Although I've done considerable research in this area, I certainly don't claim to know it all and I'm very open to your comments/suggestions on this subject.... Greg@Landry.com
Also, if you want to do your own HTML (web page design), I use software called "Hotdog Pro" by The Sausage Co., I think. :) Anyway, it's less than $100 and makes the task pretty easy, even for a "non-techie" like myself! Do a search for "hotdog" or "sausage".
2. For best results, always submit your info to each search engine individually rather than using a "submission service". It's important to be able to tailor your info for each specific search engine. It takes more time, but is well worth it!
3. Brainstorm for a list of 30 or 40 keywords(or combinations of words--"horse stables") for your site. Then, number the keywords based on what your prospective customer would most likely be using as a keyword. Although you need a strong list of about 20, your first 5 or so will be critical!
4. Use the plural when possible. If you list your keyword as "horse stable", but someone searches for "horse stables", it will not find your site. However, if you list your keyword as "horse stables" and someone searches for "horse stable", it will pull up your site!
5. The title of your site is **VERY** important! Your title is NOT the first headline on your page, but rather what appears on the title bar of your browser(upper left part of page in Netscape). Most search engines treat the words in your title as MAJOR keywords..... Carefully choose two or three keywords to put in your title, but keep in mind that it should not just be a list of keywords....it should make sense. Also, if you make it too long, it will be cut-off. The search engines weigh the importance of a word in your title based on density. For example, if you have five words in your title and one of them is horse, then it will comprise 20% of your title. But, if you only have two words in your title and one of them is horse, then it comprises 50% of your title and is "weighed" much more heavily as a keyword!
6. Use your keywords FREQUENTLY in your text at the VERY BEGINNING of your web site. Try not to put tables, graphics or anything else at the top of your site. It should just be text that is rich with your major keywords. Here again, just as in the title, the search engines look at the DENSITY of your keywords rather just the number of keywords. Also, keep in mind that you're NOT just listing keywords here. This is actually the text of your web site.
7. "Meta tags" are NOT a magic formula for getting listed at the top of search engines, but they may help on Alta Vista, Hotbot, and Infoseek. A meta tag, for our purposes, is a way of providing a description and keywords that are only visable to the robots from the search engines. However, there is debate over how much weight these are given. The meta tags must go *inside* the header tags, so it looks like this........
<HEAD>
<TITLE>your title here
<META name="description" content="your site description goes
here">
<META name="keywords" content="your keywords go here">
</HEAD>
8. DON'T "keyword spam"! This has been a practice that many have used for good search engine placement....but it's considered bad netiquette and the search engines are all starting to penalize you when they catch it! It's done by repeating keywords *numerous* times, either in the meta tag or within the text of the page, sometimes where it can't be seen unless you go to the HTML. I think this is a waste of time now.....and will eventually backfire on you. Just try to legitimately use your keywords as much as you can in the initial paragraphs of text on your web site.
9. Be sure that your site is COMPLETELY ready and online before you list your site with any search engines!
10. Your title beginning with a letter that's low in the alphabet(abcd) may help in some of the standard search engines such as Yahoo!, but it's really hard to tell how much that comes into play. I certainly would NOT change my site title to something like "AAA horses" just for the sake of starting with an a. If you can legitimately start your title with a,b,c,d, etc., great, otherwise don't worry about it.
11. Before you list with each search engine, put in your top three or four keywords, and see what comes up. Go to the first few sites that are listed. Once the web site has completely transfered to your computer, click on "view" and then on "document source". This will show you the HTML for that web site. What's unique about this site that caused it to be listed first with this search engine? Does the title contain the keywords? Are keywords used frequently in the text? Are keywords listed in meta tags? etc. Now look at the second and third sites listed. Are they unique in the same way as the first one? What do they have in common? This will give you a good idea of what "ranks" with this search engine.
12. If you're marketing online, many people believe that OVER 50% of your hits will come from Yahoo! It's probably worth spending a considerable amount of your time trying to get good placement on this search engine!
13. Be patient......many search engines take weeks to get you in the system.
Copyright 1997 By Greg Landry, M.S. All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved
Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, YBBB Web Page Team.