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Making Your Site More Search Engine Friendly

How can I get my site listed with search engines? It sounds like a pretty simple question, but sadly, search engine submission can be a complicated subject.

Search engines are one of the primary ways that Internet users find web sites. That's why a web site with good search engine listings may see a dramatic increase in traffic.

Everyone wants those good listings. Unfortunately, many web sites appear poorly in search engine rankings or may not be listed at all because they fail to consider how search engines work.

In particular, submitting to search engines is only part of the challenge of getting good search engine positioning. It's also important to prepare a web site through "search engine optimization."

Search engine optimization means ensuring that your web pages are accessible to search engines and focused in ways that help improve the chances they will be found.

First, keep in mind that search engines do not publish their exact sorting criteria so it is very difficult to get the precise information that would be most helpful. Also, the sorting criteria is often being changed. So even though you may have your site perfectly optimized today, it might need to be adjusted tomorrow to retain its most favorable status. Finally, each search engine values things on your site differently. So what’s good for one search engine may not work as effectively on another.

Here are a few general tips with regard to Search Engine Optimization.

Your Domain Name – This is something that is harder to control because of the scarcity of domain names available. But if your domain name includes a particular desirable keyword, then you may be ranked higher for that word. Remember, you may have more than one domain name pointing to a site.

The Frequency of Certain Words or Phrases – Search engines judge the frequency with which particular keywords or keyword phrases are repeated throughout a page. There are three main areas of a web page that need to be considered for relevancy:

• Title tag
• Meta tags
• Website Copy

The Title tag is the copy that appears in the browser window that displays the page. The Title of a page is weighted fairly heavily in terms of relevancy. Use keywords in the Title of your site making it as descriptive as possible. By making your Title descriptive, you will be better off than those who only have keywords within the text of their page. It will also be helpful when visitors bookmark your Web Site.

Meta tags are special tags that allow you to add keywords and descriptions to a page without being visible to the visitor. When deciding what keywords and phrases would be most effective, think about what keywords a visitor would use to find your site. Be specific. In addition, the description meta tag is the text that appears next to your link in a search engine’s index. Choose one or two short sentences that will convince users to click on your web site. Keep in mind that your web site is likely to display right next to a competitor’s site.

Finally, search engines judge the frequency with which particular keywords and/or keyword phrases are repeated throughout a page. For example, if you repeat the phrase “web site designer” a few times in headings and paragraphs, you may rank higher for this keyword phrase. However, never alter your page headings or copy, though, at the expense of verbal clarity or the information you are trying to present. Remember, your copy should be designed for visitors first and search engines second. A good rule of thumb is to just repeat certain keywords or keyword phrases enough so that the average reader would not notice this as some oddly repetitive or planned arrangement.

• How Many Other Sites Link to Yours – In an effort to judge the relevancy of sites, may search engines now take notice of how many other sites have links to your site.

REMEMBER: The information in your web traffic logs can be a valuable tool to improve the performance of your web site. This information is free to you -- as a WebsiteDesigner.Com Hosting client -- and easily accessible. Call us (401-454-1487) or e-mail us with any questions on accessing or reviewing this data.

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