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When you optimize your webpage you need to consolidate three different viewpoints or purposes:

1. The content for your visitor, Don Pedro's How to Write Internet Web Pages
   
2. The structure for the browser. Same text plus pictures can take longer or shorter time to display, depending on your page structure, Don Pedro's Download vs. Display Time.
   
3. The code for the search engine spider, Don Pedro's Search Engine Optimization Check-List.

This page tries to bring these separate parts together. For details I suggest you go to the three pages given above.

What is Webpage Optimization ?

It really means you employ best available means ( techniques and tools ) to achieve a good ranking in the search engines for certain keywords and/or key phrases parallel with striving for maximum satisfaction for your visitors. Most of your visitors come to your page because they have a problem and are looking for a solution.  When your content gives the facts and details your visitor is looking for, he/she is most probably content. Your text takes care of your visitors.  See Don Pedro's How to Write Internet Web Pages.

There are always different kinds of visitors to any website looking / searching for different things / solutions to different problems. Try to treat your subject from different viewpoints, each one on a separate web page.

Most common complaints by internet users are:
- Speed (download time)
- Ads (download time)
- Broken links
When you optimize you write a lot of text and avoid ( big ) pictures. Text downloads much faster and reduces the waiting time for your visitor.

If you have a very long text column or table it would be a good idea to split the lay-out table into 2-3 tables. The browser cannot display the table before it has found the end tag. Shorter tables give faster display time. Same reasoning applies also to nested tables. Try to make every table row as a separate table with only one table row in each.  See also Don Pedro's "Advanced" Layout Tables.

The content together with your design act together to produce a visual effect, which is always emotional and mostly subconscious. To produce such a design you use the code to describe to your visitor's browser how to display the page. This code should, of course not, hinder the search engines from finding the data they need, because they are reading the code.

And why is it so important to optimize your webpages ? According to statistics, regular internet users act as if they are very short of time. They don't want to spend any extra time when searching.

According to iProspect report for 2008, 49% of searchers in 2008 change search terms and/or search engine if they don't find their answer on the first results page. This compares with a corresponding figure of 40% in 2007 - people are really getting impatient. If your webpage doesn't come up on the first results page for your key words / phrases, you loose most of your potential visitors / customers.

Try to optimize your website so that it attracts a maximum number of those visitors who have the greatest interest in your subject, i.e. stay longer on your website. More about browsers, see Web Browsers.

Effect of Broadband

With broadband connection you can expect a data transfer speed of about 20-30 KB/sec., sometimes up to 70-80 KB/sec. With modem + telephone line ( dial-up connection ) the speed drops often to about 2 KB/sec.

The introduction of Broadband has led to an increase in average webpage file size. I saw a report several years ago (1999/2000) giving the average to about 60 KB / webpage. A report from 2006 states the average is about 100-130 KB / webpage. The latest I seen is from 2009 which states average website size has tripled since year 2000 and users' main complaint is still download speed. Internet users want fast loading webpages with no dead links.

In April 2007 US was about number 25 in world wide broadband penetration with close to 81%, which means about 20% of US Internet users are depending on dial-up connection. South Korea was leading with 89%. My Shipping Job Links website has a global reach with about 20-25% of visitors using dial-up connection.

Before you decide it's OK to go over 60 KB in file size, check first how great or small portion of your visitors are using dial-up. You can get those figures via Google Analytics at Google Webmaster Tools.

As people change from dial-up to broadband it doesn't necessarily mean you can increase your file size. People get very fast accustomed to the new higher speed, so you cannot really increase the file size very much. You still need to optimize your pictures.

Remember that the file size numbers above include pictures and SSI, i.e. CSS and Javascript on your server. Even if you move some scripts over to your server instead of having them in our page code it doesn't reduce total download and display time. Because those scripts must also be downloaded before the browser can display your webpage.

On e-commerce websites it's said visitors wait only 4-5 seconds before moving to next destination. Depending on what kind of website you have, I would say you have about 10 seconds, in this time at least your background, logo, and some of the text must be displayed. And that's regardless whether dial-up or Broadband connection.

Search Engines

Spider = robot = crawler = a software program the search engines use to find what is on the Web (Net). There are different ways of doing it:

1. Starting at one website and then following links to other sites etc. Each search engine using this approach can have a hundred or more spiders crawling the Net.
   After finding a page, it's downloaded into the search engine's database for further processing.
   
2. Submit = a request from a person for the robot to crawl a certain site.
3. Then there are some that "harvest" all files from a site folder.
   
4. Paid inclusion.
   
5. "Meta" search engines do not employ spiders, they collect data from other search engines and combine all data together, when displaying the search result.

Search engine robots are automated programs that go out on the web and visit web pages, "read" the text  and the code, and go through all links on every page.  The information the robots collect comes from the code page on the server plus some info from those pages you have linked to.  A robot program is very much like a first generation browser.

The search engines read the webpage HTML code and do a mechanical text analyses. When you optimize for the search engines you make it as easy for the search engine spider to read your code as possible. In other words you optimize the code, which means just simple HTML only, please. See Don Pedro's Writing your Page Code and Latent Semantic Indexing.

A few "do not" rules:
- NO Frames
- NO Dynamic pages
- NO Flash. Additionally Flash runs on "Active-X", which can open a back door for Trojan Worms.
- AVOID JavaScript and CSS as much as possible, because the search engines cannot read these well enough, the code is meaningless for them.

The text in outgoing links helps search engines to classify each page. The search engines indexes and classifies individual webpages not websites. Once you have 15+ pages with good content and some 20+ incoming links the search engine spiders will visit your website and webpages more often. Fresh content is always good although there are some - mainly small ones - that crawl already indexed sites may be only once per year. See also Don Pedro's Website Promotion.

One very big problem is: what is good content ? It is not the stuff you write for the search engines. It is something your visitors will "salivate over", because at last he/she found exactly what he/she was searching for.

All important info should be clearly stated in the text. Don't let the spiders "guess" or leave to your visitor's imagination to figure out what you really want to say. All search engines regard following important:
- <title> tag,
- <meta> keywords and description,
- <h1> and <h2> headings, and
- Text links.

MSN Live search engine seems to pay attention also to webpage file names and incoming links. End of year 2006 Live Search started to penalize websites for exchanging unrelated reciprocal links, i.e. links with link farms or through links exchanges. In June 2009 MSN again changed the name of their search engine to Bing.

If you use a software program for search engine optimization, remember these are mechanical tools based on statistical averages and supposed to apply to all kinds of sites (a "jack-of-all-trades"). You can use a simple program as a "first-aid" kit to get yourself started. You are yourself anyway the person who knows your website best - let the program give you ideas and inspiration only.

How to Optimize Flash Pages

Flash is a running program and search engines are designed to handle static content only. This is also the basic problem that must be overcome when optimizing a webpage that's made completely or partly in Flash.

Ajax can cause same kind of problems for search engines as Flash if not implemented correctly. At least in 2007/2008 still necessary to support Ajax pages with HTML links to content or may be something similar to Flash below.

Instead of using the default code you can hand code Flash pages with primarily HTML content before inserting the Flash movie. See example code with suggestion to use <div> with search engine accessible primary text content and a JavaScript function called SWFObject to detect when each browser is capable of viewing Flash, i.e. the version your movie has been coded in.

There is an additional benefit from this method: you increase the accessibility of your Flash pages and that's something getting more and more important in search engine optimization ( SEO ). As the search engine programs are getting smarter the greatest risk with using Flash is you can easily be accused of spamming.

If the Flash presents different content from what the HTML text does, then spiders and humans ( those who have Flash ) gets different content, and that's called spamming. There is something called Scalable Inman Flash Replacement ( sIFR ), which is a technique that uses JavaScript to read in HTML text and spit out Flash instead. This, of course, guarantees both HTML and Flash versions are identical. And that's what the search engines demand.

sIFR is intended for short blocks of text only - such as for instance pull quotes. With long text blocks the download time grows too long because of the Flash.

As a city built on rock-and-roll is structurally unsound, so a website built on Flash is unlikely to fulfil it's purpose.

Flash Optimization - Summary

Don't make all Flash and don't use a splash entry page ( with forced entry path ). Using small bits of flash here and there where it enhances the visitors "enjoyment" and doesn't disturb the search engines can be done. Just don't put any important content in the Flash part. Watch the download time, if you can use some flash without increasing the download time considerably, OK try and test first. Preferably you should then add the flash at the end of the page, where the disturbance would be felt less.

Remember, iPhone and iPad don't support Flash. Also include alt text for non-flash browsers. For instance I have ActiveX disabled in all my browsers because of virus risk. Flash depends on ActiveX, so I cannot see any Flash in my browsers. But I'm not very interested in that either.

Vision Based Page Segmentation

With a lot of all kinds of code, two or more different menus, and some "sponsored" links and advertisements in addition to the real text content the search engine spiders are getting problems with deciding what is the text to analyse and register.

One way to solve this problem was suggested in an article, which looks at a web page as consisting of several identifiable blocks, "segments". These can be identified and indexed separately by the spider robots. Usually you have a header and footer which are almost identical on every page belonging to the same web site. Then there's the left- and right-hand side portions, which are also more or less the same on each page.

Once the spiders are programmed to read the code page this way, they can read menu and text separately and skip the advertisements as well as "extra code". Until that happens there are two ways we can help the search engines to concentrate on the text.

One way is to use Cascading Style Sheets. Then we would identify the text blocks for the spiders ("id" identification), but older browsers have problems reading CSS. I personally prefer to do this with layout tables, which all browsers can read. See Don Pedro's "Advanced" Layout Tables.

Keywords

When a person goes to a search engine to search for some information he/she types in one or several words, which are called "search terms". When the search engine uses the same words to find a certain page, they are called "keywords".

The more content (text) you have on your page the more keywords are there for the search engines to discover. When possible, don't repeat same word all the time, try to use synonyms. It makes the text better for your visitor and the search engine programs expect them. Be careful the synonyms you use convey exactly same meaning. There are sometimes subtle nuance differences between two synonyms - use Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary to check. See also Latent Semantic Indexing.

Some American "optimizers" advocate more than 250 words on an optimized web page.  With 250 words you'll get about a half print-out page (A4 size) when written in English. On a full A4 size paper you'll get about 40 text lines (normal font size = 12 pt) with 15 - 17 words per line, depending on how wide margins.

On this half print-out page it's suggested you repeat your main "keyword" or the main "keyword sequence" 15 - 20 times, in other words, on almost every text line.  In my opinion this is too much, it smacks too much of hard selling. I prefer to make longer text and then use my keywords as often as it still feels "natural", or may be 10 times per print-out page only.

As a "rule of the thumb" I would say only 1-2 % keywords out of total number of words on the page. It could be an idea to concentrate about 60-70 % in the first ¼ and the rest in the last one - if the text still sounds "normal" when read out aloud. If you "over-optimize", i.e. you repeat each keyword too many times it can lead to lower ranking, especially in Google.

Be aware that the "keywords" you use in your text and what you think your potential visitors will use are not necessarily what your visitors really use to find your site. Every person thinks differently - especially when from different cultures - and uses different search words (= keywords) trying to find the solution to the same problem.  See also Don Pedro's How to Find the Best Keywords ?

People know very well what they want to find but sometimes they don't know how to express their intent or their wish for the search engines. This is very much a fact when the searcher isn't a native English speaker and searches in English. Only about 6-7% of the world population are native English speakers, while a great majority of documents (webpages) on the Internet are written in English.

Try to avoid general keywords; with specific terms you target certain searchers and make it easier for the search engines to classify your site, which usually gives a better ranking. Try to create a small niche just for yourself and your site only. "It's better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond".

Use your "Visitor Statistics" to check what words your real visitors have used. Then you go to those same search engines where respective "query string" (two or more search words) was used and do a search. Now you will see who are your real competitors as well as how you rank in that search engine for words and phrases already used.

Keywords and Domain Names
Your website domain name should be as close as possible to your index (Home) page heading (one word when possible). Each page file name should have one/two words common with or very close to the page heading.

With most servers you can write your file names in the same way as in Windows. This means no empty spaces between words. Instead you are allowed to use only "full stop" (.), dash (-), or "underscore" (_). The spiders do read page file names too. Some studies indicate it's better not to use underscore or dash in the domain name. In file (page) names dashes are probably better.

Late in 2007 there were some notes the major search engines ( except Ask.com ) have started treating also underscores as word separators. As there are still many other search engines out there and new ones are popping up, I will myself still be wary about using underscores in file names.

Be careful when making your domain name.  It can be max. 67 characters long. The search engine spiders do not distinguish between capital and small letters.  If you make, for instance: "WhoNeedApplesNow", the spider doesn't "know" if it should be "apples now" or "apple snow"!

Your page headings should contain either the most important or the two most important keywords on the page. These same names come up in your site menu, which is used by the search engine spiders to find all your pages. That means that all page names should make a coherent group, all belonging together in one "theme" and thus very clearly defining the sector your site belongs to. Because the search engines are registering web pages, each page must be able to stand on its own.

You can get an actual keyword analysis, which tells you, for instance, which 2- or 3-word strings are present how many times on any one page. This you should compare with the actual search word strings already used to find your pages. When you have these two data sheets you can start changing your text and keywords. And then, of course, you repeat the process as many times necessary for yourself to be satisfied.

Visitor Optimization

Good content includes links to web resources. If possible use words in your link and be sure the text covers the content on the other webpage or website where the link goes. What I call "visitor" optimization is technically often referred to as usability (research reports), which measures how easy a page is to use.

Consider your visitors are reading your text, while the search engines are reading your code, so you should in fact find a balance between these two. If you ladle a heap of keywords onto your pages you make your visitor unhappy and may be confused. If you use JavaScript for your Menu to make it very "easy" to use, you confuse the search engines.

So you try to make an interesting and easily understood and read text for your visitor. Trim off all the extra fat in your HTML code and make it as simple as possible to achieve a "quicktime" download. With a balance between these two (three?) may be you can achieve the "impossible" (?) = double optimization.

Research reports (published Aug. 2005) indicate there is almost no overlap in different search engines results pages. In other words, if you first search, for instance in Google, and then in Yahoo with same search terms, you cannot expect more than may be 2-3 web pages to be common on the first page.

How to Optimize your Webpage

As usual there are two ways to do it. But in this case both ways are good:

1. Do it yourself. It's a time consuming effort. If you have time or if you can take the time, say 2-3 hours every Saturday morning for instance, do it - you are the one who knows your site and your goal best. See Don Pedro's Search Engine Optimization Check-List.
   
   See also Don Pedro's How to Write Internet Web Pages. I suppose you know your subject, so writing some good, detailed content shouldn't be overwhelming. If you don't know HTML, then may be the person who originally wrote the code can do some polishing and simplify it.
   
   The time consuming part is the submissions to search engines and directories as well as getting incoming links. It's a slow and ongoing process. See Don Pedro's Website Promotion. This you can very well do yourself. You should start seeing results in about 2-3 months. Optimization and promotion goes hand-in-hand as both are ongoing processes, as long as your site is alive.
   
   
2. You hire a professional. If you decide on this, give the person very clear instructions in what direction he/she should concentrate: what sector(s), what region(s), etc. When you hire somebody, choose somebody who is doing optimization only and who is doing it for his/her living.  Before you decide whom to choose check with the Rip Off Report. There are all kinds of "optimizers".

Once you have started optimizing, you need to know how successful you are. You need to measure the process. First you need traffic data for your site, see Don Pedro's What is "Visitor Statistics" ?. The measurement you choose should be meaningful in relation to the purpose of your site.

If you are selling something on your site the obvious measure is the % of your visitors who buy whatever you offer. If only 1% buy, it's very low and you would want to increase this figure. Such a low percentage also indicates you have a lot of unnecessary traffic = visitors are coming to your site by mistake, which means you should in this case probably start with targeting your site more strictly.

If you have an informational site - not selling anything - then you need a different measurement. I suggest you in this case use the % of returning visitors. Only 5% means very few are satisfied with your site, over 10% is already better, and when you start getting well over 20% it's not bad at all. You will always have some visitors who come via search engines by mistake. The mistake can be yours (the wording of your text) or the mistake can be in the search engine's ranking algorithm.

Research reports (published Aug. 2005) indicate there is almost no overlap in different search engines results pages. In other words, if you first search, for instance in Google, and then in Yahoo with same search terms, you cannot expect more than may be 2-3 web pages to be common on the first page.

Get Google's search engine optimization guide   .

Optimize also your Images

In May / June 2007 Google, Ask.com, and Yahoo! introduced their "Universal Search", "3d Search", respective "Blended Search", which means that the searcher gets a mixed results page consisting of regular webpages, videos, images, news, etc. You need therefore include also your images - at least some of them - in your webpage / website optimization.

Google, for instance, includes thumbnail pictures from videos, possibly sometimes also from regular webpages, together with the "snippet" ( abstract ) - when the picture is seen as relevant. These thumbnails in the search results serve also to attract people's attention to that result. See below how to tell search engines what your pictures are about.

Some people do, however, have images they don't want the search engines to know about. May be something used for positioning of content blocks or other display "tricks". Those you should move into their own folder, which you then "Disallow" in your robots.txt file. Those that your visitors can take if they want you keep in your regular "images" folder, which you keep open for all.