Five Ways To Win The Favor Of
Search Engines
You’ve got a cool new website
with all the works: cool Flash presentations,
eye-catching colors, informative text,
easy-to-use layout, and an interesting topic.
You think your site is amazing, and you know
that others will agree with you. If only they
know it exists.
How do you make your website
known? How do you make yours stand out among
millions of others? You can spend lots of money
on advertisement, but that will not work if you
don’t have the money to spare on advertising. So
what do you do? Make search engines work for
you, that’s what!
Google, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos,
Altavista - you want to be at the top of their
results list. The higher your site is in a
search results page, the better chances that it
will be visited. The science behind making your
site a popular search result is called Search
Engine Optimization (SEO). Don’t worry, though -
even if SEO is referred to as a science, it is
not all that complicated. You just need to take
note of a few things, and before you know it,
your site will have more visitors than you could
ever dream of..
Here are five tips to ensure
that your site would be a favorite of search
engines all around the cyber world.
1. Give importance to
substance over appearance.
Do you want to share your
knowledge on a subject that you have authority
on? Do you want to sell products? Do you want to
build an online shrine for your favorite
actress? Whatever topic you have chosen for your
website, make sure that you are able to give
useful information on it. Search engines work by
scanning sites for keywords. They search text
and completely ignore everything else. So if you
have made your site rich in colors, don’t forget
to make it rich in content as well. After all, a
beautiful layout can make people look, but
relevant content is what will make them stay.
Remember, in this day and age: content is king!
2. Know your topic well
If you know much about your
topic, you will know what people usually ask
about it, and what they ask about it is what
they will type in the search bar. When writing
the content for your website, put yourself in
your other people’s shoes, people who will be
your target audience or market. Know the
possible questions they might have about your
topic, and give answers in your site.
3. Learn from the best
Take time to browse and read
sites that get lots of visitors and have the
same topic as yours. Take note of any recurring
phrases in these sites’ text. These phrases are
most likely keywords. Incorporate them in your
own site’s content. Don’t saturate your site
with keywords, though. You don’t want to sound
redundant to your site visitor. A 3% density
level would be enough.
In searching for the right
keywords, use Overture’s services. It may take
quite some time, as it is more of a
trial-and-error method, but the results are
conclusive, and a pattern can easily be
observed.
4. Submit…and re-submit
You will never get a certain job
if you don’t send in your application for it.
The same thing applies to SEO. If you want your
site to be recognized by search engines, then go
out of your way to register your site with them.
After a couple of weeks, search for your site by
putting in the keywords you used in your
content. If your site is still not coming up in
the search results, do not give up, and just
re-register and resubmit your site. It’s
possible that your initial registration was
discarded without being processed. This usually
happens because a lot of submissions are being
done everyday.
5. Constantly update your
site
This can’t be stressed enough:
search engine spiders love sites which
constantly change their content. You can’t build
your site and expect it to last forever without
any updates. There will come a time when those
search engine spiders would stop fetching your
site for query requests. Here’s a tip: integrate
a blog program in your site. Blogs have a
user-friendly interface that allows easy
updates.