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SEO or PPC: Which One is Right for You?
There are two major search engine marketing strategies in use today: SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click). Both strategies are entirely different and it is tough to decide which one or which combination is right for you.
To...
SEO - Why Site Width Matters
Many search engine optimization efforts are focused on pushing the home page of a site. This is a fundamental mistake that can result in the site missing out on a lot of traffic.
Go Wide, Young Man
In nearly every case, a site should be...
Some Tips for Planning your SEO Campaign for the Long Term
At one time you used to be able to perform a one time optimization on your site and reap the benefits for months. In todays competitive landscape, however, that is not the case. This is because your competition is always growing and changing and...
Top 5 most common mistakes with do-it-yourself SEO
I look at a lot of sites on a daily basis. There are a lot of common problems I see on sites. Some people may have tags set-up improperly or use tags that have no real purpose. I have compiled a list of the 5 top do-it-yourself SEO errors....
Towards a New Philosophy of SEO
The following overview of a common SEO campaign is not an attempt to describe the processes in use by all SEO's, and in fact there are a handful of really good SEO firms out there. Good SEO firms are generally identifiable by two common elements:...
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Website Submission - A SEO Specialist Shares His Secrets
Many of you have heard of submitting your website, but what does
this really mean? What places should you really submit your
website? What about submitting to thousands of search engines
and directories through some website promotion service?
WHAT PAGES TO SUBMIT:
At the minimum, you should submit your home page. Many search
engines will promise to find and crawl the rest of your website
automatically (in their own good time). But if they don't
discourage you from doing so, I would submit several of the
important pages in your site. For example, a site map is
definitely something I would want to submit, since it should
have direct links to the rest of your website.
Also, if I get another webmaster to link to my website, it I
like to submit that page as well. I want the search engines to
recognize that this resource has changed - it has a link to my
website and I want the credit for it.
WHAT TO PREPARE:
For the search engines, I would make sure that the website is
properly optimized. At a minimum, I would do a double check the
meta-tags to ensure that the title, meta-description and
meta-keywords properly describe the web pages and have some of
my desired keywords in it. I would also run a website validator
on the pages I intend on submitting - to keep the search engine
spiders from choking on my website. (http://validator.w3.org/)
For more information on optimizing a website for the search
engines, go to http://website-optimization-2.blogspot.com/.
For the directories, I would normally prepare some commonly
requested information. This really helps to speed up the
process. I normally use a generic text editor like Microsoft
Notepad and save the following data before I go and submit to
the different search engines and directories. This enables me to
use copy and paste.
This should have:
* Your email
* Your website url
* A good title for your website
* A description for the website
Since Yahoo will allow you to submit a list of URLS that are in
a text document (or an RSS feed) I would encourage you to
prepare one to help them out. These should be at the root
directory of your website and be updated whenever there is a
change to your pages. That way you can just submit the location
of the RSS feed or the text file and let Yahoo use that to find
the rest of your pages. It is a nice time saver. Personally, I
like using an automated RSS feed since Yahoo can use it to
determine when the last changes occurred and decide what pages
to re-crawl first.
(If you don't know what RSS is, here is a great article on it:
http://feedvalidat
or.org/docs/rss2.html.)
Google uses a similar technology to help it find all of your web
pages. It is called a "Google Site Map". That is the subject of
another article. I wrote one that has a lot more info on the Google
Site Maps, for when you are ready to build one. Google also
has a special way to submit these. Just follow their
instructions. If this is too complicated, contact a webmaster or
a SEO specialist who is familiar with this feature.
WHERE TO SUBMIT:
I would recommend submitting your home page to the major search
engines individually, at least initially. However, there are
several services that do groups of them for you - and is a big
time saver for the rest of your site. The following is one of my
favorites: http://www.freewebsubmis
sion.com/ I have always deselected Google, though, since I
submit to them manually through the Google website. I submit my
web pages to the following search engines manually (without a
special tool) just to ensure that it is done.
* Submit to
Google
* Submit
to Yahoo
* Subm
it to MSN
You will need a Yahoo account to submit to the Yahoo search
engine. And don't fret if you don't see immediate results. Your
site should normally exist in MSN within about 6 weeks, in Yahoo
in 8-12 weeks, and in Google within about 3 months. (You will
not likely get much search results from Google for the first
year though - but hold out and keep working on the other tricks.
In the long run, Google will normally give you about 60 - 70% of
the search engine traffic if you follow these methods.)
Also, if you have the Alexa toolbar
installed, navigate to your website and click on the "info"
button on
the toolbar. Then you will have to fill in information
about your website. Once this is registered, you will start
seeing how your website's Alexa rating looks. There has been
some rumors that Google considers the Alexa description in its
searches - so make sure it is relevant to your website as a
whole and has at least one of your keywords.
You should also submit
your website to DMOZ. This is a massive directory that is
republished in several other websites. It is managed by humans,
and is therefore considered to be of special relevance by other
search engines. I strongly recommend reading all their rules
before submitting - and follow them closely. Make sure that you
try to get listed in only one category - the most relevant one
for your business. It can take a month or two to get listed, but
it really helps with your backlinks and overall relevancy as a
website.
After DMOZ, here are the most important list of directories to
be listed in.
* Yahoo
Directory website submission ($299 annual fee)
* Business.com website
submission ($199 annual fee)
* Microsoft
Bcentral Directory website submission ($49 annual fee)
* Best of Web website
submission ($40 annual fee)
* goguides.org website
submission ($40 lifetime fee)
* gimpsy.com website submission
($40 lifetime fee)
* joeant website
submission ($40 lifetime fee)
* Tygo website
submission ($40 lifetime fee)
* Skaffe.com
website submission ($40 lifetime fee)
* wowdirectory.com
website submission ($25 lifetime fee)
If you haven't used directories before - try browsing these
before you fill out the form to submit your site. They are
organized by category. You need to find the most relevant
category to put your website before you start to fill out the
form for each of these. Have a pen and paper as you browse - and
write down directory paths of where you want to be.
Being in some directories just adds some good backlinks. (When
another webmaster links to your website, this is considered a
backlink.) Others, like Yahoo and DMOZ, tend to get some special
relevance to certain search engines. After you get familiar with
these well-known directories, look for niche directories that
are specific to the type of business your website is about.
There are specialized directories that focus on a particular
category of links. These can be valuable - you will just have to
do a bit of searching to find them. These may be considered as
part of your overall strategy.
Being listed in a search engine there doesn't guarantee that you
will have a good ranking - this is just the first step - letting
them know that you exist.
IF YOU SEE AN OFFER TO GET LISTED IN HUNDREDS OF DIRECTORIES
AND WEBSITES AUTOMATICALLY - BEWARE! Many of these will list
you in hundreds of FFA (free for all) sites. These sites are
considered SPAM by search engines and I would strongly encourage
you to avoid them. Did I mention to avoid these? Check out what
Google has to say about these: http://www.googl
e.com/webmasters/seo.html . They may get you quick
backlinks, but they are from the "wrong" type of site. These are
just a list of sites - and they stay there temporarily. Only the
latest 100 submitted or so are displayed there and you need to
be resubmitted regularly to stay there. Few humans use this - it
is just a linking game to trick the search engines about your
popularity (and search engines don't like it). Don't bother.
TO WRAP IT UP:
Get backlinks - but avoid FFA sites. There are some
important directories, but being listed in "THOUSANDS OF
WEBSITES AND DIRECTORIES" is likely a promotional trick to get
you listed in FFA sites. The most important backlinks are from
web pages with content related to your website and those that
your customers visit. If it isn't likely to draw your customers,
it may not be very important for your website traffic.
About the author:
Robert Fuess is a veteran website designer who specializes in
making dynamic search engine optimized websites.
Los Osos Web Design
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