The number one key to appearing as the most natural and relevant source to the search engines How to use the right keywords?	Visited: 761 4.0/5.0 (1 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Imran Zafar May 31, 2007

Appearing as a relevant and natural site to a search engine is not as difficult as it may sound. In many instances site designers and marketers tend to “over think” their work. There are several aspects that can be taken under consideration for getting a website noticed while not being noticed. The trick is not to be overly “heavy handed” about the process. Some of these aspects may include:

- Content
- Page layout
- Headings
- Links
- Navigation

Each of these areas is key to obtaining a higher rank in the website rankings. In addressing each, however, understand that there will be people reading and looking at what you are doing is paramount. It is this concept that will help you to appear natural because it is how the web crawler is looking at the page or; from the perspective of “Joe somebody” looking at the page. The key? Set up the page for a person not a machine.

Content

Content is the number one thing that a machine is considering when it decides if a web page is “close” to what the user is looking for. From a content writers point of view the copy needs to be more like a sales pitch. Include the information in a simple and easy to understand way. Don’t try to appear as some sort of technical genius. The facts need to be laid out simply. Support those facts with the relevant vehicles like a link or two, not an entire basket of links.

Page layout

The page layout is an important vehicle for the user. It needs to be pleasing to look at. From a crawlers point of view it only cares about the text, and text in certain places. It wants the text in the same places that a reader would expect it to be. Locate your text in these places for ease of use: at the top for a header, in the middle or upper right hand portion of the page (this is important because this is where a person’s eye is naturally taken when they look at a page) for copy and at the bottom for where to go next. This is basic, to the point and easy. All things a user is conditioned for.

Navigation

With a proper page layout, there then becomes the issue of getting the user to respond to the page in the way that is desired. In most instances, conversion is the end result that the webpage is working toward. The crawler recognizes this and factors it into its analysis of the page in terms of ease of use. In other words, it wants the page to be easy to move through.

Having a mechanism available to go straight to the end result is a good indicator for the crawler and a good way to get the user around any extraneous information that hinders them from a quick resolution of what they are trying to do. Also, easy access to some quick tools is a way that indicates that the site is trying to help the user to accomplish their goals.

Ultimately, the best way to appear natural and relevant to the search engine is to be as helpful to the user as possible. All the tricks in the world will not ultimately help you get the user to act as you wish unless it is easy for them to get where they feel they need to be. A web crawler is looking at how you are trying to help the user. So, in trying to appear natural just try to help the user.