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enchantress.net Resources Getting Listed with Search Engines
This section covers the basics of how to list your website with the most used Search Engines currently on the internet. There are many types of "search engines" these days - from software you have installed on your own computer to multi-engine "intelligent" search online facilities. Dealing with the search engines listed within this section will afford you the highest exposure with the least effort.
META Tags - What they are, why you need them
Meta tags are used to place additional information about the webpage in view. The most popular tags used are:
Our concern with Meta tags is how they will help us get a better position with search engines. It is important to note that not all search engines utilize Meta tags; however, if you submit to a search engine that does not use them, they will merely be ignored - not cause problems. For the search engines that DO use the Meta tags, this is where the "description" you see under a listing you've done a search for comes from, and, when you used a word or phrase to search on, the "keywords" are what are searched.
Some search engines use both the Meta tags and the content; some use only the content. Some search engines exclusively use "robots" or "spiders" to retrieve information from submitted pages, while others only list after their personnel have actually visited and reviewed the submitted website. The bottom line here is you should do everything you can to cover all your bases, which includes having Meta tags in place and seeing that your page contents have words that people may be searching for within the text.
Now - an explanation of the Meta tags required for search engines.
Description
There is a bit of controversy over the length of a description that is actually "picked up" by search engines using Meta tags - the range of useable information seems to be between 150 and 1000 characters. From my own experience, I believe the 150-character limit is probably correct. Basically, you will need a sentence that concisely describes the content of the page, limiting yourself to the most IMPORTANT portion in the first 150 characters, and then anything afterward, being just "further descriptive".
HINT: When compiling your description, do not use words that are overboard on salesmanship (such as "The number one..."), but do use words that will intrigue the viewer - "top quality", "secrets to", "insider information on", etc.
Do not use any characters such as @, %, &, etc., in your Meta tags - these are not recognized by some search engines, and may prove detrimental to your listing.
Keywords
This is the one that can really help you, because you are allowed a LONG list of keywords. I have seen controversy over the number of characters that can be used for keywords, ranging from 874 to 1,024. Even at the lower limit there, 874 characters is a LOT of words!!!
Now, there are standalone keywords and there are phrases. You may do a search on "swan" (a single keyword) or a search on "white swan" (a phrase). When you write your keywords into the Meta tag, you will be separating the words or phrases by commas. Again, there is controversy here, because some claim if you list "white swan" as a phrase and the viewer only searches on the word "swan", you will not be retrieved in the search.
This situation is worsened by repetition of the same word in the keyword contents - repeating the same word more than three times could cause the retrieving robot to cease and desist - but worse, it is a waste of valuable space for your limit of characters! So, however you compile your keyword listing, whether using single words or phrases, make sure you do not use the same word more than two or three times.
Another detriment to getting listed with your keywords is the use of words totally irrelevant to your website - a practice known as "Spamming the Index". Certainly, certain keywords are more attractive to the general searching population than others, and some people try to use words that will come up most often in a search but have nothing to do with the website. I can assure you this is a bad move, and could cause your website to receive NO listing whatsoever with the search engines.
Placement of Meta Tags
The Meta tags should fall between the and commands on your web page, and, if you have Java Script in your header, they should come before the script. Your page, then, should appear as follows:
<HTML>
Page Title
Do not overlook the importance of the page title - this is yet another way to help you freely get your message across through search engines. The "title" is what appears in the top left bar of your navigator window, and is "indexed" just like Meta Tags. If you have a title like "My Home Page", do you really think anyone will be doing a search that will pull up that title?
While all the characters you put into your title may not actually appear on the screen, you should be sure to make valuable use of the space for search engine purposes. List the true title of the page first, but then add a short inviting "extra bit" of information. For instance, if the title is "Teri's Graphics", that has a chance in the search engines, because the word "graphics" is in the title and people actually search on that keyword. BUT… if you did a search and that came up, would you be more likely to select it, or a title that said "Teri's Graphics - Multitudes of die-for selections".
You should limit the length of your title to between 64 and 100 characters, remembering that at some point, it may be "cut off" with some search engines. Put the best stuff first.
Whether you like it or not, CONTENT
Do not presume yourself to be so special or clever that you can put up pages with illicit, illegal, or totally useless content that you will "fool" search engines into listing you. My tutorials are designed for responsible webmasters - those that have something to say or give back - NOT for those that are out to "scam" the publicly viewed internet, nor for those trying to use the current day "tricks" to get web traffic through search engines in an inappropriate or dishonest way.
If you are not offering content, and I *mean* by that something that is really there to enrich the internet world, do NOT read any further. This is not the place for you. Okay. Are you still here? Then understand this, and understand it well. There are some very, very intelligent and well-meaning people behind all the search engines. They have a reputation to uphold - in other words, it is their job to see that the places listed in their engine in the order they are listed are appropriate for the content. Do NOT ever think you can pull a scam, or offer lack of content, and succeed in a top-place position in a search engine. There are too many "legitimate" places online to allow that.
If you want to achieve a top position in search engines, then provide TOP QUALITY on your website. It's that simple. It is not a scam - this is a whole new means of communication, and people take it *quite* seriously. Enough said.
SEARCH ENGINES - WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO
If you have been to any of the services online that require payment to list your website with all the search engines, you will be completely mind-boggled at the quantities of "engines" those services submit to. Many list to "hundreds", some to "thousands" - and these numbers would cause you to think the job is not one you can handle by yourself. Not true.
Upon further investigation, you'll find that many of the submissions are to places totally irrelevant to you. I'll give you an example: About 2 years ago, I offered website awards for personal pages. I kept it up for about six months, then it became an overwhelming high-maintenance thing, and I discontinued it. A year and a half later, out of the clear blue sky, I started receiving e-mails addressed to "Dear Sir, Dear Madame" with information on a website for me to consider for my award.
After I'd received about the 6th separate e-mail for different sites, I realized the wording was exactly the same, and it was not an individual e-mailing me, it was a paid "placement service". So, I can guarantee that there are hundreds more sites, just like mine, that someone paid to have themselves submitted to, and, since the award is discontinued, all for naught.
The bottom line is this: there are only certain "major" search engines. There are a select few of them, which I will discuss here, that will provide you all the advertisement necessary to get your site listed in MOST search engines, because a lot of the search engines out there now use these major search engines below for their information!
Alta Vista - listing added within 3 days
http://www.altavista.com - main page
Alta Vista is undoubtedly the quickest search engine to index pages and add them to their database, and they also have the easiest method of adding your pages. Merely scroll down to the bottom of the page, type in your own URL, and select the "Submit URL" button. Alta Vista's spider will retrieve the information from your META tags, and follow the links to other pages from the URL you have listed to spider them also.
Excite - listing added within 2 weeks
http://www.excite.com - main page
Excite has a relatively easy form to complete to be spidered as well. The information you will need to complete the form for submission is:
http://www.hotbot.com - main page
Also a simple registration with a form to complete requiring only the URL and E-Mail, and there are also about half a dozen check boxes you may check prior to submission to be on various mailing lists.
Lycos - listing added within 2-3 weeks
http://www.lycos.com - main page
Another simple registration procedure requiring only your URL and E-Mail address, with one checkbox to either accept or reject future notifications from Lycos.
Webcrawler - listing added within 2 weeks
http://www.webcrawler.com - main page
Probably redundant, as the search engine is a subsidiary of Excite; however, I always enter the information here as well. The exact same information is required for Webcrawler's submission that is used for the Excite submission.
Infoseek - listing added within 1 week
http://www.infoseek.com - main page
Unlike most preceding search engines, Infoseek does NOT have a spider that follows the links within your page; therefore, if you have more than one page you would like included, you will need to add the pages one at a time. The form is simple, requiring only the URL, and may be used consecutively for up to 50 URLs of individual pages. Adult-oriented sites or submissions of more than 50 pages should be e-Mailed directly to www-request@infoseek.com.
Snap - listing added within 6 weeks
http://www.snap.com - main page
This is one of the more difficult search engines to register with. The first thing you must do is to look at the categories on the main page, and select the one that best describes what your web site should be listed under. Then, select the sub-category that best suits your web site within the main category. Snap suggests that the deeper into the sub-categories you go, the better your chances of a quick listing.
HINT: If you don't want to exhaust yourself trying to determine the best place for your listing, FIRST do a search on the keyword you expect people to use most when they look for websites similar to yours, then, just follow their lead in selecting the category!
When you've decided you are in the appropriate sub-category for your web site, scroll to the bottom of the page and select the link to "Submit your website to the Snap directory team". Be prepared - you will need to have all the following information:
http://www.planetsearch.com - main page
Another incredibly simple place to add your URL - you only need to provide the top level address for your website, and the Planet Search spider will follow all the links within your site and index your additional pages.
Yahoo! - listing added within 6 weeks
http://www.yahoo.com - main page
In my opinion, one of the most difficult search engines to register with, BUT one of the best to be listed with. Similar to the requirements of Snap (see above), you must follow categories and sub-categories to reach the particular "best fit" category for your website. When you've arrived there, scroll to the bottom of the page and select "Suggest a Site".
HINT: If you don't want to exhaust yourself trying to determine the best place for your listing, FIRST do a search on the keyword you expect people to use most when they look for websites similar to yours, then, just follow their lead in selecting the category!
When you've decided you are in the appropriate sub-category for your web site, scroll to the bottom of the page and select the link to "Suggest a Site". Be prepared - you will need to have all the following information:
Note - Yahoo! Claims to be more likely to actually "look" at the website if you have entered comments that cause them to "want" to look at it. If you are striving to be critiqued by Yahoo, you should pay particular attention to this fact.
Magellan - listing added "after" two weeks
http://www.mckinley.com - main page
Yet another subsidiary of Excite, this simple form requires the same information as for the Excite and Webcrawler submissions.
What about free site submission services?
There are some free site submission services, and I certainly don't want to berate their use. I will, however, point out some possible flaws that you should be aware of prior to using them.
The main reason you would be using a free site submission service is for your convenience. Now, you've already seen above that certain search engines require minimal information, while others require rather massive information. Generally, with the free site submission services, you will have to complete multitudes of forms with varying information (trying to cover all bases), and then you still may be "transported" to an actual search engine during the process to complete even more, engine-specific information. Not my idea of saving time.
The second issue is knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that your listing was processed. During the writing of this section, two of the search engines listed above were temporarily unavailable, but that information was not made available until AFTER the appropriate information was completed and the "submit" button pressed. If you submit your information during a particularly heavy period, there is a reasonable chance that your information will not be processed, and you will receive an error screen telling you to try again another time. Generally, you won't see these in the free site submission services, so how do you know for sure?
It actually takes little more time to submit your site to each search engine individually, and you'll know just where you stand after submission.
Keeping Your Listing Active
Search engines using robots or spiders claim each website listed is automatically re-visited and updated on a somewhat regular basis. These same search engines, however, suggest that you be sure to re-submit your site if there have been changes, additions, deletions, etc., to ensure your records in the index are kept in order. Note: Alta Vista generally will penalize a site for a few months if it is re-submitted; therefore, resubmission is not recommended with that search engine unless there is some specific problem requiring it.
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