What are spiders and what purpose do they serve?

Spiders are essentially programs that “crawl” sites and report
back to their superior(Google or whatever search engine they
were created for) what their findings are. Their purpose is to
make it easy for sites to get listed in search engines.

You might be wondering, what does it mean to “crawl” a site?
Well it means to visit and site and copy the information.

How do spiders work?

Spiders work by finding links to web sites, visiting those web
sites, going through the content of a web site and then
reporting the content of the site back to the database of the
site which they are working for. Google spiders, thus, crawl
sites and report the information back to Google’s database. From
there, the information is added to Google’s search engine, and
the site then shows up in Google search results. Much the same
process happens with any other search engine spider.

How can I keep spiders from visiting my site?

You might be thinking, “why would I want to keep such a useful
thing from visiting my site?” Well, the short answer is,
sometimes site owners don’t want the spider to crawl on a
particular part of their site. Some site owners don’t want
spiders to crawl their site at all. The reasons for not wanting
a spider to crawl a site or a particular part of a site vary,
although most of the time it is because the site is either
completely spam or features a page or two of spam.

If you’re one of those site owners, then you’ll want to create
and upload something called a robots.txt file. We will briefly
go over how to do this.

A robots.txt file

The whole purpose of a robots.txt file is to tell a search
engine spider not to crawl the site or part of the site on which
the robots.txt file resides.
Creating the file

Creating a robots.txt file that blocks out spiders is easy.
First, open up notepad. Then, copy and paste the following:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Once you’ve done that, save the file as “robots” and as a .txt
file.

Uploading the file

Next, you will upload the file to the part of your site which
you do not want the spider to visit. So, if you don’t want them
to visit yoursite.com/news/, you’ll upload robots.txt to the
news folder. If you don’t want the search engine spider to visit
your site as well, upload robots.txt to your index folder.
That’s all there is to it.

Using the robots.txt file to make sure search engine spiders DO
visit your site

Believe it or not, the robots.txt file can be used to both
disallow and allow search engine spiders to crawl your site.
Here’s how to create and upload such a file.

Creating the file

Open up notepad and copy and paste in the following:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

You’ll notice that the only difference between this and the
earlier example is that Disallow: is not followed with /. If it
were, that would tell spiders to go away. Once again, save the
file as robots.txt.

Uploading the file

All you’ll do is upload the robots.txt file to the part of your
site that you want the robot to pay a visit to. So if you want
the robot to see the whole site, just put the robots.txt file
right alongside the index file. And you’re done.

To your success,see you soon folks.
From charles of amankomah.com

The basics to creating good meta tags

It is best to plot out how you’ll use meta tags on a particular
page before even writing the content for the page. Lots of
people will write the content of the page and then try to
sprinkle in keywords in the meta tags. This is an ineffective
way of doing things, as it usually makes your page confusing to
visitors.

Before writing content, take a minute to pick out 3-4 primary
keywords. Then take another minute to write phrases from those
words. Once you’ve done that, you can begin writing your content
around the keywords.

How do I select proper keywords to enter into the meta tags?

This is an excellent question. Really, there are two main rules
of thumb for selecting proper keywords.

#1: Base your keywords off of the content of your site.

For instance, if you are running a digital photography site,
your keywords could be digital, photographs, photography etc.
You’ll want to steer clear of silly keywords that don’t relate
to your site. These would include keywords completely irrelevant
to your site.

#2: Make sure your keywords can flow naturally throughout the
content of your site.

Try to pick words that you can easily incorporate into the
content of your site and that make sense. You must remember that
actual people are reading your site—the content(and keywords)
MUST make sense to not only search engines, but also to the
people who visit your site. Thus, the keywords you choose must
fit the content of your site perfectly.

How do I write a good description tag?

What description tags essentially do is briefly inform the
search bot/web crawler what a site is about. Therefore, to write
a good description tag, you must be able to write a good, brief
description of what your site is about. It is important to note
that you are limited to 200 characters or less in the
description tag so be as concise as possible.

Let’s use the photography example again. Your site is based on
digital photography. So your description tag should say that
your site is related to digital photography.

Example description tag: “Digital photography site, digital
photos, buy digital photos, print digital photos”.

The search engine bot/web crawler will see this and will place
the site in relevant search results. So if someone searches for
digital photos, they should see your site somewhere on the list.

The same principle can be applied to any and every site. Good
description tags are as simple as a good, concise description of
what your site is about.

How to use the Title tag Effectively.

There are some misconceptions about Title tags. People have said
in the past(and some still do today) that a good, effective
Title tag consists of keywords. However, this is just not true.
Every good title tag consists of two things—the name of the site
and a brief description of what is on the site.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Title tag is also the
title of your listing in any search engine. Why would you want
your title listing to consist of keywords? It won’t help your
site at all—it will actually hurt it because people are less
likely to take the site seriously due to silly keywords. Another
thing worth noting is that the Title tag should never be more
than 80 characters. Generally speaking, the briefer the Title
tag is, the better. So strive to be concise!

So what is a good, effective Title tag? Well, a good, effective
Title tag should first have the name of your web site (so if
it’s www.digitalphotography.com, it should be “Digital
Photography”) and then a short description of the site. In this
example, you could put “Digital Photography – Buy and Print
Digital Photos Here”. This is both an accurate and effective
Title tag for this particular site. Apply this principle to your
site and you will have a good and effective Title tag.
eta tags and titles are incredibly useful to your site.
Master the above techniques and you will be able to create
effective meta tags and titles that will help your site earn a
higher search engine ranking and more visitors!

To your success, see you soon folks,
from charles of Amankomah.com

So what is keyword density anyway?

Put simply, keyword density is the ratio of keywords or key
phrases to the total number of words on a particular page of
your site. A good rule of thumb is to have a keyword density of
1-3%. Some may be thinking, “how do you get the keyword density
percentage?” The mathematical formula is quite simple: you
divide the total number of keywords or keyword phrases in your
content by the total number of words.

So if you have 10 keywords in a document with 1000 total words,
that’s a keyword density of exactly 1%, which is the lowest
keyword density your page should have for search engine
purposes—anything less and chances are, your site won’t be
listed high in a search engine.

To achieve the ideal keyword density of 3%, you would have to
have 30 keywords or keyword phrases in a site with 1000 words.
Generally speaking, you don’t want to have more than 3% keyword
density, as the keywords tend to get repetitive in that case and
actually hinder your site. But you also don’t want to have less
than 1%, as your site won’t be noticed as quickly or as
effectively by search engines.

How do I make keywords flow naturally throughout my page?

It’s all about coming up with good keywords that relate to your
site and can be used naturally throughout a page without
sounding silly or repetitive. Before you even think about
writing the content for a page, sit down first to decide on
keywords or key phrases to use in the page. Then begin to write
the content, and when you see fit, place in a keyword or key
phrase.

It is a good idea to take a break after writing a paragraph or
two to review the work. When you are looking at what has been
written, make sure it makes sense to you and that the use of
keywords doesn’t distract you from what the page is actually
about. Readers will not enjoy a site that is chock full of
keywords that do nothing but distract them from the article or
piece of content.

A lot of people recommend placing a keyword in the first and
last sentence of every paragraph. While this may be effective
for some, it often does no good for others and hurts their
content. Try not to be too strict with where you place the
keywords—only use them when they seem to “fit” into a sentence.
Then, when you’re done, count them up. If you’ve managed to
place around 10 keywords naturally into your content, then
you’re good to go.

Keyword and word counting seems daunting….are there any tools I
can use to make the process quicker?

The short answer is yes, there are quite a few wonderful tools
which make counting keywords and total words much easier than it
sounds. We will briefly go over a few here.

SEO Keyword Density

Available at: http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density/

This is a free tool available from SEOChat. What the tool
basically does is it analyzes your page for 1, 2, or 3 keywords
in your page and tells you what the keyword density of your page
is. It is a very effective, easy to use tool that will make
figuring out keyword density very easy for you.

Keyword Density Tool

Available at: http://www.keyworddensity.com/

The Keyword Density tool is free, quick and effective. All you
have to do is type in keywords or key phrases, your url and
click “Analyze Keyword Density”. The tool will then tell you how
much keyword density you have on the page.

Keyword Density Checker
Available at:
http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php

Yet another free keyword density checker, this one is
straight-forward to use and effective. Just type in the
keywords, url and hit submit. That’s it.

To sum it all up, keyword density can greatly impact how well
your site does. Learn the basics now, and you’re in for a
successful web site.

To your success, see you soon folks,
from charles of Amankomah.com

So what are “Black Hat” techniques?

“Black Hat” techniques are unethical techniques that some web
site owners use to get their site listed on search engines. They
usually use these techniques to get a high search engine
listing. Here is a list of three common “Black Hat” techniques
you should avoid if you want to please search engine spiders.

1. Keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is the overuse of keywords
in a piece of content. Generally, this is repeating the same
keywords over and over just to achieve a higher search engine
ranking.
2. Invisible text. Quite a few cheap sites use this tactic,
which involves making keywords in a font that is the same color
as the background, so that readers can’t see the massive amounts
of keywords, but search engine spiders can.
3. Doorway pages. These are pages that regular visitors cannot
see, but search engine spiders can. They are done to trick the
search engines so that the site gets a higher ranking.

Why are “Black Hat” techniques bad?

They’re bad because they go against the rules set forth by
search engines. Not only do they go against the rules, but they
also hurt the visitor’s experience. Who wants to see a site
stuffed with keywords? “Black Hat” techniques are unethical and
wrong.

Do “Black Hat” techniques work?

Yes, they do, which is why people use them. But these techniques
only work temporarily. Eventually the search engine spiders
catch on and your site is permanently banned from being listed.
This is why you should never use “Black Hat” techniques. It may
pay off for a few short weeks, but it permanently hurts your
site and its credibility on the internet.

So if I can’t use “Black Hat” techniques, what techniques can I
use to help my site get listed high on search engines?

Fortunately, there are multiple techniques that you can use to
get your site legitimately listed high on search engines. We’ll
go over two such techniques right now.

Keywords

Earlier in this newsletter, we talked about keyword stuffing.
While keyword stuffing is an awful thing to do, the natural use
of keywords is perfectly fine. By natural, we mean keywords that
are spread throughout a document in a way that isn’t blatant.

How do you naturally use keywords in your content to benefit
your site? Well, before you even write your content, take a few
minutes to identify some keywords that are relevant to your
site. Then, begin to write the content. Try to incorporate the
keywords you have picked out in a natural way throughout the
content. Ideally, if your content is 600 words, you’ll want to
use the main keyword between 6-18 times, which is a keyword
density of 1-3%(keyword density is the number of keywords
divided by the total words of a document). Anything less than
that won’t be beneficial to your site. More than 3% keyword
density might seem like keyword stuffing, so try not to go much
past 5% keyword density.

One thing to keep in mind is that actual people are reading your
site. Thus, you should make sure that the use of keywords does
not distract your readers from the whole meaning of the content.

Linking

Linking is a very common practice between web sites. How do you
do it? Well, you ask a site that is relevant to yours to post a
link to your site on their site. In return, you can offer to
link to their site on your site. That way, both sites get a
benefit from the linking.

How does this help your listing? Well, each time a search engine
spider visits a page with a link to your site on it, the spider
will then visit your site.

If you keep the above in mind, your site will get listed high on
a search engine with no danger of being pulled.

To your success, see you soon folks,
from charles of Amankomah.com

So which is more important, to please the visitors or the search
engine spiders? The unequivocal answer is to please the
visitors. What good is a site that attracts spiders but not
actual people? And what good is a site that only attracts some
visitors but not search engine spiders? In this newsletter, we
will go over writing content that interests and pleases both
your readers and the spiders.

So how do I write content that pleases a visitor?

First, stick to writing content that is relevant to your site.
That means that if your site is about Rock music, you should not
have any content about dogs, as that only makes your site look
bad and repels visitors.

Second, write content in an easy to understand, conversational
format. Do not use big, fancy words just for the sake of looking
smart or pleasing search engine bots. I can’t count the number
of times I’ve visited a site with content that is so hard to
comprehend that I do not wish to ever come back to that site
again. You want to make a good first impression on anyone who
takes the time to look at your site, so make sure your content
is easy to understand.

Third, never ever write content that is long, dull, and boring.
If the point you are trying to get across can be said more
concisely in 500 words, than why waste another 300 words droning
on and on about the topic? This is a huge turnoff to potential
visitors.

Fourth, make sure that all of your content is grammatically
correct. I know, this is hard because we live in the instant
messenger world, where sentences like “how r u?”, are thought to
be acceptable. However, anyone who is well-educated will
appreciate good grammar. Make your site shine in this
department.

Fifth, don’t overuse keywords and keyword phrases. In other
words, don’t make it blatantly obvious to the reader that you
are trying to attract search engine spiders to your site. Make
an effort to make sure that your keywords and keyword phrases
flow into the content of the article. This is easier said than
done, but can be accomplished with a little fine tuning.

But what about search engine spiders? How do I please them?

Search engine spiders are actually very easy to please, much
easier than actual human beings. This is because search engine
spiders aren’t subjective—they don’t care what the subject is
about; they just care about the number keywords and keyword
phrases.

The only way you can possibly displease a search engine spider
is by overusing a keyword/keyword phrase and making your site
smell like spam. Search engine spiders are now more advanced
than ever, and so they are better able to ignore sites that are
full of spam. Too many keywords or keyword phrases that are
blatantly there will hinder your site from being crawled by
spiders.

As is mentioned in another of our newsletters, a keyword density
of 1-3% is generally considered to be good. Any less than 1% is
bad and will make it harder for your site to get listed on
search engines; any more than 4% makes your site look like spam.
If you haven’t checked out our other newsletter, keyword density
is basically the number of keywords or keyword phrases in a
piece of content divided by the total number of words.

Before you write your article, take some time to make up a short
list of keywords that are relevant to the topic at hand. Then
try to naturally sprinkle them into your content, so that your
content will please both the search engine bots and your
readers. If you are able to do that, you will have a successful
site in no time. Not only will the search bots love you, but
actual people will, too!

To your success, see you soon folks,
from charles of Amankomah.com