Expert Website Submission Tips and Search Engine Optimization Help

Tips to help better understand the submission and optimization process

These are simple submission "rules of thumb" that make your site look better to the search engines.

	Create an effective title - A typical search engine will weigh the data in your title more heavily than other data in your page. Make sure that your title has keywords that represent your website effectively. If you're not sure what keywords to use - click here. For the most part the title should be short but always include your keyword(s).

	Don't use frames - Most search engines simply cannot index a frames page. After submission, they get to your website and can't go anywhere. If your site does use frames, there are ways to work around them. The <NOFRAMES> tag should always include keyword content. As the search engines evolve, it is believed they will be able to properly index framed sites. Our services are very helpful for framed sites.

	Don't try to fool the search engines - This is probably the biggest trap people fall into. People come up with ways to 'fool' a search engine, and they work for a little while...sometimes. But then the search engines catch on and write algorithms that penalize sites that use this practice. Examples of this include, but are not limited to: repeating keywords over and over; using invisible text (white text on white background); using very small text to jam the keywords in a small area.

	Keep the important content near the top of your pages - The actual text on your website is very important. A search engine (spider) will read this to determine where your site will rank. Some portals will place a higher rating of importance based on where they find the text and keywords in your page. Closer to the top is usually better. But having keywords throughout your page develops a "theme" and that too is important.

	Don't stuff the top of your pages with data the engines can't read - As with the last example, something higher up in your page can be more important that something further down. Therefore, HTML formatting, images, scripts, etc. toward the top of your page can result in lower rankings.

	Website content should be your #1 priority - Your quest for high placement must start with a good site. It is important to have a good amount of text describing what you do. Use your keywords in the content, but don't repeat them over and over. Many search engines rate sites based on 'keyword density'. This is usually a formula that looks at META Keywords, words in your TITLE, words in paragraph text, words in links to other pages, and even words in the 'ALT' text on your images. They will even look at different forms of your keywords. For example, if an important keyword for you is 'FISH', the word 'FISHING' in the body of your document will raise the confidence in the word 'FISH' on some engines.

	Keep your site updated - Make sure that your site is up to date. No one likes to go to a page that never changes or that is very out of date. Make sure that the data in your page portrays the message that you want to send. Check the links on your site every now and again. Make sure the links are still active. Dead links are not only an inconvenience for the visitor, but can also negatively influence your rankings.

	Don't go image crazy - We have all seen pages that are almost all images. Usually they are the most beautiful sites. After all, the artist can make beautiful screens that display your content in the most eye-pleasing way. However, the search engines don't have eyes. They don't see the beautifully formatted text in your image. All they see is 'yourimage.jpg', and 'yourimage.jpg'. This doesn't go far in terms of keyword content and relevancy.

	Links to other pages - We can't emphasize enough the importance of links. Both from your page to other pages, and from other pages to yours.

	First consider links on your pages - When most search engine spiders see them, they consider your site more 'real'. It also gives the spiders a place to go. Make sure you link all of your website's important pages and also add links to other related sites. Using keywords in the link text itself is an important part of website optimization.

	Links from other websites - Most search engines place a very heavy rating of importance on how many other sites in their index have links to your website. Think of it for a second. If you knew that a company was only linked to by one website, versus a company that was linked to by many relevant websites, which one would you consider more important? If you were a search engine, you would try to rank the more important ones first. A few links from related sites are worth more than a bunch from unrelated sites. Check your link popularity.

	This is where patience comes in again - It can take some time get links to your website. The best way to go about attaining links to your site is contacting sites you feel fit well with your product, then requesting to swap links.