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Search Engines 101: How to get your site noticed
Search Engine Check List:
Good descriptive page titles
Page content rich with keywords for your site's subject
Keyword metatags and and site meta-description
Submit your site URL to the search engines
Page rank
Prepare for Your Search Engine Debut
In order for visitors to find your site using a search engine (SE), your site must be indexed by that SE. Many new webmasters get excited and submit to SE's for indexing before their sites are ready. Instead, be sure you have taken care of a little business before you submit yours. Site submission is free and easy to do. You do not need to purchase ad words or get your site verified. These are for other purposes.
Good Descriptive Page Titles: The page title (also called title tag) is the text that appears in the top bar of your browser window. It will be the primary citation and link to your site in SE listings. For this reason, it is important to create succinct and descriptive titles for your site's pages. Yet, it seems to be the most neglected issue in SE optimization. You specify a title for each page when the page is created. To change a title, open the page for editing and click on Page Properties. Every OL site's home page comes with the title "Home." This is succinct, but it's not very descriptive. I am not sure this site's home page title is the best it could be, but I know it will be better than "Home" in search engine listings.
Page Content Rich with Keywords: All of the content of your site's pages will be indexed. Use jargon related to your field, and words and phrases people will use in searches. If you embed a Windows Live Spaces blog on your site, your indexable content will expand. You can also strengthen your content by deleting unnecessary words. Examples are "very," "the fact that," "who is" and "which was." Often you can restructure sentences to express points with fewer words. Get rid of junk words and the important ones will stand out. If your site is for a storefront business, don't forget to include your location, city, county, state etc. I will be curious to see what my babbling on Norse mythology will produce in visitors.
Keyword and Description Metatags: For each page, » Page Properties » Search Engine Optimization tab. In the first text box, enter your keywords. Choose the ten best words and short phrases you can devise that people will use in searches. They should relate to the page content and be spelled correctly. If SE automated web crawlers cannot make sense of them, they may be ignored. Some authorities recommend doing this on every page, while others do it only on the home page. The Description should be two or three sentences that accurately describe your site or page. OL provides good instructions on the SE tab, so read and follow the advice there.
Submit Your Site to the Search Engines
Use the following links to submit your site. Do not add www. to your domain name as this may limit the effectiveness of searches.
It may happen more quickly, but the first time, expect to wait six or eight weeks for a site to get indexed. After that, changes can appear within a day or two. To monitor the indexing progress, enter the following into the respective SE search boxes:
For Google and Bing, site:YourDomainName.com
For Yahoo, domain:YourDomainName.com
Page Rank
There has been more worry and hand wringing over page rank than almost any other internet subject. My view is that it is a marketing gimmick sold to us by the search engines. Some believe they have a recipe for increasing a sites ranking, but I wouldn't count on it. If there was a recipe, everyone would use it, making these efforts ineffective. When I am searching the net, I am too busy skimming content to notice a site's page rank. This made me realize that my success in finding what I seek depends on what search words I use, not the site's page ranking. I am in control of this, not the website. This is why we emphasize rich content and keywords. Your task is to get your tree visible in the internet forest. This will be easier for some sites more than others. As already mentioned, do your best to create a site that is rich and appealing, and you will be successful.