Common Sense
Advice for Search Engine
Optimization
Most web surfers start their
sessions at a search engine or a
web directory. There are a
number of different methods you
can use to capture their traffic
and drive it to your site:
1.
Stick to
the big names: The two largest
di rectories: Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com)
and the
Open Project Directory (http://www.dmoz.org),
and the two largest search
engines: Google (http://www.google.com
) and
Inktomi (used by MSN search
(http://www.msn.com)
and AOL
(http://www.aol.com))
are likely
to deliver 80% of your traffic,
so concentrate on those and
don�t spend too much time on
anybody else.
2.
Yahoo and the
Open Project Directory are
administered by humans, so an
editor will inspect your site
before it's added. They receive
so many submissions that it can
literally take months before
your site is reviewed, and
nothing (not even paid
subscriptions) guarantees that
it will be listed. It�s worth
to keep trying, though, so check
back every month or so and, if
your site isn�t listed, submit
it again.
3.
Google and
Inktomi are robots (software
programs) that �crawl� (find and
read) millions of sites on the
web, and add them to their
index. That's why it is not
absolutely necessary to manually
submit your site to a search
engine, since they may find your
site and add it automatically
when they find a link to your
site on another page.
4.
You don�t
need to submit all the pages on
your site. Once the search
engine finds your main page
(homepage), it will find the
other ones by following links.
To improve the chances of your
secondary pages being found,
create a link called �site map�
in your homepage, and have it
point to a page that is nothing
but a collection of links to all
the pages on your site. This
way, the search engine will
follow the link and �suck in�
all your pages. Try putting
this link as close to the top of
your homepage as possible, since
it will have a better chance of
being picked up by the search
engine.
5.
Your site
will stand a much better chance
of showing up at the top of the
search results list if you
choose keywords that are as
specific as possible. In
general, niche sites that use
very specific keywords have a
better chance of being at the
top of the list than generic
sites that use more common
keywords. For example, a
restaurant that specializes in
brick oven pizza (keywords:
brick oven pizza) has a
better chance of showing up in a
prime position than an
all-encompassing Italian
restaurant (keywords:
Italian restaurant).
6.
A good search
engine ranking is also
conditioned by the amount of
inbound links to your site that
the search engine finds in other
websites. A significant amount
of links to your page from high
ranked, quality sites with
content related to yours, will
significantly boost your
rankings. Try contacting the
webmasters of the leading
websites for the keywords of
your choice and try to get them
to link to your site. You can
offer a link exchange or place a
paid link (advertising) on their
pages, if that�s an available
option.
7.
Creating a
good page title tag
is also
key, since it�s usually the
first thing the search engines
display in the search results
page. Also, you must create a
well written, easy to understand
�Description� meta tag, since
some search engines will use it
to describe your site. The more
your title and description match
your preferred search keywords,
the more likely web users will
click into your site. Don't pay
too much attention to the
'Keywords' meta tag, since most
search engines ignore them
nowadays, due to the potential
for abuse.
Finally, one last word of
advice: don�t obsess with
search engines, since they are
not the only way to generate
traffic to your site. Try
different approaches, like
writing articles and posting
them in discussion groups and
newsgroups. Also, don�t
overlook bricks-and-mortar
techniques like passing around
business cards embedded with
your website address, or
advertising in traditional
media. It is a combination of
all these things, and high
quality, original content, what
will make your site popular
------------------------------------------------
Mario Sanchez publishes The
Internet Digest (
http://www.theinternetdigest.net
) a
website and newsletter that
gives you free advice on web
design and Internet marketing. |