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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. »
Frames
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. »
Website 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.
- Excite does not take advantage of Meta
tags, they do however look at the words in the Title of your document. Excite
may take as long as 4 weeks to index your web site, so be patient and check often.
- 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.
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