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Article:
Work With The Search Engines - Don't try to Outsmart the Search Engines by: Kusuma Widjaja Contrary to the claims of high-priced SEO firms, optimizing your web site for search engines is not brain surgery. But you must first accept the fact that 'spiders' - the search engine programs that read web pages - run away from non-HTML code. This is why the first thing any SEO expert does - before researching keywords or rewriting your copy - is look at your web site code. If your web pages are full of Javascript, graphical navigation buttons, Flash animation, and other glitzy stuff, your odds of ranking high in the search engines sink like a stone. The spiders may never even find your site, let alone start adding your pages to their search results. You say you just can't give up those cool Javascript menus or that glitzy Flash intro? Then be prepared to get shunned by the search engines. Spiders are good at only two things: reading basic HTML and finding text. If your sites throw obstacles in their path, resign yourself to obscurity - and poverty! The most important SEO secret you will ever grasp is incredibly simple. Your web site must be built so spiders can read your text. The text is where the gold is. This means no Flash animations. Your HTML must be plain and clean. Your graphics must be kept to a minimum. And links should always be text - not Javascript buttons or drop-down menus. Millions of dollars are wasted trying to outfox the search engines. People everywhere scramble from gimmick to gimmick to be #1 for a general search term like 'weight loss.' Sometimes they even manage to do it - for about 10 minutes. Then one little tweak by Google ... and they're back to #'8
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