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Promotion Tip:
Get Noticed or Get Lost
by Larisa Thomason,
Senior Web Analyst,
NetMechanic, Inc.
Ever receive a speeding ticket from a police officer in an unmarked car? You don't see them because they're designed to be nondescript and want to be overlooked. Many web sites accidentally hide themselves just as effectively from search engines and directories.
Is yours one of them?
The web is doubling in size every 9 months. That's a lot of new sites for search engines and directories to deal with - you have to stand out like a Ferrari to be successful.
Before you can effectively promote your site to the search engines and directories, you must clearly understand their organizational structure, data collection methods, and content.
What Is A Search Engine?
A search engine is a searchable database of individual web pages whose goal is to include every site on the Web. Search engines use automated programs called spiders to crawl through the Web in search of web sites. Using proprietary guidelines, the spiders index and score pages based on the words and phrases used on the web pages. When users query the search engine about a specific topic, search engine returns a list of web sites that it considers the best match
The top search engines in terms of traffic (not in any specific order):
- Google
- Excite
- Overture (formerly GoTo)
- Lycos
- HotBot
- WebCrawler
- AltaVista
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What Is A Directory?
A directory is organized much like a library. Information is categorized into sections and you are directed to a particular category based on your search query. A human editor reviews and categorizes each site before including it in the directory.
Since each site is reviewed first, directories often contain higher quality content than search engines. However, each site is generally reviewed once and never revisited, so directories can also contain a lot of outdated information - like last year's yellow pages.
The top search directories in terms of traffic:
- Yahoo - The biggest search site of all. Do well here.
- LookSmart
- Open Directory
- AOL
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While the distinction between search engines used to be quite clear, the situation is more blurred now. Most search engines now also have a directory while most directories provide search engine results as their secondary results. Yahoo provides its directory results first, but users can also click on "Go to Web Page Matches" to see search engine results from Google (Yahoo formerly partnered with Inktomi). Similarly, Alta Vista provides search engine results first, but users can click on "Directories" to view the Alta Vista directory.
Increase Your Search Engine Appeal
A good search engine ranking requires careful page preparation and attention to coding details.
Search engines are interested in your HTML tags, keywords, and links. Your carefully designed graphics, image maps, and JavaScript are irrelevant - except when they actually hurt your site ranking! Because every search engine uses different algorithms, no single strategy will appeal to all of them. However, you can take certain steps to maximize your site's appeal.
At a minimum, your site should contain the following:
- TITLE tags
- META tags
- keywords
- Good content that uses the keywords
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The TITLE and META tags go in the HEAD section of your document. The ALT tags are attached to images in the BODY section.
The TITLE tag is the single most important tag on your site. Most browsers display the TITLE content in their title bar and use the TITLE content as the bookmark (or favorite in Explorer) title. Make the TITLE tag a meaningful description of your site and include as many keywords as possible.
Although there are many different types of META tags, search engines only use the NAME attribute and it's DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS values. When you use the DESCRIPTION attribute, search engines will return the text in the CONTENT attribute as a description of your web site. Make it meaningful, attractive, and full of keywords! Not every search engine uses META tags to index sites, but enough do to make this simple technique worthwhile.
For instance, the TITLE and META description tags for a baseball team might be:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>River City Stars Official Site
</TITLE>
<META NAME="description"
CONTENT="River City Stars play great
AA minor league baseball in our new
River City stadium. Special
children's promotions at every
home game!">
</HEAD>
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Be careful with your META & TITLE tags and keyword use because too much repetition can cause a search engine to drop your site. Too few, and you may never get a good ranking. NetMechanic's PagePrimerTM tool can help you optimize your page and avoid simple mistakes that might cause you problems with search engines.
Directories Use A Human Touch
Techniques to receive a high search engine rating will not work with a directory. While good content is necessary for search engines, both good content AND visual appeal are mandatory in directories.
Unlike the automated search engine process, a human reviews each entry in a directory before it is included. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review. A keyword search will only look for matches in these descriptions, so be careful how you describe your site.
Remember, manual review takes time! The typical time lag between submission of a site and its actual listing in Yahoo is five months. You can speed up the process at some directories, but expect to pay for that service. This trend will probably continue.
- Yahoo!'s Business Express Program, offers express guaranteed consideration of your commercial Web site within seven (7) business days. If your site needs to generate a lot of traffic quickly, this may be money well spent. Yahoo gets a larger share of searches than any other provider.
- Looksmart has recently moved to an exclusive pay for listing scheme - all new submissions must pay to have their site reviewed. Looksmart provides Excite's directory listing, so paying for listing may be the quickest way to get listed with Excite.
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Unfortunately, there are no simple tips to use for directories because the process is so subjective. Unlike search engines, directory editors look for good content placed on attractive pages. When you submit to a directory, do it by hand and take your time.
Don't Make Promotion An Afterthought
Consider your search engine and directory strategies during design, not after your site is complete.
It doesn't matter what your site is about - Siamese cats, Mexican vacations, conspiracy theories, or gardening - people have to be able to find it. That will only happen if you promote it effectively. Search engines and directory listings are your most important promotional tool.
85% of Internet users depend on search engines to locate web sites. Make sure they can find yours!
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