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Search Engine Tips
 

What are the do's and dont's when submitting a site?

    Avoid the following:
     

    1. Frames.
      Do not use frames, a lot of the search engines do not support them and it restricts your listing potential. If you must, have lead in pages that you submit that are not in frames so that you are still listed in the search engines. Make sure that you have a decent amount of words on at least a few pages on your site, keep them focused on the topic related to your site.

       

    2. Text the same color as the background.
      This was a trick used to improve a sites ranking on a search engine. However, these days engines are awake to these tricks. So using this method will do your ranking more harm than good.

       

    3. Repeated Keywords.
      "Spamming" certain keywords will also do your you more harm than good. Some engines work on a relevancy percentage. ie: If you have 10 key words, each key word will be given a %10 relevancy for your site.

       

    4. Flash
      Though flash looks great, it does not contain any text or information about your site. Spiders will not only have trouble indexing pages with flash, but they will not find much information to index you with either, hence affecting your ranking.

       

    5. Java Script.
      The use of Java is fantastic on your web page, though an excessive use of Java will often hinder a search engine spider. This in turn will lower your chances of being indexed by the engines.

       

    6. Submitting too often.
      Some engines have a No-Spam policy. If they receive the same submission often, in a short period of time, they might reject your submission or give you a lower ranking. We recommend that you do your submissions every 4 weeks.

       

    7. A url containing special characters such as: ?, =, %, &
      Often search engines will disregard url's with the above characters in them. If possible please avoid the use of these types of characters.

       

    8. Pages requiring a cookie will not be indexed.

       

    9. How long will it take for my page to be added to the engine?
      The time taken for your site to appear in the search engines varies greatly. It may be instant, or it may take several months depending on the engine. The submit pages on most sites will give you an approximation as to how long it will take for your site to appear. Submitting your site to an engine does not guarantee that it will be listed. Some engines review all submissions manually and the administrators can add or reject your submission at their discretion without notice. When you resubmit, be sure to be patient and check that the information has been updated before you submit again.

       

    10. The use of meta tags is very important
      It is important to ensure that your page has correct meta tags inserted into the html code for page title, description and keywords. Most major engines actually "spider" or download your page to get these and use them for the title and keywords of your page on their sites. These keywords and meta tags are used to store and retrieve your information in the search engines.
      If you are not showing up in the first 200 or so entries under your chosen keywords, you may need to design your page and meta tags to ensure that users can find you under the keywords you wish to be found under. It is not always a big change in your page that result in your position moving up, it can be subtle changes that have the greatest effect. Don't forget it will take a few weeks for your page to show up and not to submit too many times and definitely not more than once in a day.

      When you do search engine ranking, do not just look at your site. Look at all the sites in the top 10 under the keywords that you want to be found under. Maybe open a few of the top 5 in a different windows so you can compare them. Look for where they used the keywords, how often, and the layout of the pages. Viewing source in your web browser will also allow you to see what they used in the keywords and description meta tags. Look for similarities, in the pages then incorporate these into your web page.

       

    11. Yahoo
      Yahoo is a large, complex site that needs your special attention to get a listing. They only have 750,000 sites. Where as AltaVista and Hotbot etc hold around 110,000,000. It is hard to get a listing and there is nothing that can effectively map out their category system. The only way is to go there and explore and submit yourself. We could submit you to a general category but you probably wouldn't get listed. You will not get the traffic you deserve. As a note, Yahoo also provide a service where they charge $200 per submission and they guarantee to review your site for indexing. This does not however guarantee a listing.

       

    12. Reciprocal
      Try and find as many sites as you can that will link to your site. If you manage to get a link from a site that has high traffic, there is a very good chance that the traffic from that site will soon move on to your page. This will be more relevant when the site that has your link is in some way related to your site / service.

       

    13. What are the competition up to?
      Go to a few of the search engines and search for topics relating directly to your site's topic. See who comes up first, visit their pages and look for counters and presentation. Choose a handful of sites that have reasonable traffic, (or at least comparable traffic to yours) and approach them to have reciprocal links. These can produce a fair amount of traffic, but be careful to look after your link partners. If you are getting traffic from them and they get nothing from you, they won't keep your link. Make sure you look after them, especially, the good link partners. Do not hide their banners away in the corner.

      Reaching the top of search engine listings requires a lot of fine-tuning and effort. There are millions of sites on the internet and they are all vying for that top position. Submitting your site to all the engines is the first step, fine tuning your meta tags and site content is the important second step.

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