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Search Engine Tips:
If you've used the Internet at all, you should
be very familiar with what Internet Search Engines do. You've
also noticed that it's sometimes hard to find what you're
looking for, even with a fairly specific search. Your potential
visitors will have the same trouble, unless you do a little
legwork to make sure you're listed well for the keywords that
are important to your Web site.
Just in case you're unfamiliar with how the engines work,
here's a brief explanation: Most engines "spider"
the Web looking for new pages to add to their database or
index. You can wait for one of these spiders to locate your
site but you could be in for a long wait. The better approach
is to go to their site (or a site submission service) and
tell them about your new Web site.
Once your pages are added to the index, people
can do a search on the Internet for various keywords to find
pages that "best" match their search criteria. Appearing
within the first few pages of the search is critical to people
finding you.
These matches will be ranked or positioned in order of importance.
The exact rules they use to rank pages for relevance are generally
kept a secret and change often. However, many of these rules
can be determined through simple observation.
Submitting is Not
Enough
Unfortunately, simply submitting your
pages is only part of the job. With millions of pages in dozens
of search indexes, the odds of many people finding you are
still not very good without careful planning. Even after you
submit, the page can often be dropped later for no apparent
reason or never be accepted at all. Search engines are not
yet 100% accurate. But considering the sheer volume they deal
with everyday, it's understandable, but unfortunate that there
will be random errors.
The primary reason that "submitting
is not enough" comes from the concept of rankings. If
you don't rank near the top of the search results, then you
might as well have not submitted at all. To improve your rankings,
you must optimize
your pages, submit them, follow up, and continue to fine-tune
them as needed.
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