Once you have invested in the development of a web site for your company or online business it makes sense to spend some time, and maybe a little money, to improve it's search engine position. There is no "black Art" to gaining strong search engine positions, it is a combination of technical knowledge, persistence and patience… However, before you submit your site pages to the search engines, it is crucial that they are search-engine friendly. This article should provide you with some basic tips to help you on your way.

Search Engines - Why bother with them?
If you have a web site and are not listed on the main search engines you are missing out on the single most important way of driving FREE TARGETED TRAFFIC to your site.

The first thing you need to understand is that search engines and indexes are different, Google is a search engine, Yahoo is an index.

Search engines are developed automatically with spiders (web crawlers) that crawl your site for relevant content. If you do not appear on the first page of a search result this will drastically reduce the amount of traffic you will get to your site, and if you are not on the first 3 pages… well you work it out.

Human editors, on the other hand, compile indexes. Yes a real person will look at your web site and rate it for inclusion in the index. The main indexes to consider are Yahoo, The Open Directory Project and maybe some other "industry specific" ones that are relevant to your business. Some charge for entry and some don't, at the moment The Open Directory Project is free, but Yahoo costs $299. Again it is up to you and your budget, but getting your site listed in Yahoo can do wonders for your ranking with Google..!

There are hundreds of search engines and indexes on the Internet; but it is the top ten or so that are of most value to you simply because they account for the vast majority of searches. I'm not saying ignore the other search engines and indexes, it just depends how much time and money you have to spend on promoting your site. If that's limited, then go for the big boys.

Here are the links to my top 10 - Google - Yahoo - The Open Directory Project - All The Web - Alta Vista - Lycos - MSN - Ask Jeeves - Inktomi - Netscape.

Keywords and Key Phrases

Whilst they have a place, it is extremely difficult to get high rankings search engine positions based on keywords alone, so try thinking about keyphrases. Ask yourself what someone trying to find your site would search for? Write them down and try them out on Google or Yahoo. If you operate in a specific geographic area then ensure you consider this when choosing your keywords and keyphrases.

For example, how many relevant hits would the keyphrase "Double Glazing in Windsor" get for a window company based in Windsor, as opposed to just "Double Glazing"?

So think about the variations:
• property in London
• ford cars in Bristol
• holiday parks in the UK
…get the idea?

Once you have decided on your keyphrases, test them out and assess the results by looking at the web pages your searches return. You can find out more about keyphrases at Overture.com and WordTracker.

So you have now chosen your keywords and keyphrases, you have checked to see that they work, now get your webmaster to use them on your site!

The best, and most informative site I have seen lately on this subject is selfpromotion.com.

Relevant Content

Relevant content is imperative to gaining strong positions upon Search Engines. All of the key phrase(s) that you wish to be found under must be in the body text of the page, if it is not the Search Engine will simply ignore the submission. If this happens regularly the Search Engine may even ban your website from being included within their directory. The key phrase(s) must also be relevant to the rest of the content on the page, if the chosen key phrase is Dyson Vacuums and all that is sold and discussed upon the page are Vauxhall Cars then the submission will once again be ignored.

Hints and Tips:
• All body text should be informative and clearly state the purpose of the page.
• All body text must be visible upon the page.
• All body text should be consistent with the theme of the website.
• All body text must have instances of the desired key phrase(s).

Page <TITLE> Tag

The page <TITLE> tag has to distinct functions.
1. The title is the text in the very top blue bar of a browser window.
2. The title will also be show on the Search Engine as the active link to website.
The title should be no longer then 70 characters (including spaces) and should have a very short overview of the current page, e.g. if the page is advertising kittens for adoption, and that is the desired key phrase, then it may read "Kittens for adoption, take one home today for a lifetime of love", the title explains in a very efficient manner what the purpose of the page is. This will appear in the top blue bar of the browser window for that page, it will also appear on a Search Engine as the active link (on the premise that it is registered by the Search Engine).

Hints and Tips:
• Keep titles short, sweet and informative.
• One instance of the desired key phrase should be in the title.
• The title must be relevant to the content and purpose of the page.
• They should also be inviting as they may show on the results page a Search Engine.

META Description

Like the Title the META Description also has 2 distinct functions.
1. They are read by Search Engines upon submission and carry much "weight" in the ranking process
2. They will show upon the Search Engines results page as the website description.
The META Description is hidden within the internal workings of the page and should be no longer than 160 characters (including spaces) and should be an open invitation for a web page to be visited. The Meta description should be slightly more descriptive then the title, e.g. "We at the National Kitten Adoption Center have been taking in orphaned kittens and rehousing them for over 30 years. Why not visit us soon." The description holds slightly more information thus allowing the Search Engine to rank it more effectively within the directory.

Hints and Tips:
• Meta Descriptions must be relevant to the rest of the page.
• Meta Descriptions should be informative.
• One or two instances of the desired key phrase should appear within the Meta Description.
• They should be inviting, as they will be shown on the results page of a Search Engine.

META Keywords

META Keywords have 1 function only, to inform the Search Engine of the desired key phrase(s) for the page in question.
Like the META Description the META Keywords are hidden within the internal workings of the page.

Hints and Tips:
• No more than 7 different key phrases should be used in the META Keywords.
• A comma should separate each key phrase. If you wish to be found under Kitten Adoption and Adopting Kittens they should be entered as "Kitten Adoption, Adopting Kittens.
• No key phrase that is not featured within your Body Text should be placed in this area.
• If you wish to be found under the singular and plural of a key phrase, then in most cases it is only necessary to enter the plural into this area as the Search Engine will recognize it as singular and plural. This will not work on words where the plural is a different spelling rather than the addition of an "s" at the end of the word, e.g. Cat and Cats would only require Cats to be used whereas Accessory and Accessories would require both to be used and included in the body text.

In/Out Bound Links

In and Out bound links are the hyper links that leave the page in question to go to another site. They are very useful as you can offer another website a link to them from your page (an outbound link) in the hope that they will point a link from their page to yours (an inbound link).

Hints and Tips:
• Try to find a government run website that has information on the products that you supply. This will increase the weight of your page, and theirs, which should result in stronger positions.
• Try to get involved with "link affiliate schemes". These are very useful as you can increase the weighting of your page by increasing the number of outbound links to other sites of interest. These schemes will also ensure that you have many other sites linking to your website.
• The more relevant inbound links you have will greatly increase a pages chance of being indexed highly on both the Yahoo and Google Search Engines.

With the Compliments of Tradeprint.co.uk Ltd

I hope that you have found this article of interest. If you have any comments to make about what we have said please email me at webmaster@tradeprint.co.uk.