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PREVIOUS PAGE • SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER • CLIENT LOGIN #1 placement in search enginesIf you have a Web site, and probably even if you don't, you've received e-mail from somebody who promises to make your site #1 in all the search engines - for a fee. That fee ranges from a few tens of dollars to several hundred dollars. Which offer is better? That's easy: Pick the cheapest offer you can find. Since they're all worthless, you might as well use a cheap one. That way you'll throw away less money. And while you're at it, see if they're offering a special this week on any bridges between Manhattan and Brooklyn. That most of these offers come from spammers who obscure their return addresses and steal Internet mail services should be a clue that their offers are questionable. And those who think about it for more than a nanosecond or two realize that 1,000 companies in the same line of business can't all be #1 in the search engines. The offers are bogus from the start. Don't give upYou can't buy your way into a top position, but you can do a few things that will consistently improve the way your site shows up in the search engines. There's no heavy lifting involved and you don't have to be a computer genius to do the work, but it's not easy and it's not something you can do in 10 minutes. You can buy a program that submits your site to search engines. I've looked at these programs and I've tried a few. They're better than nothing, but not by much. In fact, most of those people who promise you #1 placement are using one of these programs. For $50 or $200 or $1500, they'll input information about your site, push a button, and submit the information to 800 search engines. Not bad for 10 minutes of work, even at the $50 rate. Perhaps I'm painting all of these services with an overly broad brush. Some placement consultants are honest, but they seem to be in the minority. Assume that anyone promising top placement is a fraud. If you find somebody who promises to help you obtain better placement, listen carefully. Then ask for references and check them! The secret is no secretTo get the best possible placement, all you have to do is identify the to 10 or 20 search engines - Alta Vista, Yahoo, Northern Light, Lycos, and such. Then visit each of these search engines or directories to find out how they work, what information they want, and how to submit it. Finally, apply your new knowledge and submit the information. If you decide to submit your site to Yahoo (and you probably should) don't count on it showing up right away. I've never had a site show up on Yahoo in less than 3 months and usually it's at least double that. Yahoo staffers actually visit every single site that's submitted before adding it. This is a nice touch, but it means that you'll never find timely information via Yahoo. Most of the other engines and directories are more straightforward, but all of them regularly change their submission policies - what they want and how they want it submitted. The information that was current this morning at 9 will be wrong this afternoon at 4. Prepare to winBefore you submit anything, you need to prepare your site and your information. Some search engines look for links to your site from other sites. The more links the engine finds, the higher it will rank your site. That's one reason you should do everything you can to convince other Web site owners to set up links to your site. Some search engines pay attention to meta-tags (small text elements at the top of your Web site's pages). Others ignore them. Meta-tags never hurt and may help, so make sure yours are in good order. One of the most important meta-tags is a list of key words that you feel people will be likely to use when searching for the kind of information you provide. Be concise: use no more than 50 terms, preferably no more than 20. Many search engines and directories ask for a description of your site, so have one ready. In fact, you should have several versions - 20 words, 50 words, 100 words, and 250 words. Some sites want short descriptions, others want long descriptions. A few even ask for several. If your industry has trade organizations with search engines or directories, make sure that your Web site is listed there. This is so obvious that it's often overlooked. Go to the search engines and conduct a test. Enter the words that you'd like to have produce a link to your site. If your site doesn't show up, examine the pages of the companies that do, paying particular attention to their meta-tags and other descriptive elements at the top of the page (use your browser's View Source option to do this). Search engine policies vary on re-submission. Some will forget about you if you don't re-register every 6 months or so. Others may drop your listing altogether if you do re-register. That's why checking the ever-changing rules is critical. Play fairOh - and you may come across some "strategies" to give your site higher placement in search engines. Some of these are unethical and, even in the short term, counterproductive. Those who run search engines know these tricks and they look for them. When they find a site that's using one or more of these dirty little tricks, one of two things will happen: 1) Instead of ranking your site #1, the search engine will move your site to the bottom of the list, or 2) The search engine or directory will simply delete your listing it its entirety. Neither of these would be a good thing. If search engine placement is important to you, take the time to do the job right. Like just about everything else, this good thing doesn't come easy. |
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