Search Engine Marketing
Some Helpful Tips
Now that
you've got your sites listed, I'll give you a few basic tips to make
your websites a little more efficient for search engines. First
off, using whatever you used to make your web page, you're going to
want to fill in your metatags. Most importantly, you want to fill
in the title, this is the title that will be seen on search engine
results and when someone is on your page it'll be displayed on the top
bar on their browser.
Secondly you'll want to fill out the description in your metatags. This is pretty important for search engines, it's usually the little paragraph you see under the title in search engine results. It's a good idea to just summarize, in a sentence or two, the basic idea of what's on your site. People will look at the results from their search and scan these descriptions to see if it's even worth going to your site.
The last section of the metatags I think you should fill out is the keywords. Now some search engines don't really pay attention to this section as much but it can still help. A keyword is just any word. A keyword phrase is just any words in a phrase, it's that simple. When you go to a search engine and type something in and hit search, you have just typed in either a keyword phrase or a keyword. When you fill in this section, it tells some search engines which keywords you want to be used to show your page in the results. So if you have "Chinese chicken" in your keywords and someone searches for that exact phrase, then your page will show up in the search results.
But a lot of search engines now just use your descriptions and your page contents themselves to find which keywords and keyword phrases to use. So it's a good idea to fill your page with the right keywords, don't overload it though, and to write a good description with a few keywords in it. Your URL also acts as a keyword phrase for search engines, so choose your web address and page names wisely.
Here's a handy tool I use called the Keyword Selector Tool from Overture. All you have to do is go to this site and type in a keyword or keyword phrase you're thinking about using and it'll show you how often people have searched for that keyword in the last month. It also gives you suggestions of other keyword phrases and shows how often they were searched for. This can be really helpful because it'll show you what keywords people use the most when searching and in turn you can optimize your page with those keywords, knowing that lots of people are searching for those terms.
A few other handy tips:
Secondly you'll want to fill out the description in your metatags. This is pretty important for search engines, it's usually the little paragraph you see under the title in search engine results. It's a good idea to just summarize, in a sentence or two, the basic idea of what's on your site. People will look at the results from their search and scan these descriptions to see if it's even worth going to your site.
The last section of the metatags I think you should fill out is the keywords. Now some search engines don't really pay attention to this section as much but it can still help. A keyword is just any word. A keyword phrase is just any words in a phrase, it's that simple. When you go to a search engine and type something in and hit search, you have just typed in either a keyword phrase or a keyword. When you fill in this section, it tells some search engines which keywords you want to be used to show your page in the results. So if you have "Chinese chicken" in your keywords and someone searches for that exact phrase, then your page will show up in the search results.
But a lot of search engines now just use your descriptions and your page contents themselves to find which keywords and keyword phrases to use. So it's a good idea to fill your page with the right keywords, don't overload it though, and to write a good description with a few keywords in it. Your URL also acts as a keyword phrase for search engines, so choose your web address and page names wisely.
Here's a handy tool I use called the Keyword Selector Tool from Overture. All you have to do is go to this site and type in a keyword or keyword phrase you're thinking about using and it'll show you how often people have searched for that keyword in the last month. It also gives you suggestions of other keyword phrases and shows how often they were searched for. This can be really helpful because it'll show you what keywords people use the most when searching and in turn you can optimize your page with those keywords, knowing that lots of people are searching for those terms.
A few other handy tips:
- Don't replace text with an image. It may look nice and make your page look stylish but a search engine won't see that text, it can't read the image, it only sees the image code you put in.
- Keep your page up to date. Fresh content not only looks better to a search engine spider but it also looks good to the people viewing your page. They won't think it's out of date information and they'll keep coming back for more.
- Check for broken links and spelling errors. A page full of broken links, links that go to pages that don't load, may not even get added to a search engine. And it's not going to impress the people looking at your page when it's filled with spelling errors or none of the links work.
- Finish your web page completely before you submit it to search engines. This will help you out a lot because most search engines will actually state that they won't accept a page that is under construction. If your page is under construction, you'll probably have broken links, half empty pages, spelling errors and just an unimpressive page overall. Search engine spiders try to only add pages that would be relevant for the people performing the searches. In other words, they don't want junk results in their search engine.
I hope all these tips will help you get your sites noticed on search engines. If you don't see results
right away you have to realize sometimes it takes a month or so before
your page will be looked at and added to the search engine. So don't
be discouraged, just keep checking the search engine results until your
site shows up. You can join the preCharge Forums
for free and as you'll see there's 3 separate sections to post to and
learn more on how to optimize your websites for the three main search
engines; Google, Yahoo & MSN.
If you still don't see it, then you can use this tool to see if maybe it's just way down in the rankings and you didn't notice your page. Just type in your URL and a keyword or keyword phrase you KNOW would bring up your page and it'll show you your ranking in Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alexa and others. It'll also show you who ranked highest other than you; your competition for those keywords. If you're not in at least the top 100 results in any of the search engines, your page still won't show up. If you don't want to do it yourself or if you're having too hard of a time getting satisfactory results, then you can get help from the professionals at SEO Inc.
They have extensive experience and can get your site into the top
rankings in search engines. If you aren't confident with them,
then try out 1st Search Engine Ranking. They guarantee they can get you top ranking in search engines or you get your money back.
If you still don't see it, then you can use this tool to see if maybe it's just way down in the rankings and you didn't notice your page. Just type in your URL and a keyword or keyword phrase you KNOW would bring up your page and it'll show you your ranking in Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alexa and others. It'll also show you who ranked highest other than you; your competition for those keywords. If you're not in at least the top 100 results in any of the search engines, your page still won't show up. If you don't want to do it yourself or if you're having too hard of a time getting satisfactory results, then you can get help from the professionals at SEO Inc.
| Submit Express |
| Scrub The Web |
| Google Search |
| Yahoo Search |
| MSN Search |
| Tower Search |
| preCharge |
| SEO Inc. |
| 1st Search Engine Ranking |
| Back to Website Promotion |
| Back to Main Page |
Submit Express
Alright
we'll start off with a mass submitter called Submit Express. When
I was first searching around for different search engines I could
submit to I came across this. It makes things a little easier
because you don't have to go to each individual search engine site and
submit separately. It lets you submit to 20+ search engines in
one step; just type in your URL to submit and your email address.
Here's a list of the search engines included:
- Yahoo Search and Web Pages
- Altavista
- AlltheWeb
- MSN
- AOL
- ...and iWon, Exactseek, Jayde, Scrubtheweb, Search.com, WebInfoSearch, SurfWax, Metacrawler, 800go, qbSearch, Dogpile, Debriefing, ProFusion, mamma, Highway 61, Proteus, C4, 37.com, Go 2 Net, Canada, OneSeek, megaGo, ixquick, metaSpider, WebFile, Infogrid, Vivisimo, myGO, query Server, PlanetSearch and megacrawler.
Scrub The Web
I know that
Submit Express has Scrub The Web in their submitter, but sometimes it
doesn't go through, so this is just to give you a direct link to their
submission page. You're only allowed to submit one URL per email
address per day through this site.
Google Search
Google
is one of the most popular search engines out there, so you're probably
going to want your website in this search engine. I know this is
also in the Submit Express submitter, on rare occasion it doesn't
go through, but you may just want to submit to Google instead of all
the other searches. With this all you need to do is type in your
URL, put some comments for your site if you want and then type in the
touring word; that's just for security reasons.
Yahoo Search
Yahoo
is another popular search engine, which is also included in Submit
Express, but if it didn't go through or you only want to submit to
Yahoo then here's a direct link to their submission tool. You'll
need to log in to use it though, so if you have an account with them
already for anything on Yahoo then you're fine, if not just sign up
quick for free here. All you have to enter after that is your URL and you're done.
MSN Search
MSN is a big name in the computer world, but I think their search needs
a boost to compete with the other search engines. But, if this
didn't work for you in Submit Express or if you just want to submit to
MSN, then here's a direct link to their submission tool. Just
enter the security word/numbers and your URL and you're set.
Tower Search
Now
this one isn't on Submit Express, I found Tower Search on my own while
looking around for other search engines. Just enter your name
and email and then hit submit. Then they'll email you with your
login details. Once you log in you can enter as many sites as you
want and give details on your site like: a short description, the title
and as many keywords as you like. I think it's handy that you can
log in and see all the sites you've submitted and modify those details.
So you want to get your website noticed? Well how do you usually
find web pages that you've never been to before? 9 times out of
10 you go to your favorite search engine, type in a keyword or keyword
phrase and scan the results to see if there's any pages you'd be
interesting in looking at.
I'll show you a few sites I use to submit my web pages to search engines and give you a few basic tips on how to rank a little higher or at least catch someone's eye.
I'll show you a few sites I use to submit my web pages to search engines and give you a few basic tips on how to rank a little higher or at least catch someone's eye.