NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Search Engine Optimization = Waste of Time
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Search Engine Optimization = Waste of Time
Shari Thurow (shari_at_grantasticdesigns.com)
Mon, 23 Nov 1998 23:57:21 -0600 (CST)
Hi all-
I have been reading with great interest all of the comments
about search engine optimization, particularly the flames of
the techniques used to optimize. I've been doing search
engine optimization for over 3 years now (and have a 100%
success rate), so I feel I can make some reasonable comments
about it.
I have always said that search engine optimization is just a
means of helping your potential customers find your
website.It is a highly specialized marketing tool, but it is
NOT a substitute for a well planned online and offline
marketing plan. Search engine optimization and other
marketing strategies (banner advertising, web copywriting,
being listed in Yahoo, posting to discussion groups, etc.)
are not substitutes for a web site with solid content and
great layout. Search engine optimization is not a
substitute for customer service, a unique selling
proposition, or a great product/service. I have all of this
text on our web site. I practice what I preach.
Search engine optimization is particularly important for a
new web site that no one has heard of (yet), and this online
strategy should be used in conjunction with other effective
online and offline strategies. If I were to recommend
banner ad purchasing for my clients, I use the results from
the search engine optimization to help me make this
recommendation. When I recommend purchasing banner ad space
from a search engine or major directory (such as Yahoo), I
will always analyze which search engines or directories
generates the most sales for my clients first. And this
banner purchasing strategy has yet to fail any of my
clients. But I also know that search engine optimization is
not the only way to market a site. It's always one part of a
marketing plan.
My search engine strategies are pretty straightforward: good
content/web copywriting, keywords placed strategically
throughout an entire web site, good HTML layout, and
quick-to-download pages. I have never used CGI or meta-tag
redirects (which is considered spam by pretty much all of
the major search engines) because I've never needed to. So
I do understand the complaints I've seen about the
"spammers" in the past few issues.
Just for everyone's information, here are some replies from
some major search engines about "gateway" pages and
redirects:
- From Infoseek:
>Generally speaking, pages are removed, and the domain(s)
blocked, from our index due to the use of unacceptable Web
site promotion techniques, which we call spam. Typical
infractions may include, but are not limited to, the
following:
- Duplication of pages with different URLs
- Use of refreshes/redirects, either 'META', Java, CGI, or
server-side.
You are correct in your statement that 'gateway' pages are
generally considered to be spam.<
- From Excite/Magellan/WebCrawler:
>When our spider comes to a site, or a specific page, it
will read that page and attempt to index it, but it will not
index that page based on a redirect to another page. As long
as the page meets our criteria and is not part of an effort
to mislead or flood our service with hundreds of pages with
the same content, it will probably not be filtered out of
the indexing process.<
Take care,
Shari Thurow (info_at_grantasticdesigns.com)
For FREE design and marketing tips, visit us at:
http://www.grantasticdesigns.com/tips.html
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