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Guest Tutorial 41

This tutorial was originally posted as Guest Tutorial 21. The tutorial was removed by request but is being reposted in its entirety.

The Xara Xone wishes to extend its gratitude on the part of the Xara Community for this fine and generous article. —Editor

I felt that Google had changed to the point that the tutorial didn't apply, or perhaps wasn't as efficient anymore, thus my request to have the tutorial removed. However, as a first "more than skimming the surface" resource, it will still work very nicely.

"The Google circle of life" will never be again, and "Content is King!"... Well, it's still a great statement but it should REALLY apply to great CONTENT… Meaning, put together original content that people will enjoy reading, and viewing - and they will come back! Some will even tell their friends... who will tell their friends, who will... In the long run, great content is what will make it all worthwhile.

As mentioned before: If you wish to make the most at what you have – experiment! Making it possible for people to find your Web site is not a static process. Try something a little different if it didn't work to your expectations. And most importantly – be patient!

Here is my link: www.ristoklint.com Is it great content? YES! It's even AMAZING for those who enjoy it... ;-) The people that think it is madness will find their way to other amazing places on the Web...

Talking about madness... Don't forget to check out my advice column: http://www.askdog.com —Risto Klint

Let yourself be found on Google!
(The boring part of Web site design…)

©2002-4 Risto Klint - All rights reserved

Introduction.

I will talk about Web page design, not about the look and function of Web pages but what you can do to increase the possibility that people will find you. Yes, I will be talking about META tags, content and structure, and how to coordinate all these things in order to get as good of a listing on search engines as your Web site's content deserves.

People that know what they talk about call it SEO, or search Engine Optimization. Me, well, I'm not an expert – I'm just an obsessive compulsive when it comes to the little details that I actually have control over - or think I have control over…

SEO is not a science; to a large extent it is guess work and experience. Search engines constantly adjust their algorithms for how they calculate the relevance of Web pages in relation to a search term. What is true one month might not be as true the next, but one factor always remains the same: Content is King! (At least with Google.)

It seems that there are almost as many search engines as there are content based Web sites out there, some search engines are bad and some are really bad. And then there is Google!

My little article will focus on Google because it is the most widely used search engine and they do not list sponsored sites in their search results, which means that we little people actually have a chance of being listed well, and therefore receive a decent, or even a staggering amount of traffic.

Many of the tips I will be presenting here will hold true for most search engines, more or less. Essentially, if you optimize your content for Google you will do well with most search engines.

Again, I will be throwing out all the details that I can think of, which Google and other search engines use (or could use) when matching Web pages to search queries. 

A word of caution – I cannot make any guarantees that if you implement these ideas you will get a great listing on Google. Heck, if you do something really wild, you can even get yourself penalized, or banned by Google! All this to say, consider this article a starting point to expand your horizons, use your common sense, and implement any or all of this at your own risk!

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The Xara Xone Guest Tutorials ©2004 Gary W. Priester All rights reserved
Tutorials are for private use only. No text or images may be used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the author.

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