Re: [cobalt-users] Robots.txt

[Elmer Fuddpucker <elmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, Carrie Bartkowiak wrote:

} Any more gems re: search engines you'd like to share? I had 113 visits
} to the server from different crawlers yesterday, and I think more tips
} like that would be really appreciated by my clients. I know I'd
} appreciate them.  ;)

Hi Carrie,

	I don't mind posting to list. Nor do I mind being flamed for
posting off topic. Flames come and go but Brent's client list keeps
on growing...

	Unfortunately I don't have any trade secrets to share, no
unusual procedures to impress you with. and I don't do anything
fancy nor do I use tricks or deception. My personal experience is
that putting sites on the top of an applicable (applicable being the
keyword here) search result is pretty darn easy to do. So easy that
anyone can do it - absolutely anyone.

	The trick, if I may call it that, is to put your attention
on the basics. Tightly focused, hard-hitting text (study the
techniques used by copyrighters - your librarian will be more than
glad to help you with this) on fast loading pages supported by good,
solid HTML combined with a few links from quality external sites and
you are all but there - on top of the search engine listings.

	I wish I could make it more complex so I could write a book
and become known as a "search engine guru" but it really is that
simple. Sometimes we miss the basic simplicities of things. A search
for "search engine optimization" (with the quotes) on Alta Vista
results in 23,704 listings - the first, of which, is paying Alta
Vista big bucks to brag about the price they would charge you to do
what they themselves quite obviously had to pay Alta Vista to do for
their web site - to get at least one notch above the first unpaid
listing which, based upon a read of the page and a glance at
the code, more than likely achieved their position by focusing on the
basics. As a side note, the first unpaid listing is owned by a
husband and wife team who claim to have started out in off-line
advertising, which is a fancy way of saying that their first real
jobs were more than likely that of copyrighters.

	But that's just my opinion and you know what the say about
opinions...

	brent

	http://www.weeklydvar.com/