Lecture Three

1
Lecture Three

• Ian Harris
• Entrepreneurial Champion

2
Search Engines are Key (Part Two of Three)

• Lecture Aim To prove that search engines are key
  to the overall success of a businesses website /
  eCommerce implementation solution

3
Lecture Objectives

• To briefly discuss the links between this lecture
  and lecture 1
• To give a brief overview of the links between
  lectures 2, 3 4
• To briefly consider how SEs can be of benefit to
  a business
• To examine web hosting, web hosting options and
  to look at domain name suffixes
• To fully understand the different areas of how
  search engines work i.e. how search engines find
  pages, what SEs look for on a page inc. software
  spiders (or Robots), the spider (Robots) Meta Tag
  and to look at what Doorway and Gateway Pages
  are. This section also examines and you will
  learn how to find the pages a user has asked for,
  how to achieve top ranking in a search, 10 tips
  to the top of Google, why text is king for SEs,
  the concepts of text only version websites and
  web design and site architecture considerations
• The final section covering the importance of
  search engine directory listings looks at
  understanding SEs, examines search engine
  optimisation, product visibility and the
  importance of link popularity and reciprocal links

4
Content

• Links with Lecture One
• Links Between Lectures Two, Three and Four
• How can SEs be used to Benefit a Business
• Web Hosting and Web Hosting Options
• Domain Name Suffixes
• How Search Engines Work
• What Search Engines Look for on a Page
• Software Spiders (or Robots) Used by SEs
• The Spider (Robots) Meta Tag
• What are Doorway and Gateway Pages
• Finding the Pages a User has Asked for
• How to Achieve Top Ranking in a SE
• 10 Tips to the Top of Google
• Why Text is King for SEs
• Alt Tags and Images
• Alt Tag Source Code

5
Content

• Text Only Version Websites
• Web Design and Site Architecture Consideration
• The Importance of a SE Directory Listing
• Understanding Search Engines
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Product Visibility
• Link Popularity
• What is Link Popularity
• Why do you need Link Popularity
• How do you know when you have got it
• Example of Google Links
• Example of LinkPopularity.com
• All Links are not Equal
• The More Links the Better
• Reciprocal Links
• Why Reciprocal Links are Important

6
Links with Lecture One

• Referring to slides 21 through to 26 within
  Lecture One What Makes a Good Website?
• The overall design of a Website will
  significantly affect the way in which it relates
  to Search Engine listing. Following the Good
  criteria will help with good placement. Not
  following them will result in poor results in
  relation to search engine position!

7
Links between Lectures Two, Three and Four

• Lecture Two aimed to introduce the What of
  Search Engines
• Lecture Three Four covers the How Search
  Engines can be used to benefit a businesses
  Website presence

8
How can SEs be used to Benefit a Business?

• This lecture looks very much at the how of
  Search Engines and will begin to look at ways in
  which a business can exploit a SE to its full
  potential and benefit. Lecture Four will continue
  and conclude with this topic

9
Web Hosting

• Definition
• The business of providing the storage,
  connectivity, and services necessary to serve
  files for a website
• A company that provides web hosting services is
  called a web host, and their detailed offers of
  storage, connectivity, and services are called
  web hosting plans
• There are literally thousands of web hosting
  services, ranging from individuals to worldwide
  corporations, and many web hosts offer multiple
  web hosting plans

Source http//www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/w
eb_hosting/
10
Web Hosting Options

• Choosing a Registration Agent
• There are now hundreds of registration agents
  (ISPs) in the UK offering a wide range of
  Internet services
• Making the right choice of provider is quite a
  daunting task and Nominet UK offer the following
  broad advice
• Overall, you should shop around to find a
  registration agent that provides the service or
  range of services you need
• Get competitive quotes - but remember, the
  cheapest price is not necessarily the best deal
• You should ask to see copies of the Terms and
  Conditions for domain name registration
• Seek recommendations from other Internet users
• Check whether the registration agent has signed
  up to an industry code of conduct
• Consider whether you need any specialist services
• Research what is available from which
  registration agent
• Pay particular attention to your rights to move
  your business and your domain name to another
  registration agent

Source http//www.nic.uk/RegisteringYourDomainNam
e/ChoosingARegistrationAgentisp/ (Nominet The
UK Internet Name Organisation)
11
Web Hosting Options

• Other considerations when choosing an ISP
• As an entry level host provider, any vendor you
  consider should offer the following service
  features at a minimum
• 30 MB of host space
• 2 GB of data transfer per month
• MS FrontPage support
• FTP support (for uploading and refreshing web
  pages)
• Website statistics
• 3 email accounts at your domain name
• Unlimited number of virtual email accounts
• Catchall email account
• Autoresponder email account
• On choosing who you will host your website with
  you then need to consider an appropriate domain
  name

Source Bergman, Dr T.P, pp 156, 2002.
Further Resources http//www.sitepoint.com/articl
e/731 (Complete Guide to Hosting - Part
One) http//www.sitepoint.com/article/732
(Complete Guide to Hosting - Part
Two) http//www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/we
b_hosting/ (Checklists for Choosing a Web Host
along with a Checklist for a Businesses Web
Hosting Plans)
12
Web Hosting Options

• Definition of Domain Name
• Location of an entity on the Internet
• There are different levels of domains. Examples
  of the various levels are as follows
• Top-level (TLD) - .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov
• 2nd-level - business, shopping, search(2nd-level
  may contain letters, numbers, and hyphens)
• 3rd-level - www1, www2, keyword (optional)(NOTE
  - make sure your site resolves with or without
  www)
• The selection of domain names is a major
  consideration when doing business online, and it
  is often one of the first issues to be addressed
• While a good domain name won't guarantee success,
  it can have a positive (or negative) impact on
  almost every aspect of online business
• A "good" domain is one that is easy to remember
  and minimizes confusion
• If you are acquiring a name that has the
  potential to cause confusion, it is generally
  recommended that you obtain the most logical
  variations. This often includes non-hyphenated
  and hyphenated variations, along with words that
  are phonetically similar and common misspellings

Source http//www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/d
omain_name/
13
Web Hosting Options

• Choosing your Domain Name (UK Example)
• Fundamentally there are 3 stages to choosing a
  domain name
• The choice of Top Level Domain such as .uk
• The choice of Second Level Domain - such as
  .co.uk, .plc.uk or the new .me.uk
• The name itself - such as bbc.co.uk
• Having decided on your domain name, you then need
  to check whether it is available or whether it
  has been registered already by another user. This
  is done by using the WHOIS service, an on-line
  search facility that provides details of domain
  name registrations in a matter of seconds
• Think very carefully about your domain name, it
  will have a high influence on the success of your
  on-line presence

Source http//www.nic.uk/RegisteringYourDomainNam
e/ChoosingYourDomainName/ (Nominet The UK
Internet Name Organisation)
Further Resources http//www.mydomain.com/
(Domain Name Registration Service) http//www.ne
t2.co.uk/ (Domain Name Registration
Service) http//www.domainnameregistration.me.uk
/ (Domain Name Registration Service) http//uk2.
net/ (Domain Name Registration
Service) http//getdotted.com/ (Domain Name
Registration Service)
14
Domain Name Suffixes
Source http//www.computeruser.com/resources/dict
ionary/noframes/nf.domains.html
Further Resource http//www.norid.no/domenenavnba
ser/domreg-alpha.html
15
Example Domain Name Search
Source http//www.easyspace.com/
16
Example Domain Name Results
Source http//www.easyspace.com/
17
How Search Engines Work

• How Search Engines find pages
• What Search Engines Look for on a page?
• Software Spiders (or Robots) Used by SEs
• The Spider (Robots) Meta Tag
• What are Doorway and Gateway Pages
• Finding the pages a user has asked for
• How to Achieve Top Ranking in a Search?
• 10 Tips to the Top of Google
• Why Text is King for Search Engines
• Text Only Version Websites
• Web Design and Site Architecture Considerations

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/search.shtml
18
How Search Engines Work

• How Search Engines Find Pages
• Search engines find pages in one of two methods.
  They generally have an ADDURL link on the Home or
  Help page
• The ADDURL link allows users to submit either a
  Web page or their site. A list of ADDURL pages
  for the major search engines is available at
• www.topwebsite.co.uk/links.shtmlwww.altavista.com
  /cgi-bin/query?pgddurl www.excite.com/info/add_u
  rl_formwww.google.com/addurl.html
• Some engines ask you to just submit the domain
  (eg., www.yourdomain.com/), while others allow
  individual page submissions. You should always
  read the submission guidelines before submitting
  a page. Doing it wrong may get your site banned

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/search.shtml
19
What SEs Look for on a Page

• Once a page has been submitted, the search engine
  uses a software SPIDER (or Robot) to look at the
  site
• Each search engine looks for the information it
  requires, and each is different. Search engines
  also look at links on each page and may add those
  links to their database for spidering at a later
  date
• Some people actually do this for a living!
• The search engine spider examines the code on the
  page and extracts text from the programming code.
  The text is then examined to assess the theme of
  the page. In doing this, the spider looks at the
  following
• words which appear regularly throughout the page
  
• words appearing in Meta tags
• link anchor text
• and emphasised text (such as words in bold or
  italics)
• These give the engine an indication of the
  overall theme of the page, so that a search for
  'cars' will bring back lots of pages with cars
  appearing in them

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/search.shtml
20
What SEs Look for on a Page

• The Spider (Robots) Meta Tag
• Similar to other meta tags, the Robots Meta Tag
  is placed in the Head of your document
• The Robots Meta Tag performs a very specific
  function. It tells spiders which pages should be
  indexed, which pages should not be indexed, which
  links should be followed, and which links should
  not be followed
• In the first example, the spider is instructed to
  index the visited page and follow all links. In
  the second example, the robot is instructed to
  not index the visited page, but follow all the
  links from it - and so forth

Source http//spider-food.net/handling-robots.htm
l
21
What SEs Look for on a Page

• What are Doorway Pages
• Definition of a Doorway Page
• A page made specifically to rank well in search
  engines for particular keywords, serving as an
  entry point through which visitors pass to the
  main content
• Doorway pages are pages that have been developed
  to rank highly for a specific keyword or phrase.
  Don't think of them as 'special pages' on your
  site that surfers should not see. Instead think
  of every page on your site as a Doorway, or
  entrance, to your site as that is what Doorway
  pages have evolved into
• A doorway page contains all of the elements
  associated with any other web page. The only
  difference is that the title, keywords,
  description, and body content have all been
  optimised for one or two specific keywords or
  keyword phrases

Source http//www.marketingterms.com/
Source http//spider-food.net/doorway-pages.html
22
What SEs Look for on a Page

• What are Doorway Pages
• Typically, however, doorway pages don't contain
  complex table layouts, extensive JavaScript, or a
  lot of images. File sizes should be kept low -
  45K and below. Remember, you are creating this
  page to specifically rank highly with a search
  engine for a specific keyword phrase - not to
  dazzle the viewer with design and fancy coding.
  These pages should be functional first, pretty
  second
• Take for example, a company which sells 100
  products online. It is impossible for the company
  to optimise one page to cover all 100 products
  across all the different search engines. Each
  engine is different. However, by creating doorway
  pages the company can create entry points to
  their site which focus on keyword phrases for
  their specific products
• Yes, this is a long-winded process and is quite
  costly, but it is also essential. It would be
  wise to obtain a requisite quote before
  undertaking this work!

Source http//spider-food.net/doorway-pages.html
23
What SEs Look for on a Page

• What are Gateway Pages
• In contrast to doorway pages, a gateway page,
  crawler page, or hallway page or corridor page,
  is a page you do not want to rank highly with the
  engines
• Typically, a gateway page does not contain Meta
  tags and it contains very little textual content.
  It mainly contains a series of links to your
  doorway pages and the other pages on your web
  site
• The reason for creating a gateway page is that
  some engines seem to give a boost to pages which
  the spider finds on it's own rather than pages
  that are submitted directly to the search engines
  by hand
• Consequently, the gateway page is submitted to
  the search engines instead of submitting all of
  your pages individually
• The spider theoretically crawls the gateway page
  and follows the links to each page on your site
• The spider, being so happy that it found this
  content all on it's own, it may give your pages a
  little bit of a boost in the search engine's
  ranking. With or without the boost, it's function
  has been served, your pages will get crawled

Source http//spider-food.net/gateway-pages.html
24
Finding the Pages a User has Asked for

• After matching the user's search query with the
  pages found in the search engine database, the SE
  decides which pages are most likely to be of use
  to the surfer
• Each search engine has its own ALGORITHM or
  mathematical calculation which gives more
  importance to words appearing, for instance, in
  Meta tags, than words appearing on the page
• Each engine is looking for what it believes is
  the best match for the user. By grading each page
  according to their algorithm, the engine is able
  to decide that page A is a closer match than page
  B for this user
• Engines also look at off-page criteria, such as
  the number of links pointing to a site, or
  whether those linking pages are also relevant to
  the search
• Other factors include the age of the page and
  whether it is listed in edited directories, such
  as Yahoo and Looksmart

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/search.shtml
25
How to Achieve Top Ranking in a Search Engine

• In order to achieve top ranking pages, it is
  necessary to reverse-engineer the algorithm used
  by each search engine
• By looking at the top 20 sites for a phrase such
  as 'LOANS, a pattern will emerge
• This pattern may then give you an indication
  about what different "factors" the particular
  search engine you were using is normally looking
  for. Examples of such "factors" are, for
  instance
• the number of words on the page (word count)
• how frequently the keyword appears on the page
  (keyword density)
• or how near the start of the page the keyword
  appears (keyword prominence). We will be looking
  at keywords in lecture 4
• The more searches and pages you examine, the
  easier it gets to recognize a pattern behind the
  results
• Unfortunately, some sites are able to hide the
  real code used by delivering different pages to
  search engine spiders than those delivered to a
  normal user

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/search.shtml
26
How Search Engines Work

• 10 Tips to the Top of Google
• 1. Start out slowly
• 2. Learn basic HTML
• 3. Choose keywords wisely
• 4. Write at least 200-250 words of visible text
  copy based on your chosen keywords
• 5. Create a good title tag - brainstorm these
  with colleagues etc
• 6. Create good meta tags. Create a meta
  description tag that uses YOUR keywords and also
  describes your Website
• 7. Use extra goodies to boost rankings. Useful
  goodies would be image alt tags, header tags
  ltH1gtltH2gt, etc, links from other pages, keywords
  in file names, and keywords in hyperlinks can
  cumulatively boost search engine rankings
• 8. Be careful when submitting to directories
  such as Yahoo and the Open Directory Project
  (DMOZ)
• 9. Do not expect quick results
• 10. Do not constantly tweak your site for
  better results

Source http//www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday
/article.php/2198931
Further Resource Jill Whalen is an
internationally recognized search engine
optimisation expert, a frequent speaker and
workshop presenter, and the owner of
http//www.highrankings.com/
27
How Search Engines Work

• Why Text is King for Search Engines
• Pages which contain little text, because of the
  use of images or flash animation, are unlikely to
  do well in search engines
• This is because they give the spider little to
  read and, therefore, little to assess what the
  page is actually about
• Similarly, they struggle as words become more
  deeply buried within tables
• Anything which gets in the way of descriptive
  text will affect the position achievable on the
  engines
• A search engine-friendly site consists of plain
  text, with targeted phrases repeated throughout
  the page
• Some site designs and techniques ruin any chance
  of achieving top ranking in search engines. This,
  in turn, can have a devastating effect on your
  sales
• Search engines cannot read text contained within
  an image or animation. However, they can read the
  information relating to an image contained within
  the Alt Tag section of the source code

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/search.shtml
28
Alt Tags and Images
Source http//www.800flowers.com/flowers/welcome.
asp?section0
29
Alt Tag Source Code

• This came out on top of a google search when
  searching for flowers
• A 1 in the name and source code would rank it
  higher in google rankings
• Moving the cursor over the image displays
  1-800-Flowers.com Home
• The image is called logo2.gif
• The source code relating to this is highlighted
  below

Source http//www.800flowers.com/flowers/welcome.
asp?section0
30
How Search Engines Work

• Text Only Version Websites
• It is worth considering a text-only version of
  your website to run alongside the main site but
  it doubles your overhead!
• This will give search engines a greater chance of
  picking up your site content
• Text-only versions should be designed for
  text-only browsers such as Linx
• Try viewing a page from your site at
  www.delorie.com/web/ses.cgi to see how it looks
  to a search engine. You may be surprised

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/search.shtml
31
How Search Engines Work

• Web Design and Site Architecture Considerations
• Content is King
• Lots of relevant text is what the search engines
  are looking for. Anything that gets in the way of
  descriptive text about your products will affect
  the position achievable on the engines. A search
  engine friendly site consists of lots of text,
  dressed up as you choose with traditional html
  FONT tags. Your targeted phrases or Keywords
  should be repeated throughout the page and an
  overall theme applied to the site through the use
  of descriptive and targeted language
• Splash Pages
• Introductory logo pages immediately put a site at
  a disadvantage. By definition, they occupy the
  default page of the site. This default page has
  the best potential to get to the top of the
  search engines. An image and a few words 'Click
  here to enter' gives them little information
  about your sites theme. It also puts an
  unnecessary obstacle in the way of the user they
  have to decide 'Should I click?' instead of
  'Should I buy?'

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/
32
How Search Engines Work

• Web Design and Site Architecture Considerations
• Frames
• Search engines do not like frames unless used
  correctly. Descriptive text about your site needs
  to be included in the ltNOFRAMESgt part of the
  code. Search engines will read this rather than
  the pages that are loaded in the individual
  frames. The engines will also crawl through a
  site and pick up the individual pages that should
  be shown inside the frames context. Each page
  should include a link or JavaScript code to allow
  the user to re-establish the frames environment

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/
Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/
33
How Search Engines Work

• ltNOFRAMESgt example part of the code

34
How Search Engines Work

• Web Design and Site Architecture Considerations
• Page Construction
• The code used to display a web page can be
  written in many ways to achieve the same result.
  Try to make the main body of text appear near the
  start of the HTML code by adjusting table cells.
  Use blank cells and rowspan tags to manipulate
  the text higher in the code and keep JavaScript
  and navigation cells towards the bottom of the
  code
• Flash
• Flash animation and JavaScript work in a similar
  fashion to images, in that the code used to
  generate the effect obstructs the real text on
  the page. There is nothing in the programming
  code creating these effects that will raise the
  prominence of the words you want to be found
  under on a search engine. The code also tends to
  be placed near the start of the HTML document
  that makes up the web page. This is done to load
  the effects before the rest of the page appears.
  It also has the effect of pushing your
  descriptive text towards the bottom of the HTML
  code. This makes the actual text appear less
  important to the search engines

Source http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/
35
The Importance of a Search Engine Directory
Listings

• Understanding Search Engines
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Product Visibility
• Link Popularity and Reciprocal Links

36
Understanding Search Engines

• There are literally billions of pages of
  information on the Web, with more being added
  every day
• Finding your way around, or even knowing where to
  start can be difficult
• It's important to understand that you cannot
  truly search the actual World Wide Web
• What you can do is to visit a web site that is
  designed to search out these pages one at a time
  and then collect them in a manner that you can
  access. In other words, you can visit a search
  engine
• Search engines are designed to make surfing the
  web simple, fast and rewarding for Internet users
  
• They gather together information, store it in a
  database, and allow you to access a list of
  individual pages based on a word, or set of words
  that you submit

Source http//websearch.about.com/library/weekly/
b1-search101-enginea.htm
Further Resource http//www7.scu.edu.au/programme
/fullpapers/1921/com1921.htm - The Anatomy of a
Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine (2000)
- Standford University, USA. A little dated but
worth a look to grasp the concepts.
37
Search Engine Optimisation

• What is Search Engine Optimisation?
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine
  Positioning (SEP), is a key Web Marketing topic.
  SEO is the art of improving the ranking of
  specific Web pages in the major search engines
  and directories for a specific search phrase
• How SE Optimisation Works
• Search Engine Optimisation starts with an
  understanding of what your potential Customers
  will do in a specific situation - what search
  phrase (two or more words) will they enter into
  one of the major search engines or directories
  while looking for specific products, services
  and/or information
• Why focus on only the major search engines and
  directories -because they handle well over 90 of
  the Internet search traffic

Source http//www.web-marketing-tutorial.com/sear
ch-engine-optimization.html (Also for all major
crawler-based SEs)
Further Resource http//support.superb.net/data/b
eginners.php (Superb Internet - Guidance)
38
Search Engine Optimisation

• There are three areas to consider in achieving SE
  Optimisation
• Identify of the important key words or phrases
  and any relevant variants
• Analyse your website to determine how these key
  words or phrases should be represented in the
  site to make sure that the SE gives them the
  appropriate priority (key words and phrases will
  be covered in lecture 4)
• Rigorous monitoring and reporting that measures
  the traffic and revenue associated with SEs
  referrals for the purpose of evaluating the
  effectiveness of the program

Source http//www.ecnext.com/aboutecnext/webvisab
ility.shtml
Other useful Resources Search Engine
Optimisation Tool for Existing Websites
http//www.web-marketing-tutorial.com/search-engin
e-todolist-existing-site.html Search Engine
Optimisation Tool for New Websites
http//www.web-marketing-tutorial.com/search-engin
e-todolist-new-site.html Search Engine
Optimisation Resources SpiderFood.net
http//www.web-marketing-tutorial.com/seo-review-s
piderfood.html Search Engine Guide
http//www.web-marketing-tutorial.com/seo-review-s
earchengineguide.html High Rankings Advisor
http//www.web-marketing-tutorial.com/seo-review-h
ighrankings.html
39
Product Visibility

• Not only can the search engines be used to drive
  customers to a website, but in many cases, they
  can also be used to drive customers to specific
  commercial documents that are relevant to the
  search criteria
• In such cases, the search engine user can be
  presented immediately with an opportunity to buy
  a document that is highly relevant to his
  interests
• A product visibility program consists of a
  combination of technology and services that
  address this problem by exposing specially
  prepared, highly optimised pages that present an
  opportunity to buy the relevant document to the
  search engines. These facilities may include
• A facility for generating appropriate document
  purchase pages that are highly optimised for the
  important key words and phrases relevant to the
  document
• A process for frequent search engine updates to
  ensure that new documents are indexed in a timely
  fashion
• A rigorous monitoring and reporting program that
  measures the traffic and revenue generated by the
  product visibility program

Source http//www.ecnext.com/aboutecnext/webvisab
ility.shtml
40
Link Popularity

• What is Link Popularity?
• Why do you need it?
• How do you know when you have got it?
• All Links are not Equal
• The More Links the Better?
• Reciprocal Links
• Did you know?

Source http//www.emage-emarketing.com/052902.htm
l
41
What is Link Popularity?

• Link popularity is now a key factor when the
  major search engines determine how to rank search
  results
• At its most basic level, link popularity is a
  measure of the other websites that have links
  pointing to your site
• While the actual number of links is important,
  more significantly is the quality of those sites,
  their relevance to your own site, and even the
  quality of the link's text

Source http//www.emage-emarketing.com/052902.htm
l
42
Why do you need Link Popularity?

• Well-placed links are an excellent source of
  consistent and targeted traffic all on their own
• However, because most of the major search engines
  now factor link popularity into their relevancy
  ranking it has become critical for any successful
  search engine marketing campaign
• Strong link popularity means strong rankings
  which mean search engine traffic to your site

Source http//www.emage-emarketing.com/052902.htm
l
43
How do you know when you have got it?

• There a number of ways to determine your current
  link popularity
• Use the search engines - Most of the crawler
  based search engines have specific queries that
  allow you to determine how many sites are linking
  to yours
• Free services like LinkPopularityCheck.com
  LinkPopularity.com allows you to do this from one
  central location (you can also easily check on
  your competitors this way too)
• Use the Google Toolbar - This handy addition to
  your browser includes a graphic representation of
  a site's link popularity with the Page Rank bar

Source http//www.emage-emarketing.com/052902.htm
l
Further Resource http//www.linkpopularitycheck.c
om/ (Link Popularity Checker!)
44
How do you know when you have got it?

• There a number of ways to determine your current
  link popularity
• PageRank This tool allows you to see Google's
  ranking of the current page

• Some words, when followed by a colon, have
  special meanings to Google. One such word for
  Google is the link operator. The query
  linksiteURL shows you all the pages that point
  to that URL. For example, linkwww.google.com
  will show you all the pages that point to
  Google's home page. You cannot combine a link
  search with a regular keyword search

Source http//www.google.com/help/features.htmll
ink
45
Example of Google Links
46
Example of LinkPopularity.com
47
How do you know when you have got it?

• There a number of ways to determine your current
  link popularity
• You can also use the drop down menu under Page
  Info to get Google to list the backward links to
  your site
• Analyse your log files - Use a program like
  WebTrends to analyse your web traffic logs
• For link popularity you want to focus on the
  referral data. Make sure this metric is turned on
  and that you are reporting as deeply as possible.
  This will let you know exactly where your traffic
  is coming from

Source http//www.emage-emarketing.com/052902.htm
l
48
All Links are not Equal

• Not all links to your site carry the same weight
  or value
• Many search engines give more importance to some
  links over others
• That's why most free for all (FFA) links pages
  have zero effect on link popularity (and in some
  cases participating in these link farms can
  actually get your site penalized)
• Link with the big boys first. A link from Yahoo!
  will carry more weight than a link from your best
  friend's family home page
• List your site with major portals, with major
  site reviewers, and especially with the Open
  Directory Project
• Make sure you list your site with topical
  directories, engines, and web guides that are
  specific to the subject matter you offer
• Niche engines are growing every day, and as the
  web gets more clogged, users are finding
  specialized topical search tools to be very
  useful. SiteOwner.com's Directory Guide is a good
  place to begin searching for these

Source http//www.emage-emarketing.com/052902.htm
l
49
All Links are not Equal

• Make sure you list your site with topical
  directories, engines, and web guides that are
  specific to the subject matter you offer
• Don't just concentrate on building links for
  popularity purposes. A link to your site that
  search engines do not know about can be a very
  important link
• Not everyone will use a search engine to get to
  your site. Besides, search engines might not even
  know about your links because they don't often
  spider beyond the second or third level
• Even if a deep page on another site gets 10,000
  hits per day and links with your page, it won't
  factor into link popularity because the spiders
  won't find it

Source http//www.emage-emarketing.com/052902.htm
l
50
The More Links the Better?

• Not necessarily
• Brand new sites that are very successful won't
  have links until they've been up and running for
  a while
• Quality is better than quantity
• Numbers aren't as important as context and
  relevancy
• It is better to have a few links from sites that
  are similar in content and topic to yours, a few
  links from the portals, and a few links from site
  reviewers, than to have 1,000 links on Free For
  All (FFA) links pages

Source http//www.emage-emarketing.com/052902.htm
l
51
Reciprocal Links

• What is a Reciprocal Links Program?
• Reciprocal linking has been around as long as the
  Web. It's the act of requesting a hyperlink to
  your Web site from a Web site that has a similar
  or complementary theme to yours in return for a
  link and description back to that site. It's
  really what the "Web" is all about - the ability
  to jump from site to related site via hyperlinks
• In it's simplest form, it's the Webmaster, Site
  Owner or Site Marketer of site no.1 emailing
  his/her counterpart at site no.2 that contains
  complementary content to ask if site no.2 would
  be willing to provide a hyperlink to and a brief
  description of site no.1 in return for a
  reciprocal hyperlink to and description of site
  no.2 on site no.1
• A formal Reciprocal Links Program turns that
  informal effort into a planned, on-going Web site
  marketing activity

Source http//www.web-marketing-tutorial.com/reci
procal-links.html
52
Reciprocal Links

• Why bother?
• Reciprocal links program could potentially
  produce the same results as a "perfect" search
  would on a major search engine
• Potential visitors to your Web site enter a
  search phrase into a major engine like Google or
  AltaVista and the search results page lists just
  a few links to relevant Web pages - a link to
  your site is one of them
• Now multiply that by hundreds or even thousands
  of complementary Web sites that list a
  description of your site and a link to it from
  their "Links" pages. That's the power of
  instituting a comprehensive reciprocal link
  program
• From the standpoint of attaining high rankings in
  the search results of the major search engines,
  the importance of attaining the "right"
  complementary links to your site can not be
  overstated. One need only look at how Google
  works in order to understand the importance of a
  strong, on-going Reciprocal Links Program

Source http//www.web-marketing-tutorial.com/reci
procal-links.html
53
Reciprocal Links

• Why Bother?
• Google has become the searcher's search engine
  because of it's ability to deliver incredibly
  relevant results in it's top 10-30 results for a
  search on a particular search phrase
• One of the major mechanisms Google uses to ensure
  the relevancy of it's search results is to use
  the structure of the Web itself. It does this by
  focusing on the linkage that goes on among Web
  sites
• The logic Google's ranking algorithms (and
  increasingly, other major crawler-based search
  engines' ranking algorithms) use is elegantly
  simple a Web site claiming to be relevant for a
  given topic or category is judged to be so based
  on how other known relevant sites for that topic
  view the site in question. In other words, if
  known relevant sites for a given topic and/or
  category link to the site being ranked, that site
  "inherits" a portion of the linking sites'
  relevance for that topic/category
• This technique creates a ranking hierarchy of
  sites for search words or phrases that inevitably
  drives the most relevant sites to the top of the
  list
• There are other aspects to this ranking technique
  beyond what is discussed here, but the key point
  to note as it relates to a Reciprocal Link
  Program is that it is not the number of links to
  a given site that matters, it is the quality of
  those links as they relate to the topic/category
  in question

Source http//www.web-marketing-tutorial.com/reci
procal-links.html
54
So why are Reciprocal Links Important?

• more importantly, anybody you do business
  with, anybody you purchase from, anybody who is
  your customer, try to arrange a reciprocal link
  because every link you create is another avenue
  into your website.
• (Colin Richards, Director of Business
  Development, www.gara.co.uk)

Source UK Online for Business, Go for IT the Net
Benefits for Tourism, 2002 (CD ROM Video)
55
Summary of Learning Outcomes

• We examined the links between the various
  lectures
• We briefly considered how SEs can be of benefit
  to a business
• We examined web hosting, web hosting options and
  looked at domain name suffixes
• You should now fully understand the different
  concepts surrounding how search engines work i.e.
  how search engines find pages, what SEs look for
  on a page inc. software spiders (or Robots), the
  spider (Robots) Meta Tag and what Doorway and
  Gateway Pages are. This section also examined and
  you will have learnt how to find the pages a user
  has asked for, how to achieve top ranking in a
  search, 10 tips to the top of Google, why text is
  king for SEs, the concepts of text only version
  websites and web design and site architecture
  considerations
• The final section will have given you deep
  insights into the importance of search engine
  directory listings i.e. understanding SEs, the
  importance of search engine optimisation, product
  visibility along with link popularity and
  reciprocal links

56
Assessment Question

• With the use of appropriate references please
  describe in your own words the importance of Link
  Popularity to the overall success of a businesses
  website?

57
References and Useful URLs
Bergman, Dr Thomas P 2002, The Essential Guide
to Web Strategy for Entrepreneurs, Prentice
Hall http//answers.google.com/answers/main http/
/catalogs.google.com/ http//cyberatlas.internet.c
om/markets/retailing/article/0,,6061_2105901,00.ht
mltable (Useful Internet Statistics) http//froo
gle.google.com/ http//getdotted.com/ (Domain
Name Registration Service) http//groups.google.co
m/ http//images.google.com/ http//labs.google.co
m/ http//searchengineshowdown.com/stats/dead.shtm
http//uk2.net/ (Domain Name Registration
Service) http//searchengineshowdown.com/stats/fre
shness.shtml (Data from May 17th 2003 by Greg R
Notess) http//searchengineshowdown.com/stats/over
lap.shtml http//searchengineshowdown.com/stats/s
ize.shtml http//searchengineshowdown.com/stats/u
nique.shtml http//topsearchengines.increase-link
-popularity.com/ (Most Important SEs for
Businesses) http//www.800flowers.com/flowers/welc
ome.asp?section0 http//www.altavista.com/cgi-bi
n/query?pgddurl http//www.clickz.com/mkt/emkt_s
trat/archives.php (Excellent Archive of
eMarketing Strategies) http//www.computeruser.co
m/resources/dictionary/noframes/nf.domains.html
(Domain Suffixes) http//www.domainnameregistratio
n.me.uk/ (Domain Name Registration
Service) http//www.emarketingassociation.com/ htt
p//www.easyspace.com/ (Domain Name Registration
Service) http//www.excite.com (Search Engine)
58
References and Useful URLs
http//www.excite.com/info/add_url_form http//www
.forrester.com/home/ (Forrester Research
Inc) http//www.google.co.uk (Search
Engine) http//www.google.com (Search
Engine) http//www.google.com/addurl.html
http//www.google.com/options/buttons.html http/
/www.google.com/options/index.html
http//www.highrankings.com/ http//www.internet
s.com/suk.htm (UK Databases) http//www.marketing
terms.com/dictionary/search_engine/ (Useful
Dictionary of Terms) http//www.mydomain.com/
(Domain Name Registration Service) http//www.net2
.co.uk/ (Domain Name Registration
Service) http//www.nic.uk/RegisteringYourDomainNa
me/ChoosingYourDomainName/ (Nominet The UK
Internet Name Organisation) http//www.nic.uk/Regi
steringYourDomainName/ChoosingARegistrationAgentis
p/ (Nominet The UK Internet Name
Organisation) http//www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/
domreg-alpha.html http//www.northernlight.com
(Search Engine) http//www.northernlight.com/docs/
glossary_help_terms_s.html (Useful Dictionary of
Terms) http//www.onestat.com/ http//www.onestat.
com/html/aboutus_pressbox12.html
http//www.scotti-internet-marketing.co.uk/ (UK
Internet Statistics) http//www.searchengineshowd
own.com/features/google/dbanalysis.shtml
http//www.searchenginewatch.com/ (Excellent
resource covering many facets of search
engines) http//www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/
article.php/2156441 (March 2002, SE Reach in 7
European Countries)
59
References and Useful URLs
http//www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/articl
e.php/2197801 (Search Engine Tracking
System Launched) http//www.searchenginewatch.com
/searchday/article.php/2198931 http//www.searcht
hingy.com/search.asp (Top Ten Search
Engines) http//www.seoconsultants.com/statistics/
2003/05.asp (Top 50 Referring Domains for
May2003) http//www.sitepoint.com/article/731
(Complete Guide to Hosting - Part
One) http//www.sitepoint.com/article/732
(Complete Guide to Hosting - Part
Two) http//www.squirrelnet.com/search/top20.htm
(Top 20 SEs) http//www.statistics.gov.uk/ (UK
National Statistics Office) http//www.statmarket.
com/ (Accurate internet statistics) http//www.top
10links.com/google.php?sourcegoogle (Top 10 of
many categories) http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/links
.shtml (An enormous array of Website Resources)
http//www.topwebsite.co.uk/search.shtml http//w
ww.topwebsite.co.uk/submitting.shtml (Top Web
Search Engine Guide) http//www.w3.org/ (World
Wide Web Consortium Web Standards
Resource) http//www.waller.co.uk/web.htm (How
Big is the Internet Statistics) http//www.web100.
com/ (Visit a top site, read it rate
it) http//www.webmarketingplus.co.uk/market_resea
rch/uk_search_use.html (Top UK Websites
(2000) http//www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/search_engi
ne.html (Useful Dictionary of Terms)
http//www.yahoo.co.uk (Directory) http//www.yah
oo.com (Directory) http//www.yourhtmlsource.com/
(Excellent Resource) http//www.yourhtmlsource.com
/promotion/searchengines.html (Top Search Engines
and Directories Reviewed) http//www.yourhtmlsour
ce.com/promotion/searchengineschart.html (SE
Charts)
60
Glossary of Terms

• Please refer to the following references to help
  you understand
• IT terms used throughout all of the lectures
• http//www.marketingterms.com/ (Internet
  Marketing Dictionary and Acronyms)
• http//www.xetg.com/articles/search_engine_secrets
  /glossary.shtml (Xtreme eMarketing Techniques and
• Guide)
• http//www.activemarketingtips.com/amthome/dict.ht
  m (Essential Tips for Marketing Success)
• http//www.atwebo.com/glossary.htm (_at_WEBO
  eMarketing Glossary)
• http//www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html
  (General IT Glossary of Terms)
• http//www.animatedsoftware.com/statglos/statglos.
  htm (Internet Glossary of Statistical Terms)
• http//www.weihenstephan.de/schlind/genglos.html
  (A Hypermedia Glossary of Genetic Terms)
• http//www.webopedia.com/ (The only online
  dictionary and search engine you need for
  computer and
• Internet technology)
• http//www.grantasticdesigns.com/glossary.html
  (Glossary of Graphic Design and Web Page Design
• Terms)
• http//www.walthowe.com/glossary/ (Glossary of
  Internet Terms)
• http//www.wwli.com/translation/netglos/glossary/g
  lossary.html (Internet Terms)
• http//www.sharpened.net/glossary/index.php
  (Glossary of Computer and Internet Terms).
• http//www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Int
  ernet/Glossary.html (Glossary of Internet and Web