Search Engines at-a-glance

Summary: A handy guide to achieving success with search engines.

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A handy guide to achieving success with search engines.

The many Search Engines spider sites in different ways, here are some tips to getting your site noticed.

1. Decide what it is that you want people to be searching for in order that they come across your site. For instance, if your Web site is about Emergency Service vehicles you might want people searching for 'fire engines' to find your site of particular relevance to them. Try not to rely too much on people using combinations of single words. Few people understand or use Advanced Boolean Search techniques, AND, OR etc. By all means use them, but focus on key words that you know people are going to be searching for.

2. You shouldn't restrict these 'key words' to the keyword MetaTag. Your page Title is something that many Search Engines also significantly catalogue. Perhaps something like 'Emergency Vehicles - Fire Engines and Police Cars' might work well for you?

3.When you are using Keyword MetaTags, it is repetition of these key words in your page's Body Text that is important. Use each of your Key Words several times in your page's text, not too much and not too little. Repeating a key word about 3 times seems to be about optimal. Don't over do it though, otherwise Engines will regard this as 'spamming' and dump you off the list, so then you're worse off than not using key words at all.

4. Try to use key words in the descriptions (ALT Tags) of your images. For instance in your code, you could have 'fire engine'.

5. When typing out your HTML, make sure that all your MetaTags are run together. Some Search Engines don't like line breaks.

6. Here's the sneakiest bit. Set up another page, an alternative gateway if you like, that links to your main site. Again use relevant keywords and so on and submit this URL to the Search Engines as well. Don't overdo this one though. This can also be regarded as spamming by Search Engines. A safer option is to get your friends' sites to link to you and submit the URL of the page with the link on it. The more pages that link you the better. Some of the newer high-power Engines such as Google use this as a critical factor when indexing.

7. Whatever you do, don't use text the same colour as the Body background when repeating key words. Whilst this used to work in the early days of the Web, all the Engines will immediately drop your index if they come across this.

8. Once you're happy with your amended code and uploaded it, submit your URL to the Search Engines. PlusNet have a submit tool that's convenient and quick. You can access it by selecting Website Builder from the left-hand menu and then clicking on the Site Submit option.

This tool submits to multiple Engines. It covers the main ones: AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Lycos, and WebCrawler. The others you can visit and submit manually. Look out for tiny links named 'Submit URL' or 'Add Your Site'. Sometimes you have to dig around a bit to get to the submission area.

9. Submit often, but again don't go spamming. Once or twice a week should be more than sufficient.

10. Be patient. It can, and probably will, take weeks or even months to get listed. Don't be disheartened - keep trying!