Chapter 2: How do we play by Search Engines' rules? (Avoiding crawlability problems)

Let's see once again, what you've got after the first chapter.

• You learnt how people do the search, and how they will find your website.
• You know what keywords are and how they can be good or bad for making money from a website
• You made a great investment to your upcoming success: a list of laser-targeted keywords to optimize your site for
• You also met my two sons, Mike and Andy :)
• And, you completed the first quiz to check how much you've learnt and to get a certificate later

And here's what you'll find in Chapter 2:

• 2.1Do Search Engines know about you, and do they know enough?
• 2.2Invite robots to your site
• 2.3Make your site Search Engine-friendly: 11 things to consider
  • 2.3.1Make a robots.txt file
  • 2.3.2Find fast and reliable hosting
  • 2.3.3Rewrite dynamic URLs
  • 2.3.4Navigation matters
  • 2.3.5Use text links instead of images
  • 2.3.6Flash, JavaScript and frames
  • 2.3.7Remove the Welcome page
  • 2.3.8Fix broken links
  • 2.3.9Get rid of duplicate content and What is rel = "canonical"?
  • 2.3.10Correct HTML and CSS mistakes
  • 2.3.11Create a sitemap
  • 2.3.12Get all data you need in a minute
• 2.4Summary
• 2.5Quiz

So your next big task is On-page Optimization of your site.

First, let me explain to you what on-page and off-page optimization is.

That's what my wife demonstrated very successfully, 20 years ago.

We were both taking a marketing course at the University, and we talked once after Mr. Moore's lecture. Well, I thought she was OK, but nothing else.
But she thought of me more than just OK, I guess. And, she turned out to be very pushy :)

Me and my roommate made a unicorn party, I remember it now, I looked so funny with the silver-foil horn. I was a Search Engine at that time! And, I didn't expect to see Linda Mayes that night. She looked just great: a knee-long red dress, low neck, 4-inch spike heels, you know, I was speechless. That was the on-page optimization: making your site (or sight) appealing to the Search Engine!

Later, I found out how she got invited. Her roommate had a sister that dated the guy who made some marketing research together with my roommate. So using these connections, she turned out to be invited, and got introduced to me by my roommate Steve. And this is a good illustration of off-page optimization: finding good connections and right places to appear, thus making the Search Engine think more of your site.

So this time, we'll get busy with what comes first, which is on-page optimization. Again, you'll need to do some preparatory work. First of all, you have to check if your site is indexed by Search Engines.

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