01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page iii Optimization FOR DUMmIES ‰ Search Engine by Peter Kent 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page ii 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page i Optimization FOR DUMmIES ‰ Search Engine 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page ii 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page iii Optimization FOR DUMmIES ‰ Search Engine by Peter Kent 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page iv Search Engine Optimization For Dummies ® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2004101970 ISBN: 0-7645-6758-6 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/QY/QU/QU/IN 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page v About the Author Peter Kent is the author of numerous other books about the Internet, includ- ing the best-selling Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Internet and the most widely reviewed and praised title in computer-book history, Poor Richard’s Web Site: Geek Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site. His work has been praised by USA Today, BYTE, CNN.com, Windows Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, and many others. Peter has been online since 1984, doing business in cyberspace since 1991, and writing about the Internet since 1993. Peter’s experience spans virtually all areas of doing business online, from editing and publishing an e-mail newsletter to creating e-commerce Web sites, from online marketing and PR campaigns to running a Web-design and -hosting department for a large ISP. Peter was the founder of an e-Business Service Provider funded by one of the world’s largest VC firms, Softbank/Mobius. He was VP of Web Solutions for a national ISP and VP of Marketing for a Web applications firm. He also founded a computer-book publishing company launched through a concerted online marketing campaign. Peter now consults with businesses about their Internet strategies, helping them to avoid the pitfalls and to leap the hurdles they’ll encounter online. He also gives seminars and presentations on subjects related to online market- ing in general and search engine marketing in particular. He can be contacted at consult@iChannelServices.com, and more information about his back- ground and experience is available at www.iChannelServices.com. 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page vi 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page vii Dedication For Melinda, a good friend in difficult times Author’s Acknowledgments I’d like to thank a number of people for their help with this book. First, my mentor, colleague, and Technical Editor, Micah Baldwin of Current Wisdom ( www.CurrentWisdom.com), who kept me focused and on target. I’d also like to thank Acquisitions Editor Terri Varveris, whose assistance was critical in getting my idea from proposal to contract, and Project Editor Paul Levesque, who kept me on the straight and narrow. And, of course, the multitude of Wiley staff involved in editing, proofreading, and laying out the book. Finally, I’d also like to thank my friend and one-time boss Mike Higgins, who’s an example to us all (though for exactly what I’m not sure). [...]... Chapter 1: Surveying the Search Engine Landscape ߜ Search results: The information returned to you (the results of your search) when you go to a search site and search for something Remember that in many cases, the search results don’t come from the search site you’re using, but from some other search system Why bother with search engines? Why bother using search engines? Because search engines represent... popular search sites aren’t on the list This chapter explains why What Are Search Engines and Directories? The term search engine has become the predominant term for search system or search site, but before reading any further, you need to understand the dif­ ferent types of search, um, thingies, you’re going to run across Basically, you need to know about four thingies: ߜ Search indexes or search engines:... Introduction W elcome to Search Engine Optimization For Dummies What on earth would you want this book for? After all, can’t you just build a Web site, and then pay someone $25 to register the site with thousands of search engines? I’m sure you’ve seen the advertising: “We guarantee top-ten place­ ment in a gazillion search engines!” “We’ll register you in 5,000 search engines today!” Well, unfortunately, it’s... Don’t forget to visit the Web sites associated with this book At www.dummies com/go/seo, you find all the links in this book (so you don’t have to type them!), as well as a Bonus Chapter on how to power up your search engine skills At www.SearchEngineBulletin.com, you find the aforementioned links along with additional useful information that didn’t make it into the book 5 6 Search Engine Optimization For. .. site with the search engines, but if your pages aren’t optimized for the search engines, you may be wasting your time! You can create pages the search engines can read, but if you don’t pick the right keywords, it’s a total waste of time So I recommend that you read everything in this book; it will make a huge difference in how well your pages are ranked in the search engines Part I: Search Engine Basics... quick fixes to your site Part II: Building Search- Engine- Friendly Sites Do you have any idea how many sites are invisible to the search engines? Or that, if they’re not invisible, are built in such a way that search engines won’t see the information they need in order to index the site in the way the site owners would like? 3 4 Search Engine Optimization For Dummies Well, I don’t know an exact number,... 1 Part I: Search Engine Basics 7 Chapter 1: Surveying the Search Engine Landscape .9 Chapter 2: Your One-Hour Search- Engine- Friendly Web Site Makeover 27 Chapter 3: Making Your Site Useful and Telling People about It 43 Chapter 4: Picking Powerful Keywords 53 Part II: Building Search- Engine- Friendly Sites 77 Chapter 5: Creating Pages That Search Engines Love ... the search engines In this book, I show you how to ߜ Make sure that you’re using the right keywords in your Web pages ߜ Create pages that search engines can read and will index in the way you want them to ߜ Avoid techniques that search engines hate — things that can get your Web site penalized (knocked down low in search engine rankings) ߜ Build pages that give your site greater visibility in search engines... Text formatting .98 Creating links 99 Using other company and product names 100 Preparing for local search 101 Creating navigation structures that search engines can read 103 Blocking searchbots 103 Chapter 6: Avoiding Things That Search Engines Hate 105 Dealing with Frames 105 The HTML Nitty-Gritty of Frames .107 Providing search engines... I: Search Engine Basics In this part, I provide, yep, the basics — the foundation on which you can build your search- engine- optimization skills Which search engines are impor­ tant, for instance? In fact, what is a search engine? And what’s a search direc­ tory? And why am I using the term search system? In this part, you find out the basics of sensible site creation, discover how to pick the keywords . Page iii Optimization FOR DUMmIES ‰ Search Engine by Peter Kent 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page ii 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page i Optimization FOR DUMmIES ‰ Search Engine. FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page iii Optimization FOR DUMmIES ‰ Search Engine by Peter Kent 01 567586 FM.qxd 3/22/04 3:54 PM Page iv Search Engine Optimization For Dummies ® Published by Wiley. ix Contents at a Glance Introduction 1 Part I: Search Engine Basics 7 Chapter 1: Surveying the Search Engine Landscape 9 Chapter 2: Your One-Hour Search- Engine- Friendly Web Site Makeover 27 Chapter