Search Engines and Your Website
A Glimpse Into Getting Your Site Ranked

Google, Yahoo and MSN: the 3 major search engines that can make or break a site.

I'm not gonna sugarcoat this, search engines are a difficult nut to crack. Just when you think you've got it figured out and your site is in the top 5, they'll mess with the algorithms and your site might be dropped for the next 6 months. So never, ever think you're set. You ain't.

That said, there are a lot of things you can do to optimize your site and give it the best chance for optimum placement. We've already talked about domain names and how that can help. Let's travel down a page to see what else we can do.

Meta tags: You'll want to read our tutorial on Meta Tags to give yourself the best advantage.

Links: Inbound links help hugely. The better the site, the more valuable the link, too, so start trading links with websites that are related to your chosen subject matter and you'll be doing yourself a great favor on the Search Engines.

Correct HTML: Visit one of the HTML validation sites to make sure your HTML is up to speed. You never know, a programming error could keep your website from ever being listed.

Site Maps: Having a site map makes it easier for search engine spiders (and your visitors) to see the contents of your site. Make one.

Keywords: Keywords throughout your text plays a big part in getting listed. If your site specializes in blue widgets and you only have a single mention of blue widgets, the search engines aren't going to think you're much of an authority. On the other hand, if you make a page for what blue widgets can do for you, another page on blue widget tips and tricks, then another for the history of blue widgets, you'll be giving both visitors and spiders what they want, content.

A note on keywords: don't overdo it, the keywords should work within the context of your page. If you lamely repeat your keywords like crazy thinking more is better, you'll probably end up with a spam penalty and that = no listing at all.

Content: The #1 thing you can do to get high search engine rankings is to have great, original content (emphasis on "original"). Btw, If you suck at writing, hire someone to do it, because crap writing is ugly, boring and will send visitors away in a flash. Oh, and spellcheck!!

Content is King. Don't forget it.

But wait! Your site won't be listed for a couple months (maybe several months in Google's case!) What to do? Advertise on Google, Yahoo & MSN...