Hosting The Right Way

Do Search Engines Like Your Web Site?

Between 75% and 98.8% of visitors to Web sites come from searches made at search engines. If you're going to get high levels of traffic - and hence the levels of ROI you're looking for - it's very important that the search engines can access all the information on your Web site.

Do the search engines know about all of your pages?

You can find out which pages on your site the search engines know about by using a special search. If you search for 'site:' and your Web site address, the search engine will tell you all of the pages on your Web site it knows about.

For example, search for: site:webpositioningcentre.co.uk in Google. Yahoo or MSN Search, and it will tell you how many pages they know about.

If the search engines haven't found some of the pages on your Web site, it is probably because they are having trouble spidering them. ('Spidering' is when the search engine uses an automated robot to read your Web pages.)

Spiders work by starting off on a page which has been linked to by another Web site, or that has been submitted to the search engine. They then read and follow any links they find on the page, gradually working their way through your whole Web site.

At least, that's the theory.

The problem is, it's easy to confuse the spiders - especially as they are designed to be wary of following certain kinds of link.

Links which confuse spiders

If your links are within a large chunk of JavaScript code, the spider may not be able to find them, and will not be able to follow the links to your other pages.

This can happen if you have 'rollovers' as your navigation - for instance, pictures that change colour or appearance when you hover your mouse pointer over them. The JavaScript code that makes this happen can be convoluted enough for the spiders to ignore it rather than try to find links inside.

If you think your rollovers are blocking your site from being spidered, you will need to talk to your Web designers about changing the code in to a 'clean link' - a standard HTML link, with no extra code around it - that is much easier for the spiders to follow.

Links like these will look something like this:

Home Page

Page addresses to avoid

Spiders will also ignore pages if they don't like the URL (the address needed to find the page).

For example, a Web site that has URLs containing several variables can cause spiders to ignore the page content. You can spot pages like these as they have a ? in them, and &, for instance:

http://webpositioningcentre.co.uk/index.php?page=12&cat=23&jib=c

This URL has three variables, the parts with the = in them, between the ? and &s. We find that if a page has one variable, or even two, the top search engines will spider them without any problems. But if a URL has more than that, often the search engines will not spider them.

Spiders particularly avoid URLs that look like they have 'session IDs' in them. They look something like this:

http://webpositioningcentre.co.uk/index.php?page=12&id=29c8d7r2398jk27897a8

The set of numbers and letters do not make much sense to humans, but some Web sites use them to keep track of who you are, as you click through their Web site.

Spiders will generally avoid URLs with Session IDs in them, so if your Web site has them, you need to talk to the people who developed the site about re-writing it so they do not use these IDs, or at least that you can get around the Web site without them.

Clean links = happy spiders

If you use clean, easy to follow links without several variables in them, your Web site should be spidered without problem. There are, of course, many other facets to successful Search Engine Optimization, but if the search engines can't spider your content, your site will fall at the first hurdle.

Paul Silver and David Rosam are Head of Technical SEO and Head of SEO Copywriting at Web Positioning Centre (http://webpositioningcentre.co.uk). Paul has been involved with the Web commercially since 1996 and David has been writing marketing copy for 20 years, and writing for the Web for a decade.

Other Article Sites

findabook.com  moneycd.info  a-mortgage.info   about-lemon-laws.info  aboutstudentloans.info
all-about-publishing.info  auctions-articles.info  bestcollege-university.com  bestispconnection.com
biblefolder.com  blogger-website.com  books-used.info  brokers-guide.info  buywindows.info  cable-dsl.info
career-miner.com  carpel-tunnel.info  cashinaflash.info  cashloanreviews.info  casinobell.com  chat-house.info
clearmycredit.info  collegeloantips.info  crones.info  depression-articles.info   dirnic.net  dishguides.info
divers-below.com  expodog.info   financewizz.com  fire-insurance.info  getgood.info  handleit.net   it-idea.info
health-supplies.info  hosting-right.com  insidealert.com  insurance-facts.info  jobs-employment.info
justgood.info  lookgold.net   lowcost-travel.info  money-source.info  myhostzone.info  numisblog.com
peoplesearchfinder.info  pr-articles.info  realeas.com   refinancing-guides.info  spyware-remove.info
telelot.info  the-law.info   toppaid.info  travel-deals.info  travelcorrect.com  wedding-guide-site.com
your-blog.info  your-credit.info

Best Healthcare Provider Web Site of 2007 to be Named by Web Marketing Association in Annual WebAward Competition
The Web Marketing Association announces the call for entries for its 11th annual international WebAward Competition for Web site development at http://www.07webaward.org. The Web Marketing Association will once again name the Best Healthcare Provider Web site of 2007.

How to Set Up a Powerful Small Business Website on a Low Budget
In this short article I'm going to reveal a quick method for getting a simple, yet powerful website online for your small business If you don't already have a website for your small business you've missed a trick

iHOUSE Web Solutions Now Offers Access to Two Powerful Google Resources to Improve Online Visibility for their Real Estate Agent Website Customers
iHOUSE website customers will be able to easily submit their property listings to Google Base, and iHOUSE will submit new customers' domain name and sitemap directly to Google via its Webmaster Tools.

Generating More Traffic to Your Website
Are you looking for an effective way to generate more leads or traffic into your online business or affiliate programs? Now you can easily generate more leads and sales by using these techniques.The challenge of any online business is to generate leads which in turn will lead to sales.

Web Design Templates To Jump Start Your Creativity
Designing a brand new web site or re-designing one that is beginning to look a bit jaded used to be a daunting task. The computer screen just sat there staring back and you and challenging you to be your creative best. With web design templates you no longer need to be intimidated at the thought of giving your website a new look.

How to Persuade Website Visitors
Persuasion is influence. It is the manner of guiding people to agree with you ? a problem-solving strategy that can benefit all parties in one end. This is also true in web design development services.

Infusion Software Launches Newly Designed Interactive Corporate Website: Growing CRM Firm's Redesigned Site Offers Improved Functionality,
Infusion Software (www.infusionsoft.com), a leading provider of on-demand "active" Customer Relationship Management (CRM) sales and marketing automation software for growing small businesses, today launched its newly designed and updated corporate website at www.infusionsoft.com. The website underwent a major makeover in response to supporting company growth resulting in an online information center that better promotes the Infusion CRM products and services and offers more resources to small business marketers. The new site will change the way people read and...

Cheap Web Hosting - When Cheaper is Better
Anyone who has ever shopped for web hosting knows that you can spend anywhere from nothing up to several hundred dollars to host your web site. So what's the difference? Well often times if you're talking about typical shared web hosting in the $6 to $20 range – nothing.

Web Hosting ? The Inside Story and The Precautionary Measures
Web Hosting is the process of buying some space with a domain name on the internet to develop a website of your own. This is the next step after you buy your domain from a domain service provider. Hosting a website and maintaining it calls for a great deal of responsibilities. Hence, many companies prefer web hosting companies to take care of this part. Broadly classified, there are two different types of web hosting services such as web hosting on the dedicated server and web hosting on share server.

New Urban West, Inc Hires the Bokka Group for Exclusive Community Web Site
The California-based residential developers, New Urban West has awarded the Bokka Group the design and development of their premier community web site, The Ranchos at Vistamonte.

Dedicated Server Web Hosting
One of the most reliable web hosting services that you can take up is dedicated server web hosting. In a dedicated server you have the entire server space for yourself, unlike shared servers where you share cyberspace with other websites. You are in complete control of the server and you can implement whatever you require for your web hosting requirements.

Poker Table Materials Launches E-Commerce Website
Poker Table Materials provides products for the poker table building industry at both the wholesale and retail level.

New Web-Site Adds Social Aspect to Reality TV
TVvoting.com has launched a new site that allows groups of friends to gather online and compete against each other to guess which reality TV contestant will be eliminated each week. According to TVvoting.com's owner Jeff Bonnes, "it is like Fantasy Football, but for reality TV. It adds an entertaining and social dimension to the reality shows." The site is ready for the launch of American Idol this week.

Keltech Tankless Water Heater Solutions Upgrades Website
Keltech Incorporated, a leading manufacturer of tankless water heater solutions for commercial and industrial applications has made additional enhancements to its website www.keltech.us.