 Search
engine submission is the act of getting listed with search
engines, although this does not necessarily mean your site
will rank well. Both free and paid search engine submissions
are available. Paid programs are advantageous because they
will quicken the turn-around time and generally increase site
traffic (if accepted). Having a search engine submission budget
is a good idea for all kinds of web sites, whether commercial
or not-for-profit or even a “hobbyist” site. Free
search engine submissions take about a month to appear but
those who wish to appear in search engines immediately and
in many places as possible, may want to consider paying inclusion
fees to crawler-based search engines and paid listing programs.
A budget of no more than $1,000 should be sufficient
enough to get your site listed in the most popular search
engines in a matter of days.
Directories such as Yahoo and LookSmart are search engines
that are human-compiled listings. These listings are seen
by many people and also increase the chances that a crawler-based
search engine will find your site and add it to their index
for free. Yahoo and LookSmart are especially important because
they are the main listings used by Google and MSN Search,
respectively. Prior to submission, webmasters must include
a short description of the entire web site that does not make
use of marketing language. As mentioned above, there are free
submit options (non-commercial categories) and paid submit
options (commercial categories) which then await approval
by editors who review the content of each web site.
Crawler-based search engines (i.e. Google) automatically “scan”
the internet to compile their listings. The best way to get
listed with these search engines are to build links to your
web site so crawlers are more likely to find and include your
web site. Most crawler-based search engines also accept submissions,
with paid submissions guaranteeing inclusion into the index.
Paid listings, which sometimes appear as “sponsored
links”, guarantee that your site will appear in the
top results for the terms you specify within a few days. Payment
is typically done on a per-click basis where you pay a fee
for each visitor you receive from the given search engine.
Search Engine Optimization for Crawlers
Now that you’re listed and receiving traffic from search
engines, you may want to maximize traffic by optimizing your
web site to be more accessible to search engines.
To properly optimize a site, we must understand how search
engines work. There are two main ways a search engine gathers
listing: human-powered directories or automatic crawler-based
search engines. Many of today’s search engines present
both crawler-based results and human-powered results, although
one method may be more favored over the other. Search engines
rank web sites using algorithms, the most popular being the
location/frequency method which analyzes the location and
frequency of search terms to determine the relevancy of the
site. Although every major search engine follows the location/frequency
method to some degree, nobody does it exactly the same, which
gives each search engine unique advantages and disadvantages.
“Off the page” factors also affect search engine
rankings. Such factors as link analysis and click-through
measurement help determine whether a site is important or
not and if a site is likely to be accessed for a particular
query.
The choice and position of keywords is an important aspect
of optimization. Choosing phrases of two words or more that
describe your web site will improve the odds of being in the
top results for those keywords. Placing keywords in the HTML
title tag of the page is essential to a good ranking. Keywords
that are placed “high” on the page will also improve
rankings among search engines. It is important to take into
consideration that tables and Java script tend to push keywords
“downward,” thereby lowering the ranking of the
page.
Some search engines see the internet like old web browsers.
Thus, having “visible” HTML text, HTML links,
and alternatives to frame links will avoid stumbling blocks
that may prevent search engines from finding and indexing
your site. Links not only help get your site submitted to
crawler-based search engines, but it also affects the ranking
of your site. Links to your site from good web pages that
are related to the topics you deem important are a surefire
way to increase search engine rankings. Search engine spamming,
on the other hand, is not and may even get your page banned
from search engine listings.
Even with good internal links, search engine crawlers may
miss parts of your website, so it’s a good idea to submit
two or three key pages that best summarize your web site.
The internet is not always reliable so verifying and maintaining
your listings will ensure that the search engines include
your most current content.
Of all the meta tags, only a few are worth implementing for
optimization reasons. The meta description tag may influence
the description of your page but this is not the case for
every crawler. The meta keywords tag provides additional text
for indexing but is only supported by a few crawlers.
Other Helpful Information
Many major search engines not only run their own search engine
sites, but they also rely on third-party “search providers”
to “power” their listings. An example is the Lycos
search engine whose main results are provided by AllTheWeb
with paid results provided by Overture. Webmasters and search
engine marketers are encouraged to perform research when trying
to understand where to get listed.
Measuring link popularity can be done by analyzing your activity
logs or using search engine commands to track down referral
links. Although “popularity” is only one aspect
search engines consider when ranking sites, it is a good way
to observe how people are finding your web site.
Search engines observe domain names and languages to narrow
results for a particular region. This can be helpful to webmasters
who are interested in where their potential visitors are visiting
from.
In conclusion, proper submission and optimization strategies
are very good ways to increase traffic to your site. More
site traffic may pay off with big results and has the potential
to catapult a business ahead of the pack.
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