Introduction

Welcome to Search Engine Optimization For Dummies, 5th Edition. What on earth would you want this book for? After all, can’t you just build a Web site and let your Web designer get the site into the search engines? Can’t you simply pay someone $25 to register the site with thousands of search engines? I’m sure you’ve seen advertising stating, “We guarantee top-ten placement in a gazillion search engines!” and “We’ll register you in 5,000 search engines today!”

Well, unfortunately, it’s not that simple. (Okay, fortunately for me, because if it were simple, Wiley wouldn’t pay me to write this book.) The fact is that search engine optimization is a little complicated. Not brain surgery complicated, but not as easy as “Give us 50 bucks, and we’ll handle it for you.”

The vast majority of Web sites don’t have a chance in the search engines. Why? Because of simple mistakes. Because the people creating the sites don’t have a clue what they should do to make the site easy for search engines to work with. Because they don’t understand the role of links pointing to their site, and because they’ve never thought about keywords. Because, because, because. This book helps you deal with those becauses and gets you not just one, but dozens, of steps ahead of the average Web-site Joe.

About This Book

This book demystifies the world of search engines. You find out what you need to do to give your site the best possible chance to rank well in the search engines.

In this book, I show you how to

Make sure that you’re using the right keywords in your Web pages.

Create pages that search engines can read and will index the way you want them to.

Avoid techniques that search engines hate — things that can get your Web site penalized (knocked down low in search engine rankings).

Build pages that give your site greater visibility in search engines.

Get search engines and directories to include your site in their indexes and lists.

Turn up the search engines’ Local search results (you know, on the little map that often appears).

Get into the product and shopping indexes.

Encourage other Web sites to link to yours.

Make the most of social networking and video.

Keep track of how your site is doing.

And plenty more!

Foolish Assumptions

I don’t want to assume anything, but I have to believe that if you’re reading this book, you already know a few things about the Internet and search engines. I presume that you

Have access to a computer that has access to the Internet.

Know how to use a Web browser to get around the Internet.

Know how to carry out searches at the Web’s major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!

Of course, for a book like this, I have to assume a little. This is a book about how to get your Web site to rank well in the search engines. I have to assume that you know how to create and work with a site or at least know someone who can create and work with a site. In particular, you (or the other person) know how to

Set up a Web site.

Create Web pages.

Load those pages onto your Web server.

Work with HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the coding used to create Web pages.

In other words, you’re not just using some kind of simple Web-page creation program that isolates you from the underlying HTML code; and you, or your geek, understand a little about HTML and feel comfortable enough with it to insert or change HTML tags.

I don’t go into a lot of complicated code in this book; this isn’t a primer on HTML. But to do search engine work, you (or someone on your team) need to know what a <TITLE> tag is, for instance, and how to insert it into a page; how to recognize JavaScript (though not how to create or modify it); how to open a Web page in a text editor and modify it; and so on. You need basic HTML skills in order to optimize a site for the search engines. If you need more information about HTML, take a look at HTML 4 For Dummies, 5th Edition, by Ed Tittel and Mary Burmeister (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).

How This Book Is Organized

As are all good reference tools, this book is designed to be read when needed. It’s divided into several parts: the basics; building search engine–friendly Web sites; getting your site into the search engines, including the product and shopping indexes; what to do after the search engines index your site (such as creating links, working with video, and using social networking); and the Part of Tens. If you just want to know how to find sites that will link to your Web site, read Chapter 16. If you need to understand the principles behind getting links to your site, read Chapter 15. If all you need is to figure out what keywords are important to your site, Chapter 6 is for you.

However, search engine optimization is a pretty complex subject, and all the topics covered in this book are interrelated. Sure, you can register your site with the search engines, but if your pages aren’t optimized for the search engines, you may be wasting your time. You can create pages the search engines can read, but if you don’t pick the right keywords, it’s a total waste of time. So I recommend that you read everything in this book; it will make a huge difference in how well your pages are ranked in the search engines.

Part I: Search Engine Basics

In this part, I provide, yep, the basics — the foundation on which you can build your search engine optimization skills. Which search engines are important, for instance? In fact, what is a search engine? What’s a search directory? And why am I using the term search system? What is a search-results page, what’s in it, and where does that information come from? In this part, you find out the basics of sensible site creation, see how to pick the keywords that people are using to find your business, and discover how to do a few quick fixes to your site. You also find out how to create a basic strategy for your Web site and search engine campaign.

Part II: Building Search Engine–Friendly Sites

Do you have any idea how many sites are invisible to the search engines? Or, if they’re not invisible, are built such that search engines can’t see the information needed to index the site the way the site owners would like?

Well, I don’t know an exact number, but I do know that most sites aren’t optimized for maximum search engine indexing. If you read Part II, you’ll be way ahead of the vast majority of site owners and managers. You discover how to create techniques that search engines like and avoid the ones they hate. You also find out about tricks that some people use — and the dangers involved.

In addition, you find out how to add content to your site (search engines love content) and things you need to do if you want to get your site found through local-search services.

Part III: Adding Your Site to the Indexes and Directories

After you’ve created your Web site and ensured that the search engines can read the pages, somehow you have to get the search systems — the engines and directories — to include your site. That’s hard if you don’t know what you’re doing. In this part, you find out which search systems are important, how to register, and how to find other search engines and directories that are important to your site. You also find out why registering sometimes doesn’t work, and what to do about it, as well as how to get your site listed in the product and shopping indexes.

Part IV: After You’ve Submitted Your Site

Your work isn’t over yet. In this part, you find out why links to your site are so important and how to get other sites to link to you. You also discover how to use video to get traffic to your site, and you see how to use social networking for SEO purposes. And, just in case, I include a chapter about what happens if things go badly wrong and your site is penalized by Google!

Part V: The Part of Tens

All For Dummies books have The Part of Tens. In this part, you find a chapter that covers the ten things to consider when looking for an SEO firm and a chapter about common SEO myths and mistakes. In addition, you get ten ways to keep up-to-date with the search engine business, and ten services and tools that will be useful in your search engine campaign.

Icons Used in This Book

This book, like all For Dummies books, uses icons to highlight certain paragraphs and to alert you to particularly useful information. Here’s a rundown of what those icons mean:

A Tip icon means I’m giving you an extra snippet of information that may help you on your way or provide some additional insight into the concepts being discussed.

The Remember icon points out information that is worth committing to memory.

The Technical Stuff icon indicates geeky stuff that you can skip if you really want to, although you may want to read it if you’re the kind of person who likes to have the background info.

The Warning icon helps you stay out of trouble. It’s intended to grab your attention to help you avoid a pitfall that may harm your Web site or business.

Where to Go from Here

Don’t forget to visit the Web sites associated with this book. At www.dummies.com/go/searchengineoptimizationfd, you find all the links in this book (so that you don’t have to type them!). At www.SearchEngineBulletin.com, you find the aforementioned links along with additional useful information that didn’t make it into the book.

Occasionally, we have updates to our technology books. If this book does have technical updates, they will be posted at

dummies.com/go/searchengineoptimizationfdupdates

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