Everyday we get
webmasters asking us for advice on how to get
their web site listed higher on search engines.
Some say they have heard of certain tricks that
can fool the search engine spiders and get you
ranked higher. While some may work for the moment,
almost all of them will be found and consequences
will be paid. Usually the penalty is pulling your
link from the search engine. You'll have to decide
if it's worth the risk.
There is another option... Honesty. If you do
it right there is no need to trick the engines.
There are a few things you can do to optimize
your site for search engines. The most important
is content, link popularity, domain name and title.
There are other smaller things you can do, which
will be mentioned in here as well. If you want
an honest way of promoting your site then read
this entire article. We will start with the most
important parts first.
Key phrases
Key phrases are 2 to 3 word phrases that one would
most likely enter into the search engines to find
you. Select these very carefully, as something
to generic may be too competetive. Take some time
in carefully selecting these phrases. Don't worry
too much as you can always change them. Just remember
that search engines primarily reindex once a month.
We recommend using 10-12 key phrases. The best
places to put these key phrase while you are building
the page is in your META Keyword tag, the title
(be descriptive), and high up in the textual content
of the page. Besides the fact that some engines
use these as keywords, it also helps as a reference
when writing your content, which leads us to our
next topic.
Web site Content
This is the most important part of any web site.
Without content a search engine spider has nothing
to index. Everyone asks how much is enough content.
We recommend a minimum of 3-4 paragraphs of useful
text on your homepage and 1-2 paragraphs on the
pages inside. The 3-4 paragraphs on your homepage
should describe the purpose of your site. This
text should be utilizing your key phrases as often
as possible. The text on each page inside your
site should describe that specific page. It should
also have key phrases throughout.
It might not be easy to put text on every page,
but remember the more useful text, the more text
a spider can index.
Domain
We cannot stress how important this is. Make sure
your primary keyword is part of your domain. If
you sell belly dancing supplies, you can rest
assured that www.bellydancingsupplies.com has
a huge leg up on you. Don't hope that www.yadayada.com/bellydancing/supplies.html
will help too much. Get it in the domain.
Link Popularity
Link popularity is always overlooked. However,
link popularity is one of the best ways to increase
your ranking. To increase link popularity you
simply want to trade links. Link Trader in AddWeb
v6 is a great tool for finding sites to trade
with. Link Trader is a database of sites that
are using AddWeb to trade links. You can choose
from a number of categories. Keep in mind when
you trade links, you want to have links that may
compliment your site by giving visitors useful
information. For example, if you build websites
you could have links for webhosting companies,
graphic artists, almost anything internet related.
Obviously you wouldn't want a competitor, but
a site that could offer an added benefit to your
visitor for any reason would be a good candidate
for trading.
Trading links could also get you listed on search
engines more quickly and more effectively than
submission. The way the spider works is it hits
your homepage and follows the links inside. If
it hits a links page with your link on it the
spider goes to your homepage and does its work.
This will get the search engines indexing you,
providing you have content.
To drive this home, we don't even suggest that
you submit your site to engines anymore. The tool
is there if you want it, but LinikTrader has shown
so much success among our customers, that submission
to major engines is more or less obsolete.
Title
The #1 mistake webmasters do with the title tag
is put the Name of the Web site as their title.
Most users searching the internet will not be
entering in your site name to do a search. If
they remember your web site, they are more than
likely going to know how to get to you already.
Instead come up with a short sentence that includes
some of your key phrases. Remember, this is what
will be your title on many search engines and
what most people read first. Take advantage of
this.
Submission
Many people still think submission is the only
way to get listed. This is not true. At this point
in the internet's evolution, submission has taken
a back seat. However, don't let this completely
stop you. As major engines may not process submissions
as quickly (or even at all in some cases), in
submitting to smaller sites you can increase your
link popularity, which can improve your ranking
on most engines. Furthermore, don't knock the
traffic they drive you. A large portion of our
own traffic comes from these sites, and customers
are customers, no matter where they come from.
When it comes to submitting your site. You can
get just as much of a benefit by submitting once
a month as you do once a week. If you are listed
on search engines, you will be on the scheduled
visit list and submission is not necessary.
Patience
Patience is an important part of web promotion
as well. There is nothing you can do to get a
search engine to index any faster (except take
advantage of paid includion programs). So if you
make changes to your site, your best chance for
the changes to show up is a month later. That's
just the way it is.
Keep in mind that there are hundreds of millions
of sites trying to get listed higher as well.
The search engine spiders can only process so
much at a time.
Conclusion
Create your site with plenty of content, build
your link popularity, and be patient. If you do
all that is mentioned here, you will find that
your site will have increased ranking before you
know it. Not only will you see improved listings,
you will have done it the honest way.
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By Cyberspace HQ