Helping
Search engines find your site
When I first ran web site
marketing courses, everyone was just desperate to know how
to get the most out
of search engines
and bewildered by the huge array of different options. Now
it is getting a little easier – at least Google’s
prominence means there are fewer search engines to get to know.
But
you probably still get approaches from Search Engine Optimisation
Specialists
or other clever sounding “experts”. Is
it worth spending precious marketing budget on them? It may be,
but if your budget is limited you might prefer to learn a DIY approach
instead. And even if you are considering commissioning experts
to do the job for you, it doesn’t hurt to have a vague understanding
of search engine optimisation so they don’t pull the wool
over your eyes.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Not all search engines are
search engines. Yahoo for example is actually a directory rather
than a search engine, compiled by humans doing a task only slightly
more fascinating than handling complaints in a call centre. You
can “suggest a site” by going to the link at the bottom
of their home page.
Real
search engines create their listings automatically. They “crawl” the
web, scanning sites and pages to compile listings. These listings
are determined by elements such as page titles and body copy.
Each search engine has their own special software that sifts through
the index and determines the rank of web sites in their listings.
This is why your web site will be ranked differently by different
search engines. Some search engines also index pages more frequently
than others. They may also combine several techniques, using humans
and automatic crawlers.
You
can find more information about how each search engine or directory
works
by going to their “help” pages or using
the links (usually) at the bottom of their home page.
All
that many search engine optimisation “experts” do
is use the free tools provided by search engines. So if you have
time rather than cash, a DIY approach is probably enough.
Most
of us in the UK now use Google but if you’re trying
to attract visitors from other countries you might need to get
to grips with other search engines.
Almost all search engines base their rankings on these elements:
• keywords
appearing in the title;
• keywords
appearing near the top of the page, in the headline or first
paragraphs;
• pages that mention the keywords more frequently and within
their true context, are likely to achieve a higher ranking. But
don’t overdo it or you’ll be penalized;
• link
popularity is used to some extent by all the search engines to
determine how sites should be ranked. The link popularity
of your site is determined by the number of web sites that link
to your site. The basic premise being that if other sites link
to yours, chances are your site is a decent one. You can find out
who is linking to your site at www.linkpopularity.com;
• meta
tags are important for some search engines. This is HTML code
that surrounds certain words so that search engines
can identify keywords when performing a search.
You
will need to identify relevant keywords or short phrases for
search engine
registration, and to use them on your site. These
should be at least two words long – focusing on just one
word will mean that you are in enormous competition with many other
sites, but choosing two together will increase the relevancy of
your site in many searches.
For
example, the word “hotel” will return thousands
of sites, whereas the words, “London hotels” will narrow
down the search (a little!). However, there will still be many
listings for these two key words so words such as “Central”, “town-house
or “budget” or “cheap” might be added.
Think
of all the terms and combinations some-one looking for you might
use.
It’s also worth including some words that are
spelt incorrectly. For example, many people spell accommodation
with only one c or m.
Take a look at what terms are most frequently used by people searching
for sites by going to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
And if you still want to know more – take a look at www.searchenginewatch.com for the ultimate geeky guide to what’s hot and not in this
fascinating virtual world.
Susan Briggs
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