Internet & The Web • Directory-Based Web Search • Spider-based Web Search • Hybrid Web Search • Promotion Through Visibility • Search Engine Optimization • Site Code • Frames • Session IDs • Sub Domains • Directory Enhancement • Avoiding Spam • The Spectrum of Spam • Types of Spam

The Basics of Web Search
The promotion of a site’s visibility in search engines is a unique and cost-effective innovation of Internet marketing with a tangible value and a potentially outstanding conversion rate. A captive and targeted audience, Web searchers already have an active interest in your products and services. Properly done, promoting your site in search engines will do the search engine and their users a service and you can measure the results with trips to the bank.

The Internet & The Web

Since the late 60s, when the first data exchange across a new network occurred between computers at UCLA and Stanford, the sharing of information between computers has greatly evolved. By 1990, the World Wide Web provided a network platform for content to be easily stored, shared, and retrieved without users having to understand the underlying protocols that made it possible. The ease with which information could be distributed was the primary factor that propelled the Web to its popularity throughout the following decade. The particular element that facilitates the easy retrieval of Web documents is hypertext (links).

Web Search
During 1994, sophisticated Web search engines emerged. Web search engines quickly proved to be extremely useful to researchers and gained an early success with a growing number of general Web surfers. Two successful models of Web search have developed to date namely directory-based and spider-based. The difference between them centers upon how Web sites are retrieved and recorded. Neither type of Web search performs a real-time query across the Internet at the moment of use, (that is entirely impractical), though user experience reinforces this common misconception. Instead, Web sites are recorded into a locally held database and at the moment of use, the database is referenced for results. Search results are displayed with some sort of informative page abstraction and hypertext refers the searcher to documents at the places of their origin on the Web.

It’s as if, when queried, a Web search engine replies, “Thanks for your input. I’ve seen a bunch of Web pages that contain the words you are asking about. Here is a list of them in order of importance, (importance according to me, anyway), with hypertext so that you can visit them directly - enjoy!”

The two basic approaches to Web search developed different solutions to provide a good search experience. Search engines faced the difficulties of recording information from a Web that was becoming tremendously vast and experiencing an ever-increasing pace of growth. At the same time, older material might change or disappear from the Web and searchers could experience broken links or unqualified content. A good search experience begins with users finding what they want with as little trouble as possible. A search engine might not have anything relevant for a user in its database. If matches are found, the records might link to out-of-date or missing pages.

Freshness & Comprehensiveness
The two most important factors that affect Web search databases are: freshness and comprehensiveness. By 1994, there was already a tremendous amount of Web content and the growth to today’s several billions of Web documents has been a spectacular thing to watch. To obtain comprehensiveness, as much of the Web as possible must be recorded. Portions of this content change rather frequently. To keep a database fresh, new and newly changed Web documents must be recorded in a timely manner and out-of-date and missing documents must be discarded.

We will now discuss the two models of Web search technologies, directory-based Web search services, and spider-based search services.

[back to top]

Directory-based Web Search

“Jerry’s Guide to the Internet” was a Web site created by Jerry Wang and David Filo as graduate students at Stanford University. They created the most comprehensive collection of (human) categorized Web sites available by 1994. This directory-based search service was then renamed Yahoo! and proved to be very successful at cataloging major Web sites during the Web’s formative years and attracted a wide audience and loyal users.

A directory-based system categorizes Web sites and presents them according to those categories. Providing a directory based search service requires that editors review and categorize Web sites and enter abstractions manually into a central database. Site abstractions are displayed to users with two primary elements, site Title and Description. Site Titles and Descriptions originate either from the editors themselves (upon reviewing the site) or are adapted from site owner submissions. A site owner will typically use a Web HTML form or Email to suggest their site for review and to propose their version of an ideal site Title and Description. There will be more about how to perform this process later in Directory Enhancement (7).

Directory based search services quickly were viewed as impractical in the pursuit of a more comprehensive Web search. Even with an army of editors 25,000+ strong, the largest directory with nearly 3 million Web sites does not amount to much in a Web with billions of documents. Directories also prove to be inadequate when compared with spider-based search services regarding freshness. Spiders re-record popular and frequently changing Web documents with a timely efficiency by using machines that automate the recording process.. [back to top]

Spider-based Web Search

The same underlying protocols that enable a Web user to traverse the Web from one document to another using hypertext also enable machines to simulate the same process actually traversing or crawling the Web, (to crawl the Web, as in a spider-robot crawling the Internet’s Web). One advantage of using machines is that machines can be used to automatically record the visited documents into a central database. By recording a Web document’s content, (minus unimportant code), a broader Web search can be delivered than is possible with directory searches. Robots, crawlers, spiders, indexers and bots are all terms applied to these machines that facilitate and automate the recording process of Web pages. A search service employing the use of spiders has several advantages over its directory-based rivals.

Spider-based searches provide a comprehensive Web search against a set of millions or billions of Web documents, thus enabling broader query matching capabilities than directory-based systems. Freshness is also easier to manage using spidering machines with regular automated refreshing of popular and frequently changing content. Spidering the whole Web is not widely viewed as an important goal despite what any spider-based search engine may claims they plan to do. Spider-based search engines simply need to crawl the most popular and highest quality content. Much of what gets crawled is thrown out as duplication or as low-grade content without much value, (think of a site disclaimer or its privacy policy), and, for all intents and purposes, comprehensiveness is still generally achieved. One benefit, however, that directory search services do provide over spider-based search services is that an entirely pre-qualified set of results inherently assures a high level of quality in Web search

[back to top]

Hybrid Web Search

It quickly became obvious that a combination of these two basic models of Web search would be tremendously powerful and today’s successful Web search services all employ both methods in some fashion as technological hybrids. Typical implementation of hybrid results will display directory matches in primary ranking positions and secondary “fall-through” matches from spider-based sources as a catchall. A revolution became apparent by the time 1994 came to an end, with unprecedented numbers of Web users surfing the Internet primarily using search services as a starting point. Everyone using these Web search services began referring to them as “search engines” whatever underlying prominent technology was being used.

Later, some Web sites that initially began as search engines thought to provide additional Web based services such as free Email, news and entertainment. Some of those that moved towards becoming a Web “portal” lost sight of the fundamental reason for their existence: Web search. This proved to be an ill-fated choice for some. Yahoo! is one lucky exception having begun life as “Jerry’s Guide to the Internet” and is viewed today as a real McCoy Web portal.

Google, focusing solely on Web search through the year 2001, saw a tremendous growth in popularity while others declined. Examples of the consequences that can happen to a search service when it loses sight of Web search in the pursuit of portaldom, (and its related advertising revenue), include Disney, which eventually decided to pull GO/InfoSeek out of the market; NBC, who did the same with NBCi; and AltaVista. Initially known for pure search, AltaVista made a series of tentative steps toward portaldom and attempted to offer free Internet access among other things. AltaVista began losing huge portions of its search audience while Google curiously made gains of market share in near equal amounts. As it wavered and began to withdraw its failed portal services, this retreat came too late for AltaVista. Offering only simple and pure search Google reversed the tide on them.

Danny Sullivan: “The Google story is also amazing when compared to the decline of AltaVista. In many ways, AltaVista enjoyed the same initial popularity that Google now receives. It was seen as a "pure" search service that people could depend on when other search engines pursued the "portal" route. The chart below illustrates how clearly Google has risen while AltaVista has fallen.” Search Engine Watch

The innovations and failures that occur in the search space make it a complex task just to report on it. The changing landscape of search engines would make this guide quickly useless if it contained detailed information about particular Web search engines and how they operate. AltaVista has not filed chapter 11, and may yet recover to become tomorrow’s powerhouse.

One thing is certain, if you want your Web site to appear in the most popular places on the Web, then promoting your site visibility in search engines is a great place to start..

[back to top]

Promotion Through Visibility

As long as there is an online audience, there will be marketers vying for those “eye-balls”. Sites that provide Web search enjoy a tremendous amount of the online audience. According to Media Metrix they normally comprise nearly all 10 of the top 10 visited sites on the Web. No wonder that during the turmoil of the so-called “dot com downturn”, or “dot com failure”, savvy marketers successfully promoted Web sites via search engines while other forms of online marketing plummeted to virtually nothing. Of course, it might not always be true that marketing via search engines is the most cost effective online marketing available, but it is true today. Web search engines will always be a primary place for advertisers to reach online audiences cheaply and effectively.

The history of Search Engine Marketing, (also known as Search Engine Optimization), goes back to 1994 when people were contemplating why certain sites ranked at the top for popular queries. In April 1996, Danny Sullivan, one of the first marketers to gather and compile search engine intelligence, published “A Webmaster’s Guide To Search Engines”, which became the most comprehensive guide on the subject. Today, his Search Engine Watch provides a tremendous wealth of information.

What Danny and others discovered was that the process of ranking sites for queries differed greatly depending on whether the search service was primarily directory-based or spider-based. In a nutshell, with the case of directory-based search engines, it is the site abstraction which must contain the query terms or a semblance thereof, and that the category name where the site is listed is even more important. Sometimes categories would be displayed without listing the sites themselves. In the case of spider-based search engines, one needs to learn important attributes of the search algorithm used for the purpose of ranking pages and to employ coding techniques on Web pages that would cater to those search algorithms.

Search services quickly realized that unsavory marketers were undermining their processes and affecting the quality of their search results. The word “spam”, while often used to describe unsolicited Email, also describes crossing ethical boundaries with code tricks that are intended to distort search engine results and deceive the search audience. Ethical lines pertaining to spamming search engines (spamdexing) are not always clearly drawn, but this eGuide will attempt to steer you completely away from tactics that may land you in serious trouble with search engines.

A word about relevancy: Spam is limited not only to the use of subversive code tricks, but also involves “optimizing” for something for which a site is simply not relevant. Your particular market wise sense of relevancy is of little to no consequence when getting audited by a search engine representative. A site about Oranges is not relevant for Apples. It’s Apples and Oranges! It makes no difference that Apples and Oranges are in the fruit category.

A word of caution: If you have a site about fruit, you cannot expect to be top ranked for the query “Apples”. An Apple site that represents an Apple Orchard that grows nothing but Apples and sells only Apples is simply more relevant than a general site about fruit that sells Apples, Oranges and Bananas. If you try too hard to obtain a top ranking for “Apples”, you might find yourself under the microscope of spam scrutiny. The more success you have with a query for which you are not perfectly relevant, the greater the chance that a more relevent site owner will challenge you. It may be the owner of an Apple site that sells Apple computers who complains about you. If it is found to be true that you occupy an undeserved position, your listing will be demoted or deleted.

We also caution that you refrain from being a "spam cop" site owner unless you are very certain that what you witness is true and ongoing efforts to deceive a search audience. Proceed at your own peril.

What to Expect:
If you have a site about fruit, you can expect to be found in fruit related queries. However, you need to expect that more popular fruit sites will rank ahead of you. This should not be thought of as a problem when you consider the amount of natural traffic you will obtain from following the advice in this guide. You should discover that obsessing over superficial and so-called “competitive” terms like “fruit” is meaningless and will waste your opportunities with search traffic that would have higher conversion rates using more specific queries. Besides, you will do better with competitive terms after you broaden your content in anticipation of more natural traffic from search engines.

[back to top]

Search Engine Optimization

Today Search Engine Marketing (SEM) comprises several important elements, the very least of which is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We define SEO as the preparation of code and content to be recorded by spiders for ideal information retrieval. SEO should also include deeply submitting a site’s best content to the most important spider-based and relevant directory services. Further, recent developments in the SEM space make it applicable for some SEO specialists to manage bid campaigns in so called Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search engines. SEO can also entail managing and tracking visitors from search engine referrals to help improve conversion rates and promote better sales figures.

Warning:
The sheer number and variety of companies that tout SEM among their offerings is indicative of the complexity and confusion in the basic service that is SEM today. There are too many amateur operations spreading mythology. The confusion will only get worse as more amateurs and cheats enter the foray feigning expertise and selling their services using fear factor Email spam. This has come about because SEM has begun to rapidly absorb advertising dollars in the marketplace. The best thing to do is to calmly shop and obtain the services of a reputable SEM firm or simply take on the responsibilities of performing the job yourself. You must determine whether it is a worthwhile endeavor to learn the complexities of SEM yourself or simply employ the services of a reputable firm to do it for you.

[back to top]

OPTIMIZING YOUR SITE
_______________________________________________

Site Code
Why is it that HTML Titles in site code are so important to spider-based search engines?

The answer is that HTML Titles cannot be hidden from users by alternative code. The HTML Title is always displayed prominently at the top of the browser windowpane. This is not to say users often look at the browser windowpane but it is one solid piece of ground that spider-based search engines can count on being displayed on the page. Spider-based search engines quickly learned that unsavory Webmasters would produce code that subverted their processes in order to spam their way to the top. In some cases, spider-based search engines distrust the language in HTML Descriptions and display text from the page instead. Text, however, can be easily hidden in the page itself too. It is the Title alone that cannot be altered with on-page code tricks.

The site code is an important factor in spider-based search engines. You must provide code that spiders will sample and record into the index. People often complain that spiders “don’t like cool Web sites” preferring “ugly text-based ones”. That is partly true but the definition of cool is extremely subjective. Look into what does not work well in Tracking & Usability (10). We have already discussed site architecture and how your site hypertext affects search engine positioning in Keywords, Content & Hypertext (4). Make certain that you provide plenty of links with keyword hypertext as discussed throughout the process of editing your site code.

A discussion of site code and search engines must start with a discussion of how some site code can impede a search engine spider from finding your text content. Once you have verified that spiders can access your pages, invalid or incorrect site code may confuse or frustrate the spider and thus result in improper representation in the search engines. First, be certain that your code syntax is valid and correct, (you might be surprised to learn how often containers aren’t closed and quote marks are neglected). Bad code syntax might still display a page as you would expect but this is because browser makers do not want non-compliant HTML to poorly reflect on their software by not displaying something. Spiders have a very different task to perform and they cannot bother with code syntax that produces errors when every millisecond is important to them.

If you make extensive use of plug-in objects such as Flash or PDF, this will fully prevent spiders from accessing the content contained therein. If you make extensive use of Java (applets), it will also fully prevent spiders from accessing the content and maybe even what is referenced by the applet code itself. If you make extensive use of CSS, DHTML or active scripting like JavaScript, VBScript or server side scripting such as SSI, PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion also Perl or C++, this may, or may not, be problematic depending on the specific use and the ultimate code it generates when the spider requests a URL.

Sometimes, design characteristics of a document do not lend themselves well to HTML encoding. People that author this type of content choose instead to use Adobe Acrobat and the PDF file format to publish on the Web. With the lone exception of Google, spiders to do not bother utilizing a parser to access content in PDF file format. Even with Google’s PDF parser, their information retrieval on current documents has not yielded better quality search results at their Web site. It is a good idea to provide a HTML version of all the important content tucked away in PDF with the best approximation of the design in HTML. The future of search results from PDF document crawling remains to be seen. Look for current information at the Companion Web site.

[back to top]

Frames

Frames pose a particular problem for spiders. Any number of situations might occur when frames are used. Frames give the Web developer an ability to split the screen and load different pages into the display. If you've ever encountered a page where using the scroll bar only moves part of the screen, you probably have a frames-based page(s) loaded. If any single frame references an off-site page, a spider will likely choose to ignore the whole set. Some spiders still have trouble reading frames but many of today’s industrial spiders, (Inktomi, Google and AltaVista), will read all the documents from the full set of frame references and will attempt to reconstruct them to determine how to represent them as a whole. This is imperfect at best and carries two important lessons: frames based URLs will have serious trouble positioning well and the “noframes” tag now goes ignored by the major spiders.

Macromedia Flash and Shockwave content present their own set of problems. These objects can be used to supply great little animations, online games and can also completely supplant the navigation of a Web site. Avoid these systems for that purpose entirely unless you are absolutely certain (without a shred of doubt) that your target audience truly wants to use these systems (nearly always exclusively gamers) and that search engine positioning is not important.

Browser detection that does not consider the unique agent names of spiders will send the spider to the catchall code (if available). Not providing catchall code will actually serve to timeout the spider and your content will not get recorded. Make certain that your browser detection considers spider agent names and handles them properly.

Bloated code, artifacts left behind by your page authoring software and complex tables can also cause problems for you. Generally, spiders can access this content rather easily and will disregard most of the bloated code. The problem for you is that spiders won’t find the best content in the order you think and must wade through code material when, as we’ve discussed, every millisecond is important to them. Also, the more bloated the code, the more you risk having bad code syntax. Tables, for instance, were not intended by the W3C to provide HTML developers with a layout tool; other tags were designed specific to the placement of components. Yet, for absolute control over how a creative page design will display, developers adopted tables as the tool of choice. Tables present the code in an order that you might not expect. This means that your keyword-based content could appear at the top of the display though it is actually encoded in tables lower or near the bottom of the code itself.

[back to top]

Session IDs

Session IDs in URLs and redirecting present a spider with access or analysis and reporting problems but there is no reason cookies must be accepted to access your content. Personalized delivery and tracking systems usually rely on the use of cookies; do not force them on your users, spiders do not record cookies. Spiders also cannot access content in graphics; do not have any important content in graphics when you can provide it in text.

Make certain your robots.txt file is authored properly and sits in the root directory of the site. The robots exclusion protocol is designated to enable Web developers to disallow spider access to files or folders referenced with it. All major spiders respect the robots.txt and also the Meta Robots tag when “noindex” is indicated.

When keywords are used in prominent places and consistently as HTML text throughout the page, site code can improve your search engine positioning. As a rule of thumb, the Title is the most important tag in your code. After the Title, text in the body (particularly at the top of the code) is highly important. Text in close proximity to links and the hypertext itself can be important to the remote page. Tags that emphasize text in the body are typically important, these include hypertext, Headings, Font (large), Bold and Italics or otherwise emphasized for display. Alternative text for graphic images, (ALT tags), are useful particularly when used for graphics as links. The Meta Keywords tag is the place to provide search terms for the page, the best of which are terms that denote the key topics of the page, their common alternate spellings and misspellings. CSS can be used to emphasize text in the body but spiders do not currently read CSS. For up to date information about what factors of code are currently important, see the Companion Web site.

[back to top]

Sub Domains

Sub Domains can help separate your content into nice sections in order to present organized information to users. Spiders typically look at sub-domains as whole sites in themselves. This is important for information retrieval and link analysis.

Caution:
People have been misguided, however, by the use of the term “theme” and as regards to sub-domains. Focus is a much more applicable word. It is useful for a Web developer to focus a Web site or its primary sections using sub-domains but search engines do not themselves “theme” as has been reported by some specialists. A categorized list of Web sites, directories for instance, is one form of organizing Web content into topics, but search engines that use link analysis operate in an information retrieval manner and not on a “theme” or topic basis per se. To confuse things further, link analysis has some facets that reinforce the theme misconception among Web developers.

Auto-categorizing Web content is possible and not yet widely used. Its implementation may prove to be marginally helpful, but not extremely useful. Vivisimo, a Meta search engine, is one search service that seems to be taking the auto-categorizing road. In any case, you will find that focusing each of your Web site’s pages is important and if you have a wide spectrum of content, it is useful to separate it into sections that are focused on topic related issues. Call it theme or call it focus, search engines don’t themselves theme it.

[back to top]

Directory Enhancement

With your directory spreadsheet in hand, it is time to prepare and finally to submit to directories. Your spreadsheet will serve to keep track of all your interaction with directories, the listings that you obtain and the date of their acceptance. It will serve as your record of the actions that have occurred and those actions scheduled for ongoing maintenance. This is an extremely important part of your campaign and you should treat it as such. The spreadsheet will keep you organized so that you can reference it from time to time without falling into disarray and risking over submitting or submitting the wrong thing. Download a sample spreadsheet from the Companion Web site.

Every directory has a different set of rules for how, what and when to submit. For example, some directories accept a list of keywords but most do not. Copy the important guidelines into the spreadsheet and make note about what length of time is polite to wait before resubmitting, what word-count limits there are for each important element of the submission, and any other unique information. It is important to record date information, how many listings are allowed and the category name(s) you will be submitting to, the email address you will use for all correspondence and submissions with that directory, and the paid programs that have been utilized for submissions with their accompanying tracking numbers.

To find out which category to submit to, conduct a search for your best keywords and take note of the categories that commonly surface. Locate what you think is your best category from among these and make an impartial judgment (if possible) about whether you believe your site is one that should be listed alongside the others in that category. In many cases, you may believe it would be better to suggest a new category rather than live with the one your site finally would rest in. This may be done on a rare occasion, but think very seriously beforehand whether you are going to harass the directory staff more than truly help to expand their directory properly.

Caution:
If you have an Apple site, the site belongs in the Apple sub-category of the Fruit super-category. You cannot decide that your Apple site belongs in the super-category Fruit simply because Apple is a fruit. Likewise, if you have an Orange site, the site may belong in a Citrus sub-category and you want to suggest a standalone Orange category. Just because there is an Apple category doesn’t mean the directory need be expanded with a new Orange category. Expansion primarily depends upon the number of relevant sites available needing re-categorization. Directories would rather make a square peg somewhat fit than expand the directory with a new nearly empty category.

Use the spreadsheet when designing your intent of how your listing should appear among the other current listings. Remember that, for acceptance, your listing should be similar in nature to and not an “odd one out” from among the listings. Find a current listing or two that you think denotes a similarity to your ideal message and adapt your submission while preserving your basic campaign objectives and keywords. Directories typically list your site index and want a Title and Description that conveys the nature of the site as a whole. There are rarely opportunities to submit on-topic index pages of sub-sections of your site to those Directories that accept multiple listings. Take advantage of this when possible but beware, never submit a multiplicity of domains in an attempt to dominate a category or group of categories.

You will know you have reached the point in the campaign to submit to directories when you have completed your campaign code strategy with new content and your site code has been improved to a new state of wholeness. Directories will not add sites that have any pages “under construction”. It is time (if planned for) to spend a portion of your budget for expedited directory listing services.

[back to top]

Avoiding Spam

Spamdexing is the excessive use of promotion variables in the pursuit of search engine ranking.

While thinking about submitting to directories, though it might not be considered spam per se, do not over-submit or convey any anger while corresponding with any search engine staff. Sometimes, because of the nature of email correspondence, (and bulletin-board text), a perception of a bad attitude is conveyed with language that is more adversarial sounding than originally intended. Try to refrain from criticism of any search engines during your heated moments. Engineers are privy to the kind of information and understanding that make most criticism of search engines sound ridiculous. Typically, email addresses are used to track the actions of and correspondence with a Web developer the same way that your spreadsheet is used to track your own actions. The search engines collect this information to help them perform edits and enhancements to their system. It would be embarrassing to have some ridiculous sounding messages recorded and saved by them. You will find them relatively accommodating people if you are nice, and reasonably accommodating if you are apologetic after some silliness.

[back to top]

The Spectrum of Spam

There are several well-meaning Web developers that have tried to define what spam is as it relates to search engines (spamdexing). While some of these tricks are obvious, and some are not, there exists a large gray area in the spectrum that is spam. For every argument against the use of a “spam trick”, there may be an equal and opposite argument. What should be considered spam and what should not be considered spam is a matter that is often subjective. The result is that what one search engine considers spam, another might not. This only causes confusion and results in popular myths about what constitutes spamdexing. Spamdexing with the intent to deceive a search audience is the worst violation of spamdexing and is commonly banned by all search engines. Judgment of what is spamdexing is left ultimately to the discretion of the search engines themselves.

The rule of thumb to follow that will help you avoid spamdexing is that sites should be written by humans for humans. You should constantly double-check your true motives throughout the campaign and remind yourself constantly that spam is not only a dangerous undertaking for your visibility but also will cost you terribly in time, effort and expense. We will discuss some general spam methods and illuminate techniques that are commonly used to spam. The Companion Web Site will provide you with current arguments pro and con to help you make proper choices throughout your campaign.

Search engines keep a “blacklist” of deleted sites. Spammers can’t truly hide. The continuing practice of spamdexing entails trickery, getting blacklisted, and then purchasing new domains for more spam. The new domains are blacklisted too and the cycle continues. It is a terrible waste. It takes nearly zero effort for the search engine rep to push the “delete key”, but search engine spam fighters will find an entire network of spam sites by an individual and delete the whole lot at once. There is no such thing as proprietary technology in SEM. With very few exceptions, use of the term ‘proprietary technology’ typically denotes spamming because virtually all SEO processes are fully well known and well published. Spammers typically hide the damage their methods cause by misrepresenting the truth. Ask someone who uses the term ‘proprietary technology’ for an explanation of the methods behind it. If they are hesitant or reluctant to say, be cautious about proceeding with them.

Notice:
It is the case that many sites quite innocently have one or more of the following attributes to their Web Site. If you should discover this about your Web Site, it means you would be wise to look for ways of doing things differently. Spam punishment is an extremely rare occurrence to those who are not intentionally Spamming because it is usually preceded by human review. Vigilance is warranted however. Ultimately, what is and is not spam is up to the search engines themselves.

[back to top]

THE FOLLOWING ARE TYPES OF SPAM

Doorway spam

• Machine-generated code designed purely for rankings
• Over-focused promotion pages that use too little text
• Anything that involves a separate URL for each keyword
• Multiple pages that lead to the same destination page
• Pages with no tangible purpose other than to lead users to another page

Doorway pages present the user with little or nothing of value. These pages are designed only for ranking and ultimately send users to a destination other than the actual page. This is done using (auto) redirecting, cloaking or “click here to enter the site” hypertext. Doorway pages are typically unidirectional without incoming hypertext except from meaningless “link farm” participants.

[back to top]

Doorway DNS spam

• The use of multiple domain names for one actual organization
• Unwarranted number of sub-domains typically using keywords
• Sub-domains that redirect to another part of the domain

DNS spam is an attempt to utilize the underlying hostname standard of the Web to subvert built-in limitations by search engines. Multiple domain names and unwarranted sub-domains are sometimes used in an attempt to acquire inflated numbers of listings for essentially the same content or organization.

HTML Code spam

• Meaningless hypertext between sites intended to exaggerate popularity
• Excessive use of keywords (stuffing)
• Hidden text including “alternative” HTML
• False and misleading Meta data
• Mirror or near-cloned content
• Misuse of competitor names

Off-topic hypertext or participation in link farms (even topically designed ones) used to artificially exaggerate popularity places you in bad company. Keyword stuffing, camouflaged keywords using alternative HTML, and all hidden text are considered spam. Optimizing for misleading keywords, providing misleading Meta data and misusing competitor names are also judged to be spamdexing.

[back to top]

• Page-jacking, content-jacking
• Bait-and-switch
• Dynamic spider-spotting and trapping
• Keyword-entry based page generators
• Cloaking (used by spammers)

These refer to technologies that facilitate stealing content, misleading searchers, and undermining search algorithms for the artificial promotion of pages irrelevant to query results. Some of these technologies also generate content and Site architecture on the fly completely misrepresenting the Web to spiders for positioning purposes.

[back to top]

To receive a FREE Real-Time Positioning Analysis Report on where your site stand currently in these important search engines, based upon your current keywords, please contact us today at 1-877-462-4581 or send an email to us, at: info@aureusmedia.com.

We will be happy to put together a plan of action we guarantee will effectively place you higher in the search engines than you currently are, within 45 days or your money back. We will even provide you the analysis reports to prove it, FREE!

For more information, please contact us at our toll-free number, 1-877-462-4581, Monday through Friday, 9-6pm (Pacific).

[back to top]

AM SEO Service Packages

We offer three different packages for effective sustained placement within the top 30 within three months of implementation

AM SILVER SERVICE
$25 per month or $275 per year (Save $25)
Includes: Monthly submission of static pages with confirmation report;.Keyword & Meta Tag creation and integration into site pages; Monthly Positioning Analysis Reports detailing. Page & Keyword ranking

AM GOLD SERVICE
$35 per month or $385 per year (Save $35)
Includes: Bi-weekly submission of static pages with confirmation report;.Keyword & Meta Tag creation and integration into site pages; Up to three (3) doorway pages for specific products and/or services; Monthly Positioning Analysis Reports detailing. Page & Keyword ranking/Trend Report/Competitive Analysis Report and Summary Description Report

AM PLATINUM SERVICE
$45 per month or $495 per year (Save $45)
Includes: Biweekly submission of static pages with confirmation report;.Keyword & Meta Tag creation and integration into site pages; Up to ten (10) doorway pages for specific products and/or services; Monthly Positioning Analysis Reports detailing. Page & Keyword ranking/Trend Report/Competitive Analysis Report/Summary Description Report/Detail Report/Alert Report and Log Report.

Based upon your plan, we will submit all of your web pages to the following search engines:

• Search7
• AOL Web Sites
• About.comSprinks
• Ah-Ha, AllTheWeb (Fast)
• Alta Vista
• AskJeeves
• Epilot
• Excite
• FindWhat
• Google
• HotBot
• ICQSearc
• IWon
• Jayde
• Kanoodle
• LookSmart
• Lycos
• MSN
• Netscape
• OpenDirectory
• Overture
• Teoma
• WiseNut
• Xuppa
• Yahoo Directory
• Yahoo Web Matches

For more information about AM Search Engine Optimization Services, please review the AM Service Guide or contact us directly and we will be happy to assist you.

Proceed to AM Service Guide
Contact Us

Aureus Media
555 Sutter Street, Suite 404
San Francisco, CA 94102

By Appointment Only
Monday through Friday
Nine to Five

Aureus Media by Telephone

Main Office: (415) 571-3741
Main Fax: ...(415) 421-3748