Hints and Tips


This is a brief resume of a presentation that I delivered at a recent ENC meeting. Essentially, it is a simple, jargon free summary of the top 5 tips on getting your web site noticed by search engines.

We've spent many months researching the 'black art' of successful search engine submission and are now able to fine tune the web sites that we construct to be a search engine-friendly as possible.

Most of the hints and tips outlined should be considered at the outset of the construction of the project and not just tagged on at the end. Many elements covered are intrinsic in the design of the overall project.

It's also important to point out that there are no guarantees when submitting your site to search engines - I once heard a quote that 'achieving successful search engine ranking is like hitting a moving target'. Bearing this in mind, other marketing activities must be initiated to promote your site. Incidentally, this needn't be a costly campaign - there are simple methods such as verbal promotion by you and your staff, printing your web address on all stationery, or through networking.

How Do Search Engines Work?

In simple terms, most search engines use 'spiders', 'robots', 'web crawlers' - there's a whole host of different terms - that trawl the Internet, indexing sites into a huge database, which when interrogated by the user, acts like a directory. An example would be a visit to Altavista, typing in 'bath taps' and the results reveal a list of best match web sites - ideally a list of bath tap supplied, but as mentioned earlier, there are no guarantees!

Search engines index web sites by using the metatags and keywords that should be tagged to your web site. These appear in the source of your web pages, i.e. 'behind the scenes' and are not visible to the user, and your web design partner should implement these on your behalf. In some cases, indexing by search engines can take up to 8 months!

TIP NO. 1: the use of metatags

There are many metatags that can be incorporated behind your web pages, but careful consideration should be given to 3 main areas:

Keywords: your high priority keywords and phrases should appear within the body of the text on your web pages - the earlier the better, e.g.

Example: AD Aerospace
<meta name="keywords" content="aircraft security systems, aircraft video surveillance, aircraft cctv, aviation security systems, aviation security cameras, aerospace security, in flight entertainment, aircraft smoke detection, aerospace camera systems, England, Britain, United Kingdom, UK, U.K., Europe">



Description: this again should include your high priority key words / phrases.

Example: AD Aerospace
<meta name="description" content="At AD Aerospace we offer the best in aircraft security systems, aircraft video surveillance, aircraft cctv, aviation security systems, aviation security cameras, aerospace security, in flight entertainment, aircraft smoke detection and aerospace camera systems">



Title: though not strictly a metatage, this is an important area to include your keywords.

Example: AD Aerospace
<title>Aircraft Security Systems, Video Camera Surveillance by AD Aerospave Ltd.</title>



NOTE: You would conduct this exercise for your home page and you may wish to repeat it for each page, particularly if any of your products or services can be standalone.

WARNING: when carrying out this exercise, don't overload your keyword list with too many repeated words, don't use irrelevant words and don't use 'invisible' text on your web pages. These practices do not confirm with web etiquette and you may get caught for spamming and therefore eliminated from search engine rankings for good.

TIP NO 2: reciprocal links

If you are able, use reciprocal links where possible, for example, some of our customers feature a link on their web site 'created by N121 Web Solutions'. This is reciprocated with a link on our portfolio section. It is understood that helps with ranking success.

TIP NO 3: avoid frames

Avoid the use of frames in the design of your web site. Sites using frames offer many advantages to the user, but if you are operating in a market where search engine ranking is crucial, then you should have a no-frames site. Some search engines can handle them but most don't like at all. If you'd like visitors to bookmark your site, i.e. add it to their Favourites list, you should also avoid frames.

TIP NO 4: co.uk

If you are operating on a national basis, rather than international, our advice would be to choose a .co.uk domain name extension, as opposed to a .com. The reason for this is that .com names will generally not register with UK specific search engines.

TIP NO 5: updates

Keep your site regularly updated. This is good practice anyway, not least from the point of view of your image to customers and repeat visitors, but also because spiders, robots, web crawlers can detect changes to your site and will index your site again and again.

How Often to Submit?

There's a saying 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' - if you're achieving good search engine ranking, there's no need to resubmit. However, if you do want to keep on top of it, then quarterly submission is reasonable.

It's also advisable to re-submit after you undertake any major changes to your site or if you feel that your ranking is slipping.

How Do You Do It?

You visit the major search engines; Altavista, Yahoo, Mirago, Google, UK Plus and manually submit your site. This is fairly labour intensive, but could yield dividends, as probably 80-90% of your web site traffic could come from the Top Ten search engines.

There are web sites available that will submit you to the Top Ten search engines free of charge.

Alternatively you can ask your web design partner to help you with this. It may be included in the cost of your web project, or a nominal fee may be charged to cover labour and administration.

Summary

A web site can be a tremendous multi-dimension and cost effective marketing tool, but potential customers need to know about it. Achieving high search engine ranking can add a boost to your company web site promotion, increase traffic and ultimately generate sales leads, particularly if your site is designed well. We can't stress heavily enough, though, the need to promote your site via alternative marketing methods - no matter how simple.