subject: Best 3 Ways to Optimize a Large Website For the Search Engines [print this page] A lot of people believe that in order to get good rankings they need to build a large website. As a general rule, we classify a website as large if there are more than 300 pages of content available to the readers. This may seem like a lot of content, but even this can be considered a small website by those who have been in the SEO industry for a long time.
To achieve a good position in the search engines, you need to take a look at the advantages that you website has to offer, regardless of its size. One big advantage that large websites have over small websites is the amount and the diversity of information. Some websites offer enough information that can be compiled in several books. Because of this, these type of websites attract more visitors than a smaller one would.
Now that we know why a larger website may be better than a smaller one, let's look at how to properly optimize it for the search engines:
1. Use static urls. Because of the large amount of content, bigger websites use a database that acts as a container for the information provided. These types of database driven websites usually use these so called "query strings urls" in order to pass information from one page to another. Here's how a query url would look like: mysite.com/sitemap.php?page=info. Notice the "?" and the "=" symbols. Even though the search engines are getting smarter, the spiders still don't like these types of urls and you should be using static urls instead: mysite.com/info.htm
2. Don't bury your content. There has been a lot of research on this and all experts agree on one thing: your visitors should be able to find any article on your website within 3 clicks. The search engines will have difficulties indexing any content that is buried deep into the website.
The researchers also found the further down the article is found, the lower the PageRank value is assigned to that specific article. That is why the homepage of your website usually has the highest PR.
3. Use internal links. The larger the website, the more internal linking opportunities for you. Because a large website has hundreds and sometimes even thousands of paged indexed, these pages can be used to transfer some of the link juice to the pages you want to rank well for The easiest way to take advantage of this is to link to your pages from the main navigation system (don't forget to use the proper keyword in the link).
Best 3 Ways to Optimize a Large Website For the Search Engines
