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Search
Engine F.A.Q. |
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| What is a Search Engine? |
| A
search engine is a special web site that catalogs other
web sites and has search capability. Their function is
to somehow catalog websites into a database and they each
have their own algorithm for searching their databases.
A
search engine uses something called a 'spider' or 'robot',
which are automated programs that scour the web jumping
from link to link, cataloguing web sites.
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| What is the difference between
a search engine and a directory? |
| A
search engine uses automated 'spiders' or 'robots' to
catalog websites. A directory uses people to go through
a web site and catalog the web site. Therefore, Yahoo
is really a directory and not a search engine, as they
employ a team of people to go through every site listed
in their database. |
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| How
do I get listed in Search Engines? |
Unless
you tell the search engine about your site, they will
have a hard time finding you. There are several ways to
get listed in search engines.
- Visit
each search engine and register your site. On each
search engine there is a link typically named 'Add
URL', 'Suggest A Site', 'Add Page' ...etc. You should
click through and follow the instructions. This method
also takes the most time but often allows you to be
most specific about where your listing should be.
- There
are some online web-based services that will register
your site in various search engines for free. For
example, Register It! Be aware that many of these
services may say they can submit to over 300 sites,
however, many of sites may be multi-level marketing
sites and spam email list collection sites.
- You
can pay a marketing service to help you market your
site. As part of the strategy you can have them worry
about how to get your site listed.
- You
can buy special software that will submit your site
to various search engines and directories.
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| How long does it take to
be listed? |
| Each
search engines varies in the time it takes for your site
to be listed. Usually directories will take a long time
- a couple months, because some personnel at the company
must review your web site. Search engines will list you
faster but it can be from 48 hours to a few weeks. You
will have to check with the search engine itself for this
information. Typically you will find some answers in their
FAQ or help section. |
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| How do I get my site to show up
on top of the listing? |
| This
is a tough question. There is no one that can guarantee
you top positioning on any search engine. Each search
engine has its own algorithm as to what it deems most
important when cataloguing the content of a particular
web page. In addition, search engines will periodically
change their algorithm so what helped you get higher listing
may not always work. You will have to keep up with each
search engine or hire someone to keep up to date for you.
However,
there are some strategies in web site design which can
help you raise your position. Read through the Search
Engine Optimization Tips.
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| Why is the title tag important? |
| You
should place a TITLE tag on every web page on your site.
Most spiders will first look to the TITLE tag to decipher
the web page content. Therefore, it is advisable to not
use acronyms, and you can even use a few descriptive keywords.
Also, some search engine will penalize you if your TITLE
is too long. |
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| What
are META tags and why are they important? |
| META
tags should be used on every page of your web site. These
are special tags that sit in between the HEAD tags in
your HTML code and are invisible to the viewer. For example,
look at the source code for this web page.
Many
search engines will store the META tags in their databases.
META tags allow you to include a description of the
particular web page and also store additional relevant
keywords that may or may not exist on your page. However,
keep in mind that many search engines will penalize
you if you use repeated keywords.
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| Why are ALT tags important? |
| We
recommend that you always use ALT tags with your images.
There are some search engines that record this information
in their database.
There
are some search engines where you can actually search
for images - typically using the ALT tags as references
for the search.
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| Why is having HTML text important? |
| If
your web page is composed only of images, the search engine
spider will have no idea what your content is about, as
it typically will look to the HTML text on your page to
try to automatically decipher the web page content.
This
is why it is good to have text navigation links (even
as a supplement to your graphical navigation) and text
content. Some spiders will weigh sentences with proper
punctuation marks as more relevant than single words.
Some spiders consider text links to be more important.
It
is also a good idea to try to raise your HTML text content
up on the page as high as possible. Some search engines
limits the kilobytes of data that it will scan for its
database. Therefore, if the spider doesn't see any HTML
text, then it can't figure out your page content.
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| What is search engine spamming? |
| Each
search engine has a policy on spamming. Spamming is considered
the act of abusing the registration process and the use
of some tricks to attempt to raise a web site position.
For
example, it was common in the past to use the background
color for additional HTML text on a page. Since the
color of the text matches the background - the visitor
would not see the text. In this way, you can hide all
sorts of keywords. Search engines will automatically
drop your web site if you do this.
Another
example is repeating keywords unnecessarily or using
keywords that have nothing to do with your content,
just for getting a higher listing. If caught, the search
engine will usually drop your site.
If
you are concerned about spamming, you should visit the
search engines and read through the help documentation.
Each search engine will have different criteria and
spamming policy.
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| Can I submit multiple pages? |
| For
the most part the answer to this question is YES. We recommend
that you submit a few key pages of your site to all search
engines. However you should be very careful as any abuse
of multiple page registration is considered search engine
spamming. If the search engine catches you spamming then
they will drop your site entirely from the search engine.
You should read the search engine's help documentation
to determine at what point they consider a person to be
spamming. |
| Why is using frames problematic? |
| Because
of the way frames work in HTML, some search engines will
not follow your pages correctly and your site will not
be completely indexed. If you are using frames, then it
is advisable to make sure your site is navigatable without
frames, you have an option for using frames or not, and/or
use the NOFRAMES option. |
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