Build it and they will come. That might have worked in 1995 when
the Web was new, but today that's a fallacy. With more than 3.2
billion Web pages competing against yours, if you don't promote
it, no one will come.
Outlined below are some tasks to add to your marketing
checklist. I will begin with the most obvious--you wouldn't
believe how many people don't think of these things!--and will
finish with some more advanced techniques that really work.
DESIGNING SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY WEB SITES
Getting listed in the major search engines is important, but do
not fool yourself--it is not the "be all." How many times have
you conducted a search and ended up with over a million results?
If your site is listed at 999,000, how many people do you think
will visit? If you rely *only* on the search engines for your
customers to find you, they probably won't.
That being said, there are some things you should do before you
submit your Web site to the search engines. To make your site
competitive, you need to "optimize" your Web pages. What does
that mean? It means making your pages "search engine friendly."
Although meta tags do not weigh that heavily anymore in search
engine rankings, they are still important. The two tags that
*must* be included in each of your Web pages are:
Description Meta Tag--Summarize your Web page using lots of
keywords. This tag is very important, because many of the
engines will use it to summarize your site in search results.
(Note: The recommended number of characters for the description
meta tag is 150.)
Keywords Meta Tag--Because of abuse by unscrupulous Webmasters,
the keyword tag doesn't play as big a role as it did in the
past. To avoid being penalized (e.g., banned), there are some
rules you must heed. For example, do not repeat keywords more
than three times and avoid using the refresh tag as most engines
view it as spam. (Note: The recommended number of characters for
keywords is 874--of course, this number varies according to the
search engine in question.)
I highly recommend taking the time to research the meta tags of
your competition. Don't steal their tags; just look to see what
they're doing to get ranked where they are. It is best to use
phrases versus individual keywords. What phrases do you think
your visitors will use to find you? I think this is an excellent
activity for a brainstorming session with your peers, employees,
and friends--better yet, your customers. Once you start showing
up in the search engines, reexamine your tags to see if you can
tweak them to rank higher.
For an excellent overview on meta tags, visit:
WebLecturer.com http://www.weblecturer.com/lecturenotes/meta.html
For help choosing the right keywords, visit:
Wordtracker
http://our.affiliatetracking.net/wordtracker/af.cgi?2581
Title Tag--More important than meta tags is your title. The
title tag displays your Web page's name. Be sure to include lots
of keywords in your title tag, because most search engines
consider these keywords in their relevancy calculations. (Note:
The recommended number of characters for your title is 60.)
SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSIONS
Although there are automated services that promise to get you
listed on thousands of Web directories and free-for-all (FFA)
links pages, it is recommended that you manually submit your
site to the top search engines. Be forewarned that it takes
weeks (sometimes even months!) to get listed.
For a list of the top search engines and a link to their
submission page, request my article, "Site Promotion 101,"
mailto:sitepromotion101@sendfree.com
In addition to the search engines, you should get your site
listed in specialty directories--this also helps in link
popularity. For a directory of thousands of specialty search
engines, visit:
Search Engine Guide http://www.searchengineguide.com/
About the author:
Copyright (c) 2001 by Joanne Glasspoole. Joanne Glasspoole is
the editor/publisher of CYBER QUEST. Each issue is jam packed
with original reports, news briefs, cool Webmaster tools, and
more. To subscribe, send email to mailto:Majordomo@lists.kdv.com
with "subscribe cyberquest" in the body of your message. Visit
Joanne's web site at http://www.glasspoole.com
