| Introduction
All
websites created using easisites are submitted to a variety
of Search Engines. Nevertheless we recommend that site owners
submit their own easisites websites to Search Engines on
a reasonably regular basis.
| Tell
the Search Engines? |
| It's
a good idea to have the Search Engines re-catalogue
your site every few months, especially
if you have made significant changes to the content.
It
only takes a few minutes effort, but remember
it will be a few weeks before they revise their
entry about you.
If
you need the entry revised sooner, seek out their
paid-for services.
Some
Engines tell you your site must be optimised first.
Yours already is because that's part of what the
easisites system does automatically. |
Google
including AOL, Ask Jeeves, Netscape,
NTLworld, Virgin. |
 |
FREE.
Google is the world's foremost Search Engine.
Google entries are forwarded to many other
Search Engines. |
Yahoo
including MSN, AllTheWeb, AltaVista, BBCi,
HotBot, Lycos, Tiscali, Freeserve. |
|
FREE.
But to submit your site you need to be a
registered Yahoo member. If this is your
first time with Yahoo you'll need to fill
out the registration details first. |
| dmoz |
|
FREE.
This is a less well-known directory where
your site will be looked at by "a real
person" before they list it. You'll climb
the ranks on other Engines if dmoz catalogues
you.
Navigate the dmoz site to a page you'd
like to appear on, then click the "update
listing" and/or "Add URL" link. If
you are already in dmoz, you just need
to check their listing is still correct. |
|
| Other
Search Engines |
|
There
are thousands of lesser Search Engines and Directories.
Too many to list here. Make it a habit to add your
site if you chance across any free ones in your
web surfing. |
|
Hints
on placement with Search Engines
dmoz.
Google and others place greater credence and therefore
a higher ranking on sites that are also listed at http://www.dmoz.org
because dmoz entries are all checked out by a human being
before they get listed.
If
you have not already done so, you can request an entry on dmoz
for free.
Navigate
to the page you think you deserve to be listed on and click "add
URL".
Then
type in a short description of your business. (I'm afraid this
isn't something we can do for you.)
You'll
also find a list of directory sites on dmoz, related to
business categories (such as 'Bed and Breakfast') - many of which
are free to register with. Why not register with as many as you
can? It all helps to spread the word.
There
are no magic tricks to getting your site listed in the top twenty
on Search Engines. But if you know what Search Engines look
for when they catalogue a site, you can help your case by making
sure your site is suitably organised. Some people call this
"optimising" your site.
Specific
requirements for top search engines (taken from www.searchengines.com 26/11/2002)
| Search Engine |
Keywords |
Location of Keywords |
Document Length |
HTML Title |
Meta tags |
Themes |
What's spam? |
Other info |
AltaVista
Search Engine |
Only
the first two occurrences are indexed, use in <title>
and top of the page |
Top
of the page, <h> tags |
Longer pages favored,
600-900 words |
Most
important keywords here, 300 characters,
short titles preferred |
Not
very important, but use them just in case |
Yes,
consistent keywords throughout the site |
Repetition
of keywords one after the other, meta refresh tags,
invisible text, identical pages, excessive submissions. |
Repeat keywords in files names. Use keywords in text links. |
Google
Search Engine |
Weight and proximity matter most |
<h> tags,
bold text |
Wide
range, from 50-600 words. |
Keywords here, up to 90 characters |
No |
Yes,
consistent keywords throughout the site |
Use
of link farms, cloaking, excessive repetition |
Link
popularity is the most important factor |
HotBot
Search Engine |
Frequency and weight in the body are most important |
URL
text and title |
Short, 100-250 words |
Most
important, keywords here, up to 105 characters |
Very
important, both description (150 characters) and keywords
(75 characters) |
Yes,
consistent keywords throughout the site. |
Repetition of keywords one after the other, meta refresh tags,
nearly identical pages, invisible text, irrelevant keywords,
too many submissions |
Use
keywords when describing links, and naming files |
Lycos
Search Engine |
Keywords spread throughout the page and in the title |
Top
of the page, <h> tags |
Short, 100-250 words |
Keywords here, second word, up to 1129 characters |
Not
indexed by Fast, but shows up in top rankings |
Yes,
consistent keywords throughout the site |
Repetition of keywords one after the other, nearly identical
pages, invisible text |
Use
ALT tags |
| Search Engine |
Keywords |
Location of Keywords |
Document Length |
HTML Title |
Meta tags |
Themes |
What's spam? |
Other info |
How
this relates to your easisites website:
Keywords
- This means the words used on your site after the irrelevant
ones are ignored. Irrelevant ones are words such as because,
and, the, if, but... and for some search engines even words
like "internet" get ignored. So many
sites use them, they aren't constructive in deciding what sites
to return from a search.
The
<title> is the blue bar along the top of the window
when you view anything on your computer. Your easisite shows
a title composed of your business name, the snappy description
and/or the title of the particular page. Make sure those
items contain words you want search engines to notice.
Make
sure your site mentions the important words near the beginning
of the pages.
In
most cases your page titles will already be in bold text and they
also get used for the menu links, thereby satisfying the advice
to use keywords in links.
easisites
designs don't generally use <h> tags for headings (and
neither do most other sites on the web). That's because
<h> tags impose a particular text appearance on the display
that spoils efforts to have a good looking web site.
Page
length
seems to influence cataloguing by search engines. If you
keep pages sensible - not hugely long and not merely a couple
of lines, things will be OK.
HTML
Title is the same thing as <title> mentioned above -
the blue bar at the top of any window on your computer.
Meta
tags were invented to give search engines the information they
need to catalogue a web site. However, people cheated
by supplying incorrect information to trick search engines into
listing sites in the wrong way - site owners hoped to gain advantage.
For that reason they are often ignored by search engines these
days. If these tags do not match the real page content
the search engine is unlikely to catalogue your site.
For
consistency your easisite does have them. They are (for
all web sites) "behind the scenes". Use View/Source
from your menu when viewing your site and you'll be able to
see the two meta tags of "description" and "keywords".
The easisites system has generated these from what you actually
put on your pages.
Themes.
Search Engines can check each page of a web site to see if they
relate to the same theme or topic. If your site is consistently
about the same thing (e.g. your hotel or farm), your listing will
improve for being a site with a consistent theme.
Spam.
In this context it is attempts to trick a search engine.
If you want to sell, say, "ballet shoes" it will count
against you if you repeat the phrase "ballet shoes"
over and over again without a decent amount of other text on
the page. By and large, if your key phrase turns up more
than 10% of the time you run the risk of having your site de-catalogued
from a search engine.
If
you simply write in a normal fashion it will be fine.
The easisites system does not utilise invisible text or other
things a search engine will reject.
Excessive
submissions means repeatedly asking search engines to catalogue
your site over and over again. Some search engines think
this means daily, others weekly ... none give an exact figure
so as not to leave themselves open to tricksters.
If
you submit your site for inclusion (as above) once a month or
every other month, that will be OK. It is important to
repeat your submissions periodically like this because new submissions
are given extra "points" when it comes to your placement
in the lists.
Link
popularity. This is a count of how many other sites
on the web have links to yours. Nobody can redesign a
web site to improve this.
You
can increase these "incoming links" by asking other
web site owners to have a link to your site. If you are
a hotel, ask a tourism web site to list your web address.
If you sell food, request links on web sites about food, recipes
and so on.
There's
no automation that will help - contact these other companies
and ask - even offer to have a link back to their site by way
of exchange... help each other get better listings.
The
actual web address
(or domain name) of your site. Search engines all say
they do not downgrade a listing if the web address is uninteresting
or doesn't contain any keywords. But once your site is
shown in a list, people are surely more likely to visit if the
address looks like the thing they are seeking.
It's
also true that people sometimes take a guess and type a web
address without going to any search engine first.
If
you want to buy a more catchy domain name (e.g. balletshoesuk.co.uk)
for your site, easisites can arrange this for you. Take
a look at the instructions about domain names after you enter
your password to update your site.
Final
hint: (Not mentioned in the table above.) Search
engines love to show how good they are and return exactly the
right web site someone searches for.
Someone
might enter a search such as "organic carrots in berkshire".
If your site has exactly those words on it you are likely to
come at or near the top of the list.
Your
site could have a sentence such as "Blake's farmshop is
the number one outlet for organic carrots in Berkshire".
The
hard part about this is for you to guess what people might type
when they visit a search engine. But you can try... try
to write your sentences so they include the phrases people might
type when hunting for your kind of product or service.
Remember
that unless you pay search engines to list your site, there
are no guarantees you'll be included. Engines that accept
free submissions usually delay inclusion for a couple of months
by way of urging you to pay instead.
We
at easisites submit all new sites (if the owner ticked the box
for it) to the Engines that take free submissions. We
do this once, a day or two after the site is first built.
After that it is up to site owners to renew their submissions
from time to time.
There
are, of course, many other search engines besides yahoo
and google. Visit any search engine you'd like to be
listed on and find the links about adding your site to their
lists.
for
more on Web Marketing check out:
www.searchengines.com
The
Web Marketing Checklist: 32 Ways to Promote Your Website
16
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things you should NEVER do |
