View the source of each and every page: is there JavaScript and CSS on the page Remember that spiders may not index pages that have more than 10k or so of JavaScript or CSS embedded in them. Spiders dont enjoy getting tangled up in JavaScript. So as a general rule you should avoid putting out prompts and alerts using JavaScript every time that a page loads. Because of this rule, it is also wise to avoid link partners who do so on the pages that they link to you from. If anything looks fishy, it probably is.
CSS wont give you many problems. If you are going to use CSS, it is best to link to it from another source. Create a separate CSS page and use the tag to work it into the head of your HTML. This method will keep your file size down considerably, and since you will probably be using the same CSS on several pages, decrease your bandwidth usage. Normally a large quantity of CSS within the document isnt indicative of any suspicious behavior on the part of the linker. If you feel that you are, indeed, suffering from the fact that the site uses such an excessive proportion of CSS on the page itself, suggest to the webmaster that he/she may want to create an external CSS document and link to it in his/her header.
Check that youre still on the domain you clicked on a link to, and you havent moved to another site or a subdomain. Some people will move you to another domain while telling thats their site and your link is there, relying on you not checking the address bar. This trick is all too common and happens to folks who are new to SEO every single day. This sad fact will continue until people begin to catch it every time.
If the domain has changed, delete your backlink to the site in question immediately and then email the webmaster with your complaint. If the webmaster does not fix the problem you may even want to request that they remove the link as the site may wind up discredited as a link farm or some such thing that you do not want to be associated with for fear of being banned from many popular search engines with technology used to combat link farms.
On a related subject, when you check your back links, make sure that these links appear in legitimate places. If the site is completely dedicated to linking to other sites and doesnt seem to be a directory or something similar you will want to get your link removed as soon as possible. There is no time when one link is worth the risk of being permanently banned from any popular search engine. Aside from the traffic that you will lose from that one search engine, you may wind up red flagged so to speak. It seems to be common practice among search engines that if one finds faulty activity the rest seem to find out soon afterwards.
Overall, if it seems dodgy, leave it alone. Its better to sacrifice one link in caution than to destroy your sites rankings by accepting one youre not sure of. There are hundreds of situations aside from link farms that can and will give you trouble. It would be impossible to list every scam as there are people who make their living (or seem to anyway) in creating and executing these scams. Whenever there is a new form of SEO technology that cant fail, you should watch out because it is almost guaranteed to blow up in your face. The only truly powerful and guaranteed method of SEO is to make your site valuable to your visitors and then let it fall where it may in the realm of the search engine.
It is difficult, after you have optimized your pages and submitted them to search engines and directories, to sit back and wait, but there is not much that can be done aside from attempting to accumulate links from good, solid places. The work that you have done is bound to pay off sooner or later as long as you stay honest. When it comes to the world of SEO, honesty is, indeed, the best policy.
About The Author:
Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant, and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and Software site at for more information about SEO and PRL.
You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews
Does the whole idea of Internet marketing intimidate you Are you thinking of hiring a professional Well, weve got great news for you. Its really not difficult to do search engine optimization (SEO) yourself you can save hundreds of dollars, and get the same results as the professionals do. You will probably get better results from highly qualified professionals, but you should definitely perform these do-it-yourself actions first. Once youve done some of this kind of work it will be easier to determine if a professional is worth his/her salt.
Basic SEO is very simple and easy all it takes is the willingness to put in the work. Once you know the ropes, its not that difficult though it can be time consuming. The content of your website the focus of what SEO is all about. Here are the top points to think about when youre doing it yourself.
1. You will start by registering a domain name, which should reflect what your site about. Keep it short, as long as its somehow related to your site. Being more specific can help. You could choose to name the page after one of your products or services, for example. Another method is to get a sub domain of a popular domain. This will generally help you get indexed more quickly though it will not appear quite as professional to your visitors. There is a trade of here, sub domains are quicker (and generally cheaper), but domain names are more memorable, and, in the long run, better for your indexing.
2. The next thing you should look at is your pages title (i.e. the HTML title tag), which is critical in letting search engines see what the page is about, and is the first item looked at by search engines to determine your relevance. You should put your most important keywords in your title tags you dont need to worry about singular or plural forms as search engines account for these changes in most cases. Whatever you do, dont call your home page Home make the title a mini-description of the page.
3. The two primary meta tags arent as important as they used to be, but the description tag is still used by some search engines to display information about your website to users and help them decide whether theyve found what they are looking for. Not all search engines bother with this, though most will put some bearing on it (even if it is minuscule).
For very short descriptions the alt tag can be used. Alt tags let you describe an image or graphic file theyre the pop-up descriptions that appear when you hover your mouse over a graphic, or when the graphic cant be downloaded for whatever reason.
Text within comment tags is never displayed on the page it is used by coders and designers to remind them of what that part of the page is for. Some coders used to put lots of keywords in the comment tags, so that they would be seen by search engines but not users, but search engines have now stopped paying attention to any text that isnt seen by the user. Keep this in mind when trying to post invisible text (i.e. white text on a white background). This kind of behavior can get you banned from a search engine.
4. Having keyword density in all of your content is good, but keep in mind that each search engine has its own requirements when it comes to how many times that a keyword or phrase should be in the content for the page to be relevant. Somewhere between 5 and 8 percent is a roughly optimal level but this isnt always possible, and you shouldnt force it. Dont overdo it, or the search engines might mark you down.
5. Many search engines judge web page importance on the number and quality of incoming links from other sites. You should link to some related sites, but not too many. Dont overdo incoming links either, and keep them related your sites content. Its also good to get sites to use your keywords as the text of these links.
If you follow the advice above, you can do it yourself and do fine. SEO, if done right, can keep you on top for as long as you want to be.
About The Author:
Lawrence Andrews is an ePublisher, software developer, consultant, and author of numerous books. Visit his Private Label Content and Software site at for more information about SEO and PRL.
You may use this article freely on your website as long as this resource box is included, a link point back to my site, and this article remains unchanged! Copyright 2005 Lawrence Andrews