Seek and Ye Shall Find - Getting Found on the Internet
RTA Information Technology, Tempe, Arziona
My clients, small business owners, are constantly battling to be discovered by potential customers. One way to be found is by having a public web site. But just having a web site isn't enough. Customers have to be able to FIND your web site.
Go to MSN Search or Google Search and type my name: "Myron Johnson"
In the MSN Search, half of the first page will be links to my web pages. I'm not nearly as popular on Google, but you'll still find me.
On the other hand, I've seen clients with web sites that couldn't be found even if you know the name of the company!
What's the difference?
Web site Search Engine Optimization.
How do you get found on search engines?
There are three steps:
1) Get indexed by search engines
2) Have relevant content on your web pages, including Titles and Descriptions that are appropriate to each web page
3) Get the search engines to rank your site above all others
Get Indexed by Search Engines
First, you must be found the by search engine. All the search engines are constantly probing the Internet, looking for web sites and changes in sites. The sites are indexed by key words that are stored in huge databases. Besides the content of the sites, things like the Titles and Descriptions of the web pages are indexed.
Have Relevant Content on Your Web Pages
The search engine compares the search term entered, calculates how well each web site matches the search term, and then lists the matches. Sites are ranked by how well they match the search term, but in case of a tie, the site with the hightest importance wins.
Convince Search Engines That Your Site is "Important"
To place high in search rankings, search engines must consider your site to be important. Google periodically ranks the importance of web sites. All sites are ranked on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the most important. Google's ranking system is a bit fuzzy, and changes periodically, but it's generally agreed that the number of links to your site, especially from "important" sites on the Intenet, will greatly affect your site's own importance rating.
What does this mean to you, the web site designer?
Well, you obviously have to get your site listed on the major search engines. There are free submission forms on many sites, including Google's. If you can get in one search engine, other engines will usually find you eventually. The discovery process can take a month or two. The number-one search engine is Google. More people use it than any other engine. Yahoo is next. MSN Search is next. AOL probably follows MSN. If you want many people to find your web site, you want to be listed on the most popular search engines.
But you also have to have relevant content on your web pages. Think about what a searcher would use as a search term. Make sure that the most likely search terms are included on at least one web page on your site. Be sure that the Title and Description of your web pages also includes the most important search terms.
Other rules about web pages:
Search engines like to see unique content. Zillions of links to other sites isn't unique content. Neither is a list of repeated search words. Most web designers believe that the best policy is to write significant, orginal content for your site.
Make your pages fairly long. You should have several hundred words on each page.
Include your most important key words as Headers and near the top of the page.
If you follow these rules, you should be able to significantly improve your search ranking in MSN Search. Look at how well "Myron Johnson" does in MSN Search.
Google is tougher. First, Google hasn't even updated its page rankings in five months. If you create a site today, it could take five more months to get a non-zero page rank. Unless your site has very unique content, it'll be hard to show up anywhere near the top in search rankings. Expect more like the tenth page of listings until you get a non-zero Page Rank.
How do you know your Google Page Rank?
Download the Google Tool Bar, http://toolbar.google.com , and set it so you can see the PageRank of each page you browse.
Some other key information about Google Page Rank:
http://www.pagerankprediction.com displays the current Page Rank of your web page, plus a prediction of its rank after then next Google PageRank update.
http://www.mcdar.net/Q-Check/datatool.asp displays the rank of your web page when a specified search term is submitted. Google, it turns out, has multiple datacenters. You may find that some datacenters will rank your page higher than other. For a certain search term, my home page ranks between 7th and 200th in the listings!
I've left the subject of "backlinks" to last. This is the art of getting other important sites to link to yours. You can PAY for links, but Google frowns on it and if the paid links come from a "link farm", you may find they don't help your PageRank. The overall best way to get incoming links is to create unique and worthwhile content on your web site. Then let other people and web site owners know about your site. You can also create a blog, which may find readers interested in your content.
My clients, small business owners, are constantly battling to be discovered by potential customers. One way to be found is by having a public web site. But just having a web site isn't enough. Customers have to be able to FIND your web site.
Go to MSN Search or Google Search and type my name: "Myron Johnson"
In the MSN Search, half of the first page will be links to my web pages. I'm not nearly as popular on Google, but you'll still find me.
On the other hand, I've seen clients with web sites that couldn't be found even if you know the name of the company!
What's the difference?
Web site Search Engine Optimization.
How do you get found on search engines?
There are three steps:
1) Get indexed by search engines
2) Have relevant content on your web pages, including Titles and Descriptions that are appropriate to each web page
3) Get the search engines to rank your site above all others
Get Indexed by Search Engines
First, you must be found the by search engine. All the search engines are constantly probing the Internet, looking for web sites and changes in sites. The sites are indexed by key words that are stored in huge databases. Besides the content of the sites, things like the Titles and Descriptions of the web pages are indexed.
Have Relevant Content on Your Web Pages
The search engine compares the search term entered, calculates how well each web site matches the search term, and then lists the matches. Sites are ranked by how well they match the search term, but in case of a tie, the site with the hightest importance wins.
Convince Search Engines That Your Site is "Important"
To place high in search rankings, search engines must consider your site to be important. Google periodically ranks the importance of web sites. All sites are ranked on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the most important. Google's ranking system is a bit fuzzy, and changes periodically, but it's generally agreed that the number of links to your site, especially from "important" sites on the Intenet, will greatly affect your site's own importance rating.
What does this mean to you, the web site designer?
Well, you obviously have to get your site listed on the major search engines. There are free submission forms on many sites, including Google's. If you can get in one search engine, other engines will usually find you eventually. The discovery process can take a month or two. The number-one search engine is Google. More people use it than any other engine. Yahoo is next. MSN Search is next. AOL probably follows MSN. If you want many people to find your web site, you want to be listed on the most popular search engines.
But you also have to have relevant content on your web pages. Think about what a searcher would use as a search term. Make sure that the most likely search terms are included on at least one web page on your site. Be sure that the Title and Description of your web pages also includes the most important search terms.
Other rules about web pages:
Search engines like to see unique content. Zillions of links to other sites isn't unique content. Neither is a list of repeated search words. Most web designers believe that the best policy is to write significant, orginal content for your site.
Make your pages fairly long. You should have several hundred words on each page.
Include your most important key words as Headers and near the top of the page.
If you follow these rules, you should be able to significantly improve your search ranking in MSN Search. Look at how well "Myron Johnson" does in MSN Search.
Google is tougher. First, Google hasn't even updated its page rankings in five months. If you create a site today, it could take five more months to get a non-zero page rank. Unless your site has very unique content, it'll be hard to show up anywhere near the top in search rankings. Expect more like the tenth page of listings until you get a non-zero Page Rank.
How do you know your Google Page Rank?
Download the Google Tool Bar, http://toolbar.google.com , and set it so you can see the PageRank of each page you browse.
Some other key information about Google Page Rank:
http://www.pagerankprediction.com displays the current Page Rank of your web page, plus a prediction of its rank after then next Google PageRank update.
http://www.mcdar.net/Q-Check/datatool.asp displays the rank of your web page when a specified search term is submitted. Google, it turns out, has multiple datacenters. You may find that some datacenters will rank your page higher than other. For a certain search term, my home page ranks between 7th and 200th in the listings!
I've left the subject of "backlinks" to last. This is the art of getting other important sites to link to yours. You can PAY for links, but Google frowns on it and if the paid links come from a "link farm", you may find they don't help your PageRank. The overall best way to get incoming links is to create unique and worthwhile content on your web site. Then let other people and web site owners know about your site. You can also create a blog, which may find readers interested in your content.
posted by Myron Johnson | 1:34 AM
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