Search Engine Optimization

About This Book

This book demystifies the world of search engines. You find out what you need to do to give your site the best possible chance to rank well in the search engines. In this book, I show you how to

* Make sure that you’re using the right keywords in your Web pages.
* Create pages that search engines can read and will index in the way you want them to.
* Avoid techniques that search engines hate — things that can get your Web site penalized (knocked down low in search engine rankings).
* Build pages that give your site greater visibility in search engines.
* Get search engines and directories to include your site in their indexes and lists.
* Get search engines to display your site when people search locally.
* Encourage other Web sites to link to yours.
* Keep track of how well your site is doing.
* Use pay-per-click advertising and shopping directories.
* And plenty more!

How This Book Is Organized

Like all good reference tools, this book is designed to be read “as needed.” It’s divided into several parts: the basics, building search-engine-friendly Web sites, getting your site into the search engines, what to do after your site is indexed by the search engines, search engine advertising, and the Part of Tens. So if you just want to know how to find sites that will link to your Web site, read Chapter 15. If you need to understand the principles behind getting links to your site, read Chapter 14. If all you need today is to figure out what keywords are important to your site, Chapter 5 is for you.

However, search engine optimization is a pretty complex subject, and all the topics covered in this book are interrelated. Sure, you can register your 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

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 that people are using to find your business, and discover how to do a few 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 such that search engines won’t see the information they need to index the site in the way the site owners would like?Well, I don’t know an exact number, but I do know it’s most sites. If you read Part II, you will be way ahead of the vast majority of site owners and managers. You discover how to create techniques that search engines like and avoid the ones they hate. You also find out about tricks that some people use — and the dangers involved.

Part III: Adding Your Site to the Indexes and Directories

After you’ve created your Web site and ensured that the search engines can read the pages, somehow you have to get the search systems — the engines and directories — to include your site. That’s hard if you don’t know what you’re doing. In this part, you find out which search systems are important, how to register, and how to find other search engines and directories that are important to your site. You also find out why registering sometimes doesn’t work, and what to do about it.

Part IV: After You’ve Submitted Your Site

Your work isn’t over yet. In this part of the book, you find out why links to your site are so important and how to get other sites to link to you. You dis¬cover the shopping directories, such as Froogle and Shopping.com. I also explain the multibillion-dollar search engine advertising business. You find out how to work with the hugely popular Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing pay-per-click programs . . . and how to buy cheaper clicks. You also discover paid placement and other forms of advertising.

Part V: The Part of Tens

All For Dummies books have the Part of Tens. In this part, you find ten ways to keep up to date with the search-engine business. You also find out about ten common mistakes that make Web sites invisible to search engines, and ten services and tools that will be useful in your search engine campaign.

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