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Submit
to Search Engines
The phrase "Search Engine" has become a
generic term for any system designed to help you search for topics on the
Internet. There are two basic types of Engine: the Web Crawler, and the
Directory. From the User’s point of view, whatever kind of Search Engine
you use will perform much the same task - to produce a list of documents
or web sites which it has found to match your search criteria - even though
they may do this task in slightly different ways.
Once you have a web site, the very
real job of attracting visitors to your site begins. Unless you have a
top-ranking position in the major search engines, your site will be doomed
to obscurity amongst the millions of other sites out there. If someone
searches for 'chrome widgets' and your site is listed in the 84th position,
it's unlikely that this potential visitor will ever see your home page.
There are two key considerations
to designing a site:
-What the visitor sees when they access your site
-What the search engine sees when it 'spiders' your site.
Spiders are software robot 'agents'
that automatically examine your web site for relevant content. There are
several different types of spiders (such as crawlers, wanderers and ants).
Depending on the various different search engines they vary but they all
do essentially the same thing: examine the content and structure of your
site in order to determine how it is going to be indexed in the search
engine - the 'ranking relevancy'.
Home Page Construction Techniques
Effective site design for achieving
top ranking begins with careful planning and strategy, long before page
construction begins. Here are the 4 most important components:
1. Keyword List:
You need to sit down and write
out a long list of 'keywords' that are relevant to your site content (most
important words first). Utilizing a word processor that has a 'character
count' (and spell checking) feature will make your job a lot easier. These
keywords will be in a 'META' tag embedded in the HTML code of your home
page.
The META tag is invisible to the
visitor, but very 'visible' to the search engine robots that 'spider'
your site for indexing information.
We'll use an imaginary property
and real estate company in Montana as an example.
It is important to understand that
many search engines will penalize your listing if you try to 'rig' your
submission with repeated 'keyword stuffing'; some important tips are:
-get as close to 1,000 characters
as you can, but DO NOT EXCEED
-spaces and commas are included
in the character count, so use commas instead of spaces, except between
two word phrases
-repeat primary keywords sparingly,
NO MORE THAN 3 TIMES
-separate repeated words
-use two word phrases when appropriate,
but watch out for repeats
You can devise your own strategy
- the more thought you put into it, the better the result will be. Note
the inclusion of the domain name at the end makes it easier to search
and verify site registration.
2. Site Description:
You should create a succinct core
description of your site. It should contain most of your primary keywords
and will be the content of another important "META' tag. Use as close
to 150 characters as you can, but do not exceed.
3. Site Title:
Your site title META tag is the
text that appears in a list when your site is 'bookmarked' by a visitor.
It is also what most search engines display as summary text during a search.
Use as close to 60 characters as you can, but do not exceed.
4. Opening Text of Page Content:
The very first visible element
in your page should be text (contained in a header tag) that relates to
the first three items - not large graphics, tables, or anything else.
Do not use frames on your home page. Some major search engines will not
index your page properly.
Be sure to incorporate your keywords
in the remainder of the text as well.
Finally, make sure your html code
structure is correct. Many people get this wrong and the search engine
will not index your site properly. The META tags MUST be between the HEAD
tags. Also, make sure there are no carriage returns in your META text.
Tips for search engine submission:
-take the time to submit your site manually, do
not use automated software
-submit it only once at first; keep a record of what you did
-submit sub-pages as separate URL's with at least a 24 hr. delay
-monitor your progress for a month and re-submit if some engines missed
your site
-it takes from six minutes to six months to be indexed, depending on the
engine
-Infoseek and Alta Vista are fastest; Yahoo is slowest
Don't forget to check out WebPosition.
It’s software that automatically checks your search engine positioning.
Once your site is up
and running, take some time to look at other sites on the Internet. Have
a look at what you find doesn’t work (slow loading, flaming logos, gaudy
colors, 3-day e-mail response time, etc.) and then make sure you don't
repeat the same mistakes.
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