|
|
| |
> Get Articles > Search Engines and SEO > Moving Up the Search Engine Ranks
Moving Up the Search Engine Ranks
Download as PDF
MaryJo Scamurra
webularworldaol.com
Webular World
http://www.mjswebularworld.com
Moving Up the Search Engine Ranks
(c)2001 MaryJo Scamurra
http://www.mjswebularworld.com
Preparing for search engine submission is greatly important
to the success of your website. Make sure you are ready for
it! By taking the following steps, your website has a much
better chance of getting a higher listing on the major search
engines.
How important is a high ranking?
When was the last time you visited a search engine, entered
your desired search text, and then clicked on the 937th item
listed? Now ask yourself how many times you clicked on one of
the top 20 sites listed. I rest my case.
What can you do to improve your ranking?
1. GET YOUR OWN DOMAIN!
Using a free hosting site not only appears unprofessional to
your visitors, it also makes it more difficult to receive a
high rank on a search engine. This is due in part to the
engines placing more emphasis on home pages, in this instance
the home page would belong to the free host. There are many
sites where you can purchase domains for less than $15/year
( http://www.000domains.com - for example). If you are serious
about being in business on the web, that is a small price to
pay.
2. CREATE META TAGS
Meta Tags are HTML that is not seen by the eye when a page is
displayed. They provide information on what the page is about
and which keywords represent the content.
Title Tag - this is used to display the name of your web page.
Pick a title that is relevant to the information on that page.
Description Tag - this should describe your page in a brief
summary. Be sure to include your most important keywords in
this tag, in the form of a sentence. Often times this is the
description shown to search engine users.
Keyword Tag - this needs to include words and short phrases
about the content of your page. Do not overuse any one keyword
by repeating it more than three times. To find out which key-
words are typed most frequently into search engines, visit
http://www.searchterms.com
Be sure your title, description and keyword tag words can all
be found within your web page text. Once you have an idea of
what keywords should be used to describe your web page, visit
http://www.supersoft-solutions.com/metacreate.html and use the
free meta tag generator form. Simply cut and paste the results
into your HTML document.
3. USE THE ALT TAG
The ALT (alternative text) tag should be used to label each
graphic file on your web page. Be descriptive, using keywords
in the form of a short sentence.
4. CONTACT INFORMATION
Since many of the search engines are now charging for express
submissions, they are more likely to be reviewed by a human
and not a spider. A lot of engines, the Yahoo! directory in
particular, prefer that websites list contact information on
the submitted site. This would include an email address,
street address, and telephone number.
5. LINK POPULARITY
Be sure to get your site linked by as many other domains as
possible. Search engines, like Google, use your popularity
on other websites when ranking search results. For a detailed
look at link popularity, read an article on the subject at
http://www.mjswebularworld.com/linkpopularity.htm
6. AVOID SLOW LOADING PAGES
Several of the major engines admit that webpages that load
slowly may be excluded from being listed. Find out how to
optimize your HTML for quicker load time at
http://www.netmechanic.com
7. CONTENT IS KING
Submissions may be overlooked if interesting, useful and
quality content is not there. A page full of nothing more
than links to other domains will have a hard time getting
indexed. Also, do not bother to submit your site if it is
"under construction".
8. DON'T SPAM!
Forms of spamming include using invisible text, false use or
repetition of keywords, over submitting, and submitting to
inappropriate categories. Spamming is a sure fire way to get
your site banned from being listed.
Submit!
After optimizing your site to please the search engines, it
is time to submit!
AllTheWeb - http://www.ussc.alltheweb.com/add_url.php3
Alta Vista - http://www.altavista.com/
Direct Hit - http://www.directhit.com/util/addurl.html
Excite - http://www.excite.com/info/add_url_form
Google - http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Hotbot - http://hotbot.lycos.com/addurl.asp
Lycos - http://www.lycos.com/addasite.html
Northern Light - http://www.northernlight.com/
Yahoo! - http://www.yahoo.com
There are more engines out there, including the Pay-Per-
Click directories, but that's an article for another day.
Keep in mind it may take anywhere from a week to three months
to be indexed. Most search engines now offer express services,
for a fee, although that won't guarantee a listing.
The time it takes to prepare for the search engines will be
well worth it once the traffic starts rolling in.
------------------------------------------------------------
Visit MaryJo Scamurra's Webular World website and download
her ebook, "The Free Guide to Start and Manage a Successful
Online Business" ... and don't forget to subscribe to the
Webular World Digest! http://www.mjswebularworld.com
------------------------------------------------------------
How useful did you find this article?
This article can be downloaded freely from http://www.get-articles.com and used on your website or in your ezine so long as the author is credited and their resource box left intact. You should not change any links in the article, and where the article is used on a website it's links should be clickable. Please see our terms and conditions page for more information: http://www.get-articles.com/authors-publishers-terms.php
|
|

|
|