| Getting Your Site Seen by Search Engines |
By Karyn Greenstreet
Is your website listed on search engines? When people search
for you, does your site show up on page 1 or page 20 of the
search engine results?
Optimizing your site to get it ranked highly on the search
engines can be a complicated subject. To simplify things,
it's helpful to first understand how search engines add sites
to their database. Then we'll cover some tips that you can
put on your own website that will help you to get listed on
search engines and get a higher ranking.
The Major Players
Let's start off with the major search engines, the ones that
most people use. Google is the most widely used search
engine with Yahoo and MSN searches following close behind.
While there are thousands of search engines, it's always a
good idea to start with submitting your website to the three
largest. Why? Because 95% of all searches go through either
Google, Yahoo or MSN.
Who Is Powered by Whom?
Many search engines do not have their own database, but rely
instead upon data supplied by someone else. This is
important to know so that you can submit your site to the
most popular search engine databases first. For example, AOL
Search and Yahoo Search get data from Google, while MSN and
HotBot get some data from Inktomi.
How Search Engines Read Your Site
There are two ways search engines read your site: automated
(crawlers) and human-entered (directories). Crawlers follow
the links found on your site and enter your site into their
search database based on text they find on your pages. This
text is either found on your public pages, or the text
keywords found in behind-the-scenes "meta tags". The amount
of your keywords found on your page, the more weight it has
with the search engines and the higher your ranking. But in
case you think you can load your page with keywords in order
to fool the search engine, think again. Search engines are
smart and you can be penalized for "spamming" keywords on
your website. Major crawlers include Google, AltaVista and
Inktomi.
Human Directories are few and far between. Just imagine
hiring enough people to research the millions of website on
the Internet! It's no wonder they're steadily being replaced
by automated crawlers. Yahoo is one of the most famous human
directories, where real people actually evaluate your site
and categorize it in their database directory. More and more
these search engines are relying on partial automation for
categorizing and listing new sites in the search engine
database. In addition, getting your listing in a Directory
for free can take months. Some human directories are
charging a fee for business sites to be included in their
directory.
How Search Engines Index and Rank Your Site
Search engines use several techniques to determine which
category your site belongs in and what keywords or key
phrases people will use to find your site when using the
search engine.
When submitting your site to search engines, they will ask
you four things: the title of your site, a short description
of your site, your keywords or key phrases (what words or
phrases people typically use to search for sites like yours)
and what category your site belongs in. Then they will often
crawl your site, checking to see if the keywords/key phrases
you supplied match the text on your website. And remember,
you will be penalized for spamming your keywords and rank
LOWER because of it. Also it's important to note that search
engines can not read the text in graphics, so if you are
using a graphic-based navigation or have your keywords on a
graphic next to your logo, the search engine will not notice
it.
Some search engines will rank your site based on your title,
description and keywords that are supplied behind-the-scenes
in special coding called "meta tags." While not every search
engine will read meta tags, it certainly can't hurt to use
them. Again, there are rules: your Title meta tag can't be
more than 100 characters, your Description meta tag can't be
more than 250 characters, and your Keyword meta tag can't be
more than 1,000 characters. And anti-spamming of keywords
applies to meta tags as well - no more than six instances of
the same word in your Keyword meta tag or you'll be penalized
by the search engine. For example, if my key phrases include
"business coach," "starting a business," and "small business
coach," that counts as two uses of the word "coach" and three
uses of the word "business".
Submitting Your Site to Search Engines
Once your site is primed and ready for the search engines,
then you have to submit it to them. You have two choices:
either go to each search engine and submit your site
individually, or use a search engine submission tool.
Remember that the majority of searchers use either Google,
Yahoo or MSN, so consider submitting to those first. You'll
often find a link on their main page where you can add a site
to their search engine. If you want to automate the process,
use an automated submission tool. Make sure the submission
search tool you select will analyze your site to tell you if
you're really ready to submit, then submit your site to the
top search engines for you.
Preparing your site for submission to search engines can feel
like a daunting task. With these tips in mind, you'll save
yourself a lot of time and frustration when it comes time to
submitting your site and rank higher in search results.
See you on the Internet!
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© Karyn Greenstreet 2004.
Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment Expert with 23 years
of self-employment and computer industry experience. She
shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed
people to create and grow their businesses, stay focused
and motivated, and perform at their peak. Visit her
website at http://www.PassionForBusiness.com
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