Meta
Refresh
A meta refresh tag automatically takes
visitors to another page within a site. Search
engines do not like this, especially InfoSeek.
Java
& Javascript
The use of java, javascript and other
server side techniques can negatively affect
your search engine position.
Server-Side
Imagemaps
An image map is generally composed of a single image
with multiple links. Image maps are not indexable by search
engines. If you use them then provide regular
links as well.
Spamming
The use of tiny text and invisible text (text the
same color as your background) is frowned
upon by search engines. Be careful that the color of
your text is not the same or even similar to the page
background nor any table backgrounds on the
page. This could be considered spamming by the search
engines and could hurt your position in the search engines.
Search engines will also penalize web pages
that stuff keywords, i.e., repeating a word
numerous times in a row.
Frames
Avoid frames. Many search engines refuse to index
framed sites. For the ones that do, the
frameset page will not normally have any content in it,
which would probably make it rank very low in the
search engines.
Splash
Screens
Pages that say little more than click here. A page
like this does not contain text or keywords
that search engines factor in for web site ranking.
Loads
Slowly
Make sure your site loads quickly, this is especially
important for Yahoo.
CGI
Pages (including shopping carts)
Will not be indexed by the search engines. Spiders
will automatically drop a listing with "cgi" or a
question mark "?" in the URL.
Graphic
Intensive
Avoid large graphics on your home page - search
engines can’t index them.
Tables
The use of tables to layout a document can affect
your placement in search engines. If you use a table for a
left border margin, you force the content of your
web site where most of your keywords will be further down in
the document. Keep in mind that some search
engine robots index only part of your web
site, with the beginning of your document being the most
important.
*To
fix this without changing the layout of your page see
Search
Engine Hints: Tables.
