Optimizing a Site Which Has Minimal Content

Promoting websites which have very little, or no content.

[IndianGuy]

I'm interested in hearing views from people on how they go about optimizing websites, or promoting websites which have very little, or no content. Especially if the website owner is not willing to add more content onto it as it will effect the design. Content may be king, but if a site has minimal content, must the site suffer from a Search Engine Optimization & Promotion perspective (as the content cannot be spidered).

[cabbie]

it can still be done but it mostly revolves around anchor text coming from backlinks to the site.
if the website owner uses the title plus meta
'description" and "keyword" tags,that goes a long way to help.

[DerekH]

But surely the accepted view is that Google takes no account of meta keywords?
DerekH

[Total Paranoia]

I for one have not used Meta Keyword tag for quite a while. It does not seem to be causing me any problems in Google.

[houseofsecrets]

I think it would be foolish of google to ignore the meta keyword tag completely. I don't use it to try and trick search engines, and I bet there's a lot of people like me out there.

[dvduval]

Yes I have a customer who has a site that consists of a long sales copy on one page, and they refuse to split it up or build more pages, yet they want to optimize for over 100 key phrases. Nearly impossible, eh?

[Total Paranoia]

dvduval I do not envy you one bit :). Will you take it?

[sahuman]

I have a couple of stubborn clients who insist on the "no content" pages. One has spent a huge sum on a flash site and wants it optimised. Would enclosing it in a frames page with the noframes tag help?

[IndianGuy]

In general, we know that Meta Tags are as good as dead. So no one has really been able to state how we would go about optimizing a page with very little content yet. Backlinks is 1 way, agreed. Is the only other alternative to build another website with a similar branding but more content, only that the second website is designed only for search engine traffic?

[cabbie]

you are wrong in saying that meta tags is dead especially for a page with little or no text content.
Yahoo loves meta though not overdone and google uses it when required.
In saying that though the title bcomes even more important when there is no content.