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Tips
for Announcing Web Sites to Search Engines and Directories
The purpose
of this document is to provide you with background information
on search engine technology and some tips on how to get your
Web site to appear on the result pages of search engines and
directories. We are by no means promising any miracles. However,
this information will help you better understand search engines
and directories and will hopefully serve to put you in a better
position than you currently are in now.
Search
engines utilize indexing software agents often called robots
or spiders. These agents are programmed to constantly "crawl"
the Web in search of new or updated pages. They will essentially
go from URL to URL until they have visited every Web site
on the Internet.
When visiting
a Web site, an agent will record the full text of every page
(home and sub-pages) within the site. It will then continue
on to visit all external links. Following these external links
is how search engines are able to find your site regardless
of whether or not you register your URL with them. Submitting
your URL, however, does speed up the process. It notifies
an agent to visit and index your site instead of waiting for
it to eventually locate you through one of your external links.
Robots
will then revisit your site periodically to refresh the recorded
information. The revisiting of links is the reason why some
search engines don't require you to inform them of dead links.
Eventually, their robot would try unsuccessfully to update
the information on a dead link and realize it no longer exists.
Finally,
an easy way to tell whether a Web index is a search engine
as opposed to another type of directory is by the information
it requires when adding your URL. A true search engine will
only need the Web address. The indexing agent takes care of
the rest.
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Directories:
The main difference between a search engine and a general
directory is that a directory will not list your URL if you
do not register it with them. They do not make use of indexing
software agents and so have no way of knowing it's out there.
As a result, their registration form will be considerably
longer than just your URL. Directories are usually subdivided
into categories and you have to submit your URL under the
most appropriate heading.
Announcement
Site:
The explosion of sites being added daily to the Web has created
a need for announcement sites that track all of the new sites
that join the Internet. Announcement sites are not only useful
for Webmasters and marketers to kick-off their online promotion
campaign, but also for users to keep current on what's happening
with the WWW. Depending on the announcement site, different
Internet documents can be announced -- new web pages, new
articles as well as new resources. The time period policy
also differs from announcement site to announcement site,
but all "announcements" are posted for a temporary period
of time. Once removed from the What's New section, most announcement
sites archive these pages so users can continue to access
them.
Guides
& Cool Sites:
Guides are quickly becoming an important source for finding
interesting and useful sites on the Web. In general, Guides
review and rate only a small percentage of all sites submitted.
Therefore, make sure your site is "rate-worthy" before posting.
Most of the guides allow reviewed sites to use their special
icons as a sign of quality. Cool sites usually select one
new Web site every day. Getting selected as a cool site will
attract high traffic, but that traffic will usually only be
experienced for a temporary period of time.
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- 1.
Use keywords in the <TITLE> of your document making
it as descriptive as possible. When visiting your site,
an agent will go first to the <TITLE> tag. For clarification
purposes, the <TITLE> tag is what a browser will display
in its title bar and is not simply the first line of HTML
that shows up on your page. (Although your first words of
introductory text should be descriptive as well). Search
engines will display the text located between the <TITLE>
tags when your web page is listed in a search. By making
your <TITLE> descriptive, you'll be better off than
those who only have keywords within the text of their page.
It will also be helpful when people bookmark your web site.
If a more descriptive name appears in a person's hotlist,
it will be easier to find your site at a later date.
For
example, instead of using <TITLE> Suncorp </TITLE>
as the title of Suncorp's home page, <TITLE> Suncorp:
Tanning Supplier </TITLE> would be much more descriptive.
It would also place greater emphasis or relevancy on "Tanning
Supplier" when calculating keywords.
2.
Use <META> tags which allow you to provide even
more detail about your Web pages and thereby gain greater
control over how your pages are indexed. Not all search
engines make use of <META> tags, but adding these
tags to your pages will make them more accessible to the
search engines that do.
<META> tag codes are inserted within the <HEAD>---
--- <HEAD> tag. The basic syntax is:
-
<META
name="description" content="a health and fitness center
located in Atlanta">
This
will control what appears as the summary of your Web page
and will be displayed after the title of your document
in the index listing. The content of the description should
clearly convey what one can expect to find when linking
to your site.
<META
name="keywords" content="running, weight control, nutrition,
aerobics, cholesterol, Georgia">
This
will allow you to provide extra information about your
page to the search engines without it being visible to
the reader. While search engines do take these keywords
into account when indexing your page, they are still going
to index the entire contents of your page as many sites
do not include <META> tags. Since this is the case,
there is no need to be redundant. Include keywords that
will not necessarily be derived when a robot visits your
site. In other words, "health" and "fitness" need not
be included in your list of keywords as it is part of
your <TITLE>. Robots index both the description
and keyword <META> tag contents as searchable words.
Hence, your site will come up in a search if someone typed
in "nutrition" or "health center" from your description.
One way to maximize the usefulness of keywords is to incorporate
singular and plural cases of words as well as active and
passive verbs. For example, diet, diets, and dieting will
yield similar but somewhat varying results in a search.
Since you're able through <META> tags, why not guarantee
you come up on all of them.
Do
not, however, excessively repeat keywords in a keyword
<META> tag as search engines may penalize you for
this. At present, InfoSeek and Lycos are two such examples
and others may adopt similar policies in the future. The
penalty will most likely be the spider disregarding the
<META> tag and extracting keywords from the content
of your page- as is usually the case. However, some Submit
It! users have reported being dropped from a search engine's
database and felt keyword repetition played a role in
the removal of their listing.
Who
should definitely make use of <META> tags?
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Excite
At the
present time, Excite does not make use of tags. Since keywords
and summaries are automatically generated by Excite, you have
less control over their creation. However, there are still
a few things you can do. Excite's software looks for common
words or themes within a page. It then selects sentences for
the summary that either contain these words or convey the
overall theme. The words within these sentences are also used
as keywords for which the site can be searched.
- Especially
at the beginning of your page, be as concise as possible
and limit non-descriptive sentences. If the Excite robot
comes across a number of ambiguous phrases, it will have
to look deeper and deeper into your site to determine its
theme and site summary. Along the same line, too little
text will also force the robot to travel further into the
site for more information in order to establish a theme.
- Excite's
indexing software places preference on complete, punctuated
sentences. If you have content, such as a quote, at the
top of your page that you do not want Excite to include
in your site summary, do not display it as a complete sentence.
This will lessen the chance that the quote will be included,
but will not guarantee its exclusion.
HotBot
/ Inktomi
- HotBot
supports both the keywords and description <META>
tags.
- If
you strongly believe that your site was not ranked as high
as you thought it deserved in a search query, HotBot allows
you to send them an email to bugs@hotbot.com. Be sure to
include the URL of the search page.
InfoSeek
- InfoSeek
supports both the keywords and description <META>
tags. Your description can include up to 200 characters
of text and the keywords can include up to 1000 characters
of text. Do not repeat versions of a keyword more than seven
times. If you do, InfoSeek will disregard the entire keyword
list.
- If
you do not make use of the description <META> tag,
InfoSeek's agent will simply insert the first 200 characters
after the <BODY> tag as the web page description.
Hence, if your Web document does not contain <META>
tags, at least try to make your first 200 words accurately
describe your Web site.
- InfoSeek
also indexes the ALT attribute in the <IMG> tag. If
the majority of your home page consists of graphics, you
can describe your page with the ALT attribute.
- The
syntax for an <IMG> tag code is:
<IMG SRC="/images/clinton.gif" ALT="picture of President
Clinton">
InfoSeek
Ultra
InfoSeek
Ultra will make use of <META> tags allowing you to control
the description that appears in a search result as well as
guide its web indexing in the selection of your site's keywords.
If you do not make use of <META> tags, Ultra will simply
use the first few words it comes across as your Web site summary.
Lycos
Lycos
creates Web site titles and descriptions from the text of
your Web page. Lycos' search agent selects a portion of the
site that well represents its theme. It then displays this
section as the site's description.
The keywords
are also chosen via artificial intelligence by Lycos' spider.
With this in mind, do not open your page with an image map.
If you do, Lycos will not be able to take an abstract for
your document.
WebCrawler
WebCrawler
relies on the statement within the <TITLE> tag to use
for the name of your page. While other search engines will
derive a summary from the <BODY> text of the document,
Web Crawler will default to the URL if you fail to include
a title.
In conclusion,
do not make it your goal to appear in the top ten list of
every search engine. This would not only be a very difficult
task, but would most likely end in disappointment. You are
virtually guaranteed to have varying success rates with different
search engines due to the collection of variables that play
a role in every search result. These variables include size
of database, method used for determining relevancy, policy
on spamming, use of <META> tags and more. Hence, optimize
your listings by capitalizing on the indexing criteria shared
by search engines. If you have a favorite or preferred search
engine that you feel strongly about being yielded as high
as possible in a search, customize your Web pages accordingly.
Just keep in mind that this might lessen your perceived relevancy
on another.
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Since
directories are hierarchical databases organized by subject,
subject category selection would logically be the most critical
aspect of linking your site to a directory. Give some thought
to which category(s) your URL should be placed as this location
will ensure the right people (those interested in your site)
will be visiting your link. URL registrations can quickly
become complex process when every directory contains a different
sub-categorization scheme.
There
unfortunately is no formula or exact method for correctly
placing one's site into a subject-oriented guide. However,
here are a few tips:
- Do
not assume a category (i.e. Entertainment) means the same
thing on every directory.
- Take
the time to drill down within the directory until you come
to the subcategory most appropriate for your site. If you
find many organizations similar to your own listed, you're
probably in the right place.
- Do
not choose a less fitting category because it's either alphabetically
desirable or doesn't contain many other links. If it is
not appropriate, there is no reason to believe anyone clicking
that category would be interested in visiting your site.
- If
you cannot find an appropriate category, do not hesitate
to suggest a new one. This advice even applies to Yahoo!!
Do you think the Yahoo! staff thought of all 22,000 headings
all by themselves?
Yahoo:
Since
Yahoo! is well ... Yahoo!, it will be discussed separately
from the hundreds of other directories included in the Submit
It! Service. It actually is unique from all other directories
in that you could be listed on Yahoo! without having submitted
your URL. They make use of a robot that searches for new sites
at certain Internet locations (i.e. announcement sites, etc.).
Despite Yahoo!'s implementation of this search robot, mostly
all of their new additions still come via their "Add URL"
form.
Your
Yahoo Submission Made Easy
For Internet
users, Yahoo! is one of the more notoriously difficult submission
forms to successfully complete. In actuality, the Yahoo! submission
form is far from a mind-numbing experinec. We have outlined
the necessary steps below. If you follow them, it will not
only simplify the process for you, but also enable you to
gain the greatest advantage possible through your submission.
1. Find
your Yahoo category.
From Yahoo's home page, drill down and locate up to 2 Yahoo
categories that best describe your Web site. A good indicator
that you have found an appropriate sub-category is when you
scroll down and see sites already listed that are similar
to your own, or, even more so, find a direct competitor! If
after searching through a number of Yahoo categories, you
still are not sure where to place your site, try searching
by a keyword you would want your site to be found under. Existing
Yahoo categories will be displayed with the search results.
TIP:
Yahoo requires commercial sites to be placed within a Business
and Economy subcategory - either under Companies or Products
and Services. Personal Home pages must go in the Entertainment/People
category. If your site is regionally specific, add it to the
appropriate subcategory under the Regional heading category.
TIP:
If suggesting more than one category, press the ADD URL icon
when on the category of your first choice. Then enter the
string of the second category into the Additional Categories
field. To avoid making a typo to a long string, copy the URL
located within the Address or Location field of your browser.
To do this, highlight the text after http://www.yahoo.com/
with your mousse. Right mousse click and release the mouse
over 'copy'.
For example:
Business_and_Economy/Companies/Music/ CDs__Records__and_Tapes/Online_Shopping/
2. Click
the Add URL icon at the top of the screen.
After finding the category you wish your site to be placed
within, click the Add URL icon at the top of the screen. This
will take you to the Yahoo submission form with the Category
fields already pre-filled.
3. Fill
out the ADD URL Form
Two particularly important fields are the Title and Comments
fields. Yahoo does not allow you to suggest keywords in their
submission form. Instead, it will use both the Title and Comments
fields to derive search words for your site. Therefore, think
carefully about what keywords you want Yahoo to list you under
and construct your Title and Comments fields around them.
Do not, however, just submit keywords separated by commas.
Enter complete, coherent phrases/sentences.
Example
of a poorly constructed title:
Brian's Music Store
Example
of an optimized title:
Brian's Music Store, CD's for sale
TIP:
Your title should not exceed 50 characters (including spacing).
Example
of a poorly constructed Comment:
Click to this page to listen to a wide variety of music sure
to fit your interest.
Example
of an optimized Comment:
Pop, Rock, New Age and Alternative CD's. Many artists, your
favorite music, CD's on sale.
TIP:
Your comment should not exceed 20 words or 200 characters
(including spacing).
Yahoo
has employees visit the URL of submissions to verify that
the category you selected is appropriate and that the title
and comments are accurate. As a result, do not exaggerate
what is located on your site. In the end, your site will simply
not get listed.
4. Click
the Submit button.
Once you have completed the form, click the Submit button
to send your Web site information to Yahoo. If the form has
been filled out properly, Yahoo will display a screen that
thanks you for the submission. If there is an error in the
submission form, Yahoo will display a screen informing you
that the submission has failed and, depending on the error,
tells you why the submission failed. In the case of a failure,
press the Back key on your browser, make the necessary changes
and resubmit.
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Here are
some general rules and indicators for knowing when you need
to make updates to your listings. For more detailed information
on the process involved in making updates to each directory,
consult the Submission Hints and Tips accessible within the
Submit It! Gold and Pro versions.
For search
engines:
Make
updates to listing:
- If
your URL changes, you will need to resubmit. Some search
engines have Dead Link forms for you to fill out. Those
that do not will drop the old URL from its records the next
time it tries to visit your site at the old address and
is unable to find it.
- If
the content of your site changes so extensively that the
abstract no longer adequately describes your site. These
changes, however, will be taken into account when the indexing
agent next visits your site to refresh its information.
Resubmitting will hasten this process.
For directories:
Make
updates to listing:
- If
your Web site address (URL), description, or category classification
changes, you will need to inform the webmaster of that directory.
- If
your category classification has changed and you are now
inaccurately located within the directory's index.
Do
not make updates to listing:
- If
there has been minor changes made within the site which
do not alter the site's description. If the content or purpose
of the site remains the same, you are not misleading anyone
who chooses to visit your site based on the original description.
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There
are several "tricky" things you can do to try to get your
URL listed higher or more times on a search engine results
page. We are listing these alternatives, but are in no way
recommending them as these Web site promotion methods may
be viewed as "cheating" by some members of the Internet community.
In fact, some of the search engines are starting to penalize
people that use these tricks. The reason why we list these
tricks is to help you understand why some sites always show
up multiple times or always at the top.
- Placing
mass amounts of hidden keywords <!software manufacturer,
software manufacturer,...> at the bottom of your document.
Search engines calculate keywords by how many times they
appear on a page. It is important to be aware that search
engines may penalize you for excessively repeating keywords.
At present, InfoSeek and Lycos are two examples and others
may adopt similar policies in the future.
- Changing
your name to A1 Enterprises or !Rob's Restaurant in order
to appear at the top. Our suggestion is that you pick something
descriptive instead. You might appear at the top by changing
your name, but be skipped over because the new one does
not evoke a professional or trustworthy company image.
- Changing
your <TITLE> regularly so when robots revisit your
site to refresh their information, they will interpret the
new title to mean the existence of a new site. The result
being your page will be listed more than once in a search.
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