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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!
About the Author:
Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She
shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed people to boost clarity
and focus, create sustainable motivation, and increase sales and profits.
Visit her website at www.PassionForBusiness.com |
