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SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION TIPS
Search Engines META TitlePopular Search Engines
Directories Introduction to Search Engines and Directories Search engines and directories are perhaps the most cost effective way to increase traffic to your website. For many engines and directories, the only cost involved in submitting your site is a few minutes of your time. Approximately 90% of people on the Internet use search engines to find information they are looking for. However, most people only click on the first two or three results of the search results page and rarely search past the third or fourth page of results. It is, therefore, of utmost importance to have your site listed on the first pages in order for it to be effective. Search engines and directories are often confused with one another. This is probably because to most Internet users they accomplish the same task of finding information. It is important to understand their differences in order to maximize your chances of success. Search Engines A search engine is an automated service. When you submit your site to a search engine and provide it with your URL or web address, it will send out a "spider" or robot to "crawl" or search through your website. This spider will look at 3 criteria to determine your website's position on their search engine listings. These criteria include: The title of your website (META Title) Each search engine applies different levels of importance to each of the above criteria. These weights are a closely guarded secret held by the engines to prevent "spammers" from abusing their systems. Some of the more recent search engines use other criteria to rank sites in an effort to provide their users with more accurate results. Some will also read the content of your site for keywords and phrases. For this reason, your most important text should be in the first few paragraphs of your page. Website Title (META Title) When you enter in the HTML for your tags they will look similar to this: <HEAD> Website Description (META Description) In HTML you would see this as: <META NAME="description" CONTENT="Namesonic offers simple and affordable domain registration and hosting services. Our industry leading customer service will help you with all your domain needs."> It is a good idea to have your first line include some or all of the words used in your META Title. In our case, we repeated "Domain Registration" and "Hosting Services" from our title. As with the META Title, repeating the same word over three or four times may result in your site being disqualified for spam abuse. Hidden Keyword Tags (META Tags) <META NAME="keywords" Content=" domain transfers, domain registration, Whois, .COM, .NET, .ORG, country level, domain services, hosting"> For META tags, it is sometimes a good idea to include misspellings of products or services on your site. By doing so, your page will show up if someone misspells the word in their search engine. If you repeat a word, make sure they are not listed beside one another and do not repeat the same word more than three times. Avoid using trademarked names of your competitors in your META Tags, such as Coke.com using Pepsi as a META Tag. Although this would appear to be an excellent way to steal some of their traffic, companies have been sued for this practice. Additional Information on Search Engines It is important to remember that all search engines place different degrees of importance on the criteria of the three META categories. Some sites, such as Google.com and Goto.com, use other criteria. Google.com ranks your site according to how many other sites link to you. The reasoning behind this search engine is that if you have a number of sites that link to your site, then your site must be popular. If it is popular, then your site must be good. Goto.com does not use any meta tags or titles to determine where to rank a site on its search results page but determines this based on how much they are paid. Companies pay Goto.com on a per click basis for placement, and the rate they are charged is determined by the popularity of their products category. Every time someone clicks on their link on Goto.com, the company's account is debited. Popular Search Engines The following is a list of the most used search engines that combine for a total of over 90% of all Internet searches: Google.com - Despite its child like name, Google is considered by many to be the most effective search engine. It ranks sites according to how many other sites link to it. All submissions are free, however they do accept sponsored advertising links, which are located at the top of the search results page. Google currently has the largest database of indexed sites. Yahoo and Netscape Search use Google in addition to their own directory service. Excite.com - Excite is one of the more popular search engines. They offer a "Basic Submission" option as well as a paid "Express Submit" option. Basic Submission costs $149, and your site will be reviewed in 8 weeks. The Express Submit option is $250, and your site will be reviewed in 2 business days. Altavista.com - similar to Excite in terms of popularity, this site is a must to be listed on. Basic Submission is free and Express Submission is $39 for your first URL submission. There are discounts for multiple submissions. Askjeeves.com - This search engine offers one of the most user-friendly searches on the web. It allows you to type in a question such as "Where can I find the best deal on domain registration?" It will then search its database of listed websites as well as other search engines for the answer. It will then list the answer, which would probably be Namesonic.com... we hope. Hotbot.com - Hotbot is a powerful search engine and is widely used by researchers and university students. While it may not be as mainstream as Excite or AltaVista, it is still an excellent source of traffic. Submission is free. Lycos.com - Lycos began its Internet life as a search engine, however now it resembles more of a directory. Listings on Lycos are free. Goto.com - Goto.com operates like a search engine but gives preference to sites that pay them. Companies pay Goto.com per click for better search engine results. Per click means that you pay Goto.com whenever someone clicks on your link on their results page. Directory A directory as opposed to a search engine has a human component rather than an automated "spider" or robot. When you submit your site to a directory, an actual human from the directory visits your site. It is very important that you submit your site under the correct category so that the right reviewer reads it. Directories all operate in a different fashion, however most will require you to submit your URL to the correct category as well as provide a short description of your website. How to Maximize Your Search Engine Results One of the key ingredients to having a good directory placement is to spend a lot of time working on the short description of your site. You will need to sum up everything your site has to offer in 25-50 words (depending on the directory). Your META Tags will have no bearing on the placement of your site within a directory. Popular Directories Yahoo.com - This is the most important directory to be listed on. Yahoo dominates the directory industry and has partnered with Google.com to provide search engine capabilities. Listing your site on Yahoo and Google is a must. Yahoo has both a free listing service and an Express service, which costs $299.99. The Express service will have your site listed in 7 days versus the regular submission, which can take weeks depending on their volume of requests. Looksmart.com - Like yahoo, this directory has both a free submission and a paid one. Conclusion We hope that by reading this you now have a better idea of how search engines and directories work and the benefits they can bring to your website. With their low cost and targeted audience, both of these search tools can help bring traffic to your web site. Unfortunately, an introductory article such as this can only go so far to help you with your search engine submission. You will find many other articles regarding search engines on the Internet, however, the most complete source that we have found is a book titled The Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars, by Planet Ocean Communications. Many Fortune 500 companies rely on this book and its newsletters to help them secure and maintain their prime search engine positions. Best of all, Planet Ocean offers a 6-month no-questions-asked warranty. Planet Ocean - The Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars Links Some excellent sites for articles on search engines and the search engine industry include: Searchenginewatch.com - Danny Sullivan's articles | |
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