PORTAL PAGES OR NOT!!!
I am not a big fan of making portal pages, but if you
want portal pages you will find the 'how to' further down
the page.
Here is the best article I have found on what to do
instead of flooding the web with useless pages.
Don't waste your time making Gateway (doorway) pages.
Find out
what really works.
==========>>>>>>>>>>>
Gateway Pages My Patootie
by ©Judith Tramayne-Barth
http://www.trabar.com
Every body and their sister is telling you to make
Gateway or
Doorway pages to get listed higher in Search engines. I'm
here
to tell you this is a waste of your valuable time. If you
follow the guidelines I've given below, you should
increase
your position and, if you do it right, be ranked in the
top 10.
The following list (in order of importance) will show you
how:
==> Different Title On Each Page
Think about what keyword or phrase your visitors would
input
into a search engine if they wanted your product or
service.
Use these keyword(s) in your title and make sure you don't
use
more than eight words (five would be better).
For instance, let's say you sell heat pumps. Your keyword
phrases would be heat pumps or HVAC because these are the
words someone might input into a search box when they are
looking for this product. So you use these keywords in
your
title (i.e., "Heat Pumps, HVACs at XYZ.com") on
your index
(home) page title.
Then figure out what else they would input like "electric
heat"
or "pumps" and put these in other titles on
subsequent pages.
The object here is to use each page on your web site as a
place
your visitor can enter from when clicking on a search
engine link.
Not just a link to your home page.
If your site has 20 pages filled with heat pumps and
accessories,
you have the opportunity to have 20 different keyword
phrases your
visitor might input into a search box and thus come to
your site.
Webmasters make the mistake of just putting in their
business names.
Unless you're Sears, KMart, etc., your name doesn't mean
squat
to the average surfer. But if your title uses words which
somebody
is searching for, your site will come up first even
before the
"branded" names. And, instead of just getting
hits, you are
getting targeted hits.
Also make sure your keyword or phrase is the first word(s)
in
your title. This also helps rank your site higher when
push comes
to shove and another site has the same keyword or phrase.
==> Meta Name "Description" Content = Tag
This tag must also use your keyword or phrase and match
what you've
used in your title. The trick here is to write a short
concise
sentence in 25 words or less which will make the surfer
want to
click your link on the search engine page.
Give considerable thought to this sentence. Write,
rewrite and
write it again until it's perfect. Do not just use the
keyword
or phrase over and over again because the search engines
are wise
to this and will consider it spamming and you'll never
get listed.
==> Meta Name "Keywords" Content =
Quite frankly some search engines use them but some
larger
ones don't even include them in their ranking criteria.
The
reason -- too many sites put in keywords which have
nothing to do
with the content in their pages. If you do decide to use
this
meta name tag, only use your keyword or phrase.
==> First sentence uses keyword or phrase
The first sentence the robot "sees" or "crawls"
through should
almost be the same as your meta name description sentence.
It is looking for a match. And, search engines give added
weight
(score) to those sites who use this technique.
==> Content must include keyword or phrase
The search engines rank sites higher by how you use
keywords in
your content. This means the top third of your pages
should have
four (4) instances of your keyword or phrase and the last
two-thirds
should have three (3). No more than seven instances of
your keyword
phrase should be on a page; otherwise, the search engines
will think
you are spamming.
This means your copy (content) must be very well planned.
It has
to make sense to the visitor yet, be "robot friendly."
Not an
easy task when writing copy but well worth the time you
spend doing
this.
If you use the guidelines above, you should see your site's
ranking go much higher. By following them exactly, then
more
than likely you will be in the top 10 on at least one of
your pages.
You have the opportunity to make every one of the pages
on your
site a gateway or doorway page. Instead of wasting your
time writing
gateway (doorway) pages, finding web hosting sites to
place them on
and redirecting them to your home page, design the pages
on your
site to do the same thing.
Use this time you save writing how-to or informative
articles on
what people should look for if they want your service or
product.
Not only will you show you are an expert in your field;
but, you'll
have a larger more interesting site. Also if you use the
techniques
outlined above on each of these new pages, they'll lead
more targeted
visitors to your site.
Plus and this is a huge plus, the search engines will be
filled
with less "garbage" or as I like to call them
"patootie" pages.
Actually, I use a stronger word but this article has a
"G" rating :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you publish a newsletter, the article will be sent to
you
automatically by e-mailing me or for those of you who
have an
Online Magazine, just click here and I will send a copy
of my
"Gateway Pages My Patootie" article in HTML.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you found this article useful, please take the time to
recommend
it to a friend by pressing on the link below my name.
Thank you,
Judith
==========>>>>>>>>>>
OK - now if you still want to make portal pages here is
how to do it.
HOW TO DO PORTAL PAGES
The problem that many of us have run into is each of
the six major
search engines use slightly different algorithms to
determine placement
A web page that place high in one search engine may be
relegated to
obscurity in the others. So is it possible to write one
page that will place
highly for all of your keywords? I believe that the
answer is no. Then is
there no hope of being well placed for more than one
keyword or phrase
at a time? I believe the answer to this question is also
a resounding no!
Good placement with multiple keywords can be achieved
through the use of
portal pages. Portal pages are pages that are designed to
place well in the
search engine for a keyword or phrase. They can also be
optimized for one
particular search engine.
These pages then provide links into the substance of
your web site. Now
before someone accuses me of spamming the search engines,
let me make
it clear that I am still talking about pages of value and
substance.
The pages I am advocating are merely optimized to give
the page its best
chance at good placement. It is essentially having a
customized entry page
for each search engine and keyword or phrase.
So how do you go about making a portal page?
The primary thing to keep in mind is this is the first
page your visitor will see.
The portal page must follow all of the principles of
any other well designed
page. It must be interesting, eye catching and contain
copy that compels the
visitor to continue through the rest of your site. With
these items in mind, we
will now discuss techniques more specific to portal pages.
First, decide what keyword or phrase you are
optimizing the portal page for.
The process of creating portal pages is an iterative one,
there will be at least
one page for every keyword.
The variable item in the process will be the keyword
for which the page
is being optimized. Create portal pages in directories
that utilize the target
keyword or phrase.
Name the file utilizing the keyword in the name.
Consider placing portal pages
on other servers than the one hosting the main website.
They will have different
IP addresses and will be indexed separately but will
still bring visitors to the intended
site.
Do NOT flood the Web with portal pages. This is
clearly spamming and should
result in the target site being penalized. Next, the HEAD
information must be
optimized. This is accomplished through the use of META
tags.
For this discussion, I will cover the description,
keywords, robots and title tags. --
Description tag: the description META Tag is used by
Alta Vista, HotBot,
InfoSeek and Web Crawler as the description text for your
listing. Ideally, the
Description META Tag should contain five to fifteen words
but not exceed
1000 characters. Be as descriptive as possible within
these constraints.
To boost your relevancy, use your keywords, always
ensuring that your description
remains readable. -- Keywords tag: place the targeted
keyword or phrase in the
keywords tag. Add the plural form of the keyword, use the
keyword in a phrase.
Keep your keywords tag to eight words or less. Do NOT
create a long list of
keywords. -- Robots tag: the robots tag can specify
whether or not to index this
page and also to index pages linked to this one. Always
use the content="index,follow" tag.
Title tag: title tags are critical in search engine
placement algorithms. The title tag
should contain at five to ten good, descriptive words and
not exceed 200 characters.
Within these parameters, the targeted keyword should be
used, preferably as the first
word of the title. Keep in mind Alta Vista, Excite,
HotBot, InfoSeek, Lycos and Web
Crawler use the title tag as the title text for the web
site listing.
Begin the copy with a heading tag. Within this
headline, use the targeted keyword or phrase.
Plan to put between two hundred and five hundred words of
copy on the portal page.
Some search engines are imposing a spam penalty for
pages with less than one hundred
words. Sprinkle the keyword or phrase liberally
throughout the copy. Make sure the
copy is coherent and compelling. Do NOT simply repeat
your keywords over and over.
Avoid using words written in the same color as the
background. These technique
guarantees the portal page will be evaluated as spam by
the search engine. In general,
avoid background images and image maps for portal pages.
If there are graphics on the
page, be sure to use alt tags.
The alt tag text should contain the targeted keyword
or phrase. Use complete sentences
and a different sentence for each tag.
Some search engines will also read comment tags. This
is an opportunity to use the
keyword or phrase thereby increasing the density and
relevance. As with the alt tags,
use complete sentences and a different sentence in each
comment. Include two or three
links to logical starting places within the site on the
portal page.
A page with one link is triggers the spam penalty in
some search engines. Avoid items
that do not add content to be indexed. These items
include banners, counters, cgi, Java
or JavaScript. Do NOT use the refresh tag. This will,
without exception, trigger the
search engines spam penalty.
Portal pages are a controversial subject, some say
they are spam while others believe
they are smart web site promotion.
Ultimately, every webmaster will have to decide for
themselves. Abuse of portal pages
is certainly spamming. Used correctly and in moderation,
portal pages can be a valuable
tool to improve a web site's placement. ---
Tony L. Callahan, is a successful
Internet Promotions Consultant with more than twenty
years of
industry experience and is president of his own Internet
marketing company, Link-Promote. He
also publishes Web-Links Monthly, a newsletter full of
tips, tricks, tools and techniques for
successful web site promotions. To subscribe, send e-mail
to: Web-Links-subscribe@topica.com.
For an online archive of articles by Mr. Callahan
available for reprint, visit:
http://www.link-promote.com/articles
Copyright ©2000 Tony L. Callahan All Rights Reserved
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