Choose
a right Title
Firstly,
make sure each page of your site has a descriptive
title. Because search engines usually give the most
weight to the page's title, you should place a descriptive
phrase between the <TITLE>
tags. For best results, it is advised that you keep
it within 200 characters and to-the-point. Also, since
search engines return the title as the search results,
your HTML title should be both descriptive and attractive.
For example, the following title describes well the
site, and therefore is a good choice:
<TITLE>Dynamic
Web promotion software - submit your web sites to
1000+ major search engines.</TITLE>
<META>
tags
You can control how search engines catalog your site
with <META> tags.
Not all search engines make use of these tags, but
using them will definitely improve your position in
those that do. All <META>
tags should be placed within the <HEAD>...</HEAD>
portion of the document.
The <META> description
tag lets you specify a short summary about your
web site. This tag should clearly describe what one
can find at your Web site. Here's an example:
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="#1
best selling 5 star award winning web promotion and
site submission software. Increase your web site traffic
by submitting your sites to 1000+ search engines.">
Some search engines limit the description to 200 characters.
To be on the safe side, make sure your description
does not exceed 200 bytes (characters). If you do
not use <META> tags to describe your site, the
Web page description will be derived from the first
200 characters in the HTML <BODY>...</BODY>
portion. Also note that there should be only one <META>
description tag per page.
The <META> keywords
tag lets you specify a set of keywords that a
search robot should give precedence to when cataloging
the page or how people can find your web site. Here's
an example:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="web
promotion, site submission,
web advertising, increase traffic, promotion software,
web site promotion">
The keywords can include up to 1000 characters of
text. Be sure that the keywords you choose are relevant
to the contents of your page. Note that the keywords
are used in the indexing process but will not display
on your Web page or on a search response page. Try
to incorporate singular and plural cases of words,
as well as active and passive verbs. Also make sure
your keyword list includes both general and specific
words related to your site. You rarely want to target
a single keyword, because, with the billions of words
indexed on the Web now, one word simply won't cut
it. Always use phrases, not plain words, in your list.
Frame
Sites
using frames should definitely make use of <META>
tags. The main HTML file contains the <FRAMESET>
tags, but fails to provide robots with any real useful
information about the Web site. Therefore, you should
utilize the <META> description tag to provide
a description, summarizing the site's contents. If
JavaScript (or any other scripting language) makes
up the first several hundred characters on your page,
you should use the <META> description tag so
your site comes up with a meaningful description in
search results.
Web
Site Contents
Search
engines rely mostly on word density (frequency relative
to the total size of the page) or distribution (how
well the word is spread throughout the page). Some
search engines even give precedence to text near the
top of a Web page, so make sure you place the most
important stuff at the top. Furthermore, search engines
that do not support <META> tags use the first
200 (or 250) characters for the site's description,
so the first paragraph should describe/sell your service.
Use <Hn>...</Hn> for headers, rather than
the <FONT>...</FONT> tag definition. Some
search engines consider header text particularly important.
Image
Description
If
your site mainly consists of images, you should use
the ALT attribute to
describe each image. Most search engines index the
ALT attribute in the <IMG> tag. The following
HTML definition shows how to use this attribute:
<IMG SRC="image.gif" HEIGHT="486"
WIDTH="60" ALT="Web Site Promotion">
SPAM
The overuse and repetition of keywords may result
in a lower relevancy score and possible omission from
some search engines. Most search engines count only
the first few occurrences of a keyword or phrase,
and some even penalize you for repeating words to
improve your site's ranking. Infoseek and Lycos are
two search engines that penalize sites that are suspected
of repeating keywords, and Altavista will disallow
URL submissions from those who spam the index. Some
search engines penalize your site if a keyword is
repeated more than three times.
Don't try to fool a search engine by using the phrase
"web promote" three times, and the phrase
"web promotion" another three times. Search
engines are smarter than that, but they still aren't
smart enough to associate "promote" with
"promotion."
General
Rules....
- Most
of the engines have chosen not to keep up and
can not spider frames sites. Make NOFRAME sections
in web pages.
- Always
make sure your web site is completely finished,
spell checked, online and working properly before
attempting to get indexed. One of the most common
problems people encounter in getting their web
site indexed is due to a spider not being
able to reach the URL for indexing. Make sure
your web site is up and responding.
- Alta
Vista and some other search engines, will
index all words in your document (except for comments),
and will use the first few words (e.g. 250 characters)
as a short abstract to serve back. It is possible
for you to control how your page is indexed by
using the META tag to specify additional keywords
to index, and a short abstract.
- First
paragraphs of the text are the most important
for search engines. Brainstorm with friends and
colleagues, etc. and put the most important keywords
into a carefully crafted paragraph at the start
of your HTML document.
- Make
sure that the HTML code is using the proper tags
in the proper places (called validating your HTML).
Most search engines do not tolerate invalid HTML
code, that is, if your code contains invalid HTML
tags most search engines will not index your web
page or worse yet, not index you correctly.
- Most
search engines can take up to 3 to 4 weeks before
getting around to indexing your web site. Be patient.
Keep track of when you asked to have your web
site indexed and check often. Requesting to be
indexed over and over again will not help speed
up the process.
- Because
70-80% of information searchers find what they
are looking for in the Internet through the main
search engines, the best way to attract visitors
to web sites is to be ranked high in the main
search engines. Before submitting your site to
the search engines and directories, spend some
time reading about how to write your title, metatags
and the first few paragraphs of each page to obtain
better ranking. After submitting your web site,
you should periodically review your ranking in
the search engine listings by the key phrases.
- To
improve or maintain position of your web site
in the main search engines, you may need to rewrite
pages, add new content and additional web pages,
change your description and keywords, etc. If
you need to learn HTML to do this, do it because
the reward is worth the effort.
