CSS is common practice in the Web development world. It gives developers more control over how they want their Web page to be laid out, plus it requires less coding. Less coding means less room for error and better site performance. Like JavaScript, CCS benefits from being stored in external files as opposed to being embedded in each page’s individual source code.

       Dynamic content historically has caused many problems for search engines because they do not like to be fed duplicate content and the query strings can cause spiders confusion. Times are getting better, but these elements can still cause some difficulties.

       Dynamically driven content typically has a query string in the URL such as question marks (?), an ampersand (&), or the percent sign (%). The lengthy URL contains a number of calls to database information and to a template to put together the Web page you see in your browsers. Search engines struggle to figure out what exactly they are supposed to index because they have difficulty understanding what information is actually meaningful and how to present it.

       There is no question that dynamically driven sites are common. Your challenge is to work around the needs of the search engines and include pure HTMLbased information pages that the search engines can index as a standard part of your Web site. Likewise, there are methods of reducing the complexity of URLs into a form the search engines can process—Amazon.com has been very successful at this. Amazon.com has eliminated all stop symbols from its page URLs. Depending on the technology used to create your Web site (such as ASP, CFP, or PHP), tools exist to help you rewrite your URLs at the server level to make them friendlier for search engine indexing. This is the same logic applied behind services such as http://www.tinyurl.com.

        A splash page is basically an opening page that leads into a site. Often splash pages consist of a Java or a Macromedia Flash intro that can be slow to load for some users and contain little meaningful content for search engines.
       Some Web sites use splash screens that consist of an eye-pleasing image and an invitation to enter the site. Many splash pages implement techniques that automatically send you to the home page once you’ve seen the splash page, and others invite you to “Click here to enter” in some form or another. Why do people use splash pages on their sites? For one, they usually look nice. Another reason is to provide the user with something to look at while images or content for the home page loads in the background. Individuals also use splash pages as a means of advertising. Splash pages are usually very attractive in appearance, but they often lack content relevant to search engines.

        If you do use a splash page on your site, be sure you include the proper meta-tags within your HTML header. This is necessary for search engines that use meta-tags to access this information. This ultimately affects your ranking and how your site is displayed to users in the search results.
        Include a paragraph or statement on your splash page that pertains to your site’s content. This can help boost your rankings on some of the major search engines that both do and do not use meta-tags. Some search engines will review your opening paragraph and use this information when developing a description for your site that is presented in their search results.

        Last, include a link into your Web site for the target market and the search engines. Many splash pages implement the refresh meta-tag, and this should be avoided.

         Tables can pose indexing problems with some of the search engines. Tables are

a common feature found on many Web sites to display information and position content, but if implemented incorrectly, they can cause the search engines some confusion. Also, by using tables close to the top of a page, you are potentially forcing the content you want

search engines to see farther down on your page. Because some search engines look only so far, you might be hurting your chances of receiving a high ranking. If you are using tables, place any important information pertaining to the page content above the table, if possible, to help prevent any potential problems.

         Here’s an interesting problem with some search engines. Assume you have a Web site where the main color of the background is white, and you have a table on the page with a dark background. If you were to use white text in the table, some of the major search engines would pick this up as your using text that is the same color as the background and would ignore your site’s submission because it is considered spam to search engines. Using tables is okay; many people do it—just be careful with your choice of colors.

         A custom 404 error (page not found) page should be created for your Web site. This page is displayed when a user attempts to access a page that does not exist. The custom error page should contain your company’s branding and contain links to all major pages of your Web site, similar to the site map.

        If you redesign or rework your Web site, then odds are that pages are going to get moved or will no longer exist. It is possible that people have pages of the old Web site bookmarked and those pages may no longer be a part of the new Web site. Also, search engines index select pages of the current Web site, and those pages may also no longer exist under the new design. The custom error page allows people and search engines to easily make updates to their references.

        Image maps are single graphics that are split into “hot spots” or sensitive areas that, when clicked on, lead you to different pages or resources within the Web site. The problem with image maps is they basically lock search engines out and prevent them from indexing your Web site properly.

        If you do decide to implement image maps, always include text hyperlinks  so that the search engines trying to give you a more accurate index can use them. Another option is to include a site map, which is basically the entire layout of your Web site in the form of hypertext links. Submitting your site map to the search engines is also a good idea as it can assist the search engine in making sure it indexes all the pages within your Web site.

          A recent study by comScore Networks (http://www.comscore.com) discovered that 60 percent of consumers search for local content. Much of the local searches surround such topics as restaurants, travel, hotels, and car rentals. With the introduction of Google Local, optimizing your site for local searches has become important.

        Search localization is simply when searchers put in their keyword phrase and hit the Local tab while searching on Google, or when they simply add a geographic modifier to their query in any search engine in order to get more accurate results from a search engine. If you want to go out to dinner, then odds are you’re going to want to go someplace in your area. Common modifiers include:

        As with any business endeavor, you want to know how successful you are. There are a number of ways to measure your search engine placement success.

       Web site traffic analysis—You can check the effectiveness of your keyword placement and utilization by using Web traffic analysis reports. This is discussed fully in the next articles. You can use Web traffic analysis reports to determine what sites are referring people to you and how often the search engine spiders are visiting your Web site looking for new content. You can strip down this information further to view only search engine referrals. By looking at this information, you can also see exactly what keywords people are using to find you and you can alter the keywords used based on this information. Refining

your keywords is one of the key elements to success—you’re letting the search engines tell you what you’re doing right and what you could be doing better. 

       Early in the article we looked at how Web traffic analysis can contribute to your master keyword list. The amount of targeted traffic and the return on investment (ROI) achieved through your optimization efforts are the true measures of success. How much business you generate online ultimately depends on how well constructed your Web site is. Just because you perform well in the search rankings does not mean the target market automatically does business with you. Once the target market reaches your Web site, it is up to your Web site to sell your business. Also look at entry pages and paths through your Web site. Because you optimized specific pages for specific keywords, people should be entering your Web site on those pages. If the page is designed to meet the needs of your target market, it should push them deeper into the Web site or to a point where a

transaction takes place, which you can monitor by looking at paths through your Web site and entry pages. For example, say you created a Web page to address a particular special at a hotel with a goal of having the target market fill out a reservation request form. If the specials page is performing well in the engines, but people are staying on the page only a few seconds and are then leaving the Web site, you know it is the page itself that is not performing. Odds are the copy and images do not have the right appeal to the target market, so you can tweak it. The page may not require a complete redesign—it could be

that the call to action to fill out the reservation form is not obvious, so make minor changes and monitor performance.

Search engine rankings—You can check the performance of your Web site for a particular keyword phrase by hand or through the use of an application such as WebPosition (http://www.webposition.com). If you are checking your results by hand, then you simply need to go to the search engine in which you’re interested, enter your keyword phrases, and observe where your Web site ranks. You can hire someone to do this for you as well. Using an application to check your rankings allows you to check more rankings, faster, by automating the process. Search engines tend to frown on this because of the added stress it puts on their system when you have many people using these automated packages to

run many searches.

         Checking your search rankings tells you how well your Web site is ranking for particular keyword phrases. You can use this information to keep your rankings current and target your optimization efforts toward gaining increased ratings on any particular engines you wish.

Paid inclusion accounts—The search engines that have paid inclusion features usually give the customer the means to track some search information. This includes basic information such as the keywords searched for and the number of referrals the search engine sent through to the destination Web site.

Pay-to-play accounts—At the heart of all pay-to-play campaigns (PPC) is the tracking functionality. You are paying for each and every click, so it is important to know which search terms are working and which are not. One of the

most well known pay-to-play providers is Yahoo! Search Marketing. When you sign up with Yahoo! Search Marketing, you can track all aspects of your campaign, including conversion rates, click-throughs, and revenue generated.