Facts & Tips - Dynamic Submission™
Choosing the right Title
Firstly,
make sure each page of your site has a descriptive title.
Because search engines usually give the most weight to
the page's title, you should place a descriptive phrase
between the <TITLE> tags.
For best results, it is advised that you keep it within
200 characters and to-the-point. Also, since search engines
return the title as the search results, your HTML title
should be both descriptive and attractive.
For example, the following title describes well the site, and
therefore is a good choice:
<TITLE>Dynamic Web promotion software - submit your web sites to 1000+ major search engines.</TITLE>
<META>
tags
You can control how search engines catalog your site with <META> tags.
Not all search engines make use of these tags, but using them
will definitely improve your position in those that do. All <META> tags
should be placed within the <HEAD>...</HEAD> portion
of the document.
The <META> description
tag lets you specify a short summary about your web
site. This tag should clearly describe what one can find
at your Web site. Here's an example:
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="#1 best selling 5 star
award winning web promotion and site submission software. Increase your web
site traffic by submitting your sites to 1000+ search engines.">
Some search engines limit the description to 200 characters.
To be on the safe side, make sure your description does not exceed
200 bytes (characters). If you do not use <META>
tags to describe your site, the Web page description will be
derived from the first 200 characters in the HTML <BODY>...</BODY> portion.
Also note that there should be only one <META>
description tag per page.
The <META> keywords
tag lets you specify a set of keywords that a search
robot should give precedence to when cataloging the page
or how people can find your web site. Here's an example:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="web promotion, site submission,
web advertising, increase traffic, promotion software, web site
promotion">
The keywords can include up to 1000 characters of text. Be sure
that the keywords you choose are relevant to the contents of
your page. Note that the keywords are used in the indexing process
but will not display on your Web page or on a search response
page. Try to incorporate singular and plural cases of words,
as well as active and passive verbs. Also make sure your keyword
list includes both general and specific words related to your
site. You rarely want to target a single keyword, because, with
the billions of words indexed on the Web now, one word simply
won't cut it. Always use phrases, not plain words, in your list.
Frame
Sites using frames should definitely make use of <META> tags. The main HTML file contains the <FRAMESET> tags, but fails to provide robots with any real useful information about the Web site. Therefore, you should utilize the <META> description tag to provide a description, summarizing the site's contents. If JavaScript (or any other scripting language) makes up the first several hundred characters on your page, you should use the <META> description tag so your site comes up with a meaningful description in search results.
Web Site Contents
Search
engines rely mostly on word density (frequency relative to
the total size of the page) or distribution (how well the word
is spread throughout the page). Some search engines even give
precedence to text near the top of a Web page, so make sure
you place the most important stuff at the top. Furthermore,
search engines that do not support <META> tags use the
first 200 (or 250) characters for the site's description, so
the first paragraph should describe/sell your service.
Use <Hn>...</Hn> for headers, rather than the
<FONT>...</FONT> tag definition. Some search engines
consider header text particularly important.
Image Description
If
your site mainly consists of images, you should use the ALT
attribute to
describe each image. Most search engines index the ALT attribute
in the <IMG> tag. The following HTML definition shows how
to use this attribute:
<IMG SRC="image.gif" HEIGHT="486" WIDTH="60"
ALT="Web Site Promotion">
SPAM
The overuse and repetition of keywords may result in a lower
relevancy score and possible omission from some search engines.
Most search engines count only the first few occurrences
of a keyword or phrase, and some even penalize you for repeating
words to improve your site's ranking. Infoseek and Lycos
are two search engines that penalize sites that are suspected
of repeating keywords, and Altavista will disallow URL submissions
from those who spam the index. Some search engines penalize
your site if a keyword is repeated more than three times.
Don't try to fool a search engine by using the phrase "web
promote" three times, and the phrase "web promotion"
another three times. Search engines are smarter than that, but
they still aren't smart enough to associate "promote"
with "promotion."
General Rules....
- Most of the engines have chosen not to keep up and can not spider frames sites. Make NOFRAME sections in web pages.
- Always
make sure your web site is completely finished, spell checked,
online and working properly before attempting to get indexed.
One of the most common problems people encounter in getting
their web site indexed is due to a spider not being
able to reach the URL for indexing. Make sure your web site is up and responding. - Alta Vista and some other search engines, will index all words in your document (except for comments), and will use the first few words (e.g. 250 characters) as a short abstract to serve back. It is possible for you to control how your page is indexed by using the META tag to specify additional keywords to index, and a short abstract.
- First paragraphs of the text are the most important for search engines. Brainstorm with friends and colleagues, etc. and put the most important keywords into a carefully crafted paragraph at the start of your HTML document.
- Make sure that the HTML code is using the proper tags in the proper places (called validating your HTML). Most search engines do not tolerate invalid HTML code, that is, if your code contains invalid HTML tags most search engines will not index your web page or worse yet, not index you correctly.
- Most search engines can take up to 3 to 4 weeks before getting around to indexing your web site. Be patient. Keep track of when you asked to have your web site indexed and check often. Requesting to be indexed over and over again will not help speed up the process.
- Because 70-80% of information searchers find what they are looking for in the Internet through the main search engines, the best way to attract visitors to web sites is to be ranked high in the main search engines. Before submitting your site to the search engines and directories, spend some time reading about how to write your title, metatags and the first few paragraphs of each page to obtain better ranking. After submitting your web site, you should periodically review your ranking in the search engine listings by the key phrases.
- To improve or maintain position of your web site in the main search engines, you may need to rewrite pages, add new content and additional web pages, change your description and keywords, etc. If you need to learn HTML to do this, do it because the reward is worth the effort.