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A Search Engine Optimizer's New Year's Resolutions
By Shawn Campbell

With the ringing in of the New Year, I resolve to become a
better search engine optimizer (SEO). Below is a list of
resolutions that I have made in order to make my clients'
web sites the absolute best on the web.

* I Will Not Use Flash As Text.
      :: Even though many search engines can now read some of
the text embedded in flash, flash sites do not perform as well
in search engine results as non-flash sites. Flash should
primarily be used to enhance sites; in the same way one would
use pictures to make the site look better.

* I Will Not Use Images as Text.
      :: Although I personally believe that text in images
will be read by search engines by the end of 2006, we are not
there just yet. As it now stands, image text is invisible to
search engines and therefore should not be used in that
capacity.

* I Will Use Good Usability Techniques.
      :: Usability is simple to test. Get three friends to
complete a task on your site as you silently watch and take
notes (have them talk out loud too). You will be amazed as to
what you find. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox
(http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html) has a good
introduction to usability.

* I Will Not Use Cloaking.
      :: Cloaking is frowned upon by search engines. Once
they catch you, you will get penalized (or in some instances,
banned).

* I Will Not Use Frames Unless I Have a REALLY Good Reason to.
      :: Frames complicate things for the search engine.
There are very few good reasons to use frames and thus they
should be avoided whenever possible.

* I Will Use a Catchy Title with the Keyphrase in it.
      :: Marketing is what we are all about. A catchy title
will bring in the customers. A title containing the target
keyphrase will raise the result in the search engines. Put the
two together and you have a professional marketing title that
works hard to bring in traffic.

* I Will Track the Return on Investment (ROI).
      :: By tracking the ROI, I will clearly see if the site
is making or losing money. To track ROI one needs to co-relate
the marketing dollars spent with the revenue earned. This
statistic is usually hindered by the site's owner, who cannot
(or does not) provide the financial information, nor the
conversional statistics I need to track ROI.

* I Will Write an Alt Tag That Clearly Depicts What the Image
is, for Every Image.
      :: This will help people without images on their screen
know what the image is about. Using the keyphrase in the alt tag
is a bonus because it will help the rankings slightly in the
search engine results, but it is most important to describe the
image as clearly as possible.

* I Will Use Good Informative Content.
      :: Ah yes, "Content is King". All the above resolutions
are meaningless if I don't have good content. This is what will
bring in the search engines. This is what will bring in the
clients. And this is what will bring in the dough.

* I Will Not Stuff the Pages With Keyphrases.
      :: Stuffing the page with keyphrases goes against the
golden rule of good content. If you stuff the pages with
keyphrases, they will no longer read well, and readers won't
like to read them. Consequently, people won't enjoy your site,
and because the search engines are designed to figure out what
people like and then display it to them, the search engines will
eventually begin to disregard your site. Therefore, ALWAYS use
keyphrases wisely.

* I Will Not Use "Spammy" Techniques.
      :: "Spammy" techniques are anything the search engines
say not to use. These techniques may do well in the short-term,
but in the long run they will get you penalized (or even
banned).

- Google has a list of guidelines here
(http://www.google.ca/intl/en/webmasters/guidelines.html#quality)
- Yahoo has a list of guidelines here
(http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/deletions/deletions-05.html)

* I Will Use Pay-Per-Click (Ppc), Even if It is for a Very Small
Amount.
      :: I have found that using even a minuscule PPC campaign
will bring in more traffic. It also propagates links to your
site throughout the Internet, and thus makes your site more
prominent. If you are worried about losing money, then use the
free conversion tracking tool available at both Overture and
Google AdWords. USE IT. Only then will you know how effective
your PPC campaign really is.

* I Will Track Unique Hits to the Site.
      :: By keeping track of whether the site's traffic goes
up or down, I get a big picture of the health of the web site.
If traffic goes up, then the rankings probably went up. If
traffic goes down, then rankings probably went down. Of course
there are also seasonal variations (and marketing pushes), but
you should be familiar enough with the market to know when to
expect such cyclical fluctuations.

* I Will Get A Good Copywriter to Write the Content.
      :: "Content is King", so get a professional to write
it. You may think you are good, but are you really? Would you
bet your Internet presence on it? Use someone who knows how to
write specifically for the Internet. Use someone who knows how
to balance writing for people, writing for sales, and writing
for search engines.

* I Will Not Send Out "Spammy" Emails Asking for Reciprocal
Links.
      :: Reciprocal links don't bring in clients, and they
tend to only slightly boost your PageRank. An SEO's time is
better served getting the site listed in directories and on
sites where people would be looking for it (such as
associations, suppliers, clients, and more...). Personalized
emails to these sites requesting a link to yours are fine.
Templates or mass emails requesting reciprocal links are
definitely not.

* I Will Work Hard Getting Valuable Links to My Site.
      :: "Linking is Queen", thus getting links is essential.
Find directories that relate to your market and take your time
to submit to them (in the best category). Contact your suppliers
and/or resellers and see if they will link to you. Figure out
where your potential clients hang out on the Internet, and get
those sites to link to you. Do your homework to choose where you
want your links to appear, then roll up your sleeves, get out
the elbow grease and get those links to show up!

With a little dedication and a lot of work, I will get my
clients into the top search engine results. If you want to do
well with your web site, stick to these resolutions and before
you know it the traffic (and the sales) will roll in smoothly,
just like the New Year.

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Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce
marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
(http://www.redcarpetweb.com/). He has been researching and
developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent
listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of
the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.
Contact: shawn@redcarpetweb.com
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