Search
Engine
Frequently Asked Questions
The purpose of this
document is to provide you with background information on search
engine technology and some tips
on how to get your web
site to appear on the result pages of search engines and
directories. We are by no means promising any miracles. However,
this information will help you better understand search engines
and directories and will hopefully serve to put you in a better
position than you currently are in now.
What is a search engine?
How do
search engines differ from directories, announcement sites, and
guides on the Web?
General
Tips for Getting Listed in Search Engines
Indexing Characteristics
Specific To Individual Search Engines
How long
does it take a Search Engine to list my site?
Why should
I submit inside pages of my site?
How do I
optimize my announcement with a directory?
How
do I get top search engine rankings
and what should I expect to
pay to get them?
"Non-Netiquette"
Things
How else
can I promote my site?
What
is a search engine?
Search engines utilize
indexing software agents often called robots or spiders. These
agents are programmed to constantly "crawl" the Web in
search of new or updated pages. They will essentially go from URL
to URL until they have visited every Web site on the Internet.
When visiting a Web site, an
agent will record the full text of every page (home and sub-pages)
within the site. It will then continue on to visit all external
links. Following these external links is how search engines are
able to find your site regardless of whether or not you register
your URL with them. Submitting your URL, however, does speed up
the process. It notifies an agent to visit and index your site
instead of waiting for it to eventually locate you through one of
your external links.
Robots will then revisit your
site periodically to refresh the recorded information. The
revisiting of links is the reason why some search engines don't
require you to inform them of dead links. Eventually, their robot
would try unsuccessfully to update the information on a dead link
and realize it no longer exists.
Finally, an easy way to tell
whether a Web index is a search engine as opposed to another type
of directory is by the information it requires when adding your
URL. A true search engine will only need the Web address. The
indexing agent takes care of the rest.
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How do
search engines differ from directories,
announcement sites, and guides on the Web?
Directories:
The main difference between a search engine and a general
directory is that a directory will not list your URL if you do not
register it with them. They do not make use of indexing software
agents and so have no way of knowing it's out there. As a result,
their registration form will be considerably longer than just your
URL. Directories are usually subdivided into categories and you
have to submit your URL under the most appropriate heading.
Announcement Site:
The explosion of sites being added daily to the Web has created a
need for announcement sites that track all of the new sites that
join the Internet. Announcement sites are not only useful for
Webmasters and marketers to kick-off their online promotion
campaign, but also for users to keep current on what's happening
with the WWW. Depending on the announcement site, different
Internet documents can be announced -- new web pages, new articles
as well as new resources. The time period policy also differs from
announcement site to announcement site, but all
"announcements" are posted for a temporary period of
time. Once removed from the What's New section, most announcement
sites archive these pages so users can continue to access them.
Guides & Cool
Sites:
Guides are quickly becoming an important source for finding
interesting and useful sites on the Web. In general, Guides review
and rate only a small percentage of all sites submitted.
Therefore, make sure your site is "rate-worthy" before
posting. Most of the guides allow reviewed sites to use their
special icons as a sign of quality. Cool sites usually select one
new Web site every day. Getting selected as a cool site will
attract high traffic, but that traffic will usually only be
experienced for a temporary period of time.
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General Tips
for Getting Listed in Search Engines:
Each
search engine looks at different elements of your page, therefore
we highly recommend implementing as many of these Tips as
possible.
1. Use keywords in the
<TITLE> of your document making
it as descriptive as possible. When visiting your site, an agent
will go first to the <TITLE> tag. For clarification
purposes, the <TITLE> tag is what a browser will display
in its title bar and is not simply the first line of HTML that
shows up on your page. (Although your first words of
introductory text should be descriptive as well). Search engines
will display the text located between the <TITLE> tags
when your web page is listed in a search. By making your
<TITLE> descriptive, you'll be better off than those who
only have keywords within the text of their page. It will also
be helpful when people bookmark your web site. If a more
descriptive name appears in a person's hotlist, it will be
easier to find your site at a later date.
For example, instead of using
<TITLE> Suncorp </TITLE> as the title of Suncorp's
home page, <TITLE> Suncorp: Tanning Supplier
</TITLE> would be much more descriptive. It would also
place greater emphasis or relevancy on "Tanning
Supplier" when calculating keywords.
keywords in the actual text of your
web page.
You may already know
that few people search the web by using just one keyword. They
soon learn that the results they get are too broad. A common
mistake some webmasters make is that they rely only on a key
phrase that is so popular that they are competing with tens of
thousands of other sites. They are lost in the crowd.
What you really would
like to do is to find key phrases that are highly used in
searches, but are not used by your competitors! Put those on your
site, get them indexed, and you have a chance of really increasing
your traffic!
Do you know that some
of the most used keywords are "search,"
"find," "free," "where'"
"do," "I," etc? Many people actually type
"search for..." or "find..." or "where do
I...or "free"
TIPS:
a. Visit your major
competitors' sites, view their source code, and see what key
phrases and words they are using. Most browsers will view the
source code of a web page by right clicking your mouse, and
choosing something similar to "view source" from the
menu. You will get some good ideas here.
b. Include the
"most used" words that are mentioned above somehow on
your site, but only use "free" if it applies.
c. Don't "spam"
the search engine engines. Don't use words that don't apply to
your site. "MP3" and "sex" are two of the most
actively searched words. Please don't use such words just to
generate traffic. You want targeted traffic - the other visitors
will just be upset with you and leave. Several of the search
engines and directories will catch you at this, and delete your
site from their databases.
d. Don't over use a
keyword or phrase on a page. Look at the source code of some pages
that are ranking high in a search. Try to match their keyword
"density" and placement.
e. Put your keywords
at or near the top of the body section of your page. Some search
engines don't read the whole page.
f. Keep trying! After
your pages have been submitted and indexed, do searches and see
how you rank. If you are not happy with your results modify your
keyword tags and page content and re-submit. With persistence, you
can win!
3. Use <META>
tags which allow you to provide even more detail about
your Web pages and thereby gain greater control over how your
pages are indexed. Not all search engines make use of
<META> tags, but adding these tags to your pages will make
them more accessible to the search engines that do.
<META> tag codes are inserted within the <HEAD>---
--- <HEAD> tag. The basic syntax is:
<META
name="description" content="a health and fitness
center located in Atlanta">
This will control what
appears as the summary of your Web page and will be displayed
after the title of your document in the index listing. The
content of the description should clearly convey what one can
expect to find when linking to your site.
<META
name="keywords" content="running, weight control,
nutrition, aerobics, cholesterol, Georgia">
This will allow you to
provide extra information about your page to the search engines
without it being visible to the reader. While search engines do
take these keywords into account when indexing your page, they
are still going to index the entire contents of your page as
many sites do not include <META> tags. One way to maximize the usefulness of keywords is
to incorporate singular and plural cases of words as well as
active and passive verbs. For example, diet, diets, and dieting
will yield similar but somewhat varying results in a search.
Since you're able through <META> tags, why not guarantee
you come up on all of them.
Do not, however, excessively
repeat keywords in a keyword <META> tag as search engines
may penalize you for this. At present, InfoSeek and Lycos are
two such examples and others may adopt similar policies in the
future. The penalty will most likely be the spider disregarding
the <META> tag and extracting keywords from the content of
your page- as is usually the case. However, some Submit It!
users have reported being dropped from a search engine's
database and felt keyword repetition played a role in the
removal of their listing.
Who should definitely
make use of <META> tags?
-
Sites using
Netscape frames:
The main HTML file contains the <FRAMESET> tags, but
fails to provide robots with any real useful information for
selecting a Web site's abstract. Therefore you should include
a description summarizing the contents of the frames on your
page with <META> tags.
-
Sites using
Javascript at the top of their page:
If JavaScript code makes up the first several hundred
characters on your page, you should use <META> tags to
provide a description for your page. An indexing agent's
search logic is programmed to place more emphasis on the text
located at the top of your page than the content it combs
through towards the bottom.
4. Use ALT tags especially
if your site contains mul tiple photos or graphic-image maps at
the top of your home page. Some search engines will take into
account the text within an ALT tag when creating your site's
description and keywords. In addition, you will be greatly
appreciated by all people who visit your site with their Auto
Load Images option turned off or by those who prefer to use
character browsers.
ALT tags are placed after an image file and generally look
like the following:
<img src="/images/submits.gif"
alt="Submit It! : Web site marketing services and
tools." >
5. If your site utilizes
frames , you should be aware
that search engines treat frames as if they are links within
your main page. As a result the engines will review and index
your main page and, at a later date, return to index each
individual frame just as it will return to index all other
internal links within your web site. Therefore, in order to
have your main page (typically titled index.htm or default.htm)
indexed accurately and efficiently, we recommend that you add
some descriptive text between the <noframes> and </noframes>
tags of the HTML source coding of your main page. The noframes
tags are usually placed below your frame set information. The
frame set information is designated by <frameset> and
</frameset>. This text should include your most
important keywords and keyword phrases. Adding this text will
provide the search engines with content from which to derive
keywords for indexing. After this change has been made to your
Web site, the page itself will appear exactly the same to
anyone using a browser that supports frames. However, users of
browsers that do not support frames (i.e. Netscape 1.0 or
lower) will now be able to successfully view your home page.
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Indexing
Characteristics Specific
To Individual Search Engines:
Excite
At the present time, Excite does not make use of tags. Since
keywords and summaries are automatically generated by Excite, you
have less control over their creation. However, there are still a
few things you can do. Excite's software looks for common words or
themes within a page. It then selects sentences for the summary
that either contain these words or convey the overall theme. The
words within these sentences are also used as keywords for which
the site can be searched.
Especially at the
beginning of your page, be as concise as possible and limit
non-descriptive sentences. If the Excite robot comes across a
number of ambiguous phrases, it will have to look deeper and
deeper into your site to determine its theme and site summary.
Along the same line, too little text will also force the robot
to travel further into the site for more information in order to
establish a theme.
Excite's indexing
software places preference on complete, punctuated sentences. If
you have content, such as a quote, at the top of your page that
you do not want Excite to include in your site summary, do not
display it as a complete sentence. This will lessen the chance
that the quote will be included, but will not guarantee its
exclusion.
HotBot / Inktomi
HotBot supports both
the keywords and description <META> tags.
If you strongly
believe that your site was not ranked as high as you thought it
deserved in a search query, HotBot allows you to send them an
email to bugs@hotbot.com. Be sure to include the URL of the
search page.
InfoSeek
-
InfoSeek supports
both the keywords and description <META> tags. Your
description can include up to 200 characters of text and the
keywords can include up to 1000 characters of text. Do not
repeat versions of a keyword more than seven times. If you do,
InfoSeek will disregard the entire keyword list.
-
If you do not make
use of the description <META> tag, InfoSeek's agent will
simply insert the first 200 characters after the <BODY>
tag as the web page description. Hence, if your Web document
does not contain <META> tags, at least try to make your
first 200 words accurately describe your Web site.
-
InfoSeek also
indexes the ALT attribute in the <IMG> tag. If the
majority of your home page consists of graphics, you can
describe your page with the ALT attribute.
The syntax for an <IMG>
tag code is:
<IMG SRC="/images/clinton.gif"
ALT="picture of President Clinton">
InfoSeek Ultra
InfoSeek Ultra will make use of <META> tags allowing you to
control the description that appears in a search result as well as
guide its web indexing in the selection of your site's keywords.
If you do not make use of <META> tags, Ultra will simply use
the first few words it comes across as your Web site summary.
Lycos
Lycos creates Web site titles and descriptions from the text of
your Web page. Lycos' search agent selects a portion of the site
that well represents its theme. It then displays this section as
the site's description.
The keywords are also chosen
via artificial intelligence by Lycos' spider. With this in mind,
do not open your page with an image map. If you do, Lycos will not
be able to take an abstract for your document.
WebCrawler
WebCrawler relies on the statement within the <TITLE> tag to
use for the name of your page. While other search engines will
derive a summary from the <BODY> text of the document, Web
Crawler will default to the URL if you fail to include a title. In
conclusion, do not make it your goal to appear in the top ten list
of every search engine. This would not only be a very difficult
task, but would most likely end in disappointment. You are
virtually guaranteed to have varying success rates with different
search engines due to the collection of variables that play a role
in every search result. These variables include size of database,
method used for determining relevancy, policy on spamming, use of
<META> tags and more. Hence, optimize your listings by
capitalizing on the indexing criteria shared by search engines. If
you have a favorite or preferred search engine that you feel
strongly about being yielded as high as possible in a search,
customize your Web pages accordingly. Just keep in mind that this
might lessen your perceived relevancy on another.
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How
long does it take a Search Engine to list my site?
Many
of the search engines take time to list a site. The approximate
time it may take a search engine to list your site is:
| Altavista |
1
to 2 weeks |
| Excite |
2
to 3 weeks |
| Google
/ Yahoo! Web Pages |
1
to 3 weeks |
| HotBox
/ Inkto / AOL / GoTo / MSN |
1
to 2 weeks |
| InfoSeek
/ Go Network |
6
weeks |
| Lycos |
2
to 4 weeks |
| Northern
Light |
2
to 3 weeks |
| WebCrawler |
3
to 6 months |
| Yahoo |
6
to 8 weeks |
If after the time listed in the chart above has elapsed and you
are still not finding your site listed, you should re-submit your
URL to the search engines that do not have your listing. It often
takes more than one submission to get the best results.
Search engines receive tens of thousands of
submissions every day. On days when the submission level is above
normal, a certain number of submissions can be received properly
but still not get listed. If your listing is not appearing on a
certain search engine, you should resubmit it.
For the FAQ pages of individual search
engines, please see the following links:
Altavista
Excite
HotBot
Infoseek
Lycos
Webcrawler
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Why
should I submit inside pages of my site?
When
considering how many pages of your site to promote, it is
important to remember directories generally accept one listing per
company. This is usually your home or main page. Search engines
index multiple
pages within a site, but you cannot control which pages they will
index unless you submit the individual URLs (pages).
The critical pages to submit
are your major topic pages, pages with unique content, or pages
that describe a specific product or service. For example, a sports
store will have separate pages on basketball, baseball and
football which should all be submitted. Another benefit to
submitting multiple pages in this example is that the basketball
page will appear higher in a search for "basketball"
than the sports site home page. These pages should also include
descriptive title tags and meta tags. In order for site visitors
to easily navigate your site, these major topic pages should
provide clear links to other topic pages and your home page.
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How do I
optimize my registration with a directory?
Since
directories are hierarchical databases organized by subject,
subject category selection would logically be the most critical
aspect of linking your site to a directory. Give some thought to
which category(s) your URL should be placed as this location will
ensure the right people (those interested in your site) will be
visiting your link. URL registrations can quickly become complex
process when every directory contains a different
sub-categorization scheme.
There
unfortunately is no formula or exact method for correctly placing
one's site into a subject-oriented guide. However, here are a few
Tips:
-
Do not assume a
category (i.e. Entertainment) means the same thing on every
directory.
-
Take the time to
drill down within the directory until you come to the
subcategory most appropriate for your site. If you find many
organizations similar to your own listed, you're probably in the
right place.
-
Do not choose a less
fitting category because it's either alphabetically desirable or
doesn't contain many other links. If it is not appropriate,
there is no reason to believe anyone clicking that category
would be interested in visiting your site.
-
If you cannot find
an appropriate category, do not hesitate to suggest a new one.
This advice even applies to Yahoo!! Do you think the Yahoo!
staff thought of all 22,000 headings all by themselves?
Yahoo:
Since Yahoo! is well ... Yahoo!, it will be discussed separately
from the hundreds of other directories included in the Submit It!
Service. It actually is unique from all other directories in that
you could be listed on Yahoo! without having submitted your URL.
They make use of a robot that searches for new sites at certain
Internet locations (i.e. announcement sites, etc.). Despite
Yahoo!'s implementation of this search robot, mostly all of their
new additions still come via their "Add URL" form.
Your Yahoo Submission
Made Easy
For Internet users, Yahoo! is
one of the more notoriously difficult submission forms to
successfully complete. In actuality, the Yahoo! submission form is
far from a mind-numbing experience. We have outlined the necessary
steps below. If you follow them, it will not only simplify the
process for you, but also enable you to gain the greatest
advantage possible through your submission.
1. Find your Yahoo
category.
From Yahoo's home page, drill down and locate up to 2 Yahoo
categories that best describe your Web site. A good indicator that
you have found an appropriate sub-category is when you scroll down
and see sites already listed that are similar to your own, or,
even more so, find a direct competitor! If after searching through
a number of Yahoo categories, you still are not sure where to
place your site, try searching by a keyword you would want your
site to be found under. Existing Yahoo categories will be
displayed with the search results.
Tip: Yahoo
requires commercial sites to be placed within a Business and
Economy subcategory - either under Companies or Products and
Services. Personal Home pages must go in the Entertainment/People
category. If your site is regionally specific, add it to the
appropriate subcategory under the Regional heading category.
Tip: If
suggesting more than one category, press the ADD URL icon when on
the category of your first choice. Then enter the string of the
second category into the Additional Categories field. To avoid
making a typo to a long string, copy the URL located within the
Address or Location field of your browser. To do this, highlight
the text after http://www.yahoo.com/ with your mousse. Right
mousse click and release the mouse over 'copy'.
For example:
Business_and_Economy/Companies/Music/ CDs__Records__and_Tapes/Online_Shopping/
2. Click the Suggest A
Site hyperlink at the bottom of the screen.
After finding the category you wish your site to be placed within,
click the Suggest A Site hyperlink at the bottom of the screen.
This will take you to the Yahoo submission form with the Category
fields already pre-filled.
3. Fill out the ADD URL
Form
Two particularly important fields are the Title and Description
fields. Yahoo does not allow you to suggest keywords in their
submission form. Instead, it will use both the Title and
Description fields to derive search words for your site.
Therefore, think carefully about what keywords you want Yahoo to
list you under and construct your Title and Description fields
around them. Do not, however, just submit keywords separated by
commas. Enter complete, coherent phrases/sentences.
Example of a poorly constructed
title:
Brian's Music Store
Example of an optimized title:
Brian's Music Store, CD's for sale
Tip: Your
title should not exceed 50 characters (including spacing).
Example of a poorly constructed
Description:
Click to this page to listen to a wide variety of music sure to
fit your interest.
Example of an optimized
Description:
Pop, Rock, New Age and Alternative CD's. Many artists, your
favorite music, CD's on sale.
Tip: Your
description should not exceed 20 words or 200 characters
(including spacing).
Yahoo has employees visit the
URL of submissions to verify that the category you selected is
appropriate and that the title and description are accurate. As a
result, do not exaggerate what is located on your site. In the
end, your site will simply not get listed.
4. Click the Submit
button.
Once you have completed the form, click the Submit button to send
your Web site information to Yahoo. If the form has been filled
out properly, Yahoo will display a screen that thanks you for the
submission. If there is an error in the submission form, Yahoo
will display a screen informing you that the submission has failed
and, depending on the error, tells you why the submission failed.
In the case of a failure, press the Back key on your browser, make
the necessary changes and resubmit.
5. Check your listing
Yahoo states that it should take two weeks for your site to be
listed. They recommend you do a search for your URL. If your site
is not listed, then resubmit your entry using the Add URL function
in Yahoo.
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How
do I get top search engine rankings and what should I expect to pay to get them?
Most people have limited
knowledge when it comes to search engine ranking and the various types of
services on offer. We all know that having top 10 positions on some of the
leading engines can bring all the traffic we can handle, and then some. A
simple way to approach this is to look at your competition. Do a quick
search on one of the leading engines like Google or Alta Vista, using a
search phrase that people might use when looking for your products or
services, and see what comes back.
Based on your search results
use this as a 'rule of thumb' guide for evaluation purposes -
Between 1 and 5000 results
puts you in a "low competition" category.
Between 5001 and 25000 puts you in a "medium competition"
category.
Between 25001 and 250,000 puts you in a "high competition"
category.
Over 250,000 puts you in an "extreamely hight competition"
category.
Based on the above, determine
the competitiveness of your category, then start to research the level of
service necessary for your site. Something that you must understand at
this point is that either you, or somebody you pay will have to submit
your site to all the leading engines and directories. There is a plethora
of so called "submission" services around the internet, be very
careful with these services and understand fully what you are paying for.
Many of them use "hype" such as - "we submit your site to
1000+ leading search engines" etc. This is extremely misleading.
There are only a handful of top select search engines, the rest are
usually topic specific directories.
Directories require a manual
submission process where you locate the most appropriate category for your
listing then enter your web address, email, business info, phone, keywords
and a site description. This can only be done manually. These directories
are extremely important. Yahoo!, for example, searches it's directory
listings before turning to the "search engine" for more results.
Once you have determined the
level of competition for top positions in your business category, use the
following as a basic guide:
-
Low to Medium Competition
- Locate a good submission service who will give your home page a
"tune-up" or "prep" and then submit your site to
all the leading engines and directories. Expect to pay anywhere around
$5 to $25 dollars a month for search engine submission service and
about $25 to $65 for search engine and directory submission
services.
-
Medium to High Competition
- Try to locate a service that will go beyond basic Meta Tag
revisions. Very few search engines pay much attention to what's in
your Meta tags, so look for someone who will make changes to the HTML
on your key content and page text to give them a boost. At the lower
price service levels, the changes will be mostly hidden and will not
change the outside appearance of you site. These services are less
predictable than more expensive services, but in many cases can
generate some very good page rankings. Whoever you chose should submit
your site manually to all the to all the leading engines and
directories. Expect to pay around $55 to $95 per month. Make sure that
you are getting more than revised Meta Tags at this price level.
-
Sites with extremely high
competition - You will come across
various approaches at the higher service levels. Most common is to use
what is commonly referred to as "doorway" or
"leader" pages. These pages are designed to focus on a
specific search phrase, each targeting a specific search engine. These
pages "float" outside your site (they are not part of the
normal link navigation of your site) and are meant to just grab
searchers and pull them into your site. It is not necessary to have to
modify any of your existing pages to add them.
A respectable web design service or some one educated on the subject
should be able to assist with the creation of these pages. Please keep
in mind that these pages might need to go through a trial and error
period to increase its notoriety. Look for a service that adopts the
"theme" of your main site, and actually adds valuable
content to your site. Costs are widely varying at this level of
service. Some charge a basic setup fee then charge you for
"click-throughs". Paying a fee each time someone visits your
site is unpredictable and can get very costly. Remember, you want
targeted marketing. It would be rather easy for a service to trick
people onto your site... but these people probably won't be your
customers and you will be paying for all of the traffic.
Others charge setup fees then have a "pay on results" system
where you pay an agreed commission when one of your pages reaches a
top 10 or 20 position on a targeted search engine. This approach is
incentive driven and provides you with a "maximum cost
exposure" at the start of the job. Others charge based on an
hourly rate and provide "best endeavors" to achieve the
rankings you require, without any guarantees.
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"Non-Netiquette"
Things:
There are several
"tricky" things you can do to try to get your URL listed
higher or more times on a search engine results page. We are
listing these alternatives, but are in no way recommending them as
these Web site promotion methods may be viewed as
"cheating" by some members of the Internet community. In
fact, some of the search engines are starting to penalize people
that use these tricks. The reason why we list these tricks is to
help you understand why some sites always show up mul tiple
times or always at the top.
Placing mass amounts
of hidden keywords <!software manufacturer, software
manufacturer,...> at the bottom of your document. Search
engines calculate keywords by how many times they appear on a
page. It is important to be aware that search engines may
penalize you for excessively repeating keywords. At present,
InfoSeek and Lycos are two examples and others may adopt similar
policies in the future.
Changing your name
to A1 Enterprises or !Rob's Restaurant in order to appear at the
top. Our suggestion is that you pick something descriptive
instead. You might appear at the top by changing your name, but
be skipped over because the new one does not evoke a
professional or trustworthy company image.
Changing your
<TITLE> regularly so when robots revisit your site to
refresh their information, they will interpret the new title to
mean the existence of a new site. The result being your page
will be listed more than once in a search.
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FAQs
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