Dear Robin,
My first question for you is – how can sites that do not follow search engines’ rules get ranked in the top 10?
Robin:
There are a LOT of reasons why top ranking sites appear not to be following the search engines’ “rules.” One of the main reasons is that off page factors have such a huge influence on ranking these days. So, you can literally have a site that isn’t using the keyword phrase anywhere on the page OR in the tags in a highly competitive area and still have a top 10 ranking. Strange, but very very true. Several months ago, I did some research on this very thing, and one of the top ranking sites for the highly competitive keyword phrase “homes for sale” (no quotes) in Google didn’t use the keyword phrase ANYWHERE on the page or tags. Yet, the page was #2 or #3 out of millions of competitors. Why? It had a huge link popularity, and the vast majority of those incoming links used the keyword phrase “homes for sale” in the link text describing the site. (And NO, the site was NOT cloaked!)
What does that tell you? Work hard on building a solid link popularity to your site, and make sure that your incoming links are describing your site using your most important keyword phrase.
T.G.:
Currently, our homepage follows most of the rules set forth by search engines for submission. However, there are numerous sites that rank in the top 10 search results that use frames and graphics and don’t even use keywords or descriptions. Plus, they are spamming.
Robin:
Though it’s more difficult to get a framed site in the top rankings under a competitive keyword phrase, it can be done, as you’ve seen! Is the site using an effective <noframes> tag with the equivalent of a “mini site” in the tag and links to other important interior pages to give the engines something to spider?
Having a site where the entire home page is in graphics is certainly another hurdle.
Again, if those sites have a high link popularity with link text accurately describing the sites, those hurdles can be jumped. When you work with sites that have problems, you just have to work a little harder at overcoming those problems.
As far as spamming is concerned, if the sites are truly spamming, you have the ability to report the spammers to the engines. If they’re truly spamming, NO ONE wants them in the engines. After all, WE are the content providers for the engines, so we want to provide relevant content to those engines. That’s exactly what the engines want too. Spammy mess doesn’t help anyone except the spammer, and then, not for long these days!
T.G.:
I have read everything I can get my hands on for search engine optimization, but wonder what else I can do. I checked our link popularity (linkpopularitycheck.com), created ALT image tags, and created title and meta tags that relate to our site. The one thing my company does not want to change is the design of our homepage. I know we should have at least 200 words of text that includes our keywords, but is this really that important?
Robin:
Your main page is beautiful, but you’re right — you have no content for the spiders to crawl. That’s a problem. There are many ways to handle that problem, such as creating additional content-rich pages focused on your keyword phrase that the spiders *can* spider and crawl, and pull in traffic through those “windows” or “doorways.”
Would your company allow you to put content underneath the graphics?
If your keyword phrase is “Atlanta real estate,” you’re not using it in your description META tag. Though very few engines consider META tags these days, I would still use the important keyword phrase in the description META tag, and I would reduce the number of keywords in the keyword META tag. (I believe in never forgetting the basics!) Focus ONLY on your most important keyword phrase. Remember that you have no content on your page, so you have to really focus on your keyword phrase wherever you **legitimately** can.
If you can get your company to allow you to add content to the bottom of the page, I would get your designers to move the JavaScript to a separate .js file. They’ll know exactly how to do that, and it will get rid of that code. Or, write to me and I’ll be glad to tell you in more detail. It’s very easy to do.
T.G.:
Last, should I use the <noframes> tag to create a “mini site” (you recommended this to someone in the article) even though my homepage is not in frames?
Robin:
Yes, you could certainly try that. Like my Google friend said, it’s not as effective as using actual content, but it can be done. So, in your situation, it’s certainly a possible solution.
If you go that route, I would definitely get your designers to move that JavaScript to a separate file so the engines will find and spider the content in the <noframes> tag. Be SURE to put LINKS to all important pages in your site in that <noframes> tag. That’s one mistake I see all the time when people use the <noframes> tag. They forget to put links for the spiders to crawl, so the spiders can’t get past the main page.
T.G.:
What are your recommendations?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated because we’re considering sponsorships/ads to gain visibility.
Robin:
My recommend is to add the <noframes> tag *if* your company won’t allow you to add content at the very bottom of the page. I would also create some content-rich pages focused on your important keyword phrases and add those to your site. Create a content-rich site — create VALUE to both the engines *and* to your users.
What do your users want to see when they visit your site? What are they looking for? Are they interested in the crime rate of a particular neighborhood? Are they interested in the school systems? Are they interested in sports in the area? If YOU were looking for a home in the Atlanta area, what would YOU be interested in? Give that type of information to your users, and you’ll slowly but surely be creating a dynamite site loaded with valuable content for both your users and the engines, and you’ll please them both!
It’s a beautiful site — GOOD LUCK!
Robin
Robin Nobles conducts live SEO workshops
(http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) in locations across North
America. She also teaches online SEO training
(http://www.onlinewebtraining.com). Localized SEO training is now
being offered through the Search Engine Academy.
(http://www.searchengineacademy.com) Sign up for SEO tips of the
day at mailto:seo-tip@aweber.com.
