Appendix A - Web Site Design Do’s and Don’ts

This is a general list of website design do’s and don’ts. Some of these apply not only to Google but to all search engines in general. Some may be obvious, while others are not. Adhering to this list will not only improve optimization of your site, but will likely make it easier on visitors to your site in the form of reduced download times and better navigation between pages.

DO

•Do use a reliable Web hosting provider. If your site is down while Google visits your site, you may be dropped from their index for a while.

•Do create relevant, timely, and useful content on your site – particularly for your home page. This may be obvious, but often is overlooked in search of the magic bullet or quick fix.

•Do update your content frequently – particularly your home page. Sites that frequently update their content get visited by Google more often. This also gives your visitors a reason to return to your site regularly.

•Do create lots of relevant content and pages on your site. It is better to have 50 short pages than to have 10 long, flowing pages. Make sure each page contains a minimum of 200-250 words.

•Do use your keywords in the page title, headings, the first paragraph, and in link text. These are the main places that Google looks – the title is extra important. It also helps to bold or italicize your keyword once per page.

•Do keep your page size small. Both your customers and Google like smaller pages. They download (and are crawled) faster and are easier to read. For every second it takes your page to load, you lose 10% of your visitors. You have 5 seconds to “hook” your visitor, otherwise they will go elsewhere.

•Do create unique titles and descriptions for each page. Unique titles are a must. Don’t skimp on this.

•Do optimize any PDF and Word files on your site. Google will index these will any other page on your site. If these files contain duplicate content, put them in a separate folder and use the robots.txt file to disallow crawling.

•Do use a shallow site structure. If you can manage it, keep all your web pages in the same folder on your server as your home page.

•Do create a “Related Links” page for adding links to other sites as part of your reciprocal link exchange campaign. Make sure you have some content on this page – don’t just have a list of links.

•Do create a “Link to Us” page that contains link code that can be simply copied (or email this information to link partners). You want your link text to contain your best keywords.

•Do put JavaScript code in a separate file and link to it. This makes pages load (and get crawled) faster.

•Do create a stylesheet file and link to it from your pages. This makes pages load (and get crawled) faster.

DON’T

•Don’t use page redirects on your site. Google has been known to penalize sites that use fast redirects.

•Don’t use "doorway pages" hosted on free servers, or create one-page “minisites” as such pages usually have very low PageRank. Spend time adding new content to your main site instead.

•Don’t repeat your keyword endlessly on a page. Keep your keyword density below 20% or so, otherwise Google may consider this as spam - as might other search engines.

•Don’t use hidden text on your site, such as using white text on a white background. Search engines consider this as spam.

•Don’t use tiny text with extremely small font sizes. Search engines may consider this as spam.

•Don’t use hidden image links on your site. Hidden image links are 1-by-1 pixel sized images inside a <A HREF> link tag.

•Don’t use frames. Although Google can crawl framed sites, they are problematic in other areas. Most sites don’t use frames.

•Don’t use elaborate image maps, gratuitous animations, or Flash on your site if possible - especially on your home page. Google needs to see actual textual content on your pages!

Appendix B - Linking Do’s and Don’ts

DO

•Do submit your site to the Open Directory Project (OPD or DMOZ). A listing in the OPD is considered golden as the ODP feeds so many other directories, which will result in multiple listings for your site.

•Do submit your site to Yahoo. It costs $300 a year to be reviewed and listed on Yahoo but this is a pretty small price to pay once a year compared with the number of people that use Yahoo.

•Do submit your site to Business.com if you have are a B2B (business-to- business) site. It costs $100 a year to be listed here but is well worth it for the quality of traffic you get.

•Do exchange links with all sites that offer similar or complementary services to yours, with specialized portals (vortals) and directories, and with industry associations.

•Do create your own Related Links page rather than have it automatically generated by a program. Google has been known to penalize sites that generate Links pages using “cookie-cutter” template pages.

•Do include a link to your site in your “signature” line when you post in forums, blogs, or newsgroups. This also applies when submitting articles or sending out newsletters.

•Do link to each page on your site from your home page (or your sitemap page) and back again. This will help funnel PageRank to your most important pages.

•Do include inline links on your site. Inline links appear in the body of a paragraph rather than in a navigation menu. Google likes the neighboring text that surrounds inline links.

•Do use simple A HREF format links rather than JavaScript to generate the link. Google may have a harder time deciphering your link otherwise.

•Do actively monitor who links to you. You need to track this on a regular basis to make sure your link is added on sites you have agreed to trade links with.

DON’T

•Don’t use “click here” as the text link for any link, ever. Otherwise, Google may decide your site is about “click here.”

•Don’t exchange links with link farms, link free-for-alls (FFAs), or other sites that are obvious spam.

•Don’t exchange links with unrelated sites simply to boost the number of links. Your customers won’t be on these sites and it won’t help with Google.

•Don’t have broken links on your site. While not as critical with Google, Yahoo routinely checks your site for broken links. Plus, it is unprofessional.

•Don’t “hide” your links using JavaScript, forms or other methods, unless you have a legitimate reason for doing so.

•Don’t have your Links page automatically generated by a program. Google has been known to penalize sites that generate Links pages using “cookiecutter” template pages.