search engines
It can sometimes be an expensive experiment
getting an outside company carry out search engine optimization
for you, they often use suspect methods for temporary
results. The most important thing is the actual site
and the html behind it, rather than the actual submitting
to search engines. First here's some background on search
engines and directories.
search engines
- The user browses the search engine's
database of indexed sites by entering keywords
or phrases into a search box
- "Crawl" web sites using software
- often called "spidering"
- Some use the <meta> tag information
- Index the content of <title>
meta tag and actual page content
- Site may be found by search engine spidering
software
- Usually need to submit site
- Users find sites by searching for
keywords
- Can sometimes change your listing
- e.g. Google
directories
- Listings where user has to choose
the category / categories to search through
- Compiled by human editors
- Each has very specific standards which
sites must meet to get listed - very strict
- Site may be found by people who compile directory
- Usually need to submit site
- Can also guarantee someone will look at
your site quickly if you pay
- Doesn't guarantee entry to directory,
but more likely
- Difficult to change your listing once it's
there
- Some list sites in alphabetical order so
obviously this will determine how far down the list
your site will appear
- The main disadvantage is that users have
to know which category to choose
- And you have to know which category users
may search for your type of site in
- e.g. Yahoo
other points
- Many search engines / directories are
both - list sites from an indexed database
as well as from category listings
- Directories will often list the results
from their directory first, then
display results from partnering search engine(s)
- e.g. Yahoo shows results from its own
database first, then uses the Google search
engine to display further results
- Important to submit correctly to the search
engines and directories
- So your site comes up when a user searches for
relevant keywords/through relevant categories
- It is crucial to do this manually to at
least the top 20
- Can use software, such as SubmitWolf,
to register with 100s of others, but not
the top 20
- They each have different criteria to which
they allow web sites to be listed
- Failing to comply could result in a bad
listing or being permanently rejected
- This is becoming increasingly important -
there's no point having a fantastic web site if no
one finds it!
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