1. ABOUT SEARCH ENGINES AND DIRECTORIES
You're finished. You're ready to open the doors and let in the cheering crowds. Don't break out the champagne just yet. You still have a lot of work to do. Your first step is to get your Web site listed on all the major search engines and directories.
What's a Search Engine?
You're probably thinking, I already know what a search engine is, why are they going to explain it to me? Well, there are some common misconceptions out there about search engines and what they do, and we're here to set you straight.
A search engine is a site that compiles a database of Web sites using a spider program. When you enter a term in a search engine's keyword field, the search engine doesn't search the entire Internet at that exact moment and return the results to you. Instead, it searches its own internal database and then displays results of this search.
A spider is a piece of software that browses the Web, similar to what a human user does, but much faster and more thoroughly. When a spider hits a page on your Web site, it gathers information on the page, and then follows all links on that page and gathers info on those. And then it follows all of the links on all of those pages, and gathers info on those. And so on, and so on.
So, If My Web Site Is on the Web, It'll Be on the Search Engine, Right?
Well, maybe, but it may take a long time for the spider to get to you. After all, there are millions of Web pages. So you have to tell it to visit your site. You do that by visiting the major search engine sites and submitting your site. Your site is then put on a list to be indexed (visited) by the spider, and will likely be indexed within a few weeks.
Because so many search engines have consolidated in the past few years, there are only three search engines you need to target:
Figure 6-1 shows what you can expect to see when you submit your site to Google. You just type your URL and add any comments about the content, and then submit it.
Figure 6-1: Submitting a URL to Google.
If you've created a site map on your site, submit that page's URL to the search engines. It links to all parts of your site, after all.
After you submit your URL to these search engines, the rest of the work is done for you. Most second-tier search engines use one of the three major search engines to perform their search operations. For example, AltaVista uses Google and Netscape uses Yahoo!.
Well, Then, What's a Directory?
A directory site can seem the same as search engine, but it's actually a human-edited hierarchical directory of Web sites. Key examples of directories are:
To have your site listed on a directory, you have to submit it for consideration. Some directories, such as LookSmart and Yahoo! Search Directory, charge you a fee to be listed (check the site for the current pricing). Others, such as Open Directory, are free, with no guarantee that your site will be added.
To submit your site to Open Directory, go to the dmoz Web site, navigate to the category appropriate for your Web site, and click suggest URL on the toolbar. You're then taken to a form in which you can enter your site's URL, title, and description.
Follow all instructions on the dmoz Web site to make it more likely that your site will be included.
So, Should I Use a Search Engine Submission Service?
The number of well-trafficked search engines and directories is small enough these days to allow you to submit your site to all of them yourself in about 1 hour. The real value provided by search engine submission services, such as Microsoft bCentral Submit It!, is in setting up your site for the best performance on a search engine. You can do this work yourself, though, if you'd like to save some dough. By following our suggestions on the next few pages of this lesson, your site will be well equipped to show up high in the rankings for appropriate searches. So, let's move on to learning about metadata and other low-cost ways to promote your site.
2. UNDERSTAND SEARCH ENGINE RELEVANCY
Search engines have gotten incredibly sophisticated over the past decade. They each use complex and slightly different algorithms to determine the ranking of pages relevant to the key words or terms being searched. Think about it, there are hundreds of millions of pages on the Web. Imagine how difficult it must be for a search engine to determine which page is most closely related to what you're looking for.
Each search engine performs the deed a little differently; however, the fundamentals are the same: the page that has the most content about what is being searched, combined with the most traffic from other people interested in the same information, wins.
Content
The best thing you can do to help your Web site be listed high on a search engine's list of relevant pages is to make sure your headers and subheads accurately reflect what you sell or want to be known for. If you sell kites, for example, put a few headers and subheads on your pages that have the word kite in them.
You can also help your relevancy by using links and alternate text that use the words and terms a Web surfer is most likely to type into a search engine to find a product or service like yours. Of course, make sure there is plenty of body text about your product or service also.
Links
If your site and your competitors' sites have roughly the same amount of content relating to a specific search, the search engine can't call it a tie. It has to choose one over the other to list. As a second measure of a Web site's relevancy, a search engine looks at human behavior, as well; if humans value one site more than another, that site gets listed higher.
The search engine determines how much humans value each site by looking at how much traffic each site gets and how many people link to that site. They figure if humans like the site well enough to visit it and link it to their own content, then that's probably a pretty good endorsement.
Swapping links with other Web sites is a really good idea, not only to drive traffic to the site but to show your relevancy to a search engine.
Meta Tags
When search engine results are returned, the title of your Web site listing is whatever you've entered in the <title> HTML tag for your homepage. The blurb below the title is whatever you've put in the description <meta> tag.
In Figure 6-2, you can see that Into The Wind Kites is the title in that page's HTML tag for the company's homepage, and the meta tag says, "Hundreds of classic, sport and power kites, accessories, building materials, flags, windsocks and . . . "
Figure 6-2: Meta tags define and describe your site to a search engine.
You use meta tags to control the presentation of your Web site listing on search engines. So, be sure to add meta tags to your homepage -- and all the other pages of your site as time permits -- to ensure you're being shown in your best light.
Meta Tags for Search Engine Placement
The keywords meta tag is very important, too. It's a list of words and phrases relevant to your Web site. A search engine spider indexes all of the text on your Web site along with the metadata, but there are probably some words or phrases relevant to your site that aren't explicitly mentioned on any of your Web pages. Include those terms in the keywords meta tag. Also list more obvious keywords, such as string for the previous example. It's best to be thorough.
Keep your keywords meta tag to a reasonable length, and keep those keywords relevant to your Web site. Otherwise, your site might be removed from search engines. Don't put your competitors' names in your keywords meta tag in hopes of luring their customers away -- that's a big no-no.
Using meta tags appropriately can help your Web site relevancy for appropriate searches, and ensure the way it's listed is how you like it. In the next section, you'll learn how to advertise your site without breaking the bank.
3. THE BEST FREE AND LOW-COST PROMOTION TECHNIQUES
There was a time when many Web site owners had money to burn when it came to marketing their sites. Remember the Pets.com sock puppet? Those days are definitely over. Now, most people want to promote their sites with minimal cash investment. Here are some of the best ways to do it.
Google AdWords
The most popular search engine today, Google is known for providing excellent search results. You can buy a piece of that action through the company's AdWords program.
Look at the Google search results in Figure 6-3. Notice that the first two results, and six others down the right side of the screen, are labeled Sponsored Links. These are paid advertising spots purchased by the listed sites.
Figure 6-3: Google search results with sponsored links.
The sponsored link listed on top is a premium listing, which is somewhat expensive. The sponsored links down the right side are purchased through Google AdWords, which is fairly cost-effective. You only pay when someone clicks your ad, and you can set a budget limit that stops showing your ad once you've spent that amount.
Link Swaps
A time-tested method of promoting your site is through swapping links with other Web sites. The best approach is to swap ads with Web sites that are complementary to your industry or service, rather than competitive. Just contact the Web site administrator (this information is usually available on the site) and ask.
Some Web site administrators want you to post an image, such as their company's logo, rather than just a text link. If so, ask for the same treatment in return.
Link swaps can even help improve your site's performance on search engines. As you learned earlier in the lesson, most search engines weigh sites by how many other sites link to them. This means a site with more links to it will be listed higher than similar sites with less links to them. This makes link swaps doubly good.
Customer Service
Perhaps the most important and enduring way of promoting your site is by providing excellent customer service. If you're selling a product or a service, word-of-mouth will most likely be your top means of attracting new customers -- if your customer service is good, that is.
Your number one goal should be to bridge that communication gap that exists on the Web. Stay in contact with your customers. If your customers purchase products, let them know when they're expected to ship, when they ship, and when to expect delivery. Give your customers package-tracking information, too.
The same applies if you're providing a service. Keep in touch with your client regularly through status updates or other regular communication. The key is to keep the customer in the loop.
If you provide excellent customer service, your site is guaranteed to generate good word-of-mouth advertising. And when it does, it'll snowball into a bunch of happy customers who keep coming back. In the next section, you'll learn other tips for keeping customers coming back for more.
4. KEEP YOUR WEB SITE UP TO DATE
One key aspect of Web site ownership is the ongoing task of keeping your site current. There are two reasons you want to keep your Web site up to date:
- People will get bored and stop coming back if nothing ever changes on your site.
- Search engines might drop your listing. That's right! Some search engines check to see if your site is old and musty -- if it is, they delete you.
Here are some good ways to get people to come back to your site time and time again:
- Post a monthly newsletter about your company or your industry
- Add a blog, bulletin board, or live chat to your site
- Add an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed to automatically give people updates when they occur
- Give away something for free (a report, a sample, and so on)
- Run a monthly contest
Syndicated Content
One place you can go to get some fresh content for your site is FreeSticky . This site is a content syndication service that distributes a broad selection of written, graphical, audio, and video content from almost 1,000 sources to a vast and diverse network of more than 200,000 Web sites. Just sign up, paste some code into your Web site, and you're in business.
Affiliate Programs
Another way to keep your site up to date, promote it, and make some additional money on the side to boot, is to join one or more affiliate programs. For example, if you join an online bookstore's affiliate program, every time someone buys a book as a result of a hyperlink from your site, you get a small percentage.
When you sign up for an affiliate program, you're given an ID and some HTML that contains that ID embedded in it. You add this information to URLs on your site. The site you're affiliated with may ask you to display a banner or button announcing your relationship with them. When someone clicks the links you've created and ends up buying something at the remote site, it's cash city for you (maybe).
The focal point of affiliate programs is LinkShare.com , as seen in Figure 6-4. Notice the wide selection of programs.
Figure 6-4: LinkShare.com.
Each of these companies will supply you with one or more types of links to their sites. Some of these will be text hyperlinks and some will be banners. The affiliate site will provide you with HTML code to insert into your Web pages, depending upon what kind of link you want to set up.
You may choose to run affiliate links as banners on the top or bottom of your page, or use them to highlight products related to your industry, or recommended by you or your colleagues.
Wrap It Up
In this course, you learned to design an effective Web site, use a Web design tool to develop it, find an appropriate ISP to host it, use multimedia and interactivity to spice it up, and effectively promote your site. With hard work and a little luck, you'll have a great first Web site up and running soon -- if you don't already.
It takes a lot of effort to thrive on the Web. One thing you can do is stay informed, which means finding out everything you possibly can about the business of the Web. To that end, here's a list of places you can go to keep up with your reading:
But before you go, complete your last assignment and quiz, and stop by the Message Board one last time to share your thoughts and discoveries -- and find out what your classmates are up to. Good luck with your Web site!
