Spider Friendly Pages

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by haimadan, Jun 27, 2006.

  1. #1
    First off what is spider friendly navigation? Basically it is how easily search engines can read your website. This ultimately depends on the search engine that is reading your site. Some have the patience to dig deep into your site and promise to follow every link. Others may get bored before they finish indexing a whole page. Carefully organize your page content and Web site to ensure that spiders index the whole thing - not just bits and pieces. Here are some tips that will help you to do this:


    Use Keywords/phrases that best describe the target page.
    Avoid using image maps, if needed make sure to add text links at the bottom of all pages.
    Do not use long text; limit 40-50 characters in a text link
    Avoid using JavaScript links
    Create text links and use a common navigational menu for all pages
    For best results try to limit the number of links per page to 20. (Only a recommendation)
    Include a site map if you have more than 20 pages.
    If you are using flash navigation, always have text links as a supplement to the flash
    Try to use keyword phrases in the HTML and image file names
    Keep your file names hyphenated (e.g. use this-page.html instead of thispage.html)

    General Tips and Tricks

    Make sure your website is completely finished, spell checked, online and all links are working before submitting to Search Engines'.
    Try to include .robots.txt. to prevent spiders from crawling certain directories. (For more info, visit www.robotstxt.org)
    If the site was designed in something other than HTML, make sure there is some static content for the spider to read.
    Try and get on DMOZ if you are not already there.
    Read each search engines. guidelines and follow them closely.
    Use meta tags in all places
    For getting proper keywords that are commonly used visit:
    a) http://www.wordtracker.com
    b) http://inventory.goto.com/searchinventory/suggestion/
    c) https://adwords.google.com/select/m...=KeywordSandbox
    For checking keyword density use the following sites:
    a) http://www.keyworddensity.com/
    b) http://www.ranks.nl
    When using frames, make sure to include keyword rich content between the <noframe> </noframe> tags, on the main frameset page.
    Keep all content in root directory if possible.
    Make sure your home page can load within 8-10 seconds on a 56k modem
    Try to use CSS data as an external file and call it using <link> tag
    Optimize your images and keep the page size low
    Update your more important pages at a regular interval
    Check your site for broken links periodically

    Things to Avoid
    Here are some things to avoid when creating your website:

    Avoid strange color combinations, as this can make it hard to read for a viewer
    Text that is too small to read will also cause the reader to leave
    Unrelated Advertisements will distract viewers
    Hidden text, which is text the same color as the background
    Submitting your site to FFA sites
    Duplicate pages, doorway pages and cloaked pages
    Re-direction from the homepage to another
    Automated submission to search engines
    Submitting to search engines more than once a month
    Use of <meta refresh> tag in HTML page header
    Using trademarks or company names other than yours in Meta tags.
    Instance of 5 or 6 keywords being repeated in one row
     
    haimadan, Jun 27, 2006 IP
  2. H@rdCore

    H@rdCore Peon

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    #2
    H@rdCore, Jun 27, 2006 IP
  3. jdw4jesus

    jdw4jesus Peon

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    #3
    Great list, I will "digest" all that information as much as I can ;)

    Thank you!
     
    jdw4jesus, Jun 27, 2006 IP