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Optimization of the Website
by Alexander O. (www.webskyguide.com)
Below are recommendations that help to make your website friendly not only for search engines, but for users. However, no one can guarantee you a top position in
search results. There is no universe successful method. Algorithms of searching engines regularly change, and the websites that were top yesterday, today can appear
near the bottom. Although, of course, with experienced actions and development of the website, it cannot remain unnoticed and will find its place.
Website content
The more high-quality, unique content there is, the better it is. Also, searching engines are attentive to the frequency of website updating and consider it when
determining position.
Domain name
A short, easy to remember, subject-oriented (with a keyword) domain is more expensive than an undistinguished domain name. The price of some domain names goes up to
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Therefore, you should choose the domain name carefully. If necessary, spend 3-4 weeks choosing the domain name. Very likely, your
choice will be justified, and, although it should be noted that in the .com zone all the "good" domains have already been sold, this intellectual approach will help
you find a good name.
Time of loading
According to statistics, a web site page should not take more than 3-4 seconds to load. With each second more, you lose 10% of the traffic. To avoid such problems,
encode the pages in accordance with w3c standards (www.w3c.org). In addition, you should make it easy to read for browsers and avoid overloading the server with excess
graphics and animation.
Working capacity of the scripts
Make sure all the website scripts work well. You can compensate for a bad domain name, design and encoding drawbacks, as well as bad structure of the website with,
for example, quality content, but if your scripts do not work, it can be disastrous for the website. If the user encounters parts of the website that do not work,
that user may leave the website and not return.
Size of the pages
The smaller the size, the better it is. A page size of 15 Kb is considered good. But with the level of development of the modern web-technologies, such as flash
animation and media presentations, this is hard to achieve. In any case, avoid using heavy animation that increases the size of the page, on pages with interesting
content. If possible, place presentations and flash-promos in separate sections. Pages with informative texts should be easily indexed by searching engines and should
quickly load in the users' browsers.
Density of keywords
This is an old and a simple rule. Use a keyword in the Title, in the Description and in the keywords Meta tags, once in the H1 heading, and once in the URL
(if possible). Type keywords in bold, but do not get carried away! Any text format should first correspond with its meaning and logic. You should not simply type all
of the keywords in bold.
Try placing keywords at the top of the page, since searching engines pay more attention to this part of the page. This situation is analogous to browsing a bookstore.
You might have a look at the book title, its content, and read a couple of pages, but not the whole book. This is the way a searching engine robot works. If the keyword
is only at the end of the page, the page is unlikely to be ranked in the top positions. The searching robot will simply not pay attention to the bottom of the page,
assuming that this is reference information, which is not important for the user. The density of keywords should be 5% of the text on the page. With less density a
searching robot may not notice the page, with more density it may be considered spam. Therefore, avoid overloading the page with keywords.
External links
This is a very important issue that is worth devoting a separate article to, but this section will attempt to summarize the issues. Try placing links to your website
on websites with high Page Rank (PR). Links with PR 0 or 1 will not make much difference since only links from the page with PR6 will increase your position. Also,
the link text is important. It is recommended that it use your keywords.
Subject links exchange
Arrange subject links exchanges, but never make your website a link dump; the searching engines punish for this and you risk not seeing your website in SERP for
a long time. Exchange the links manually.
Back links
When placing the links to other websites, make sure they work as well as those on the websites they are linked to. Do not add links to uninteresting websites with
little traffic, because you will discredit yourself if you offer links to bad websites. The searching engines also take subject into consideration. Place links to
related subject websites only! Outgoing links to websites with different subject can reduce the position of your own website in the searching results.
Cross-links within one website
It is important that the cross-links of the website include key phrases, it is usually enough to move the website to the top of the search results. Google values
internal links as much as external ones. Therefore, well-distributed links within the website help redistribute the value of the pages (in particular, PR), raising
the position of the pages at required keywords. It is essential here that you locate internal links by yourself. Use this possibility and include keywords in the
links text. It is also important to redistribute the value of the pages so that to have one user visiting fifty pages instead of fifty users visiting one page.
If, for some reason, one page disappears from the search engine database, you will lose the whole traffic.
Hosting
Use the services of a high quality host that supports your work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year, online from
any direction.
"Dirty technologies"
Never use "dirty technologies" like spam or doorways.
Communication
Use all the means of communication: e-mail, forums, direct mail, and feedback. Increase the base of regular users and clients. Become popular for your literacy,
prompt answers, and regular new features (news, press releases, etc.).
Target traffic
A website is beneficial only if it attracts target traffic. Pay special attention to the vocabulary of the website (the list of keywords). Use the Overture service
(http://inventory.overture.com) to create it and use only target words. Avoid raising traffic due to side visits, since they will not add benefit. It is best to
think only about target traffic when considering promotion of the website, advertising, and forums. Do not pay for non-target traffic!
Study the statistics of the visits
Study the statistics of the visits carefully. Pay particular attention to where the visitors come from, which keywords the visitor uses to get to the web page, and
the number of pages they browse. Trace the whole path of visits, and note the last page of a visit. It might suggest why the visitor left the website at that page,
and what to do to make him or her stay.
We have considered a small part of searching optimization of the website. If you follow these rules, your website will likely be ranked among the top positions.
Now, we will further describe the things not connected with website promotion and usability, but which should be taken into consideration before selling the website.
These actions can be compared to the sequence of actions performed by a careful owner before selling his house or a favorite car.
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