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One of the quixotic quests of the Web World is to be the No. 1 ranked site in all Web search engines for a specific keyword search. But it ain't gonna happen, so get over it. Be satisfied with having a business site that places in the top group in a few popular search engines — Excite, Hotbot, Infoseek, etc. If you make No. 1, consider it a bonus.
The good news is that search engines do not play as great a role in getting paying customers to Websites as some people claim. A recent survey by BizRate.com reveals that Web portals (most of which are search engines) were not the major source of online purchase referrals — 67 percent of those surveyed were referred by other sources.
Jupiter Communications reports that bookmarks (or favorites) are the single most important source of Web navigation, favored over search engines or typing in Web addresses. Still, before people can bookmark a site, they must find it. That's where search engines play an important role, although only those sites landing near the top of the rankings get much value.
How can this be achieved? Following are tips for improving the search engine rankings of a business Website. Keep in mind that getting a good ranking is difficult. The search engines are tight-lipped about how they operate; they frequently refine their methods, and they try to circumvent all attempts at manipulation. As such, they are moving targets.
Preparation
The key to success is laying the groundwork before submitting a URL (Web address) to the search engines. Here are some ways to lay bait:
- <TITLE> — A Website's title, which is embedded in the behind-the-scenes code of Web pages, is what appears in the bar at the top of a Web browser and is highlighted in search results. AltaVista and Northern Light appear to give higher preference to the title content than other search engines.
The title should name the site and incorporate a few keywords. For example:
<TITLE>La Rue's San Diego Catering — San Diego Caterers for Weddings, Company Picnics, Barbecues, Parties</TITLE>
Avoid a title that’s blank or one that reads "Home Page" or "Welcome To Our Website." These have negative value.
- <META> Tags — Also embedded behind the scenes are meta tags. These include description and keywords. For example:
<META name="description" content="San Diego caterers, catering for business and social occasions: weddings, company picnics, barbecues ...">
<META http-equiv="Keywords" content="San Diego catering, San Diego caterers, La Rue's Catering, wedding receptions, corporate catering ...">
When selecting keywords, enlist the help of others. Ask them what words or terms they would use when searching for information about your business. Incorporate these into your keywords, description and/or title. Use multiple words or phrases.
"Keywords may not be intuitive. Those doing the searches may not know of your company or be familiar with industry jargon," advises Bryan Mallindine, president and chief executive of Inspired Arts, a San Diego-based Website developer. "Also, remember to use misspelled versions of keywords, as people commonly misspell."
- TEXT — The text on the Home Page is critical, particularly the first few lines, which are given more weight. Most search engines display the first line or two of text in their results, so this is a marketing opportunity, too. Also, some search engines — Excite, for one — ignore the meta tags and rely primarily on the text when indexing a Website. This is a problem for Websites that use graphics or multimedia presentations.
A trick Website developers use to work around the graphics problem is to embed hidden text above and between the images. The text is not visible to the viewer, but is detected by the search engines. This is done by using a graphic image as a background and making the text the same color as the image. But you need to make the color different from the specified background color, or don’t specify a background color at all.
The text, whether hidden or not, should include a description and keywords. But don’t go overboard and fill the page with repetitive lists of keywords. Some search engines filter out this so-called "spamming" and sites that attempt it cause themselves more harm than good.
Web Address Submission
Once a site's title, meta tags and text have been honed, begin submitting (or resubmitting) the Web address to the most popular search engines. A recent survey by San Diego-based WebSideStory shows that nearly half of search engine referrals to Websites come through Yahoo, so that’s the place to start.
Rounding out the Top 10 are: Excite, AltaVista, Infoseek, WebCrawler, HotBot, Snap, MSN, Lycos, and GoTo. Media Metrix, Relevant Knowledge and Net Ratings rank them similarly, but give less value to Yahoo relative to the others.
Ironically, Yahoo is the hardest one to get into. It can take anywhere from two to six weeks for a Website to appear, if at all. It may take several tries to achieve success. Yahoo has a Business Express service ($199) to speed things up, but there's no guarantee of a listing. What’s more, Yahoo results are alphabetical within categories, not ranked by relevance to the search terms.
Software And Services
Website submission is a tedious process, so there are services and software programs that promise to place you in hundreds of search engines and online directories. Even if such claims were true, so what? The key is to be well-placed in the few popular ones.
If you do use a submission service, find out if it uses software or if it’s done manually. The problem with using software is that some search engines, notably Yahoo, accept only manual submissions.
"Generally, there are few enough major search engines that I think most people are served (best) by manual submissions," says Danny Sullivan, editor of the Search Engine Report.
Moreover, despite the wild claims of services that promise high search engine rankings, the only guaranteed way to come out No. 1 is payola. GoTo charges a fee, while AltaVista, Galaxy, InfoSpace and ProNet give higher placement to those who pay. But most of the popular search engines do not accept payment for placement.
Follow Up
Two weeks after an initial submission, it is very important to systematically check each search engine to make certain the submitted site has been listed. Do this before worrying about your rankings in keyword searches. If there's no listing, resubmit. If the ranking is unsatisfactory, tweak the various elements and resubmit.
Remember that while most search engines rank according to how well the search terms match the information in their databases, the same keyword search in a dozen separate search engines will get you a dozen different sets of results.
Follow up regularly. It may take several submissions before you get satisfactory results. "Repetition of registering with search engines and directories is necessary," Mallindine says. "Once you register your Website, do not consider the task forever done. Put together a quarterly or monthly registration campaign."
If a site fails to show up in search engines, consult your Internet service provider. It may block the "spiders" that index Websites. For more on search engines, visit Search Engine Watch(www.searchenginewatch.com/)
Final Note
Search engines are a valuable weapon in your online marketing arsenal, but should not be the only one. A business that relies heavily on search engines to drive bona fide customers to its Website needs to re-evaluate its marketing strategy.
Larry M. Edwards is a new-media consultant and the author of the "Official Netscape Internet Business Starter Kit." He can be reached online at:
larry@larryedwards.com.
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