Re: How does a site get picked up by a search engine?

carddesigngirl wrote:

I am a beginning Dreamweaver user.

I've created a website with keywords and descriptions in the code. Currently,
when you search on yahoo! it doesn't come up.

What do we need to do so that the site is shown on the search engine?

Thank you.

Emily Pierce

Hi again,

First, you need to submit the site to the SEs. The problem is that most
will charge nowadays - or at least they'll try to.
So, submit to Google here: http://www.google.com/addurl.html and to the
Open Directory here: http://www.dmoz.org/

Then look here on how to make the SE rank your page:
http://www.proformica.com/en/search_engine_optimization.shtml

Then wait, wait and wait for 2-4 months or so, because there's a new
phenomenon in the SE business called "sandboxing", meaning that Google
(and perhaps the others) will put new sites in quarantine until they're
proven worthy.

For more info, go to e.g. http;//www.webmasterworld.com and/or make a
Google (!) for "search engine sandboxing"

--
Dan Vendel - *GOF*
Contact: http://www.proformica.com/en/contact.shtml
Formmail tutorial: http://www.proformica.com/en/formmail_tutorial.shtml
Nested tables: http://www.proformica.com/en/nested_table_demo.shtml
SEO: http://www.proformica.com/en/search_engine_optimization.shtml
SE Utility: http://www.proformica.com/en/advanced_web_ranking.shtml
Search Dreamweaver newsgroup: http://www.proformica.com/google.html

Emily,

In brief.....it's all about Search Engine Optimisation, or S.E.O. as the
experts say - here's a little intro.........

Keyword phrases only work if folk "out there" tend to be looking for whatever
products or services the keywords imply.
The standard current wisdom as expressed by countless posters in many forums
is that the "keyword" meta tag is no longer useful. There are quite a few sites
on the web that perform well in Google and other search engines without the
keyword meta tags at all.

One solid use for them is, (if you've got a commercial website) is to go to
competitors and look at their "keywords" meta tag. It's sometimes illuminating
to see what they think they want to be optimizing for.

Changing keywords in your meta tags probably won't see much change in your
results. If you want to optimize the pages for those terms, you need to make
changes to page titles, headings, page text, anchor text in links, an so on,
using words that you customers might use to search for the pages, and might
expect to find on your pages. What you've got to do is to optimize each of your
website's pages for one or more of the most important keyword phrases. If you
focus on what you're the best at,(in terms of words describing your
product/service if you have a commercial website), then you stand a chance of
standing out from the crowd.

Chances are good these days that the value of keywords has diminished to the
point where their best value might just be to help the site designer focus upon
which words or phrases might be important ones when writing page titles, and
headings, and body text and anchor text for links leading to the page from
other pages on the site.

Most importantly - read up a little on S.E.O. if you have a commercial site.
And changes to your page headings etc may not see a change in your Google
rankings for many months - as this is the way 'they' behave sometimes.
Remember, (as well!), that your page ranking may go up and down depending on
what your competitors are doing as well.

S.E.O. can be very easy to use on a personal site as you are not up against
competitors etc, and it needn't be too complicated either. Research a bit. Give
it a bit thought. Experiment. But don't lose any sleep over it

I hope this helps

Nice response.

send2paul wrote:

Emily,

In brief.....it's all about Search Engine Optimisation, or S.E.O. as the
experts say - here's a little intro.........

Keyword phrases only work if folk "out there" tend to be looking for whatever
products or services the keywords imply.
The standard current wisdom as expressed by countless posters in many forums
is that the "keyword" meta tag is no longer useful. There are quite a few sites
on the web that perform well in Google and other search engines without the
keyword meta tags at all.

One solid use for them is, (if you've got a commercial website) is to go to
competitors and look at their "keywords" meta tag. It's sometimes illuminating
to see what they think they want to be optimizing for.

Changing keywords in your meta tags probably won't see much change in your
results. If you want to optimize the pages for those terms, you need to make
changes to page titles, headings, page text, anchor text in links, an so on,
using words that you customers might use to search for the pages, and might
expect to find on your pages. What you've got to do is to optimize each of your
website's pages for one or more of the most important keyword phrases. If you
focus on what you're the best at,(in terms of words describing your
product/service if you have a commercial website), then you stand a chance of
standing out from the crowd.

Chances are good these days that the value of keywords has diminished to the
point where their best value might just be to help the site designer focus upon
which words or phrases might be important ones when writing page titles, and
headings, and body text and anchor text for links leading to the page from
other pages on the site.

Most importantly - read up a little on S.E.O. if you have a commercial site.
And changes to your page headings etc may not see a change in your Google
rankings for many months - as this is the way 'they' behave sometimes.
Remember, (as well!), that your page ranking may go up and down depending on
what your competitors are doing as well.

S.E.O. can be very easy to use on a personal site as you are not up against
competitors etc, and it needn't be too complicated either. Research a bit. Give
it a bit thought. Experiment. But don't lose any sleep over it

I hope this helps