Just how important is content to the search engines? We all know that well written content is paramount to maintaining repeat traffic to a web site but just what qualities pique the 'interest' of the major search engines? This can be a convoluted topic where the unique characteristics of each search engine are considered to create highly appealing content. In most cases, however, the general concepts are all that you will need to know to attain a positive search engine placement, especially when you are focusing on less competitive goals. After all, accuracy is not always required when your target is as big as a barn and you are only a few feet away.

For maximum effectiveness, content should be:

Unique

Content should be written uniquely for each page of your web site. Why? Well, when a search engine spider indexes each page, it constantly searches for any patterns that match known spam practices. For example, an old (and unfortunately still used by less knowledgeable 'optimizers') spam tactic is to create numerous pages with basically the same content to get multiple placements under a single phrase. (Go to www.nikosoftware.com to see examples of how our clients use unique content that can be used on multiple pages)

Fresh

Search engines are always on the lookout for web sites that offer information useful to their users. If Google found new content every time it indexed your web site, your site would instantly gain credibility because this would indicate that your site is constantly evolving. Following the logic of a search engine (and they are all essentially logical), an evolving web site is likely to be more interesting to searchers since the content is up-to-date. As a result your site has a better chance of

Relevant

Relevance can not be emphasized enough! It is important that when you create the copy for a web page you try to maintain the overall relevance of the topic. In other words, if your web page has been created to describe the process of "building cabinets" then maintain that focus throughout the copy. Do not skip to a totally unrelated topic such as (an extreme example) how to change tires... this will dilute the keywords on the page and it will make it more difficult for a visiting search engine to determine the placement that the page should achieve. A great deal of the SEO (search engine optimization) process is ensuring topical clarity throughout a web site. By ensuring that the copy on each page clearly indicates a desired topic (in this case the page focuses on building cabinets), you will leave a search engine with little choice but to place your web site under your desired listing.

Visible

Seems simple right? Well, there are many ways to unwittingly damage the visibility of a beautifully written web site. Many of the following elements are straight out of search engine placement 101 but they must be noted:

Do Not Use Frames: There are few worse blocks to search engine indexing than framesets. If your site is using frames and all of your content is found within a frameset then you may need to reconsider a redesign. The "why" of this is simple

About The Author

Brian Johnson is Vice President of Niko Software Corp. and has consulted with over 300 companies on maximizing web tools to increase profits and web exposure. www.nikosoftware.com

brianj@nikosoftware.com