ben robison

Search Engine Optimization

Had an interesting discussion in class about search engine optimization in class today. For those who don’t know, search engine optimization is the idea of getting your site to pop up in search engines when certain keywords are typed. Every search engine has different algorithms for determining which links are displayed for certain searches. These algorithms are usually (if not always) secret and constantly evolving to get around the click fraudsters and google bombers.

First let’s talk about how to get your site to show up. There are a few things you can do. I don’t claim to have any special knowledge about any of the search algorithms and the ideas below are not listed in order, they are just some ideas to get you started. I know I’ve started.

1. Use Google Sitemaps - There are a lot of useful tools at the Google webmaster’s site. In particular, the sitemaps feature allows you to create an xml file that allows you to define links and content in your site. You can even use the Google Sitemap Generator to get it in the proper format, then upload it to the root directory of your server. When Google’s spider comes around again, it gets better information about your site.
2. Pick a few keywords that you want people to use to find your site. Put them in the Title, the header, the meta tags, and anywhere else you can get them. Certain types of tags are weighted heavier than others, the URL is particularly high =)
3. RSS Feeds - You can use the Google Webmaster tools and submit RSS feeds to google so it can update the content from your site.
4. Get people to link to you, if high ranked sites link to your site, this is good for you. A useful tool for this kind of thing is WhoLinks2Me. You can also do a Google search for “link:yoursite.com”.

There Are Limits
Now the caveat at the end to warn you about abusing these methods, particularly #2. One example of the abuse is Googlebombing. Googlebombing refers to the practice of many people all over the web linking the same word to the same site. Google recently changed their search algorithm to “defuse” the bombs, but for awhile, if you googled the word “failure” you’re top hit was President George W. Bush’s website. This has been fixed, but if you search for “utter failure” your top link is an article about Pres. Bush.

Click Fraud
Google also has a feature that allows you to bid on keywords that will link to your site. The hotter the topic, the more expensive the keywords are. You can set limits on how much you want to spend etc. There are also pay-per-click services. I don’t know anything about the details of how these work but I do know that they are available. Click fraud refers to any of a number of practices designed to push your pages higher in Google’s search results.

So the short story is that you walk a fine line with search engine optimization. Get your site to show up on Google, but don’t abuse the privilege.