Search Engine Marketing Issues

From: Rick Kollmeyer

I'm in the midst of revising my web site, and want to use Flash for the navigation scheme. I'm assuming that the search engines will have no way of following my links, and therefore, [the site] will not get indexed. I can think of two solutions:

1. Submit each page individually. Does this cause any problems?
2. Somehow invisibly embed the links elsewhere on the document. Not sure exactly how to do this, or if it would even trick the engine.

Thanks Jill,

Rick Kollmeyer

~~~Jill's Response~~~

You are right that the search engines won't generally be able to read the links (nor any information in the Flash).

1. Submit each page individually. Does this cause any problems?

It wouldn't work because the engines would view them as "stand-alone" pages since they would see no links to/from the pages. They don't like stand-alone pages because that's how all the "bad guys" used to make pages to trick them (doorway pages).

2. Somehow invisibly embed the links elsewhere on the document. Not sure exactly how to do this, or if it would even trick the engine.

There is an HTML code called the <noembed> tag for browsers that can't read stuff that's embedded on the page. It's similar to the <noscript> tag, which I use on my own page so the engines can follow the links in my DHTML menu. You could put your navigation links in that tag if you wanted to. You could probably use the <noscript> tag, but it wouldn't be technically up to code, so to speak!

Also, to be on the safe side and make it even easier for the search engine spiders, I'd put regular old text links to the main pages of the site at the bottom of each page.

Jill

~~~Next Question~~~

++Top Positions Without Paying++

From: Kim Adams

Hi Jill,

Do you think it's possible to get a good "close-to-the-top" position without paying?

I work for a small company who really doesn't want to invest too much on search engine placement because the website was just for their current customers. However, I think it would be great if we could pick up new business by having a better placement in the search engines.

I just haven't been too successful with getting a top listing, and wondered if it's even possible.

Thanks,

Kim

~~Jill's Response~~

Hi Kim,

If you know what you're doing, it's absolutely positively possible to get #1 positions without paying anything. I do it all the time! (People pay me, but I'm often not paying the engines anything.) In fact, you CAN'T pay Google. There are certainly some helpful things (such as a Yahoo! listing) that you *could* pay for, but they're not necessities.

If you have more time than money, SEO is very easy to learn and implement at very low costs -- yes, even today. But if you have more money than time, it's probably wiser to pay someone who already knows exactly what to do to make it happen.

Pretty much like any profession, really!

Jill

~~~Next Question~~~

++SES Conference Worth++

From: Michael Pedone

Hi Jill,

I am seriously considering attending the Search Engine Conference in Dallas later this year. As a small SEO company, the $1,000 registration fee isn't chump change...my question is, is the conference worth it?

Sincerely,

Michael Pedone

~~~Jill's Response~~~

Hi Michael,

It's hard for me to judge whether it's worth it because I come to it from a different perspective than most attendees; however, the people I talk to at the conference always say that it was worth it for them. It can be a bit confusing, as there's often a lot of conflicting advice given. But as long as you're able to assimilate it and use your own judgment, you should be able to learn a lot.

If you do attend, I'll be speaking there. It's not confirmed yet, but I may be doing a session on submitting to directories such as Yahoo! and DMOZ. Plus, I'll still be doing the Writing for the Search Engines session that I do with my former Rank Write partner, Heather Lloyd-Martin. We may also have a writing clinic tacked onto it. The agenda will be posted within a few weeks.

Jill
October 10, 2002