Need help with site

Needing help optimization

[Patukaa1]

i have read alot of comments on this site and can't seem to find info about what google wants with the Austin update being completed. I'm not sure what google is looking now all I hear is just rumours and guesses. Can you help me? Is there a list here or something?

Sorry for the dumd questions

[jbinbpt]

Hi Patukaa1,
Welcome to Webmaster World. Where there are no dumb questions.

The easy answer is that no one really knows what works best, thats why what you read about sounds like guesses and rumours.

What Google has always said... Make your pages for you users, not the search engines. Don't do stupid things to try and fool the search engine, get links... lots of links and Google will reward you.

Don't be looking for offical updates anymore, I believe that little tweaks and adjustments will be the norm for awhile.

But when the IPO hits, who knows.

jb

[Patukaa1]

I have lots of links to my site but seem to have dropped alittle. However my site was done in flash so I'm not sure if I should go back to html. Is there any chance that someone can review my site for feedback.

[jbinbpt]

I am not a fan of flash. It has it's place, but in my opinion should not be used as the basis of a site.

Have you tried running a spider simulator on your site. There is a good one at Search Engine World [searchengineworld.com]. This can show why a site isn't doing well.

jb

[edited by: Marcia at 11:30 am (utc) on April 26, 2004]
[edit reason] Modified link. [/edit]

[Patukaa1]

If I were to use doorway pages what would be the things I should watch out for as I notice that people are still using this technique?

[hazardtomyself]

IMO doorway pages are so small time and typically give the user an uncomfortable feeling. No one likes *feeling* like the bait and switch just happened. If you want your site to rank well for the most relevant phrases in your content, you must incorporate important search engine elements into your base design (spiderability, title and description tags, H1, H2, text links, text content, and links from other sites). I'm not a flash expert but I would never expect a completely flash site to do well for any type of competitive term (anyone please correct me if I'm incorrect). If you want to rank, you must consider search engine elements from the start.

A great e-commerce challenge is finding a middle ground between a professional looking site and search engine friendliness.

[thumpcyc]

Hey Patukaa1,

I totally agree with hazardtomyself,
A totally flash site, has no reason to be relevant for a search, because to search engines, it has almost NO content. Without text on the page, text in the Title and discriptions, & Keywords, there would be nothing to indicate what the site is about, other than your domain name.

The only legit(depending on how you do it)way of pushing a flash only site up the serps would be using the weight givin to anchor text, from inbound links.

Best bet would be to modify the site, and add some spider food, everything hazardtomyself said, add some pics and give them alt text.

But this is only another guess, cause anyone who gives you an exact answer, is speculating, and promoting it as fact.

Thumpcyc

[Patukaa1]

yeah I have done that I;ve just added it to the bottom of the site I pve talked to my friend though and he said I should go back to a html. Will having doorway pages get me banned

Patrick

[Patukaa1]

My site is working just need to get higher rankings but thanks for the info

[Marcia]

Petukaa1, search engines index sites and rank them by means of analyzing text on the pages. Simple as that - give them text that's relevant to users for the search, and it'll rank.

With a Flash site, there is no text.

[edited by: Marcia at 11:31 am (utc) on April 26, 2004]

[Patukaa1]

what site are you looking at dude? Goto <snip> that my site url

[edited by: Marcia at 11:33 am (utc) on April 26, 2004]
[edit reason] No site reviews or URLs per TOS. [/edit]