never be placed higher
than the text when viewing the source code.
Nevertheless, there is an optimising technique that can potentially improve
image issues regardless of where they are located on the page. This practice
is based on the use of the ALT tag in conjunction with the <IMG
SRC=”image”> tag.
The ALT tag is used for many purposes, but the search engines use it to know
what it is the image about. On the other hand, as we saw under the title
‘Doorway, Hallway, Pointer And Information Pages’ on page 23; search
engines pick up keywords from file names as well. Consequently, image files
can be cleverly named using keywords and some relevant keywords placed
within the ALT tag to make a handicapped page become a highly competitive
device.
E.g.
<IMG SRC=”Mobile_Phone_Logo.gif” Alt=”The cheapest Mobile Phone
online shop in the UK” height=116 with=537>
The Phantom Pixel
Suppose you could place an image so small it could not be seen. Imagine an
image one square pixel and transparent. An image that takes up negligible
space on the page, so it can be loaded instantly. An image that you can stuff
with keywords related to your website and it is invisible to your visitors. That is
known as a ‘phantom pixel’.
By placing keywords into the <IMG ALT> tag, the search engine is given extra
information about the theme of a site while this passes unnoticed by the
visitors.
This 1x1 pixel images are often linked to other parts of a web site helping the
spiders find their way around it.
The ‘Bait And Substitute’ Technique
It consists of submitting a highly optimised page and then switching to a more
human-friendly page once the search engine indexed it. This technique is
highly effective with engines that do not update often. Engines that do update
frequently re-visit the pages according to a schedule given by their algorithm
and re-index the pages accordingly. Therefore, this technique lacks
permanence. Alternatively, SEOs tend to use ‘Cloaking’.
Cloaking
Commonly known as cloaking, IP delivery is probably the most controversial,
as well as the most effective, search engine optimisation technique. In my
opinion, much of this controversy arises from lack of understanding, as
discussed later under the heading ‘Conclusion’ on page 57.
Let’s examine how IP Delivery works, but first let’s shed some light on a few
points:
A. What Is An IP?
When somebody connects to the Internet using a dial-up connection, they are
temporarily assigned an IP number that belongs to their Internet Service
Provider (ISP) (also called dynamic IP). On the other hand, if somebody has a
dedicated line (like a broadband connection) the IP is constant (also called
static IP). This IP is a unique number impossible to spoof that identifies them
on the Internet. For example, the static IP address of the computer the author
was working on at the LRC at TVU is 193.63.21.215
Note: To find out a computer’s IP address or a web site’s IP address follow these steps
(Microsoft Windows OS only):
1. Go to the start menu
2. Click on Run…
3. On the Run pop-up window write ‘ping localhost’ to find out your local computer’s IP
address, or ‘ping tvu.ac.uk’ for example, to find out a website’s IP address.
B. What Is The Relation Between IPs And Spiders?
Similarly, search engines spiders also have IP numbers. The difference
between a search engine spider and a human user is the purpose of the visit.
The spiders are there to index the website while the users are there to browse
the site and possibly buy something.
Some SEOs have gone extraordinarily far and collected all the IP addresses
(numbers) of nearly all the search engine spiders.
They have done this enormous amount of work in order to distinguish when a
visitor is a real person and when is a search engine spider.
Having said this, we can now proceed…
C. How IP Delivery Works
a. The Problem:
SEOs realized that creating pages that are search engine friendly
poses two potential problems:
1. Search engines tend to favour straight forward, text oriented, nonframes,
non-tables, non-graphic, non-JavaScript, non-shockwave sites.
Search engines like pages that most customers would agree are nonprofessional
looking. However search engine spiders tend to score
‘ugly’ pages higher because they are looking primarily for text context
to index. To put it another way, all the fancy stuff just confuses the
search engines spiders and makes them want to go away.
2. The second problem arises from the fact that competitors can view the
source code of the optimised pages and steal their success. As soon
as a page achieves a high rank it is the main focus for all the
competitors wanting to achieve a similar position within the same
business niche. Many times this source code is stolen outright,
copyrights, trademarks and all – especially in highly competitive
keyword categories.
b. The Solution
A visitor arrives to a web site, presents its IP address and requests a page. A
script (cloaking script) takes the request and compares its IP against a list of
spider IPs. If the visitor’s IP matches any of the IP on the list the script feeds
the spider with the optimised page built for that particular search engine. That
is why this technique is also called ‘Spider Food’.
On the other hand, if the IP address is not on the list, the script assumes that
the visitor is a real person and delivers the page optimised for human users.
This technique is not only effective for both humans and spiders but also it
makes it impossible for competitors (real people) to see the authentic ugly
page that is scoring high in the engines.
D. More Details
It is only fair to warn the reader that this it a heavy piece of artillery and it
should only be used in a very competitive category. Otherwise, it would be
like shooting a fly with a cannon.
Additionally, it should only be used by expert users. Clearly this is an arena
in which the search engines will see IP delivery users as ‘professionals’ and
they will become very unforgiving of any mistake that they make, no matter
whether they do it on purpose or not.
Effective IP delivery systems require a spider IPs database that contains all
the spiders IPs and that is frequently updated (preferably every 12 hours).
They also need to be consistent in terms of security. Otherwise, they could be
spoofed by people who know how to ‘pretend’ to be a search engine in order
to see the hidden optimized pages.
As such, reliable IP delivery scripts vary in price from about £500 to as much
as £2000, depending on how many domain names can be handled by them,
level of automation, database updates subscription, etc.
For a detailed list of scripts currently available on the market, features
comparison and prices.
Writer :
Waqas Nasir "SEO GURU Pakistan".
Phone : 0092-333-3256882
Email: waqas@xebtech.com
|
