Hi enos-ga,
I assume that you have just completed work on your website, and
are now looking at driving traffic from the various search engines to
it. In order to get your website listed on a search engine, you submit
its link to a search engine. The search engine automatically extracts
relevant keywords from your site's text content.
From your query, I understand that you want your site to appear
whenever the user searches for a particular set of keywords. There are
two ways in which you can have your site's listing appear on the
search engines results page. They are :
- Default Placement : This is the position a search engine
automatically assigns your website when it indexes it. The search
engine automatically extracts the relevant keywords from your page.
The only way you can affect this ranking is by properly structuring
your site and optimising it's design for better search engine
placement.
- Paid Placement : Many search engines now allow you to pay for
your site to get listed on the results page whenever the user searches
for particular keywords. These listings are usually placed seperately
from the results shown on the page. For example, if you do a search on
Google, the paid results appear in seperate boxes on the right side of
the page and optionally at the very top, with the words 'Sponsored
Links' before them. The remaining page is taken up by the default
unpaid results.
Nothing will drive more users to your site than if it appears in the
top ten results for a keyword. However, if you are operating an online
business, you may also want the added security of a paid link. The
paid link does not affect your website default ranking in any way.
Optimizing Your Site For Search Engine Placement
================================================
The various search engines utilize software robots(called spiders)
that traverse the Internet following links from one site to the other.
Whenever the spider discovers a new site, it analyzes its contents and
selects a bunch of keywords which it believes best represent the
site's content.
So, you have to design your site such that the relevant keywords
automatically stand out when the spider visits your website. Here are
some tips on achieving this:
- The first thing you should to is add the HTML META keyword and
description tags to all the pages that make up your website. These
tags let you specify to the spider what keywords YOU think best
represent the content of your website. Be aware that most search
engine spiders do not give much weight to these tags. Still, if you do
not misuse them, they wont harm your site's placement. For more
information, read the following article(and others that it links to) :
- SearchEngineWatch.com : How To Use HTML Meta Tags
( http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.html)
- Make sure that all your pages have relevant titles. Try to ensure
that the important keywords are contained in your page titles, and
also in your domain name.
- Make sure that your pages (especially your main page) have a lot
of relevant content on them. As I specified before, the search engine
spiders rely on an analysis of the text on your page. The more
relevant text you provide on the page, the more chances of your
getting a higher ranking. Try to make sure that the text at the top of
the page contains your keywords. Many search engines consider text at
the top of the page more important than that at the bottom. Also, try
to ensure that any headings you use contain your keywords. Also, any
images, java applets and flash movies you put on your page are black
boxes to the spiders. They cannot read or analyse them. So, always add
the HTML ALT tag, containing a concise description of the
images/applets/movies.
- Make your site frame free. Most search engine spiders cannot
follow frames and as a result will just ignore your site. If for some
particular reason you must use frames, then add a NOFRAMES tag to the
page, containing content for those browsers which do not support
frames.
- One of the most important criterion, used by the Google Search
Engine, is the number of other sites which link to your pages. Try to
get your site listed on as many related sites as possible. Make sure
that the sites that link to you are related in some way to your site's
topic. If Google detects that you are linking to, and getting linked
by a number of unrelated sites just so you can get a higher rank, it
will permanently disqualify your site from its results.
- While optimising your website for search engines, make sure that
you do not try to trick the search engines in any way. This includes
misusing the META tags by including the same keyword many times in
order to make it seem more important. Same thing with the text on your
page. Modern search engines are pretty sophisticated and are
continually updated to detect and punish websites trying to fool them.
This could get your website banned from the search engines listings.
Check out the information Google provides for the webmaster's benefit
:
- Google Information for Webmasters
( ://www.google.com/webmasters/ )
- Search engine optimisation is a pretty broad topic, and you can
find many more tips and tricks on the web. Check out the following
articles :
- Search Engine Placement Tips
( http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/ )
- WebDevelopers Journal : Web Site Promotion Articles
( www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/site_promotion/web_site_promotion_guide.html)
- WebMaster T's : SEO Tips
( http://www.tsworldofdesign.com/search_engine/ )
- Free Search Engine Secrets
( http://www.kaleidoscope-dts.com/secrets.html )
You can find more helpful sites in the following sections of Google's
Web Directory :
- http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Promotion/Help_and_Tutorials/?il=1
- http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Promotion/Free_Search_Engine_Submitting/?il=1
Which Search Engines to Submit to ?
===================================
Most web surfers rely on the various web directories and search
engines to discover sites of their interest. Your best bet for highest
visibility is to get listed in as many as you can. Also, although
there are thousands of such directories and engines, only a handful
are responsible for driving most of the traffic on the net. Here are
some of the most important ones:
- One of the most important web directories, is the DMoz directory
project. Most search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Altavista draw
their entries from it.
- DMoz Open Directory Project
( www.dmoz.org)
Another web directory popular among users is About.com. To get
listed in this, you must email the guide responsible for that
particular category, with a link to your website. A list of categories
with the relevant guides can be found at :
- About.com A-Z
( http://a-zlist.about.com/ )
Another directory, though now declining in popularity is the Yahoo!
Web Directory.
- Yahoo! Directory: Suggest A Site
( http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest )
The submit pages for some of the more important search engines are :
- Google ( ://www.google.com/addurl.html )
- AllTheWeb ( http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php )
- AltaVista ( http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new )
Sites such as Yahoo and AOL use Google for their websearch. Other
important search engines are MSN, Teoma, HotBot and Excite. You can
usually find a 'Add your site' or 'Submit your site' link on a search
engine's main page. Some of the search engines may require you to pay
if you want to get listed on them. Note that there is a waiting
period, usually of 4-8 weeks, before your site starts appearing in the
search engine's results.
Although you should submit your site to the top few search engines
yourself, for the others you can use software programs and other sites
which will automatically submit your site to hundreds of other search
engines. Some such offerings are:
- Add Me, Free Web Site Promotion & Submission
( http://www.addme.com/ )
- SubMit It! Search Engine Submissions
( http://www.submitit.com/ )
- WebPosition Gold Search Engine and Web promotion Software
( http://www.webposition.com/ )
You can find many more by checking out the Google Directory links
in the previous section. Be careful though. Some of these
sites/packages will also offer to monitor your sites ranking in a
search engines results. Note that this is against Google's Terms Of
Service, and if detected, your site can be permanently blacklisted
from Google.
Paid Placement
==============
Most of the search engines have some sort of advertising plan
available, in which you pay a certain amount and have your website
listed on the search results page. Some of these advertising plans are
'Pay Per Click', in which you pay only when a user click on your ad.
For your convinience, I link here to the advertising options of some
of the more important search engines:
- Google ( Google AdWords and Premium Sponsorships )
( ://www.google.com/ads/index.html )
- About.com's Sprinks Program
( http://sprinks.com/ )
- Altavista
( http://www.altavista.com/help/contact/advertise)
- All The Web
( http://www.alltheweb.com/help/webmaster/submit_site.html )
- Yahoo!
( http://sponsorlistings.yahoo.com/ )
- MSN Search
( http://listings.looksmart.com/?synd=zdd&chan=zddresults )
- Overture
( http://www.overture.com/d/USm/ays/index.jhtml )
Most of these search engines have multilevel plans catering to all
budgets. You should easily be able to find one that fits your budget.
+=======================================+
I hope the above answer was of help.
If you need any clarifications, just ask!
Best wishes for your website!
Regards,
Theta-ga
:)
+=======================================+
Google Search Terms Used :
website placement promotion
seo tips tricks |
