Search Engine Tips
The following is excerpted from The Search Engine
"dilemma"....fact and fiction.... Listing your web site for highest possible
placement! Contributed by Greg Landry, M.S.
If you've been on the 'net for any period of time, I'm sure you've heard
allot 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).
Although I've done considerable research in this area, I certainly don't
claim to know it all and I'm very open to your comments/suggestions on this subject.... Greg@Landry.com
Also, if you want to do your own HTML (web page design), I use software
called "Hotdog Pro" by The Sausage Co., I think. :) Anyway, it's less than $100
and makes the task pretty easy, even for a "non-techie" like myself! Do a search
for "hotdog" or "sausage".
I'll first list some general guidelines for listing your web site with
search engines and then some specific guidelines for particular search engines.
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.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
"Meta tags" are NOT a magic formula for getting listed at the
top of search engines, but they may help on AltaVista, Hotbot, and Infoseek. A meta tag,
for our purposes, is a way of providing a description and keywords that are only visable
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>
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.
Be sure that your site is COMPLETELY ready and online before you list your
site with any search engines!
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.
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!
Be patient......many search engines take weeks to get you in the system.
*Greg Landry publishes "Successful Online Marketing" Newsletter.
For a FREE subscription to his weekly, online newsletter, send email to Greg@Landry.com with "Subscribe Marketing
Newsletter" in the message.
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