Google Hates Search
I know that is, at best, a slightly controversial phrase so just for clarity I will repeat it: Google hates search. In fact, Google (and other search engines) are not big fans of a whole load of things that appear on the web, and by including these things in your site your putting off the search engines and so affecting your site rankings. Let me explain this specific scenario with a case study.
Bob makes widgets. In fact Bob is well known in the widget making industries, you could even call him a minor celebrity. Bob decides to capitalise on his fame by setting up a widget trade directory. This will help customers find suitable widget manufactures and help to drive the whole industry as well as Bob's own business. By charging businesses to list on his site Bob is also hoping to make some money. Thanks to his fame Bob is able to generate quiet a lot of interest in his idea and soon has a plan that will include several levels of membership and each company having multiple pages within the site. An advanced, yet user friendly search system will drive users to the most appropriate supplier for their widget needs.
With his plan set Bob puts his work out to tender and soon has the services of a web design company. The site design and build goes fairly well, Bob is not totally sure the company he has picked understand all of his requirements but generally he is happy. The site is soon ready and Bob begins adding his listings, quite a few have been given away for free but Bob is confident that this will drive interest and once other widget manufactures see how successful the site is they'll be queuing up to join.
The day the site goes live Bob is extremely excited, he understands that Google will not index the site right away but he is confident within a couple of weeks he will start to generate traffic.
Two months pass and still nothing is happening. Bob is starting to worry as his site doesn't seen to be generating any traffic, in spite of several hundred free listings. The web design company have no idea what is wrong and suggest a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) expert, in this case called Derek. Despite the cost Bob goes ahead and is told almost straight away that his search system is at fault. “Why”, he asks. “Because” says Derek, “Almost all your site is hidden behind your search system and Google can't find it. Google doesn't know how to fill out search forms ”. “Ah...” says Bob.
There is a very important point to take from this, and no, it isn't anything to do with picking the right agency or making sure they understand your brief. It's making sure Google and other search engines can get to the whole of your website and making anything you want them to see visible. Essentially the following is vital:
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If your site is using technologies such as Silverlight or Flash then you need a plan, HTML, version somewhere. Whilst Google et. al. Can see inside some Flash and Silverlight files the process doesn't yet seem to be that reliable.
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Don't hide content behind forms or search systems. If you have to fill out a form or type anything into a box to access content on your site then something is wrong. Provide a way of bypassing the form to directly access your content. Most forms are just big filters so remove the filter and show all the results. Consider 'Do As The Locals Do', this has a complex search system, yet bottom left you'll see some text links that bypass the search and take you straight to the unfiltered results.
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Have a sitemap that's taylored to search engines. You can see the one for this site here. Granted it's mostly 'machine speak' (XML) but it lists every page on the site in a very search engine friendly way. This avoids the risk of Google missing pages because it can't find them.