What I have learned (the hard way) about Search Engines

A number of years ago at my first dot com job, I had a co-worker who would decree "Content is King!" I assumed he was a failed author who was just bitter that he was writing code instead of the great American novel. I didn’t pay him much mind. I understood that content was important, but I was infatuated with all of the snazzy graphical programs coming out. Content might be King, I thought, but Flash and Director is where all the fun is at.

I didn’t know anything about Search Engine Optimization back then, and I didn’t care. I joyfully made Flash screens, drop down menus and entire web sites composed chiefly of .gifs. When the database manager suggested creating dynamically generated web pages, I thought, how cool. I pursued any new technology that hit the airwaves. If the sites were pretty, my customers were happy and so was I. Of course, occasionally they would call to complain that they were no where to be found in the search engines. Search engines were mysterious I reasoned, and I threw a few more meta tags into the HTML. I did not know then that we were creating hurdles for the search engines with our heavy reliance on graphics.

Many years later, I have realized the error of my ways. Here is my attempt at restitution. For your benefit, here is a list of things I have learned:

1. Flash is pretty, but search engines hate it. This is especially true if it’s a splash screen or a doorway page.
   
2. There is no good reason for Frames. Search engines can’t index them properly and they don’t add any value to your site. Everything that can be accomplished with frames can be accomplished with style sheets or tables.
   
3. Do not embed your important content in the graphics. Graphic artist like graphics because they have more control over things like the font and color. However, search engines index content not graphics.
   
4. Dynamically generated pages are a problem. This maybe a little bit more complicated of a problem because there are some very good reasons to use them (such as having a content management system). The problem is that if there are too many parameters, the search engines may not index those pages. Many dynamically generated pages also issue session ids. These also create problems. Talk to your database manager to work on simplifying the system as much as possible. Better yet, explore transforming your site to static HTML.
   

Sometimes I think graphic artist and SEO consultants are natural born enemies. The aesthetic priorities of the graphic artist are often at odds with the more practical concerns of the SEO consultant. Why have I sided with the dreary SEO people? At the end of the day, you can have a great looking web site, but if no one visits it, what does it matter? What search engines need are a simple, well organized site and text. In other words, search engines like content. It turns out my co-worker was right all along. Content is King after all.

If you would like Mary Lewis-Pierce to apply what she has learned about Search Engines to your website, visit her at www.seo-boston.com. She specializes in Organic Search Results and Social Search.