| So, now you have a beautiful site. I mean, it is really
great. You love it. Your spouse loves it. Your Dad loves it...
even the dog loves it.
But, regrettably, they are the only ones who have actually
seen it yet. In fact, there is a whole world out there just
chomping at the bit to see your site, right?
Wrong... Whether your website is promoting your business,
supplying valuable information, educating the public, providing
entertainment... or just showcasing your technologically
sophisticated dog, the sad reality is not everyone in the world
is going to see your site. In fact, they don't even want to.
Happily, there are thousands and thousands (okay, maybe just
hundreds if you are bragging about your dog) of "surfers" out
there on the information super-highway who really do want to see
what you have to offer.
HELP THEM FIND YOU!
But how? Do you know how to prepare your site so that the
robotic spiders out crawling the Web will actually recognize
your site as valuable place to be? Will you get listed on all
the search engines, especially the "biggies". Can you get
yourself listed on pages featuring sites like yours, or that
will compliment yours? I won't lie to you, it can be a real
challenge to get listed on the major search engines, which is
why "offline" site promotion is very
important to incorporate into all aspects of your company's
marketing scheme.
WordArt is pleased to offer you these suggestions to help you
on your way...
Web Site Promotion
In order for your Web site to be successful, it needs to be
promoted. There are many ways to promote your site -- one method
you can easily do yourself online is register your site in the
various Internet search engines.
Main Search Engines
Indexing your Web site on the main search engines is easy
once you get the hang of it. Some of the main, or more common,
search engines are:
You can list or index your Web site with these and other
search engines for free by manually submitting your Web site.
It is important to understand that when you submit your site
to search engines, either manually or using automated
service/software, you are merely inviting their automated system
(robots, spiders) to visit your site to index the content of
your site and possibly add your site to their database. Your
site WILL NOT instantly appear on their search engine. However,
with due diligence and patience (and some luck) your site will
show up within a few days or a few months. This may sound
discouraging, but hang in there!
To manually submit your site, visit a search engine and click
on the submit your URL link and read the instructions and
guidelines to submitting a URL. Most search engines only
required the full URL and name of your Web site. Others may also
require you to enter an e-mail address, a brief description or
up to five key words. Other search engines suggest you use
Meta Tags.
General Guidelines
Here are the general guidelines to submitting an URL to a
search engine.
- Go to the Web site of the search engine you wish to be
listed in.
- Find the add/submit URL link. Click on it.
- Follow the instructions and enter the full URL of your
site including the http://. Enter in the full name of the
site. Enter any other appropriate information that is required
including an e-mail address, a brief description or some key
words.
- After submission, the search engine may take anywhere
between three days and 2 weeks for your URL and information to
be added.
Meta Tags
Meta Tags are HTML code used by search engines to
specifically index your web site. Meta Tags consist (primarily)
of two separate fields: description and keywords. The Meta Tag
description field should be brief and to the point, providing a
clear and succinct description of the page and its contents.
The Meta Tag keyword field can be used to specify additional
key words or synonyms that describe the contents of a site. META
tag keywords are used in the indexing process but will not
display on your Web page. The keywords can include up to 1000
characters of text. Be sure that the key words chosen are
relevant to the contents of the page.
All Websites created by WordArt have keywords and descriptive
text coded to each page. Usually this is done shortly before the
site is finalized and ready to "go live".
We recommend you spend some time really considering who your
target audience -- who you are wanting to visit your site and
why they want the information you provide. Brainstorm words that
your target audience would most likely be using when they
conduct a websearch using a search engine. Come up with a list
of about 25 - 30 words (and common mis-spelling of these words)
This list will be your keywords that are coded into each
page. You will find that these are words you commonly use within
the text on your website.
Please note: Not all engines use Meta. For instance,
Excite says:- Our spider doesn't honor meta tags. We
believe our decision protects our users from unreliable
information.
Resources
-
How Search Engines (Say They) Work . Forget the usual
debate about which search engine provides the "most relevant"
results. Yes, some engines do seem to provide better results
than others. However, all of them will provide at least some
relevant results to a query. In fact, usually search engines
produce so many relevant results that it is difficult to
understand why a page ranked first did better than another
page ranked 20th. This is the key question for the webmaster:
why are some pages making it to the top of the list while
others aren't.
Updating Your Web Site's Listing
You should update your listings in the major Search Engines
and Directories (Yahoo, Lycos, Altavista, HotBot, Excite, etc.)
if you have made any significant changes to your web site such
as: changing your domain name, changing file or directory names,
moving pages to different directories, adding or deleting files,
or making significant changes to the text on a page for which
you want your listing updated quickly.
- To update your listings with the Search Engines, you can
re-submit the URL of your index page and let their spiders
'crawl' through the rest of your site or you can re-submit the
URL of each of the pages that has changed.
- You can delete an old listing for an outdated URL by
submitting the URL of the old page once that page has been
removed from the web server. When the Search Engine tries to
index the non-existent page, it will get a "File Not Found"
error and will delete any entries it has for that URL.
- If you simply move your entire web site (including your
domain name) from one web hosting provider to another, you
will not need to update your listings with the search engines.
|
More ways to promote your website - offline!
Probably one of the most important, and most often
over looked, methods to promote your business online, is to
promote your website offline!
Here are a few general tips for the offline marketing of
your website that are easy and generally inexpensive to put
into action. Some will apply to your business more easily
than others, but consider them all:
- Start with your existing marketing - make sure you put
your Web address on all your flyers, brochures, business
cards, catalogues, order forms etc. If you're not planning
to print more stationary for a while why not invest $20 or
so in a self inking stamp then stamp the address on
anything that leaves your hands in the meantime.
- The simplest, most economical way to go is make sure
EVERY email that leaves your computer has a "signature" at
the bottom featuring your website. Most, if not all, email
programs have this option.. USE IT!
- Include your Web address in all your
newspaper/newsletter advertising, and don't forget
encourage people to visit you at www.YOURWEBSITE.com
- Include your web address in your telephone answering
message, after all you have a captive audience! Let them
know they can find out more via the net 24 hours a day.
- When customers call, ask if they have Internet access.
If they do, encourage them to also visit your web site for
up to date information about your business. (explain that
they'll be able to access the information quicker than
waiting for it to be mailed or faxed out to them). If they
visit the site once it's likely they will return next time
they need to know something -- AND refer their friends!
- Use your web address as a screen saver and set it to
scroll across the screen when your PC is not in use. By
seeing your web address every time you sit in front of
your computer, you will be reminded of it subliminally...
when you think it, you say it.
- If you are on the road a lot, it makes sense to have
your web address displayed on your vehicle for all to
see...let's face it web addresses are a lot easier to
remember than phone numbers.
Obviously not all the above points will be practical for
everyone, but even if you get one or two offline website
promotions up and running you'll be going a long way towards
getting people to visit your site, and that's what you want
isn't it? |
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