Further Warning About Naming Pages

After several tests, we believe that Infoseek may have implemented a penalty to combat potential spam for pages that contain the name "index" after the root domain. For instance:

http:// www. partyservice. com/ index-is-balloons. htm
http:// www. partyservice. com/ index-is-singingtelegram. htm
http:// www. partyservice. com/ index-is-magician. htm

In this example, the "is" stood for pages submitted to Infoseek and the next word was the keyword for which the pages were optimized. After being in the index for two weeks, several pages that we created using this naming convention were dropped even though they contained nothing that would otherwise red flag them as being unacceptable. Based on other feedback from readers of this report, we believe that Infoseek searched their database for pages that would likely qualify as spam as determined by
repeated occurrences of the word "index," as the first part of the page name.

To double-check this discovery, we submitted different pages on another containing the word "index." In this case, two of the three pages were immediately ignored and not added to the database at all. However, we did manage to get two pages with "index" as the prefix accepted into the database after several tries. Go figure.

It would seem that the unwritten rule is not entirely consistent, or perhaps Infoseek was just losing pages at random recently. If that's the case, make sure all you're pages are actually being added to the index and STAYING there! To be on the safe side, we suggest you avoid naming multiple pages with "index" as the prefix.

This penalty is probably in response to unethical marketers who create dozens of duplicate pages targeting one or two keywords. Some of these spammers are trying to get their pages to occupy all of the first 20 to 30 matches returned for a particular keyword search. This would almost ensure that someone searching for that keyword would visit one of their sites (or doorway pages to their one main site). However, this infuriates searchers as well as competing Web site owners.

We recommend naming your pages after the keyword you are targeting, such as "balloons. htm." If you create a page designed for a specific engine, you might designate it "balloons-av. htm" for AltaVista. However, avoid numbering pages such as "balloons1. htm" and "balloons2. htm."

Even if the information on each page is unique, you might draw attention to yourself by numbering pages. It is better to choose safer file names for Web pages created for the different engines. If you have any additional experiences related to this subject, please drop us a line.

The Power of Natural-Sounding Paragraphs

Search engines continually create more sophisticated ways of grading pages based on their content and often ignore pages that try to list the same keyword over and over. Occasionally this technique will still work. However, the technique of listing keywords is prone to abuse, so engines are turning to judging the content of the page, rather than what keywords you list in your META tags or elsewhere on your Web site.

Pages that naturally integrate keywords into the content of the page often rank better in some search engines. These search engines are probably employing a system where keywords are given less weight or ignored if the keyword is found within so many characters or words of that same keyword. Repeating the keyword, but keeping it spaced apart may work better on these
engines.

So, what does this mean? One successful technique is to create a page that includes a normal sounding paragraph, in regular sentence, but go out of your way to repeat certain keywords.

Unfortunately, the page might not have the most professional writing style and may sound a bit awkward, but if you're having trouble getting recognized by the engines, this technique often works when others fail. Don't make your home page sound silly by repeating the keywords over and over. You can, however, create doorway pages that lead people into a very professional-looking
home page. You must remember that once you attract the visitor, you have to grab the prospect's attention and inspire confidence in your products or services before the prospect will buy anything.

Another technique that often works well is to do the same thing, but keep the page very small, to perhaps a few sentences followed by a link to your main page. It is important to try a variety of techniques since you cannot always anticipate the search engines' next move. To succeed, you have to be more clever than simply repeating keywords. As described earlier, most search engines penalize you after you've repeated a keyword more than seven times on a given page. Others now penalize if a keyword is repeated more than three times.

Some search engines are now implementing sophisticated code to try to detect flagrant attempts to influence their index. It is believed they now check not only for word repetition but also for sentence construction. This technology will not affect you if you do not repeat keywords separated by commas, but rather write normal sounding sentences that include your keywords, scattered carefully throughout.

"Click Here" Is Important

Don't forget to tell visitors on your doorway page to "click here" to enter the site or to learn more. All the research on banner advertising extols the virtue of asking the visitor to take the specific action and to "click here." Don't question this wisdom, just use it. Make the phrase "click here" a part of your marketing practices.