Introduction
The Website Doctor?s prescription to healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Keywords
Introductions Don't Have to Be Flashy
Website Maps and Add URL Pages
Website Navigation Bars and Headlines
Website Page Titles, File Names, Meta tags, and Your'e not Dense
Your'e Bloated and Not Relevant
Left Overs, Tiny Letters, and The End
1. Illness: Your site is mirrored
The prescription: Drop the site mirroring
Website Doctor?s Notes:
Site mirroring is when a single Website can be accessed by multiple domain names (showing the same pages for each domain name) or the site content across multiply hosted domain names is fully the same.
The reason why this is a problem is that many search engines consider this a way to falsely manipulate search engine rankings (spamming).
Sites may often use site mirroring in perfectly innocent ways, like for having an easier and shorter URL and email address, or if the want to have the .com, .org, and .net versions of their organizations name.
However, I have found clients who use site mirroring will typically have rankings that are inexplicably low on most of the major search engines.
Here is what DMOZ.org has to say about site mirroring:
"Do not submit mirror sites. Mirror sites are sites that contain identical content, but have altogether different URLs."
Google does not specifically mention mirrored sites but does mention the use of doorway pages (a purposeful use of multiple domain names to point or re-direct to another site URL). Under reasons why a site may not be indexed, they list the following:
"You employ doorway pages. Google does not encourage the use of doorway pages. We want to point users to content pages, not to doorways or splash screens."
Unfortunately, using these techniques both innocently and for the purpose of manipulating rankings has a very popular recommendation by many ?experts? in the field. However, they are wrong.
2. Illness: Your site is in frames
Prescription: Take the site out of frames
Website Doctor?s Notes:
Many search engines cannot read frames or will incorrectly index a site using frames.
Sites that use frames will often use them in a way to keep all the navigation buttons or links in one frame and content in another. They will also usually put their logo or organizational header info in another frame.
Here is one example of a frameset:
Notice that the content sits in a frame separate from the sites logo or navigation links.
When a search engine returns a result based on keywords found in the content of a framed page, typically only the content page is returned (if the keyword does not match the whole frameset). The result is a potential visitor searched keywords relevant to your site, found your content but had no link or logo to attribute the content to your site or to get them to your home page. Even if they do click on a link to the URL of the framed page, they will end of on a no framed (or orphaned) page that was meant to be framed. The result is they see this in their web browser:
Notice there is no way for them to find the homepage or to navigate any other part of the site.
Sean Buscay
www.christian-web-masters.comSean Buscay is on a mission to CREATE, ADVANCE, and EXPOUND faith in JESUS using web technology. He is the owner of Christian-Web-Masters.com .