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.
Basic guidelines:
1. BE PRODUCT/SERVICE CENTERED: Make sure you optimize at least one or more of your pages for EVERY product or service you offer. This is among the biggest mistakes many site
managers make when designing and indexing their Web site.
For example, let's say you sell software. More specifically, you sell accounting programs such as QuickenTM,
Microsoft MoneyTM, PeachtreeTM and various accounting add-on modules. If you set up a home page properly that had keywords such as accounting,
software, payroll, general ledger, checking, etc., you might get some traffic. However, if you didn't implement the same indexing strategies given here for each product you sell,
you'll miss out on a lot of potential business. Many people know what product they want to buy or research. They may search on that product name specifically rather than for an "Accounting
Software" web site. This tip alone can increase your traffic many fold and pay for WebPosition. In addition, the more specific keywords you use, such as product brand names or specific adjectives
they might use, the better chance you have of being listed favorably.
2. DON'T SPAM: Don't blatantly "spam" search engines. Specifically, you should not put in keywords that don't pertain to your site just so you might attract more
visitors. You could put in words such as "sex" or "stock market" or whatever. However:
a) You'll not be attracting the visitors that you want anyway.
b) You'll only
serve to annoy people and label yourself as a "spammer".
c) Many search engines are looking for various kinds of index spamming and are banning sites entirely that they catch! If your
site or pages disappear, consider this as a possible reason why. Sometimes "innocent" pages can be dropped as well. However, that's why you need WebPosition to keep track of everything for you.
Tips to improve your rankings:
Use the WebPosition Gold Page Critic for the most current and applicable tips for optimizing your pages to rank higher on the search engines. Beyond that, here are some general tips to keep
in mind:
1. TITLE: Include and repeat keywords that people might search for to find you in the TITLE of all your pages. This is very important. Keep common word groups or phrases that people might search on together if you can. The TITLE is EXTREMELY important to achieving good rankings.
2. PROMINENCE: Keywords that are more prominent will be weighted much higher with the search engines. Most engines rank you higher if the keyword or phrase is near the beginning of the title and as close to the beginning of the page as possible.
3. CUSTOM TAILOR YOUR PAGES: Unfortunately, what is appealing to the search engines is not always the best way to display the content for your Web site. Therefore, strongly consider creating secondary pages for each product or service you offer designed for each search engine and keyword. Use the WebPosition Page Critic to find the latest advice and tips on how to create these pages.
4. META TAGS: You should fill out META tags for keywords and description. You can find the syntax for this in most good HTML editors. Many HTML editors let you simply fill
in the values under a Document Properties screen.
META tags tell search engines what keywords or categories you would like to be listed under. Some engines
factor this in to their indexing algorithm. However, generally it will not make a significant difference in how you are positioned. It doesn't hurt to try though, especially since any of the
engines can change the rules tomorrow and it could catapult you to the top of the list, assuming you took the time to add the META tags.
5. OBSERVE: Use the Detail Report to see which pages appear above yours in a search. Establish an Internet connection and then jump to those sites. Use your browser to view the HTML source code for the page. Try to determine why that page ranked better than yours for that particular engine and keyword search. Most likely it emphasizes one or more of the techniques described here. Once you recognize the technique, try to duplicate and improve upon that concept to achieve a better ranking, or at least a roughly equivalent ranking.
6. EXPERIMENT: Try different page designs and submit them. Use the Reporter to quickly check your rankings. What works for one engine may not work so well with another. However, you can use the Reporter's Trend Report and history archives to see if changes helped or hurt your rankings for each engine. Consider making different pages tailored for each engine when necessary. Avoid submitting too many similar pages to the same engine or you risk your site being banned or the submission rejected.