The
Search Engine "Dilemma"....Fact And Fiction.... 13 Keys To Listing Your
Web Site For Highest Possible Placement!
by
Greg Landry, M.S.
If
you've been on the 'net for any period of time, I'm
sure
you've heard a lot of talk about listing a web site
on
search engines(data bases of web sites that can be
searched
by keyword(s) or in some cases category).
Good
placement on search engines is critical to your
online
marketing success!
Here
are 13 keys to improving your placement on search
engines.....
1.
When submitting your web site, keep in mind that
there
are essentially two types of search engines....
"robot"
engines that send a "robot" to your site to
capture
and catalog all the info on your site. These
include
WebCrawler, Excite, Lycos, Alta Vista, Infoseek,
Hotbot,
and Inktomi. The second type only uses the info
that
you give it. These include Yahoo!, www Yellow Pages,
EINet
Galaxy, Open Text, WWW Worm, and World Wide
Yellow
Pages.
2.
For best results, always submit your info to each
search
engine individually rather than using a
"submission
service". It's important to be able to
tailor
your info for each specific search engine.
It's
takes more time but is well worth it!
3.
Brainstorm for a list of 30 or 40 keywords(or
combinations
of words "horse stables") for your site.
Then,
number the keywords based on what your prospective
customer
would most likely be using as a keyword. Although
you
need a strong list of about 20, your first 5 or so
will
be critical!
4.
Use the plural when possible. If you list your keyword
as
"horse stable", but someone searches for "horse stables",
it
will not find your site. However, if you list your
keyword
as "horse stables" and someone searches for "horse
stable",
it will pull up your site!
5.
The title of your site is **VERY** important! Your
title
is NOT the first headline on your page, but rather
what
appears on the title bar of your browser(upper
left
part of page in Netscape). Most search engines
treat
the words in your title as MAJOR keywords.....
Carefully
choose two or three keywords to put in your
title,
but keep in mind that it should not just be a
list
of keywords....it should make sense. Also, if you
make
it too long, it will be cut-off. The search engines
weigh
the importance of a word in your title based on
density.
For example, if you have five words in your title
and
one of them is horse, then it will comprise 20% of
your
title. But, if you only have two words in your title
and
one of them is horse, then it comprises 50% of your
title
and is "weighed" much more heavily as a keyword!
6.
Use your keywords FREQUENTLY in your text at the VERY
BEGINNING
of your web site. Try not to put tables, graphics
or
anything else at the top of your site. It should just
be
text that is rich with your major keywords. Here again,
just
as in the title, the search engines look at the
DENSITY
of your keywords rather just the number of keywords.
Also,
keep in mind that you're NOT just listing keywords
here.
This is actually the text of your web site.
7.
"Meta tags" are NOT a magic formula for getting listed
at
the top of search engines, but they may help on Alta
Vista,
Hotbot, and Infoseek. A meta tag, for our purposes,
is
a way of providing a description and keywords that are
only
visible to the robots from the search engines.
However,
there is debate over how much weight these are
given.
The meta tags must go *inside* the header tags, so
it
looks like this........
<HEAD>
<TITLE>your
title here</TITLE>
<META
name="description" content="your site description goes
>here">
<META
name="keywords" content="your keywords go here">
</HEAD>
8.
DON'T "keyword spam"! This has been a practice that many
have
used for good search engine placement....but it's
considered
bad netiquette and the search engines are all
starting
to penalize you when they catch it! It's done
by
repeating keywords *numerous* times either in the meta
tag
or within the text of the page, sometimes where it
can't
be seen unless you go to the HTML. I think this is a
waste
of time now.....and will eventually backfire on you.
Just
try to legitimately use your keywords as much as you
can
in the initial paragraphs of text on your web site.
9.
Be sure that your site is COMPLETELY ready and online
before
you list your site with any search engines!
10.
Your title beginning with a letter that's low in the
alphabet(abcd)
may help in some of the standard search
engines
such as Yahoo!, but it's really hard to tell how
much
that comes into play. I certainly would NOT change
my
site title to something like "AAA horses" just for the
sake
of starting with an a. If you can legitimately start
your
title with a,b,c,d, etc., great, otherwise don't
worry
about it.
11.
Before you list with each search engine, put in your
top
three or four keywords, and see what comes up. Go to
the
first few sites that are listed. Once the web site
has
completely transferred to your computer, click on "view"
and
then on "document source". This will show you the HTML
for
that web site. What's unique about this site that
caused
it to be listed first with this search engine? Does
the
title contain the keywords? Are keywords used frequently
in
the text? Are keywords listed in meta tags? etc. Now look
at
the second and third sites listed. Are they unique in the
same
way as the first one? What do they have in common?
This
will give you a good idea of what "ranks" with this
search
engine.
12.
If you're marketing online, many people believe that
OVER
50% of your hits will come from Yahoo! It's probably
worth
spending a considerable amount of your time trying
to
get good placement on this search engine!
13.
Be patient......many search engines take weeks to get
you
in the system.
>************************************************
Greg
Landry publishes "Successful Online Marketing"...
a
free, weekly, online newsletter. To start your
subscription,
EMail Greg@Landry.com with "subscribe
marketing
newsletter" in the message.
************************************************