Web Site Promotion - Search Engines
Note: Most of the site specific information comes directly from the guidelines put forth by those sites. This stuff can change rapidly, if you feel my data are incorrect, please email me.
Criteria used by various search engines to determine site ranking
- Body content. Good, clean, professional copy with plenty of keywords (but don't overdo it or you'll be penalized) is the best way to get good search engine listings.
- Link popularity (how many EXTERNAL sites link to your site - site importance counts! Links from personal pages do not carry the same weight as links from important RELATED pages). This is one of the most important aspects of many search engine ranking systems (see information about individual search engines below). Then again, other "experts" say that link popularity doesn't hurt, but it's not really important. However, Google, which is widely considered the most popular and most effective search engine, solely relies on link popularity and quality for site rank.
- <TITLE> content. Sometimes your company name is not the best thing to put in your title. Instead, choose a phrase that you feel most describes your services/products/purpose. Think of it this way, what is the one key phrase that you feel should lead searchers immediately to your site? For instance, if you are a small, retail site selling vintage clothing, do you expect many people to enter "Auntie's Attic" in a search engine? Or something like "vintage clothing" or "resale shops"? Various search engines display titles with 60-115 characters, so plan well and use the space. Make sure title words/phrases also appear in the body of your site.
- Keyword frequency (NOT META keywords). The content of your site should contain instances of keywords you think people will use to find your site - don't stuff the box though, many search engines will ignore instances of keywords that appear too often. A few won't even list your site. Don't expect people to search just one word to find your site. Sometimes, keywords in all caps have yielded better placement than lowercase.
- META tags (keywords and descriptions). Despite popular belief, META tags are not the most important aspect of search engine placement. As the saying goes "Content is King" - specifically strong, keyword-rich content. While the description tag doesn't often carry as much weight as the html title tag in search engines, many engines show your META description (or the first few words on your site if you don't list a description) along with your listing on their site. So think of it as a headline, or ad copy - something designed to lure people in to your site. Use the description to make your site irresistible. Descriptions should not go over 200 words (this is the maximum many engines will display). The keyword tag is not what it used to be. Due to the sneaky tactics or many designers, developers and marketers, many search engines just don't trust META keywords anymore. Then again, they don't hurt as long as you follow the rules. Separate your keywords with commas, not spaces. Try to make sure your keywords show up in the site content, in the title tag and in the META description. Don't repeat words too often. The same word can be used in 3 or 4 phrases, but no more than that - and never tricky variations of the same thing (i.e., listing a phrase once in lowercase and once in upper case).
- Header tag content <H1> and <H2>
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AltaVista Information
- AltaVista is a search engine.
- Uses spiders to evaluate and index sites.
- Alta Vista considers link popularity in site ranking. Links derived from link exchange programs are often disregarded.
- Don't "stuff" your keywords by unnecessarily repeating them numerous times.
- No sites will be listed that are hosted by services that also host adult sites or known spammers.
- No sites with hidden text will be listed; nor will sites with hard to read text (because it is too small, obscured by background images, etc.).
- No sites with improper use of gateway or redirect pages will be listed. Basically this means you can't submit a page that is optimized for one thing, and then send people to something else. For instance, for a while, a popular trick of adult site owners was to submit pages with vastly different content, then "bounce" viewers to the adult site.
- Along the same lines, don't use META keywords that don't really apply to your site. If you site isn't about sex, don't list it as a META keyword.
- Don't repeatedly submit the same URL, or numerous URLs from the same site.
- If you have a programmed "refresh" on your keywords, make sure it is not set to less than 30 seconds.
- AltaVista add URL - click to go add your URL to AltaVista.
- See what Alta Vista says about manipulating search results.
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AOL Search Information
- AOL Search is a directory.
- Uses Open Directory Project volunteers to evaluate and index sites.
- Accepted sites are also listed in other ODP directories, including Netscape, Lycos and HotBot.
- Accepted sites are also listed in AOL Search (search engine).
- URLs cannot be added or updated on top-level categories.
- To add or update a URL, find the appropriate category and follow directions for adding or updating URLs.
- AOL Search Add a Page
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Direct Hit Information
DirectHit was purchased by Teoma, which was purchased by AskJeeves.
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Excite Information
- Excite is a search engine and directory.
- Sites can be submitted to search engine for free.
- Directory submissions are processed through LookSmart and have a fee.
- Excite examines data quality and link popularity in determining site rank.
- This search engine is now powered by Overture
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Go and Goto Information
- Go is a search engine.
- This search engine is now powered by Overture
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Google Information
- Google is a search engine -- in fact, it is the most popular search engine around today.
- Sites are listed through site submittal and site discovery by robots and spiders.
- Uses link popularity and link content quality SOLELY to rank sites. Google has a very advanced program for ranking sites. They explain it as a complex "voting" system. When a site links to yours, the site is examined for related content and importance, if the linking site is related to yours and not a personal site or some sort of "trick", then your site gets a vote. Sites are then listed according to the number of votes they receive.
- Only one page need be submitted to Google from your site. The spiders used by Google will index your entire site (well, all of the pages with decent content).
- "Dead" links needn't be reported as they will be found by Google's spider.
- Google offers a rather cool search toolbar for Internet Explorer users. In addition to providing a convenient search option constantly on your browser, a scale shows the rank of the page you are viewing.
- Google Page Rank Explained
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Inktomi Information
- Inktomi is a search engine.
- Inktomi is partnered with: AOL, iWon, MSN and HotBot. Listing on one, will mean listing on all.
- Link popularity is one of many criteria used by Inktomi in site ranking.
- Inktomi site submissions cost $39/year per URL.
- Content owners have no control over what content is listed or how much is listed.
- Inktomi's site submit page.
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LookSmart Information
- LookSmart is a network of directories - listing in one constitutes a listing in all.
- Participating directories include: Alta Vista, Excite, MSN, Time Warner, CNN, and others.
- Directory submissions:
- Must be in English and intended for an audience in the United States
- Must have original content
- Must not contain adult material, offensive material, violent material, material that promotes illegal activity, or material that infringes on someone's rights
- Be up and running 24/7
- Must load quickly
- Must not mirror or redirect to another web site
- Up to 5 URLs within the same domain name can be submitted.
- Sites that are accepted, then change and thus violate any of the rules above, will be removed from the directory immediately.
- Sites with too few page, a lack of quality content, very slow loading time, and those not intended for US audience, may not be listed in the directory.
- Priority placement is solely up to the discretion of site reviewers. Placement will not be improved by payment or any other disclosed means.
- LookSmart, Submit a Site
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Lycos Information
- Lycos is a search engine and directory.
- Search engine uses spiders to evaluate and index your site; directory submissions are evaluated and indexed by Open Directory Project volunteers.
- Lycos accepts multiple URLs from the same site as long as the pages are TRULY different - no sneaky attempts at altering pages so they only SEEM different.
- Lycos spiders will check links from the page you submit. Thus it doesn't hurt to have these pages optimized as well.
- Lycos spiders do not recognize the following characters: &, %, =, $, ?. URLs with these characters will be ignored as the spiders won't find them.
- When submitting a site, be sure to enter the full URL and include a / at the end if a specific file is not listed (for instance: http://www.citybeautifuldesign.com/ and http://www.citybeautifuldesign.com/services.html are both acceptable).
- Re-submit your site/page if the URL changes.
- If the spider can't get to your site for 4 weeks, it will be dropped (it can be resubmitted).
- Lycos Add a Site (there is a fee for this)
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MSN Information
- MSNis a search engine and directory.
- Sites can be submitted to search engine for free.
- Directory submissions are run through LookSmart and have a fee.
- Directory submissions:
- Must be in English and intended for an audience in the United States
- Must have original content
- Must not contain adult material, offensive material, violent material, material that promotes illegal activity, or material that infringes on someone's rights
- Be up and running 24/7
- Must load quickly
- Must not mirror or redirect to another web site
- Up to 5 URLs within the same domain name can be submitted
- MSN Submit a Site (same as LookSmart)
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Netscape Search Information
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Northern Light Information
- Northern Light is a search engine.
- Uses spiders to evaluate and index your site.
- Only 1 URL needs to be submitted from each domain, spiders will index your entire site.
- "Dead" URL's need not be reported.
- Site rank is determined automatically by the following criteria:
- Frequency of search terms in the body content of the page (META tags, ALT tags and comment tags are NOT used).
- Frequency of search terms within Northern Light's database of sites. Words that are common throughout the database are not given as much weight as uncommon words.
- Context of search terms - does searched phrased appear in both TITLE and BODY of a page?
- Natural language analysis of the search terms (analysis of the semantics and syntax of natural language queries).
- Link popularity.
- Northern Light, Register URL
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Open Directory Project Information
- Open Directory Project is a web site directory shared by many search engines including Alta Vista, Google, HotBot, AOL Search, Lycos, and Netscape Search.
- Submit URL to ODP only once. If it is not listed, you can submit again in 3 weeks. Don't try to fool the ODP people on this one or they won't list your site.
- Do not submit mirror sites (sites with the same content but different URLs).
- Sites containing illegal material will not be accepted.
- Avoid submitting sites that redirect to another address. Simply submit the destination site/URL.
- Submit sites to the most relevant category. Sites intentionally submitted to inappropriate or unrelated categories will be removed.
- Wait until your site is complete before submitting your URL. Sites with broken graphics, broken links or "under construction" notices will not likely be listed.
- Pornographic submissions should be limited to the Adult category.
- Non-English sites should be submitted to the appropriate category under World.
- Sites consisting largely of affiliate links should not be submitted.
- The ODP reserves the right to alter or replace a proposed description at any time at its sole discretion and editorial judgment.
- Open Directory Project (ODP), Site Submission
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Yahoo Information
- Yahoo is a directory and search engine.
- Search engine powered by Google.
- Yahoo Web Pages are pages found by spiders and robots (these sites are not necessarily in the Yahoo directory).
- Yahoo Web Sites are pages listed in the Yahoo directory.
- Sites submitted to the Yahoo directory are evaluated by real, living, breathing human beings.
- Yahoo! Suggest a Site
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Miscellaneous Search Engine Information
- Site ranking criteria change all the time - and new sites are constantly added to search engines and directories - you CANNOT check your placement often enough.
- Optimize ALL pages on your site.
- Most search engines cannot index dynamically generated pages. Make sure your key pages are not dynamic - or, take precautions. For instance, make sure your content is actually static within the named page.
- Don't try to be tricky. It used to work, but search engines and directories don't tolerate it anymore. Don't "stuff" your site or META tags with keywords. Don't "hide" words by making them the same color as your page background or by using tiny fonts or placing them WAY down the screen where no one will go. If words really describe your site, they should be located within the body of the site.
- Gateway pages created for specific search engines are generally a waste of time. A well-designed page with search engine placement in mind will be well received by all engines.
- Beware of automated optimizing tests. They are often misleading.
- It can take months for your site to be reindexed - don't expect results right away.
- Take special care when using Flash animation for your home page - you won't be giving search engines much to work with.
- You have to make decisions. For instance, search engines like heavy, yet focused content, while your audience usually only has the patience for short, to-the-point statements. So what do you do? Try using short paragraphs separated by keyword-rich headers. Keyword-rich bullet points are also good. Heather Martin of SuccessWorks (see sources below) believes that page content should include at least 250 words.
- Hire a SPECIALIST to write your copy. The sources section below includes links to various firms/individuals specializing in site placement.
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