Search Engines Tips

Courtesy of Deon Metcalf.

Internet search engines help users find web pages on any given subject. They maintain databases of websites and use programs (often referred to as ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’) to collect information, which is then indexed on an enormous scale. Behind these search engines are comprehensive databases of site addresses and information. Tapping into these will ensure your site gets noticed.

Design and build your site with care, then promote and promote some more. Much of this type of marketing is free. Measure the results, review, tweak and do it again. Don’t forget offline marketing too – advertise your web address on your stationery, vehicles, email signatures, invoices – a web address is easier to remember than a phone number.

Search Engine Optimisation (‘SEO’) is about preparing your site to make it easy for the search engines to find it. Based on the information your site supplies the engines create a profile, then rank and categorise these profiles. Your aim is to get a good ranking so the website appears near or at the top when people hunt for your product or service.

In order to rank well your site needs:

1. Relevant search phrases and keywords in the text of your site because search engines don’t read graphics, only text.
2. Dynamic relevant content. You only have 6-8 seconds to capture their attention or they will surf on.
3. A well thought out title for the site as well as each page (in the code)
4. The description for each page (in the code) which is matched to the page title
5. Key words (in the site code)
6. Links from relevant sites (as well as online Directories).
7. A good site structure with no broken links - don’t forget to include a text site map or at least textual navigation (as an option – at the bottom of your site).

Search Phrases or Key words

These are what people use to find your products, brands, services, or information, via the search engines. When an internet surfer types in a search phrase the engine checks your site’s ranking to gauge if it makes the results list. Google and www.wordtracker.com are good places to research keywords, but as a bottom line use information like your company name (including synonyms and abbreviations), geographical location, product and brand names, relevant generic terms for your industry, brands, or services (for example ‘car’ ‘linen’). Tailor your site content to suit the way that people are searching for you, preferably stringing key words together in phrases. It’s no use calling your beach house a ‘bach’ all over your site if your target is people who won’t know what a ‘bach’ is.

Once you know the keywords and phrases, scatter them through the website. Focus on a few for each separate page. To make searches more relevant include repeated phrases throughout (for example ‘Coromandel beach house’ and ‘Whitianga beach house’ and of course ‘New Zealand’). They’re like beacons to those crawler spider robots. Also, each section of a page carries different weight in the robot’s ranking process. Some spots are more important than others – use them in page titles and headlines. Links rate well too - the words that are hyper linked on your web pages are weighed more heavily than the main body text. But don’t forget to use all keywords in the main text, in your site title and in the page descriptions because this is the most obvious place a search engine looks for relevance.

The title and description are what shows up in the Google search result. The title also shows up on the top of your browser when the site is loaded. Make sure it works for you!

Liz Donnelly, Director of The Eardrops Company (www.eardrops.co.nz ) says “I saw immediate results once eardrops.co.nz was directory listed, and the links grew much faster once the spiders found the site. It does take time to register a site on all the directories but is well worth the effort – its electronic ‘word of mouth’.”

When your site is ready to go – list it in as many places as you can. Start with the directories, then the engines. This list is by no means an exhaustive one - but start with them, then do your own search to pinpoint ones specific to your product or service. There are millions!


Directories

Search Engines like Google use directories to index your site so ensure your website is included in as many as possible. Head to these and follow the ‘add site’ or ‘submit site’ instructions. It can be time consuming going through the registration process but keep at it. Make sure you follow the site guidelines to ensure your site is accepted into each directory, as they can vary.

Free Web Directories
NZ Pages: www.nzpages.co.nz (find ‘submit a site’ on the left side bar)
Finda: www.finda.co.nz
New Zealand Tourism: www.newzealand.com

Paid Web Directories
If you do have money to spend these sites could be good options, especially Yahoo. Make sure you fill in the forms using the guidelines specific to each site, otherwise you’ll be bumped from ‘the list’.

Yahoo Directory Listing: https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/express/intro/ (Hit ‘get started’ for registration; you need to create a new Yahoo ID as per the instructions)

Google: Adwords: http://www.google.com/intl/en/ads/

Business.com Directory: http://www.business.com/info/advertisewithus.asp (choose an option; hit ‘get started now’)

Gimpsy: http://www.gimpsy.com/gimpsy/searcher/register.php (register, then add your site)

Search Engines
When a web user carries out a search, sites are listed in order of relevancy. The major crawler-based search engines measure popularity (for example using link popularity) to determine the relevancy. To check how your site is indexed on these engines type into the Search bar ‘Link: www.yoursitename.co.nz’ or ‘Site: www.yoursitename.co.nz’ and see if you pop up.

The V8 engines:
Google: www.google.com/addurl.html (More than 80% of searches are done through Google. Head to this address, type in your URL (plus any comments) to include your site.)

Yahoo: http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request? (you’ll need to create an ID first)

Microsoft: www.live.com – MSN links to this Engine so your site should be automatically indexed by Live, but it pays to check and submit it if its not there.

Ask: www.ask.com (your site should be automatically indexed by ASK, but once again it pays to check)


Deon Metcalf is Director of Netactive – Smart Business Online
www.netactive.co.nz and www.netactive.net.nz

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